Daniel > Recent Status Updates

Gesture chapter is very good.

Started this on pure impulse, and it's weird so far. When I read Strangers on a Train I hadn't seen the movie and had only vague zeitgeist type knowledge of the plot. But I have seen Vertigo, and I already feel like the movie sold the whole 'please check up on my crazy wife' story far more convincingly than here. But is it tainted by foreknowledge? Or my inability to accept characters believing woo-woo BS I wouldn't?

idk if it's just lack of context and investment or something else about her selections, but the examples in the dialogue chapter are not impressing or engaging me at all.

It has been 0 days since our last ominous prophecy. 🐳🐳🐳
Caught up with #whale weekly for now anyway.

Couple of unpleasant chapters there.

Love the book. Not loving 10 hours with no power. 90F inside now. :(

Next up: Stubb being a racist POS.

Very suspicious of Josh. He's too easily accepting of Ryan and Chelle's crazy theories and why's he hanging out with them in the first place? And adopted? Hmmmmmmm... Also there are suspicious things that predate the well thing... What's up with that? It's very good, but quite different from her other books I've read.

consciousnesseseses

Ryan and Chelle do not feel like NT kids. The descriptions are so cool, tho there's a quiet hazy vibe overall I'm not sure is helping. Good though. 😁

Read 20 pages just to get to page 1. Was very close to starting TNH's "Understanding Our Mind" instead, but I will read that after.

Everyone recommended other ones, but I started this one anyway. 😝

I would listen to him read the phone book. Him is Melville. Read is write. Phone book is about whale food.

Hate to dump on Zelazny, but the first story in here is absolute garbage. Second one is looking heaps better tho, so far anyway. No sign of anything resembling characterization, but at least he's doing something to evoke some interest with the narrative style.

I press on. Though, tbh, I don't think I'm getting anything out of this. Certainly not what I was looking for. Feels like I'm reading a book with all the nouns and verbs replaced with a generic placeholder label. I'd have put it back on the shelf if it wasn't so short.

Oh that was a good bit, in Guy's head, all adrift, detached, disintegrating. Slipping into Bruno's a bit too. Handling of pov feels dated, but more of the gay stuff, and somehow Guy coming closer to self knowledge than Bruno, that was unexpected. 😁

Come on Highsmith, I don't care about Guy, give me Bruno.

Oh I didn't think that was going to happen. We're roaring right along again after that brief lul.

Ok, last bit was a little slow. Needs more Bruno. Too much time with Guy McMopesALot. I mean, I know I'm not going to like how this ends, so at least entertain me and let the kid have a good time till we get there.

Ok, I got nothing out of that chapter.

Poor Bruno, you deserve better. Find yourself a Guy who'll murder for you.

the q&a at the end of the "feeling" chapter is certainly an experience to read knowing how Trungpa ended up. not a great selection of abhidhamma/Buddhist psych/consciousness books available tho, got some others on the way, but this is the easiest thing I have to start with.

kinda almost understood a tiny fragment of something there but I'm probably mistaken ;)

Guy is so heartless, poor Bruno just wants a little affection and his awful dad murdered. Get your homosexuality out of latent mode and give the poor guy what he needs. In other news, every time she mentions flannel pants I imagine someone walking around in pajamas.

Bruno, you fool, you could not be more conspicuous. I have not the slightest idea how this story ends, but I am not optimistic for you.

very confused, he sent a telegram saying he declined the job, then they gave him the job? and wtf is going on with Bruno's itinerary, does Highsmith think the grand canyon is in texas??? 🤔

Was a bit nervous, finally reading some Highsmith, but so far so good.

Still reading this, but it's dense, and there's lots of unfamiliar grammatical terms I'm not familiar with and can't be bothered to look up, often they're about aspects of this other than what interests me, but I am seriously like wtf at people who actually look up words while reading in their native language, that's too much work (unless it's kindle, obv).

The parts where he's with other people are vastly more enjoyable than the parts where he's on his own.