OK, I frankly am not all that worried about spoilers. It's a long book, and it doesn't seem to be "plot driven" unlike a Harry Potter or a Da Vinci Code, so I think spoilers won't be a big deal. My thought is that if you are posting something that you think might ruin something, just put a "spoiler warning" somewhere in the title or something. But whatever everybody wants to do is fine with me.
Secondly, let me briefly bring Kyra and Katie up to speed on the twenty odd years of friendship that Phil and I have behind us. Phil and I are very similar in a lot of ways, but very different in others, and I think it creates a nice dramatic tension. (Sidenote: I unequivocally consider Phil to be one my best and truest friends. Sidesidenote: I had a girlfriend once in college who was convinced that if Phil and I hadn't known each other for so long we never would have become friends. I always hated when she would say that.)
But as Eggars described in the introduction, I agree that there are two camps in literature: the ones who think that writing should be extremely accessible and those that thing it should be arduous and challenging. I guess I see where you're coming from when you called Eggars "cute," but I think I'm in the camp that believes that writing should be accessible, and that's how I feel like Eggars writes. In fact, I think I might even be a little of an extremist. In all of the books I had to read for my English major (which has been SUPER useful...ear tug) I felt like I got the most out of the ones that were written in my language, or better, my vernacular. I felt the same way on my mission: As good as I ever got at Porkandcheese, my communication skills never even came close to my native language. Which, incidentally, is why I think that missionaries that bring home "natives" to marry that don't share a common first language is not a good idea.
But, I recognize that I am on the far side of the camp, and it's refreshing to hear someone who has a different opinion, and I can certainly respect the sentiment. And, I sort of agree with Eggars that this book is somewhere in the middle, which is kind of nice. I'm also very excited for Phil to do some groundwork for us and find out about his hometown.
OK, so this isn't that far into the book, and it isn't a spoiler, but the part after the marijuana scene where he describes his encounter with the therapist ("conversationalist") I thought was great. It's interesting because I have essentially seen a therapist and been a therapist (in a way). Allow me to explain: I work with a pediatric psychiatrist once a week at children's hospital as a part of the "treatment team." So we go and meet with kids that have problems that are far beyond their age. When I saw a therapist to help me decide whether or not to go back to school, I loved it. I saw her as a benevolent third party to help me sort out my issues. When I'm on the "treatment team" though it is very different. Today for instance, I saw a fifteen year old kid who was living in a foster home, has ADHD, Bipolar, and diabetes. When he's on a bipolar swing, or when he's just feeling like a fifteen year old, he doesn't take his diabetes medicine, and he winds up in the hospital, like today. So we're called in to do a "psych consult" meaning we spend about an hour talking to the kid and his foster mom. Point being: this kid is sick. He's in the hospital. He's all teenage-y and angst-y and we march in with five strangers, wake him up from his nap, and ask him to tell us about his feelings. As you can imagine, he didn't respond that well. And so I thought that chapter captured the dichotomy pretty well. On the one hand, therapy can be this kind, semi-omnipotent, even paternalistic experience, but on the other hand it can be a little "big brother;" controlling and intimidating.
And that chapter, not to keep bringing up AHWOSG, reminded me of the part in Eggars where he's doing the interview for MTV's Real World, and suddenly the interviewer explains that he's not really in the interview, but that it's a platform for a monologue. I thought it was a pretty clever literary device, although I thought it worked a little better in AHWOSG.
SOOOO, as Katie pointed out, this sucker is real long, and I'm not too far, but hopefully I will have some more time this Christmas to do a little reading and post some real nuggets. In the mean time, I love you guys.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Regarding: Dilemma, First Impressions, and Eggers
Umm…topic #1: Dilemma-
My simple suggestion for the anti-scheduled-non-book-clubish-no-spoiler blogspot, is that we could potentially come up with a format for titling the posts. Something that would detour you from reading about something you had yet to read in the novel.
A logical suggestion would be something like “Regarding Chapter #X,” but seeing as I am still deciphering exactly how this book is organized, (and numbered chapters not being it) we could just break it down roughly to page numbers. If however page numbers is not enough, a clever “cute” Eggers style title can follow. This format just might work, being both informative and efficient for the quick-skimmer and the smart ass alike.
