'the better you look the more you see'
I recently finished reading Glamorama again and while it was certainly a different experience the second time around I couldn't help walking away from it with the same feeling as the first time. I cannot help but feel sorry for Victor even though throughout the book he demonstrates himself to be a rather deplorable human being. He undergoes such horrible experiences, sees things no one should have to see, lives a life a person wouldn't wish upon their enemy, and yet i have sympathy for him. This feeling is similar to the feeling I previously got from the book Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, a feeling I've been discussing with Annie as she is reading it currently. Even though Switters, much like Victor, is not a good person, the reader cannot help but identify with him and generally 'like' him. Regardless of the fact that he wants to commit incestual pedophilia with his half sister in the book, I feel like as the reader I can't judge him for that, or even look upon him in a negative way. It's interesting to me as a reader that I can identify and sympathize with characters who commit acts as deplorable as Victor or dream about things as morally reprehensible as Switters. I respect writers like Bret Easton Ellis and Tom Robbins who can allow their readers to sympathize and identify with a negative protagonist as opposed to a positive one