Finished

The Recognitions was finally completed today. Dense and disturbing, the  novel wasn't a satire as much as a meditation on decay and mendacity. It should be noted that I felt the higher mechanics of the project sailed past me. That said, i crossed that uncharted zone, now if some friendly Stanley will arrive and elucidate, I'll be even happier.

Aware and Awash

The slog through The Recogniitons continues. Despite being at p. 500 I can find no momentum as the density of each page, each exchange grounds me to a virtual crawl.

I had never read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson until Thursday evening. It is less haunting than simply gripping, as the story focuses on our ancient  fears and suspicions towards justice and destiny in our mass age. I thought that Suzanne Collins should be pelted with copies of the story.

I also read HHhH by Laurent Binet, a fictional treatment of the life and assassination  of Rinehard Heydrich. It was compelling but uneven. Strange enough, Binet found the voice of history in Vollmann's sweeping Europe Central.

A New Month

It is time to be smart. the Euros, so well received, have now passed into lore. First, though, we need a joke.

Two cows are standing in a pasture grazing, as that is what cows do, chew and munch without devoting much time to the bovine condition. One of the cows happens to nurse a loquacious streak after aheming a moment, said, hey bud, you hear about that Mad Cow Disease? His compatriot paused in his mastication and said, yeah, but I'm not worried, I'm a helicopter.

I finished four books since my last post, most notably A Naked Singularity, which is a significant novel, finding resonance on those higher registers of narrative and all around juicy novelness.I can't recommend the novel enough, so I won't.

I am now going to read The Recognitions and am awaiting a pulse of activity on samizdat per our summer Musil read.