Patrick’s Comments (group member since Mar 05, 2009)

Patrick’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

i don't know that his nightmare was supposed to be frightening. it wasn't for me. not, at least, in that stephen king or horror writing kind of way. i found it sad and unsettling. it's written in such a dry, matter of fact way- it induced more sadness than horror.

Frog had shown Katagiri a path to heroism/honor(or the idea of it) out of the murk of his mundane dark dead end world. Frog gave him credit for saving Tokyo.

and i'm not sure i see the story being about fear exactly. at least not only fear. for me, it's more about the dangers (fragility) of instability. how trauma (or post-trauma) can numb and deaden the senses a bit but the imagination is still wild. fertile ground for battle. in that instability is both the seed for darkness- the sort of accumulated rage that motivates Worm- but also the light- that reach for duty and honor, sacrifice without much recognition -that Frog inspires or initiates.

but maybe it's just me.
i could imagine another story entirely where Frog sits
Katagiri down with a cup of tea to discuss with him somthing of vital importance he heard while he was out travelling. Frog had been to a far away place called Fuller Lake sitting on a lily pad and watching the Loons- when he witnessed these strange and fascinating individuals at play in the water, discussing literature. he would explain to Katagiri how a visit to this odd apparently cyclical magical occurrence might do him some good... pull him out his mundane universe...so Frog and Katagiri start making plans to
track down these "dorks"...

oh, and patty, yeah. i think it's a story about a man.

i know what you mean, patty. i seem to remember years ago, when i read, after the quake, the collection this story was in... i loved the book over all but this story kinda frustrated me. so charmed i was with the frog in the beginning -that i wanted the story to go in a different direction.

now, a decade later, i'm more taken with it. i love Frog's clarity about the enemy, Worm, and the need to stop him, but yet he still has some sympathy for Worm's rage...

-“Please don’t misunderstand me, though. I feel no personal animosity toward Worm. I don’t see him as the embodiment of evil. Not that I would want to be his friend, either: I just think that as far as the world is concerned, it is, in a sense, all right for a being like him to exist. The world is like a great big overcoat, and it needs pockets of various shapes and sizes. But right at the moment, Worm has reached the point where he is too dangerous to ignore. With all the different kinds of hatred he has absorbed and stored inside himself over the years, his heart and body have swollen to gargantuan proportions—bigger than ever before. And to make matters worse, last month’s Kobe earthquake shook him out of the deep sleep he was enjoying. He experienced a revelation inspired by his profound rage: It was time now for him, too, to cause a massive earthquake, and he’d do it here, in Tokyo."

i love Katagiri's flustered acceptance (?)-

-"I turned 40 last month. My feet are flat. The doctor told me recently that I have diabetic tendencies. It’s been three months or more since I last slept with a woman—and I had to pay for it. I do get some recognition within the division for my ability to collect on loans, but no real respect. I don’t have a single person who likes me, either at work or in my private life. I don’t know how to talk to people, and I’m bad with strangers, so I never make friends. I have no athletic ability, I’m tone-deaf, short, phimotic, nearsighted—and astigmatic. I live a horrible life. All I do is eat, s1eep and shit. I don’t know why I’m even living. Why should a person like me have to be the one to save Tokyo?”

“Because, Mr.. Katagiri, Tokyo can only be saved by a person like you. And it’s for people like you that I am tying to save Tokyo.”

Katagiri sighed again, more deeply this time. “All right, then, what do you want me to do?”

i like the frustrated (-ing?) ambivalence that hangs over the story. Katagiri's desire to just accept and live his mundane and miserable station in life, but then pushed or wooed by sense of honor and responsibility. a begrudging, bewildered heroism? fear?

just found this poster from a theatrical adaptation of the story. love it.
http://edkwong.com/root/superfrog-sav...

as i was reading ben's book the other day, a vague memory of a giant frog from a murakami story passed thru my head. i would have let it slide by but then i noticed Les had added after the quake to his "to read" list- which sent me off in search of the giant frog tale.

it's very murakami -not so Loory-esque, although i could imagine a ben story with a giant frog. but his frog might drink coke zero and not green tea. anyway... you can find super frog save tokyo here- if you want.

http://www.geocities.jp/yoshio_osakab...

i'll be calling.

missing everyone. even missing jonathan in his wedding dress. that was lovely. it's a good thing he didn't pull out his michael mcdonald while wearing that thing...that may have put me over the edge. much love to all, but especially all "the newbies". you guys rock.

so many beautiful and hilarious moments from the week -it will take me a while to absorb, but hearing patty discuss percival everett with les and i while we were all treading water was pure magic. combined 3 of my favorite things -percival everett, listening to patty book talk, and treading water. wish we were back there in the water right now.

and for Ben...

http://www.magersandquinn.com/

http://www.micawbers.com/

and this one is wisconsin, but heck- you'll be in the midwest any way.

http://boswell.indiebound.com/

wow! i've been nursing a nasty sinus infection- floating on theraflu and not paying attention in here.

shel and margaret...thanks for jumping on this. if there is still room??.. i'm in. and shel, if you need some $ right away, let me know. i can either send it to you... or give it je, if he's going to see you while you are out this way.

this is excellent. now i want my minivan back. and i'm so excited i'm gonna look up where the local recycling station is at.....

also, if interested, i have a coworker, originally from minnesota, who went back last summer for a vacation with some friends ...and she said they found an old farmhouse (not far from minneapolis) that they rented out for about 4-5 days. she said it wasn't huge but was secluded and they had the whole place to themselves.

i can try to dig up more info if we're curious??

hi. sorry for jumping in late... 1st week of August sounds better for me as well.

i read billy budd. picked it up like necessary homework i wanted done before seeing the claire denis film beau travail. ended up enjoying it quite a bit. then i read white-jacket, thinking i'd work my way up to moby. i enjoyed that too, but never went any further.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/pa...

Maureen wrote: "and i realized how dirty i think the word taut is. not tot of course. tot is not dirty at all, except in a literal sense, sometimes, in a sandbox. but taut? oh my. i think when i have money again i'm going to copyright this phrase "that's taut"!"

wasn't there a cheap trick song, "she's taut".

I found Franzen's authorial voice really distracting. and wearisome. there is no arguing that he can write. and i found the characters, for the most part, compelling. but the narration, for me, was a problem.
as mentioned by others, Patty's "diary entries" don't really work as such, nor is the voice of those sections that much different than the rest of the book.

for me, the voice, was like having a somewhat manic benshi, standing in front of the characters and the action reading the lines, contextualizing, and occasionally adding commentary. franzen offers us really rich, provocative characters- i just wanted him to get out the way.

and i'm usually one to defend a bit of authorial intrusion. but this just didn't work for me.

ok. i'm about midway through franzen's opus. & i had no idea who B.R. Myers was until today, but i'm feeling his pain.

wondering if i should forfeit my freedom and chase down some weiner??

it was ok. nice enough, i guess.

Adrian wrote: "Oh ... William Vollmann ... don't get me started on that fucker!
"

well, Adrian. now you just have to start in on a Vollman. we all want to hear. i do anyway.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-sh...

i didn't encounter too noisy a cot last year that i remember. but then again after sticking it out till the last of the glowing embers of our campfire went out & daylight was starting to creep back in- i think i was asleep before i made to the cot.
i kinda loved the vaguely menacing institutional feel of the place.

shel- congrats but you'll be missed.
lara- i may need to be back home by friday ... so if
you need a ride...