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Middle C
Middle C - Spine 2014
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Discussion - Week One- Middle C - Chapter 1 - 9
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I'm not quite done with this first section, but so far I think my favorite part is the final piano lesson with Mr. Hirk, which I enjoyed tremendously. Also, in the category by the way this sentence was great, I offer this:
Joey took to addressing him, when he had to, as Mr. Castle Cairfill--Mr. Castle Cairfill, could you come here a moment please and assist this young man who wants something in grunge--concluding his request with a smirk that Joey, on his way to becoming Joseph, would later edit out.
Nicole wrote: "I think my favorite part is the final piano lesson with Mr. Hirk, which I enjoyed tremendously."That was so poignant, and sweet, and I don't know how to emphasize enough how unusual it is for me to use such words.
Perhaps what stood out for me about the last lesson with Mr Hirk for me was both its poignancy and its relevance to voice. And how it ties to identity. The lack of traditional dialogue makes everything a part of Joseph Skizzen (whoever that may be) and only reinforces what of Mr. Hirk becomes a part ofJoseph Skizzen.I have to say I don't read a lot of books without traditional dialogue but Gass here doesn't just do it well, he does it smoothly, to the point where nothing feels out of place about it.
Perhaps what stood out for me about the last lesson with Mr Hirk for me was both its poignancy and its relevance to voice. And how it ties to identity. The lack of traditional dialogue makes everything a part of Joseph Skizzen (whoever that may be) and only reinforces what of Mr. Hirk becomes a part ofJoseph Skizzen.I have to say I don't read a lot of books without traditional dialogue but Gass here doesn't just do it well, he does it smoothly, to the point where nothing feels out of place about it.
Mod
Excellent observation!
Ditto what Jim said. It's interesting how Joseph's identity seems to firm up the more he interacts with others, but I hadn't noticed this particular way Gass makes it happen.
This is a re-read for me, as I tackled this one with great vigour when it first hit the shelves. I find that I'm a little more settled, reading at a slower, concentrated pace this time around; a pace I feel the text deserves. The final lesson with Mr Hirk was excellent, and that parting sentence, "He hoped his father had, at one time, felt something of the same shame." was really quite a way to finish it off.
And with Gass you gotta keep your eyes (but more your ears) open to read-out-loud-able sentences. He's a virtuoso of various -iterations and -sonances, not to mention an utterly ill MC when it comes to steppin' on some anapests.
Greg, I am also really liking his character names. The oversexed French teacher is named Madamde Mieux, which is really more hilarious than it should be somehow. I also enjoyed the whole riff on Mr. Castle Cairfill and his various nicknames.
Mod
Especially fun is Joseph word-smithing his misanthropic sentence about the fate of humankind, mixed with his skill at kick-the-can. Enjoying all this very much!
also a terrific sentence: After a short time the finishing school returned to Lutheran arms and virtue's camp where no one gave its coeds the compliment of slander.
Oh yeah, Greg, there's definitely a musical tone to his style, especially I think in this.
Nicole wrote: "Greg, I am also really liking his character names. The oversexed French teacher is named Madamde Mieux, which is really more hilarious than it should be somehow. I also enjoyed the whole riff on Mr..."These names are great.
At first I thought that Madame Mieux could have been a minor shout-out to Henry James's Madame de Mauves (another author who loves an alliteration, and a Gass favourite I believe), but that was just a passing thought.
I'm only a couple of chapters in and I'm already enjoying the way that Gass plays with the notion of identity. I will have to try reading some of the names out loud now & see if that makes a difference.
Nicole, that really was a choice sentence.He makes it look so easy, but he puts years between books, so I wonder if he futzes endlessly with sentences the way Josef does with that one Jim mentioned.
I wondered the same thing; his sentences are so good, and obviously he's into the whole futzing as theme....I'm finding that reading his prose is like eating something particularly rich and delicious. I just can't stop.
One of the things that stands out thematically for me is the whole process of becoming (and growing up) American is questioned, somewhat rigourously, by Gass. Joey starts as Austrian and Roman Catholic, then become Jewish/English, then back to RC when American.And once he becomes American he finds most people (peers of his) don't really hold on to a meaningful identity and growing up is filled with making things up, lying, and appearing how you should be. Getting good grades isn't as valued as being able to just coast by. The funny part about the Madame Mieux is that she is just as "fake" as Joey is in many ways.
First post so hello everyone. Thinking of the identity theme mentioned above, I like the way the sentence develops from the sparse universal to a completely idiosyncratic ramble by the end of ch. 9. I was struck by the anachronistic mention of rap, hip-hop and grunge. It is sticking in my craw for some reason. I am still doing the math on whether Kazan's shop had the Beatles before anyone else.
Good eye, Drew. That nagged me too. Those aren't the last details that signal an early 90's setting, impossibly. I scoured the online reviews last year, looking for explanations or theories, to no avail.
In general, I find it quite difficult to nail a date to this novel other then "latter half of the 20th century" since the novel tends to show Joseph growing up as well as Joseph at a more contemporary time. And often reading this I get the sense of older Joseph looking back at his younger self but stiil, the music identifiers are a little weird in that scene (which inconveniently I can't find right at the moment) considering I figured the record shop time period would be sometime during the early to mid 60s at the latest. (You could argue some dates back to 70s I think with rap but that's still a bit late for Kazan's shop)
"And often reading this I get the sense of older Joseph looking back at his younger self..."I get that, too. And at the beginning I liked the way Gass wrote the narrator relating Joey's recollections of his mother's memories.
Rudi Skizzen, with his prophet’s vision and his technicolor dreamcoat, transforms his family from Jesus to Yahweh and back again, moving them from small town life in Austria to the bombed out city of London. He disappears, and his family continues the journey, first to big city New York and later to small town Ohio, reclaiming parts of their original selves, but externally, completely new people. Not a bad beginning for a novel, eh?
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