I was enjoying it very much.
Well, chapter 1 was just ok. I wouldn’t say it was boring, but a little gray for me. I guess I don’t like that woman, Klara (I probably should start liking her). I don’t remember why because I read that chapter last Sunday and my memory is very very bad. The end of the chapter had some nice thoughts: ‘something so moving I know I am not supposed to linger’, ‘you can’t name a mountain badly’… (1h and 10 min, huh?).
Then it got really good. I really liked that game, mixing the topics, repeating sentences, shorter each time. Since I have this shitty memory, repetition is always fun.
My favorite part is that about “you pretending to be exactly who you are” (the people playing at being executives while holding an executive position). I wrote about that not long ago in an email. My thought was more that you learn from what you are playing, and eventually become what you pretended to be. Like me pretending to be a scientist, and, god, maybe I am becoming one. Or me pretending to be a good person. I also liked that with the bad smells, how they tell so much about people. They do. Well, smells in general, they go directly to the limbic system and for a moment there’s nothing you can do to control your face or your behavior. Then, the scene at the condom shop, which is really funny. It reminded me of the opening of a shop like that in my town, I think 1994. How exciting. Condoms used to smell worse that they do now? I don’t want to imagine. Plastic, plastic, plastic.
And then, chapter 7. I hated it. It was so boring to me. I don’t like how it is written. That dialogue is terrible. I felt like removing those pages from my book. The whole chapter, I wouldn’t save any part, I think. I would have to read it again to see if there is something worth my clemency, but that would be such a pain… feel absolutely free to tell me that I am totally wrong and that I don’t know anything about English literature. Please, change my mind. Defend Don!!
Luckily I read MM-1 afterwards and recovered my faith in uW.
7 comments:
haha ahh the horror of plastics! M, what happens in chapter 7? I forget. What did you find so terrible about it?
b, dont make me read it again, some kind of 'love story', birthday present, a conversation between this old couple... i dont know, i guess i managed to forget it already, somebody else tells him, please.
Ok, i just went back to it. It's just Nick Shay taking his wife on a balloon ride and they see the painted planes in the desert. Later Nick is fondling his baseball. I agree that it wasnt the most compelling chapter. So I'm wondering why you had such an averse reaction? Was did it seem too romantic for you? Funny, because 'love' and 'romance' for me always seem somewhat implausable in DeLillo books.
I think that this is the whole complaint about DeLillo's unrealistic and boring dialogue. I'm not sure if it is meant to be romantic. The relationship between Nick and his wife disturbs me becuase it does seem fairly realistic. I'm wondering if the scene in the bedroom is really unrealistic dialogue or if it is so uninteresting because the type of talking past each other that they do is so common, but we aren't used to seeing it translated to the page. I agree that it is boring though, at least dialogue reads fast.
P.S. I thought there was a fairly realistic depiction of romance in "The Body Artist."
I read The Body Artist about a year and a half ago and can recall very little about it. I remember thinking it was ok. I too have debated whether the dialogue in scenes like this is unrealisitic or all too realistic. Funny how a middle ground of 'plausable within the context of fiction' somehow isn't an option.
I dont think it is about the dialogue being realistic or not. I dont think that i am the kind of person who cares about realness in a book. It just doesnt work. It is not at the same level of the previous chapters. I dont find anything romantic in the chapter neither. I dont know what it is. It is not beautiful in any sense and it says nothing to me. I was not even disturbed, just more like checking how more pages of it i had to read. We will see.
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