Greg S > Recent Status Updates

I’ve noticed that we’re taking the long toad to humanize the abuser, but I guess the author draws the line at the Trujillos.

I don’t know why the author decided to misquote the Lord of The Rings all of a sudden.

Narrator is sometimes Omnipresent and sometimes he says it’s impossible to know.

Sometimes the book says stuff that you have no idea what it’s talking about. You can’t tell if it’s being ignorant or hyperbolic or racist or maybe it’s a reference to something. — “…in India jumped ship to the other India, a.k.a. the Caribbean.”

Also, I’m confused about who the narrator is. Sometimes I think it’s Oscar, but then sometimes I think it’s omnipresent, but then it says it has limits to what it knows, But then sometimes it has more knowledge than a person could have.

The weird thing is when the author will say something a little bit crooked. A little bit off. — Like when he talks about cane fields and getting lost in them. It’s true, you can get lost in them, but the real problem is that cane fields cut you.

The weird thing is I have a friend with a similar life to Oscar and I have a friend with a similar life to Lola.

Ah, confusing pov change.

It’s funny when the narrator uses the N-word and then also “vertiginous” all in one sentence.

I do like the authors use of slang and spanish, though.

Hm, bummer, we get to relive how awful teenage boys are. — This reminds me of how authors shows us how miserable and traumatized the main character is, but instead of povertty, it’s not getting laid by a pretty girl.

“ Often accused of harboring known felons and offering safe haven to deposed leaders of other rogue genres, PsychoThriller could never be directly indicted, as nothing was ever quite what it seemed—“

Right on time. — “As I stared at the picture, I felt a sudden flush of new intelligence, as though a jigsaw had been thrown into the air and landed fully completed. Everything that…”

“Whoever controls the Northern Genres controls the metaphor supply, and whoever controls the supply of metaphor controls Fiction....”
“So why isn’t Racy Novel read more than Women’s Fiction?“…
“Because of sanctions,” said Drake, looking at me oddly, “imposed by WomFic and Dogma—and pretty much everyone else. Like it or not, Racy Novel isn’t very highly thought of.”

“I stared at him for a moment. Flat Thursday had said this was another message, so he must be communicating on a one-way basis by writing a short story—possibly with himself and his wife in conversation.”

“Ha-ha!” said the host, reloading the rifle. “Bagged another Baggins.”

And he made a mark on his tally board, which contained several hundred other Bagginses, three dozen Gandalfs, a plethora of Pratchett characters and sixty-seven Harry Potters.
“Right, then,” said Sparkle, “off you toddle.”

There’s a lot of exposition and descriptions. They’re funny, but, still, a lot.

“Wait—who’s speaking now?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must know.”
“Damn. It must be me—you wouldn’t say ‘damn,’ would you?”
“I might.”
We both paused for a moment, waiting for either a speech marker or a descriptive line. It was one of those things that happened every now…

I’m tired of the woman – desperate - and - longing – for – kids trope.

Wikipedia is your friend with books like these. — “…It was then that McEwan and the nearby Rushdie and Amis threatened to go on strike and lower…”

“…with dangerous currents, whirlpools and tidal rips. Despite this, many Vanitarians attempted to make the perilous journey to brighter prospects on the mainland. Of those who survived, most were turned back.”

It took this long to stop explaining the geography of BookWorld. — “…and he told me he was from Vanity—in a pilot book for a series titled The League of Cogmen, about the many adventures …”

This sounds awful, not alluring. — “He would say it was a warm evening, or ask his partner to take an ice, with a tone as sad and confidential as if he were breaking her mother's death to her…”

Too quit or not quit this book. Although this contributes to George Osborns’s already terrible character. — “…idea of a union with the latter appear doubly ludicrous and odious. Carriages and opera-boxes, thought he; fancy being seen in them by the side of such a mahogany charmer as that!”

What the hell, Thackeray? — “…a slave-owner they say—connected with the Cannibal Islands in some way or other…”

Alright, take it easy, Thackeray. — “…crazed almost with misfortune and raving with senile anger.”

A small aside from me, I’m reading about the nickname “Boney” and how the English used Bonaparte as the boogeyman to threaten their children. Like this lullaby telling a child to stop crying or else Bonaparte will hear them and “limb from limb, will tear you,/just as pussy tears a mouse.”

I did not notice earier than Thackeray wrote an aside how Malaria and Yellow Fever drove out England from the West Indies. — No mention of the Hatian rebellion and victory, I noticed.

Nope. Not a good metaphor. — “He saw a slave before him in that simple yielding faithful creature…”

Hm. I know the focus is on the man and the wife’s faith in him, blah blah. But how awful for Mrs. Sedley — “When he sank back into his seat, it was the wife that took the office of consoler. She took his trembling hand…”