There were parts of the book I loved, but in the end it didn't really come together into a cohesive whole for me.
And I think it didn't come together because it was doing some really weird stuff along the way. It's this sort of feminist take on consumer culture and feminist utopias, but it's also doing some stuff that just... feels really weird next to those themes.
Like, say you're going with someone on a road trip to Cincinnatti. Most of the way there they suddenly pull out and AK-47 and start mowing down cows along the roadside. You might still reach Cincinnatti, but you'll also be like, WTF?
I'll have to post more extensively about this when I get my thoughts in order.
Rrrrrg! But there's this pernicious character shallowness, and one of the most protagonist-like women gets drunk for the entire last third of the book and starts acting like a lunatic, and then is sort of joke killed-off, and the Maul-world works, except who the hell are Sun, Suk Hee, and Keri analogues for? Meniscus's subconscious? Meniscus's subconscious is instantiated as three girls, one Jewish, one Asian, and one half-Jewish half-Asian? And they like to shop? He's a blue Y-autistic male who has never had anything resembling a normal life, and his subconscious is snickering at the hermaphoriditic implications of a Nike poster with a woman and a wolf running together and playing old Atari-style video games?
It's like, here's this interesting take on consumer culture and female dominated-societies, and then in the last third of the book everyone screams, "SPERM!" and starts running around like they're playing musical chairs and the music's about to run out.
I did! We totally missed you. Were you just slammed with stuff at school? Honestly, it was pretty much pure luck I managed to finish the book and make it in for this round...
I missed you guys too. I really wanted to come, but my body doesn't do well at all in weather this cold and I was already feeling sickly so I just couldn't face the commute. But I really would have liked to hash this out with you all. Because... wtf?
Well, if the cold sticks around, I'd be happy to bring you in as well as most of the way back. As well-intentioned as I am, most days I end up working late and driving straight down from Evanston, so it would be easy enough. Give me your email address in a separate comment (I'll it delete as soon as I get it so it's not on the internets) and we can coordinate or something, so you don't have to brave the elements.
And for all that I'm queen of the bitchery right now, there were parts of the book I honestly did like.
It might have been an expectations issue - I kept thinking the characters would gain more depth, and what happened instead is that the plot just got zanier.
where are the snappy, surreal-yet-spot-on one-liner takes on it? i swear i need to bring a tape recorder to book group and recorder them for posterity, as they're now one of the highlights of the discussion.
i think i had fewer issues of disconnect than you did, though i acknowledge that it's doing some rather disparate things with its narrative... and there have been few books lately that made me pay as much attention to it [to attempt to knit/map the two threads together], and i found that engaging.
Yeah, it could be that I read it all at once, in one big lump (though honestly, that usually improves cohesiveness for me). It could be that I'm a stickler for analogous matches - tell me something stands for something else, and I get irritated when bits don't fit together properly. So I think I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to match the Maul-world stuff to Meniscus's subconscious.
And thanks, re: one-liners. You're totally making me blush. I do honestly love the books - I just usually express love for things through harassment, and that pattern kind of follows through here...
Comments 19
And it's good to see that you're alive. :)
Reply
One more week and I'll be in the clear...
Reply
Reply
And I think it didn't come together because it was doing some really weird stuff along the way. It's this sort of feminist take on consumer culture and feminist utopias, but it's also doing some stuff that just... feels really weird next to those themes.
Like, say you're going with someone on a road trip to Cincinnatti. Most of the way there they suddenly pull out and AK-47 and start mowing down cows along the roadside. You might still reach Cincinnatti, but you'll also be like, WTF?
I'll have to post more extensively about this when I get my thoughts in order.
Reply
Reply
It's like, here's this interesting take on consumer culture and female dominated-societies, and then in the last third of the book everyone screams, "SPERM!" and starts running around like they're playing musical chairs and the music's about to run out.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Well, if the cold sticks around, I'd be happy to bring you in as well as most of the way back. As well-intentioned as I am, most days I end up working late and driving straight down from Evanston, so it would be easy enough. Give me your email address in a separate comment (I'll it delete as soon as I get it so it's not on the internets) and we can coordinate or something, so you don't have to brave the elements.
And for all that I'm queen of the bitchery right now, there were parts of the book I honestly did like.
It might have been an expectations issue - I kept thinking the characters would gain more depth, and what happened instead is that the plot just got zanier.
Reply
i think i had fewer issues of disconnect than you did, though i acknowledge that it's doing some rather disparate things with its narrative... and there have been few books lately that made me pay as much attention to it [to attempt to knit/map the two threads together], and i found that engaging.
Reply
And thanks, re: one-liners. You're totally making me blush. I do honestly love the books - I just usually express love for things through harassment, and that pattern kind of follows through here...
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment