J.T. Wilson > Recent Status Updates

“[He] thought that the solution of a mystery was always a good deal less interesting than the mystery itself; the mystery had a touch of the supernatural and even the divine about it, while the solution was a sleight of hand.” -p102

What a country! In America, you play with numbers. In Soviet Russia, numbers play with you!

Unless there’s a personnel change coming up, Hanna renames the Viva Knievel drummer “Luke”, which is interesting because his actual name is easy to Google.

Coherency slippage

Just want this done now but there’s still like 150 pages to go.

There are phases where this book’s stream of consciousness paranoia and slapstick become a weirdly enjoyable madness, and phases where the book pisses me off because of its incoherence and/or disgusting parts. Unfortunately the last 10% has been all too much of the latter.

“It is difficult to perceive just what the fuck is happening here.”

Nothing sums up this book more than the relentlessly grim death camp paranoia of the endless Pölker and Ilse chapter being followed immediately by a chapter of Slothrop pratfalling, nose sex and bickering about Beethoven.

Either this is becoming more comprehensible or I’m just tuning into its wavelength.

Fantods referenced, I knew DFW was influenced by Pynchon but didn’t expect that.

modernist shit

Does this turn into a comprehensible book at some point?

Maybe I feel bad that Judy Poovey, essentially Sally Bowles, expects to be the star in this book rather than essentially a recurring minor character. She’s found herself in the wrong genre.

Starting to remind me of Umberto Eco now the mystery from act 1 has been revealed.

I think the author might have read Evelyn Waugh and F Scott Fitzgerald.

Very slow start by not looking at this for like three days straight, but motoring now (perhaps).