Not A Dry Eye

[lilmissnever]

Remember that time it took me months to recover from my retinal detachment and my eye became red and itchy and painful because I had a corneal defect that would heal up during the night and then rip right off when I opened my lids in the morning? It turns out that this is "dry eye." It's what happens when the body stops producing the oily element

Comments

Re: Quentin Coldwater

[voxsjournal]

Kurzban looks like the kind of thing that I'd avoid, because it brings up the (for me) essential question of identity and I don't think is very kind to it. Still, I'd argue that in narratives of any kind, there has to be some kind of coherence in character representation for it to have any meaning at all.

Reading book two last night, it again occurred to me that, while we're repeatedly told that Quentin is veryvery smart, we are seldom shown that trait, while, as you point out, cleverness is a defining characteristic in both Alice and Julia and we see the results of that cleverness all the time. This may be part of why I take genre fiction less seriously than literary fiction--the authors are generally less skillful and it shows upon inspection, though the stories themselves can be fun to read.

I haven't given up on a spiritual interpretation of the text, however, and Q's chronic dissatisfaction with everything, especially with that which he thinks he wants, is symptomatic of spiritual sickness.

Btw, I typed out "seen" instead of "scene" before. I do this fairly frequently with homophones, especially while typing (here and hear is a common one for me). I know the difference between these words, it's not a matter of confusion, and I don't even realize it's happened until I read it again. Do you know if there's a name for this condition?

Re: Quentin Coldwater

[lilmissnever]

I am very interested in Kurzban's theory that there are parts of the brain that have evolved to give us bad information because it is socially advantageous to us in some ways. Spirituality is often an area in which we have had very different points of view. I am not at all bothered by the idea that we are animated suits of flesh, often acting hypocritically and inconsistently on bad information. I think that if we understand this about ourselves (and others), then we can take some measures to account for it (in ourselves) and be more tolerant of it (in others).

I think that it is rather difficult to show a character, from their own point of view, being smart at magic. In later books, you see the results of Quentin's cleverness. Indeed, most of the second half of the third book is nothing but Quentin grinding on a series of difficult magical problems. What you see in the first two books is that Quentin is talented and smart, but inconsistent and lazy and whiney--and this is what holds him back from accomplishing the kinds of feats that Alice and Janet demonstrate well before he does.

I have not encountered this parting homophone-typing this before. I will look into it. I am on a bit of a neuroscience kick right now.

Re: Quentin Coldwater

[voxsjournal]

Yes, he rebuilds Fillory, but there are other ways to show his intellect than magic. Q always seems to be the one who is one step behind everyone else, except possibly Josh. And his inability to understand (or even notice) other people is shown repeatedly. He always seems to be surprised that other people have feelings. Plus, he's self-obsessed without being at all self-aware. I dunno. I just think that Grossman could have done a better job sometimes. Also, reading the books again, I notice that he makes a couple of technical mistakes, like when he says that Julia shows him how to get money from an ATM without a card in book two, but in the first book, Q does that himself and it's mentioned that doing so is easy. Characters don't always have to act consistently, of course, but when they don't there has to be a believable reason motivating them, and I'm not finding that here. Kind of like "Breaking Bad," when Walt gives up the cash in what everyone knows is a futile attempt to save Hank's life. Great episode--wonderful acting and pacing--but I didn't believe he'd do that for a second. Not one second.

Julia doesn't have this problem. She is given a much firmer character, even as distraught as she is much of the time. Her actions all make sense, even the self-destructive ones. It makes me think that Grossman had a better handle on her character than Q's. (In fact, his female characters seem better drawn than his male ones as a rule, don't they? Oh, and POPPY!!! Golly, I love Poppy.)

I suppose Kurban's theory could address certain issues, but ultimately it makes the ego a house divided against itself, doesn't it? But maybe that's the case. Is the person who wants to lose weight the same person who wants to eat half of a cake? Which identity is real? Or maybe the mystics have it right, and it's all false, I don't know. You probably already know that I reject the materialist view that neuroscience insists upon, so that always kind of gives me pause. How can an epiphenomenon of the brain actually decide to willfully change the physical structure of that brain? Yet we can, and do.

I figure you're always about four months away or less from beginning or ending a book about neuroscience, and I thought in your reading you may have come across something like the homophone issue before. It's odd, I don't really do it while writing (printing, honestly, cursive isn't something I regularly use). There I have other issues, like dropping the final letter of a word, especially if that letter is "e."

Re: Quentin Coldwater

[lilmissnever]

There are many different kinds of intellect. I think that Grossman sets out to characterize Quentin as being bad at reading people and thinking about their feelings. His journey from Clueless Quentin to the guy who lets Julia take his place on the flip side on Book 2 and saves Alice in Book 3 is pretty much Quentin's big character arc.

You're right about the ATM thing, though.

I am finishing up Kurzban's right now and then I will re-read Ramachandran's work on phantom limbs because J is giving a lecture on phantom limbs in a few weeks. This is what we do in our spare time--we give lectures about neuroscience.

Did you get a chance to see Citizenfour, by the way? I see that it was nominated for an Oscar. My own feelings are (predictably) complicated, but I'd be curious to hear what you think.

Re: Quentin Coldwater

[voxsjournal]

I was much more sympathetic to Q at the end of Book II this time around. Still, he was 28-29 when all that happened, if we're to believe the final book, when, after six months on Earth, he's almost 30, which seems a bit old to me to be that unaware. And I'd argue that he didn't let Julia take his place. She went, and he tried to follow her, but he didn't have a passport, having used it already to go to the Underworld, and then Ember came and kicked him out, back to the Neitherlands. What did Ember say? Something like, the hero doesn't get the reward, the hero makes the sacrifice. Q, I thought, acted rather admirably then, with a minimum of whining. So far, it still reads to me mostly like a coming-of-age story for twentysomethings, but Grossman, who I feel like I've been kind of unfair to, keeps things moving along nicely for the most part and can be quite cleaver and funny. A debate about a eugenics program for reproducing, animated books? Made me laugh, anyway, and that kind of thing is, for me, one of the strengths of the series.

I have not yet seen "Citizenfour," though there are several docs out that I'd like to see now. I go through periods where I seem to watch a lot of them in a row. While I can't say anything about the documentary, I largely support Snowden's actions, same with Chelsea Manning, and would urge a presidential pardon that will never, ever happen.

Lots of public hacks going on right now, btw. I'm thinking that the future of the Net is going to be a lot more criminal than anyone is thinking right now. Indeed, the inability to secure networks might very well be the end of the Net as we know it, because let's face it, the problems are only going to get worse and worse. You'd think this would bother me, but it really doesn't.