(no subject)

[proximoception]

I found Mrs. Quoad's candies very, very funny. First Pynchon comedy that's succeeded on me that I can remember. I swear my grandmother fed me some of those; others reminded me of London Drugs' bizarre Christmas candies, which I was exposed to during my first months in downtown Vancouver. Lots of disgusting alcohol flavors, coming across medicinal through all the sugar.

Ulysses feels like the big influence so far, maybe "Circe" most of all.

I tried very hard to forget operant vs. classical conditioning.

So far a lot is annoying, but a lot is actually touching. Much less tongue in cheek than I'd feared from my many attempts at the opening pages.

The difficulty of the writing is something I'm having trouble putting my finger on: why's it so hard to read this? Is it obliqueness? Various things he could be saying straight he sort of careens in from the side and sweeps through. Broadens the scope, I guess, since various weather and sky-object specifics, nearby people and animals, locative and personal history, stray anecdotes and factoids are brought in. So far I'm finding this a liability, but maybe this is something you can learn to read faster and not mind. He rarely seems to be doing it quite the same way twice, is the thing.

I think the annoyingness mostly manifests itself through unintended grammatical ambiguities - a danger Faulkner falls into a lot with his longer sentences, as well as Joyce in Ulysses, and Feinman when he's using eleven unusual locutions in a row. I guess the trick is to proceed through the paragraph, then maybe go back and reread, see if what was past the problem passage contextualizes the confusion away. I am finding that, like in Ulysses and Sound and the Fury, questions are eventually cleared up - just maybe a hundred pages later, in passing. Still, builds trust to see he knows I'm here.

Comments

[grashupfer.livejournal.com]

I always chuckle at the Batman joke early in the book, but a lot of the time his jokes make my eyes roll, especially if he's spent multiple paragraphs setting up the punch line. The Ulysses influence seems undeniable. That Joyce quote always comes to mind. The quote about putting in all the puzzles and enigmas to keep the professors busy forever. I think that's part of the game with this book, too.