Take for instance the following:
Regarding xi – 3: Invitational Instructions and Erik’s love for Dave Eggers
Or my own potential post:
Up to page 42: I may or may not be in love with Wallace
Blogs about the more global/cosmic issues or might-be themes of the book can be non-specific-non-formatted titles resembling something more like discussion threads or questions. (I usually have more questions than constructive and/or cohesive thoughts.) That said: First Impressions. This could likewise be titled "Phillip busts Erik’s and Egger’s Chops" but you see the idea. Think it would work?
Phillip, I have a feeling you may be un-impressed, but I was forewarned - with a name like Katie and everything.
As far as Dave Eggers goes, I fall somewhere in between the spectrum of Erik and Phillip. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was refreshing, and Eggers had me pegged in the intro of Infinite Jest, approaching 25, madly in love with Sufjan Stevens and guilty of endlessly carrying around Jack Kerouac in my purse. Eggers did fail to mention that I frequently smell of a cadaver lab and am currently eating eggs with an Oct 10 expiration date in December, but otherwise he hit the highlights.
Eggers says, "We have an obligation, to ourselves, chiefly, to see what a brain, and particularly a brain like our own - that is, using the same effluvium we, too, swim through - is capable of." I sat in the airport on the way back from Thanksgiving Break hunkered into Wallace when the man I sat next to asked if I was reading a phone book. I laughed. And after we chatted for who knows how long, he remarked that if the brakes fail on landing we could toss Wallace out to drag us to a stop. He might be right, this mass of pages is a bit daunting, but Eggers said it, "...any book, but particularly a book like this, a book that gives so much, that required such sacrifice and dedication. Who would do such a thing if not for want of connection and thus of love?" And perhaps in our case why we not only are determined to read it, but write about it?
Needless to say I am pretty excited about all this, and if not for the need to both shower and see what a brain like my own can cram into before my final tomorrow I would ramble about the previously referenced 42 pages. But for what it is worth, I’ve put my two-cents out there.
My simple suggestion for the anti-scheduled-non-book-clubish-no-spoiler blogspot, is that we could potentially come up with a format for titling the posts. Something that would detour you from reading about something you had yet to read in the novel.
A logical suggestion would be something like “Regarding Chapter #X,” but seeing as I am still deciphering exactly how this book is organized, (and numbered chapters not being it) we could just break it down roughly to page numbers. If however page numbers is not enough, a clever “cute” Eggers style title can follow. This format just might work, being both informative and efficient for the quick-skimmer and the smart ass alike.
Take for instance the following:
Regarding xi – 3: Invitational Instructions and Erik’s love for Dave Eggers
Or my own potential post:
Up to page 42: I may or may not be in love with Wallace
Blogs about the more global/cosmic issues or might-be themes of the book can be non-specific-non-formatted titles resembling something more like discussion threads or questions. (I usually have more questions than constructive and/or cohesive thoughts.) That said: First Impressions. This could likewise be titled "Phillip busts Erik’s and Egger’s Chops" but you see the idea. Think it would work?
Phillip, I have a feeling you may be un-impressed, but I was forewarned - with a name like Katie and everything.
As far as Dave Eggers goes, I fall somewhere in between the spectrum of Erik and Phillip. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was refreshing, and Eggers had me pegged in the intro of Infinite Jest, approaching 25, madly in love with Sufjan Stevens and guilty of endlessly carrying around Jack Kerouac in my purse. Eggers did fail to mention that I frequently smell of a cadaver lab and am currently eating eggs with an Oct 10 expiration date in December, but otherwise he hit the highlights.
Eggers says, "We have an obligation, to ourselves, chiefly, to see what a brain, and particularly a brain like our own - that is, using the same effluvium we, too, swim through - is capable of." I sat in the airport on the way back from Thanksgiving Break hunkered into Wallace when the man I sat next to asked if I was reading a phone book. I laughed. And after we chatted for who knows how long, he remarked that if the brakes fail on landing we could toss Wallace out to drag us to a stop. He might be right, this mass of pages is a bit daunting, but Eggers said it, "...any book, but particularly a book like this, a book that gives so much, that required such sacrifice and dedication. Who would do such a thing if not for want of connection and thus of love?" And perhaps in our case why we not only are determined to read it, but write about it?
Needless to say I am pretty excited about all this, and if not for the need to both shower and see what a brain like my own can cram into before my final tomorrow I would ramble about the previously referenced 42 pages. But for what it is worth, I’ve put my two-cents out there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)