Cherisa’s Comments (group member since Sep 26, 2021)

Cherisa’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

Haha I was waiting for a poll and didn't realize we were supposed to post our nomination here.

Okay, I nominate Jose Saramago's Stone Raft. Of course as a modern Nobel Laureate he's not obscure, but this title is a lesser known work that sounds really interesting.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Can't wait!

I didn’t realize I was at 70% (we’ve been on pause a while). I might as well go ahead and finish.

Dennis, I’m with you, I’m quitting on the Journey. sorry Plateresca.
Sorry you’re quitting the platform Dennis. I’ve enjoyed our convos. if you want to stay in touch, I’m cherisab@gmail.com

WARNING: Spoiler for those who aren’t deep into the last section!!

Ken, I agree but the entire Titus thing was iffy. He reminded me of what my fellow Trekkies would call the sacrificial lamb in an episode where suddenly there’s a new crew member and you know someone isn’t making it to the next planet let alone next episode. It was really weak plotting that I didn’t understand or appreciate. If anything, it only showed how truly vapid Hartley is, and laid bare all her lack of depth or worthiness of adoration. Jeez, Chaz felt more guilt over Titus than Hartley did, who obviously felt only relief that burden was gone.

No problem, Kathleen, haha!

Did I give away something, Kathleen? I thought I was only commenting on Charles’ state of mind and no plot details. Sorry.

I wonder if Charles isn’t just an extreme version of most people whose interior lives revolve around their own opinions and feelings and decisions and circumstance. He’s justifying to himself a lot of what has happened to him as he looks back and tries to make sense of it. Yes he’s got a high opinion of himself but then the world has kind of granted him some leeway with whatever success he’s had on stage and among his circle of friends, lovers and acquaintances. His pride of cooking and eating is just sort of silly, not pathological. Don’t get me wrong, he is unlikeable and a stand-out anti-hero archetype, but nearing the end of he’s life, to me he seems alone and lonely, unable to do what it takes to accept love or friendship or whatever he’s offered from Lizzie and Gilbert, no family except a cousin from who’s he’s only ever felt alienated and rivalrous. He’s hard to feel pity for him, but I actually do.

In the Prehistory, Murdoch has clearly given us what Ijeoma Oluo identified as the “arrogance of a mediocre white male.”Because Arrowby has such high self regard and achieved some acclaim in his career, it naturally carries that any thoughts or opinions he has are the only ones that count (in his opinion). His opinions on food and wine and friends and women for instance are almost laughable when he states them with such conviction and certitude that you agree with him it’s maddening. We know there are people (men) like this the world over.

What I am waiting to learn is if the author is setting us up to misjudge him or applaud when he gets his just desserts. To give us such an unlikeable protagonist is really interesting. What is she going to do with him?

Boy, our anti-hero sure is a piece of work, ain’t he?

Yes I want to continue with it and can wait for Darrin. I have read so little Chinese lit, maybe even just Nobel laureate Mo Yan and a couple of ex-pats that I wanted to join you for this.

This has turned into a slog. I’m still trying and have gotten up to Chapter 17, but I really don’t have much to say about it.

I’m up to Chapter 12. Where is everyone?

What that calls to mind for me Darrin is the concept of trickster in Native American / Indigenous nations cultures.
They tend to be rule breakers that challenge existing structures and cross boundaries in the social order. While their stories and antics are used to delight and entertain, their transgressions are used to simultaneously contrast with and teach about the listeners’ society, culture and morality.

I can’t say why a monkey, but I’d bet in a rigid social structure, a being close to human but not quite is enough to make a monkey the prankster equivalent to Coyote, it’s human-like features but wild nature enough to indicate he’s not to be accepted into the social order, too wild and beastly even if he is highly skilled and disciplined in many ways. He might as well kick up a fuss because he’s never going to be equal to his supposed peers in the Great Chinese Heaven Bureaucracy.

Getting into Chapters 4, 5 and 6, it’s striking how Chinese Heaven is an enormous bureaucracy!

Dianne it doesn’t matter! We are shooting for 3 chapters a week and are on our second eeek. I’m a bit ahead though I’ve tried to slow down.

Chapter 9 is my favorite so far! But no monkey king anywhere to be found, maybe that’s why? 😜

Darrin, that’s a good idea about thinking of it as a collection of folk tales or legends rather than “a novel” as I had earmarked it. That mental shift will keep me from looking for forward motion and character development as we expect typically.

I’m a hundred pages in (through Chapter 7). If all these antics and battles are metaphors, they are going right over my head.

I recently read the graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (I adore his Avatar: The Last Airbender). This three novel includes a section about the Monkey Kong. I only just realized after reading three chapters of The J to the W that the familiarity I was feeling with Sun Wukong’s story was from the graphic novel.