Chris Via > Recent Status Updates

Twenty pages in and I am reminded of why I was so taken by this book.

(Not sure why this says "read"--I have not read it before.)
This is an intriguing study that aims to evaluate Gaddis's novels (at the time: TR, JR, and CG) as "epistemological novels" that provide a set of ethics we can follow having rejected absolutism and postmodern relativism. Also amusing (I jumped ahead and read the J R chapter after the intro) is the dispute between Moore and Comnes over J R's first line.

Re-reading the opening, the two chapters on J R, and the closing for now. Moore's writing on the prominence of Wagner's Ring cycle in J R is a treasure.

Well hello, Mr. Bursey!

NEW VIDEO! "10 Books for Grazing"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXFyc...

Blimey!--forgot how funny this book is!

The time has come.

These sentences!

Oh my!

Oh how expertly Monsieur Theroux has put satire on its head in these final parts. Somber and earnest we come to the close.

I’m ready to confirm that, yes, this is the work of a mad genius. It has taken over my life. The complexities of the Eyestones/E^2/Electrical Engineering-Laura Warholic née Schqum relationship, alongside the gonzo comic absurdism of a cast of clichés pushed to cartoonish limits, alongside entertaining, provocative, stimulating essays—and with a vocabulary and keen eye of Theroux—what more do you want?

I love the art of the interpolated essay/story--from Cervantes to Musil to Theroux--and "Bored on the Fourth of July" (a play on the movie Born on the Fourth of July, where the protagonist returns from war a paralytic) is possibly the best part of the book so far. A dialectic on the idea that democracy is not at all what the Founders had in mind.

Interestingly, Eyestones exits the narrative/monologue briefly, for the first time--I *think* to convince we readers of the veracity of LW's purported behavior. The highlight of this chunk of the book, though, was "Shenandoah," focusing on the inextricability of beauty/perfection and sadness, using the (Dante's) Beatrice-esque Rapanzul as our emblem.

I hereby call pages 205-300 "In Praise of Pedanticism" (I do not use this in the pejorative sense). It kicks off with the signature combination of put-down, learning, and imaginative writing all in a single sentence: "Her company became increasingly like a dim major chord swelling with an insistent repetition, a faint obligato that crescendoed until it drowned out whatever melody had been there in the first place..."

So far: A mashup of Three Wogs and An Adultery; incisive wit of "Metaphrastes"; inflammatory jabs of the Lollipop poems. "The Controversial Essay" was a revolving door of cringing-laughing-awe that recalled reading Mailer's The Prisoner of Sex. The line between earnest sincerity and trading blows is muddled, but, a welcome invitation to another view (whether right or wrong).Finally: A chronicle of cultural neuroses!

Pynchon Easter egg!

Like lists (as I do)? Theroux gives us a succession of annotated lists! We get to sift through Eyestones's copious cache of index-card notes (which is a nod to Nabokov's Laura, but also, I'm certain, a glimpse into Theroux's obsession with trivia and scribbled thoughts).

Thanks to George Salis, we have a new Alexander Theroux interview! https://thecollidescope.com/2020/07/0...

Following An Adultery, we’re back to the spiced and devilishly silver-tongued narrative that made Three Wogs so delicious!

‪ANNOUNCEMENT: If Chihab Reda does not come forward to accept the book giveaway by this Friday morning (EST), I will be drawing another name. Have a great day! #bookgiveaway #Booktube ‬

“If He who in Himself can lack nothing chooses to need us, it is because we need to be needed” (44).

Some cringeworthy moments in the introduction. And now I know how Theroux felt about Amelia Earhart! :P

The title essay—an axis point for the two palindromic halves—is among WTV’s finest writing.