Passing along more passages from The Passages
I cannot even begin to formulate coherent commentary on this book yet, except to note that after about a hundred pages, the fact that you have sort of gotten to know a few characters (as much as you can get to know such bland voids) and that there is the beginnings of some sort of plot makes it a bit easier reading. So instead, quotes!
First up are two passages which, if transplanted into a better book, might actually be okay. Not terribly groundbreaking or original, but nice enough bits of commentary which are completely swamped by the morass of samey-sounding reflective blah blah blah that must have been intended to be deep and meaningful and poignant, except that 99% of it isn't. I feel honor-bound to pull these two bits out and allow them their moment in the sun, for as much good as it does them.
Concerning cheesy vampire stories:
A bunch of silliness and bad sex, he knew that even then, and yet wasn’t there something about them that struck a deep chord of recognition, even of memory? The teeth, the blood hunger, the immortal union with darkness - what if these things weren’t fantasy but recollection or even instinct, a feeling etched over eons into human DNA, of some dark power that lay within the human animal?
As long as you accept that basically every single fantasy or horror writer ever has had a similar idea instead of lauding this as amazing and deep literary insight, it's not terrible.
And what is the deal with this sekrit government project, since obviously "the military would like super-soldiers" isn't sufficient motivation?
So really, when it came down to it: how much of Project NOAH was really just one grieving man sitting in a basement, trying to undo his wife’s death?
These are some of the best parts of the book so far. Really.
Moving on! Remember how I said it should be obvious what the military wants with a bunch of Wolverines? Well, on page 128, Cronin catches up by handing a character some comic books and helpfully drawing our attention to the parallels between Wolverine (who heals but has to watch friends die, so sad, and no points for betting this is A Theme) and the Project NOAH vampires. Hey, he was only like 80 pages behind anyone who has ever gone to the X-Men movies because it's summer and there was popcorn.
So much for the vammpires (who, incidentally, glow in the dark rather than sparkling - raver vampires, maybe?) What kind of twisted bureaucrats are running Project NOAH, you might ask?
“Hey,” Richards said, taking aim, “stand still. Just like that. Super-duper.” And Richards shot them too.
Super-duper. Truly, I am in awe of Cronin’s masterful commentary on the banality of evil.
And then the passage which is, for me, the dramatic climax of the super-duper sheriff slaughter scene, though not at all for the reasons Cronin intended. As you read this, bear in mind that Wolgast's boss has just unexpectedly walked into a sheriff’s station and murdered three strangers in cold blood.
Wolgast looked at the woman, then at the two bodies on the floor, Kirk and Price. How surprising death was, how irrevocable and complete, how much itself.
(Obviously the drama is not inherent in the passage itself. The passage is anti-drama.) As opposed to death not being itself? Death has been acting funny lately - do you think he’s depressed? Sometimes Death hardly recognized himself in the mirror. Death felt like he was living someone else’s life, and he was just an actor, going through the motions but not really present, like he was far, far away, on a mountaintop looking down at all the little cities spread out like toys beneath him.
The breakthrough in this passage, for me, is that I think we have a clue to one of Cronin’s literary influences! Who else talks about death being complete? That’s right: JK “the suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a presence” Rowling. It all makes sense now! The bizarre logic of a sekrit government program which can murder an entire sheriff's office to kidnap a little girl and whisk her away in a helicopter, but cannot send in fake FBI agents to say they're taking her into custody, or just have just kidnapped the girl and whisked her away in a helicopter to begin with instead of requiring a multi-state road trip, is on par with wizards who can spend a month planning how to break into their government's headquarters but forget to plan what to do when they get inside.
Just so you know the level of plotting and prose style mastery we're dealing with here. Except I think Deathly Hallows was, overall, a much better-written book.
First up are two passages which, if transplanted into a better book, might actually be okay. Not terribly groundbreaking or original, but nice enough bits of commentary which are completely swamped by the morass of samey-sounding reflective blah blah blah that must have been intended to be deep and meaningful and poignant, except that 99% of it isn't. I feel honor-bound to pull these two bits out and allow them their moment in the sun, for as much good as it does them.
Concerning cheesy vampire stories:
A bunch of silliness and bad sex, he knew that even then, and yet wasn’t there something about them that struck a deep chord of recognition, even of memory? The teeth, the blood hunger, the immortal union with darkness - what if these things weren’t fantasy but recollection or even instinct, a feeling etched over eons into human DNA, of some dark power that lay within the human animal?
As long as you accept that basically every single fantasy or horror writer ever has had a similar idea instead of lauding this as amazing and deep literary insight, it's not terrible.
And what is the deal with this sekrit government project, since obviously "the military would like super-soldiers" isn't sufficient motivation?
So really, when it came down to it: how much of Project NOAH was really just one grieving man sitting in a basement, trying to undo his wife’s death?
These are some of the best parts of the book so far. Really.
Moving on! Remember how I said it should be obvious what the military wants with a bunch of Wolverines? Well, on page 128, Cronin catches up by handing a character some comic books and helpfully drawing our attention to the parallels between Wolverine (who heals but has to watch friends die, so sad, and no points for betting this is A Theme) and the Project NOAH vampires. Hey, he was only like 80 pages behind anyone who has ever gone to the X-Men movies because it's summer and there was popcorn.
So much for the vammpires (who, incidentally, glow in the dark rather than sparkling - raver vampires, maybe?) What kind of twisted bureaucrats are running Project NOAH, you might ask?
“Hey,” Richards said, taking aim, “stand still. Just like that. Super-duper.” And Richards shot them too.
Super-duper. Truly, I am in awe of Cronin’s masterful commentary on the banality of evil.
And then the passage which is, for me, the dramatic climax of the super-duper sheriff slaughter scene, though not at all for the reasons Cronin intended. As you read this, bear in mind that Wolgast's boss has just unexpectedly walked into a sheriff’s station and murdered three strangers in cold blood.
Wolgast looked at the woman, then at the two bodies on the floor, Kirk and Price. How surprising death was, how irrevocable and complete, how much itself.
(Obviously the drama is not inherent in the passage itself. The passage is anti-drama.) As opposed to death not being itself? Death has been acting funny lately - do you think he’s depressed? Sometimes Death hardly recognized himself in the mirror. Death felt like he was living someone else’s life, and he was just an actor, going through the motions but not really present, like he was far, far away, on a mountaintop looking down at all the little cities spread out like toys beneath him.
The breakthrough in this passage, for me, is that I think we have a clue to one of Cronin’s literary influences! Who else talks about death being complete? That’s right: JK “the suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a presence” Rowling. It all makes sense now! The bizarre logic of a sekrit government program which can murder an entire sheriff's office to kidnap a little girl and whisk her away in a helicopter, but cannot send in fake FBI agents to say they're taking her into custody, or just have just kidnapped the girl and whisked her away in a helicopter to begin with instead of requiring a multi-state road trip, is on par with wizards who can spend a month planning how to break into their government's headquarters but forget to plan what to do when they get inside.
Just so you know the level of plotting and prose style mastery we're dealing with here. Except I think Deathly Hallows was, overall, a much better-written book.