i made an essay

[motorbike]

Finished Kavalier & Clay and driven to write porn / lay out my large feelings on the matter. See below for my intense cousin-shipping commentaries. Links to the supplemental short stories? Or good fan fiction based on this book??? ??? ??? where is it. Why are Gentlemen of the Road requests all over Yuletide while Chabon's more obvious nude dudes

Comments

as you read this comment pls keep in mind that i am super inarticulate

[arboretum]

but yes, while I loved the book

yes @ the sense of dissatisfaction w/ the ending

yes @ wanting rosa, joe, & sam to stick together goddamnit
(seriously what does sam think he's going to do? it's kind of baffling to me because -- like you -- I'm not sure going out to LA is going to improve his life at all. but then, what do I want for sam? for him to just stay in that house twiddling his thumbs and taking care of the kid while rosa and joe bang each other in long-delayed happy heterosexual bliss? that's not a particularly satisfactory arrangement either ahaha

Re: as you read this comment pls keep in mind that i am super inarticulate

[motorbike]

The part where Sam and Joe just sit and rock together and remember the good old days. Sob sobsob like, come on guys you are in your early thirties and you are already a thousand years old inside

Sam's going to LA is clearly this tragic, tragic, super tragic effort to recapitulate the moment with Tracy on the train where he fucked himself over for good. Tracy is dead and Sam is no longer the It Kid of page and screen. He probably has a lucrative future in writing movies, but I keep getting the sense that between Tracy and Joe, Sam chose Joe, and the choice severely bit him in the ass

i am also super inarticulate

[agnes_perdita]

Yeah, the ending's really interesting because it should feel partly like Joe's triumphant return but instead focuses on the action that culminates Sam's sacrifices for Joe as if Chabon wants...what? To remind the reader of how Sam's partnered/shadowed Joe throughout the whole book? To try and give Sam a sense of resurrection? Because "if he ever wants to be his own hero, Sam needs a quest that has little to do with Joe. Which is why he crosses his name off the card on the kitchen table"? (Yes, motorbike, you are totez quotable now

[motorbike]

Sam wants more than anything to be a hero like the Escapist, basically, and he never gets a real chance because he is to scared of being happy in a counter-Judeo-Christian way, and because his bff is too busy being Escapist enough for the both of them. Joe forgets to mind REAL LIFE where his girlfriend is pregnant and the future of Empire Comics hinges on his talent. I recall that Sam does consider leaving Rosa and his shitty stale grown-up office drone job at least once, but curbs the urge because he is no longer seventeen and understands, better than does Joe actually, what it means to have a duty to one's family.

When Joe asks, Why did you do all this? Sam just says, Well, I was not brave enough to be a fairy. Which I take only as hearsay, because Sam has to answer somehow, with at least a portion of his truth. The more important question is why he didn't leave once the going got tough.

This comment is so useless

[agnes_perdita]

*__*
*__*
*__*

THIS is why I love Sam so much and you've encapsulated it perfectly in your GLORIOUS AS FUCK essay. I can't even think of anything to add. Just constant nodding in agreement.

iawtc

[motorbike]

I have talked the matter over with catiechu, who has less patience than I for people Joe and Rosa exemplify (involuntarily I have to find such bohemia attractive), and she loves Sam especially for ditching their needy asses and doing his own thing. Their kid is going to be pretty screwed up, that's all i can add.

Re: iawtc

[agnes_perdita]

I think Chabon pulled a clever trick by making his lead characters jewish living through World War 2 because even if I've never been on the end of superlative guilt trips from a jewish relative, I would still feel guilty disliking them. It's like "well, they're dealing with Hitler right now (in the book - I may have issues separating out book and real life sometimes anyway - I can't add my dislike on top of all that.

That said, I do really like Rosa. And I don't dislike Joe that much but Sam sort of forces them into this holding pattern of Sam/Joe sides of a coin and I start feeling resentful when the Joe-lonesome storyline comes into view because it means less time with Sam, who gets short shifted in terms of developed storylines independent to his relationship to Joe (all we get is a handshake flashback sentence and a signed photograph? fjkdal;fjda). And yeah his inability to separate himself from is cousin is the POINT, self, but...

Re: iawtc

[motorbike]

I vacillate on Rosa. She is a very convincing, very clever, strongly female character with whom I share a lot of commonality, but she just flows along into mediocrity, hung up on an insurmountable, inescapable love. Just like Sam, except I like Sam best of all because he is such a heartbreakingly loyal second fiddle. He knows that he is weak, he makes terrible errors, he stands by his friend, he never gets his happiness, and still he survives. He moves on.

I like Joe a whole lot man. As I have mentioned, he is very hot, and his story is the most exciting and dramatic. Arguably the most heartbreaking and mythology-laden of all. He sets everything into motion.

I just wish this book had a little more Sam. That's kind of the point of my essay, ahah. I want to know what has kept him kicking throughout all the shit that goes on! And what he actually, truly feels for Joe. Or even for Tracy. "Love" is kind of an easy catch-all in both cases. All of that is sort of nudged aside every time it comes up! Frustration.

[arboretum]

OH YEAH AND I FORGOT TO MENTION

Sam eventually hooks up with another gay cop TO BUY JOE'S FREEDOM? Jesus.

THAT WAS JUST LIKE. IN THE BOOK. IT WAS JUST LIKE ONE LINE AND THEN IT WAS LIKE IT DIDN'T EVEN HAPPEN

AND I WAS PRETTY WIGGED OUT BY THAT

UHHHHHHH
OK LIKE REALLY WIGGED OUT

essentially, in my head: "WAIT YOU DIDN'T JUST.... nuh-uh............... wait WHAT."

ok
just wanted to say that

ME TOO ME TOOOOOO

[motorbike]

I was like a;sdljsa;djas;djas;d fffffffffffff he goes through a repeat of having to take it from some abusive creep who would club him for being gay and leave him lying in a ditch!!! Though obv the second time around the guy in question seems less threatening. BUT WAGH JESUS CHRIST how does this just slip in under the radar as the narrative moves on

DOES JOE EVEN KNOW

IS A MILLION DOLLARS THE CORRECT RESTITUTION

[milkfed]

I WILL COME BACK TO THIS POST WHEN I AM DONE.

[motorbike]

YOU CAN FEEL MY LOVE AND MY RAGE so yes if it pleases you lmao

[motorbike]

Plz respond on your feelings if you finish it *_____* it is pretty hot stuff