Alex > Recent Status Updates

So far this isn't bad, maybe I'm missing something not doing the hopscotch method. Hopefully it becomes something more than a bunch of intellectuals wandering around Paris because that's a trope I could do without. No opinion as of yet.

Chapters 1-56 for my first go around. If I enjoy that, I'll read it again using the hopscotch method later in the year.

This book drew me in at first, but it's not living up to the hype at all. A little Barthelme vibe has begun to emerge, which makes IO a little more interesting, but really just leaves me wanting to put it down and go read Barthelme. I feel like I've been pretty harsh on this. It's not a bad book, it just isn't impressing me.

Maybe I've been spoiled by Gass, who has the ability to surgically implant an image in a reader's mind without her ever knowing she was under. Moseley's imagery itself is often effective, but the reader is not properly anesthetized. She is conscious during the procedure; sees the surgeon wipe his brow, request the scalpel, then make the incision. It looks all wrong and hurts like hell.

I'm enjoying this. It's like a cross pollination between Kundera and early McElroy.

For the most part, the prose is very magnetic. Occasionally however I find the use of the word "like" in Mosley's similes occur a bit too frequently. The repetition is a distraction for me.

Listening to webcasted lectures on the book from UC Berkley while I read. This should help.

Why the hell not?

I'm already drawn in in a way that I haven't been in some time.

I'm going to try to plow through the rest of this before heading off to see Inherent Vice tonight.

So was that Vera in Malta too? Do her prosthetics signify a relation to Yoyodyne? Do all the V-named places and women have anything to do with anything? What about Rachel Owlglass? Owlglass sounds like Hourglass which is a V atop another inverted V which to me brings to mind the frequently referenced "mirror time" which is a clue to the underlying structure or a red herring or or or or or or or or ororororororororor

I'm beginning to think that Stencil's pursuit of V. is a pursuit of nothing at all. There are almost too many clues for them to be anything other than red herring. We also have all those hints of the idea that any confluence of events is going to look like a conspiracy to outsiders.

I'm definitely starting to see why DFW gets compared to Pynchon (I wasn't making the connection with Lot 49). The whole crocodile situation in chapter 5 seems to be a precursor to DFWs absurd humor, even incorporating that bureaucratic workplace element that became more prominent later in his work.

Reading the preface to In the Heart of the Heart of the Country has thus far been more rewarding (as in very very good) than the entirety of Omensetter's Luck (which I found a bit limp). I'm thinking maybe I prefer Gass the essayist to Gass the novelist.

Every time I pick this up recently I get distracted. I need to set aside some serious Pynch time so I can get more into the story.

So far this outperforms both White Noise (a comparison I only make because it was the last book I read) and Lot 49. I may end up a Pynch fan after all.

I'm wondering what else can happen after the Dylar revelation. Things are feeling a little disjointed. There were plenty of hints and foreboding but it was all a bit clunky. I've been greatly enjoying this after initial skepticism, but now I'm starting to doubt DD's organizational skills. I've been wrong about this book before, so I'll defer judgement until completion.

I'm glad this is the first book in which I am composing original marginalia. My reading game has jumped a level. I can only imagine what reading V. in this way will do to me.

I have accepted White Noise's brand of cultural criticism and am now more deeply involved in the story. The characters are clearly cartoonish, and Delillo's tongue is more deeply engorged in his cheek than I had originally believed. I had this "aha!" moment during the crash landing scene, which contains some truly absurd and ticklish Barthelme-esque dialogue. I feel you, White Noise. I feel you.

I'm starting to like this a bit more. I'm not sure whether the book gets off to a rough start or it just takes a little while to get acclimated to its world. DeLillo seems to spend half the time saying exactly what he means (maybe too much) and half the time foreboding other potential meanings. This combined with his relatively simple but effective prose gives White Noise a "Pynchon Lite" vibe for me.

The juxtaposition of American mass culture and Nazism would seem terribly trite if not for the fact that it feels like DD has his tongue pressed lightly into his cheek. Some of the dialogue seems over the top. So far the cultural critiques aren't all that impressive and at this rate I'm wondering if DD will offer any it advice or just tell us that the situation is really hopeless.

I've decided to do all of that underlining/writing-in-the-margin stuff that people are always talking up. I'll have to see whether it adds to the experience or just ends up being vandalism.

I'm finally getting around to reading "The Suffering Channel" and finishing this puppy off.