"When Dr. Bramble finally showed him to a bed, it was only because if he had not Drinkwater would have got out of earshot; as it was he had ceased to understand anything Dr. Bramble was saying."
I'm going to be picking a lot of nits, grammatically speaking, as I read this book. I'm not finding it easy going so far. In some cases, it's because of pronouns. I'm not sure if this is a personal idiosyncrasy, or a late-life idiosyncrasy, or even the result of being an editor for so many decades, but I don't do well with writing that makes me hesitate to ask "which 'he' are you referring to?" It's almost immediately apparent that the first 'he' is one character and the second 'he' another, but I don't like to hesitate when I'm reading. At least I don't like to hesitate to ask such questions. Re-reading a sentence because it's beautiful or dense is one thing. Re-reading to find out who 'he' refers to is another.
But I'll echo Ed's comments about amazing language: ewer, infundibular, marmoreal (pp 41-44)
We just got back from 2 days in Manhattan so I'm just finishing up our assignment this morning. So far, I'm glad we're reading this book, but if I had been reading on my own I would have long since given up. More later...
Pam
Update: The characters have potential, smart, quirky & all that, but so far I haven't found myself drawn to one or the other. I'm discovering through this process that I may be overly critical when I start a new book. Almost a "prove to me you're worthy of my time" attitude. So all this early negative stuff on my part may end soon.
I love this. Page 4.
"...a confetti-colored gas-station road map. ...There was a mighty double red line that went near there, round with exits and entrances; he couldn't walk along that. A thick blue line (on the model of the vascular system, Smoky imagined all the traffic flowing south to the city on the blue lines, away on the red) ran somewhat nearer, extending corpuscular access to towns and townlets along the way. The much thinner sclerotic blue line he sat beside was tributary to this...."
You may all know this but. In our bodies, oxygen-deprived blood flows into the heart in veins. It gets oxygenated by the lungs and then flows back out of the heart to the body via arteries. When these veins and arteries are illustrated in textbooks etc, the veins (coming into the heart) are almost always shown in blue and the arteries (flowing out of the heart) in red. cute...
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4 comments:
From Ed:
Pam's comment about pronouns is certainly valid.
There are times when I feel that I'm lost. But I must confess I'm enjoying the lack of precision/understanding/solidity.
I'm almost finished the first section -- just a few pages to go.
Several general comments:
1. I wouldn't have picked out this book so I'm willing to make some adjustments to expand my horizons. I don't think I've read anything like this before.
2. I find the layout annoying. I really don't need the callout/subhead every other paragraph.
3. I'm trying to move on past the grammatical odyssey. IOW I'm trying not to lose track of what I think is happening -- even if it isn't happening. Does that make sense? Is that the point?
4. It's true that the inexact pronouns are annoying but at least there aren't any typos. At least not yet. When there are too many typos in a book I stop reading it. Hey, I'm over 60. I can be quirky if I want.
The description of the house as being a kind of showcase for what the architect did whenever that was (turn of the century?). I know he (Crowley, Pam!!) thinks he knows what the house looks like. I'm just not sure I follow him.
That could be the reason they never made this into a movie -- because they couldn't possibly recreate the house.
But I don't mind at this point if I'm confused. Why should what I read be different from my life?
Vocabulary is definitely one of his strong points. Crowley has so many amazing descriptions. Somewhere along the way he describes the water in a pond as being something and "silky." (Can't find it right now.)
Then there are the names. Is the author serious? One of the main characters is Daily Alice and she's marrying a guy named Smoky Barnable. Drinkwater. Mouse. Cloud.
But more to the point I'm waiting to find out why Smoky hadn't been to Daily Alice's house before the wedding. And why he had to walk on this strange journey to get to a place that isn't on any map.
The whole courtship and wedding preparation thing is almost otherwordly. Did anyone's mother go out berry picking the day before your wedding?
And while I'm thinking about it, (p. 37) does Sophie have an overly libidinous relationship with her sister (Daily Alice)? Or am I reading too much into the text?
I hope Crowley intends us to laugh with him when he refers to the Mouse house. I feel like I'm back reading a Tom Swift book.
My opinion so far. I'm not certain I understand what's happening but I'm enjoying my own personal confusion.
Or maybe I'm not confused.
Back in the 20s/30s/40s, my dad's family doctor in Gormania, WV, was a Dr. Drinkwater. Somewhere around here I have a picture of Dr. D. holding me the year I was born, which was also the year he died. You can see a mention of him at www.wvculture.org/history/agrext/mtstorm.html.
Also mentioned in this 1927 history is my paternal grandfather, T.O.Winters, and one of my great-grandfathers, Godfrey Dilgard.
Pam
Although I haven't even started to read the book, I am going to make a comment. Pam, I know exactly what you mean about grammar, syntax, etc. (I am an editor too!) I like to read and read and read. Anything that forces me to step outside the story is annoying and unnecessary. I can't wait to sit and enjoy the fabulous vocabulary and unusual prose you are all remarking on. I'll write for real when I catch up. Paula
P.S. Pam, that is cool about your family being mentioned in the WV history. I will definitely look it up!
Please forgive my silence. I helped CSC with the mosaics workshop, visited my brother in North Carolina and started a new job yesterday.
Even though I have read about 1/3 of the book, I am going to start over so I'll be on your same page.
The comments on punctuation, grammar, layout and general oddness comments were unexpected. But I do see how that makes reading this cumbersome. I just try to give my self up to the story.
I've gotten lost too in the first 1/3 but it was really fun being lost there.
I think the house contains the entire world there, inside and out.
I read a book once whose plot centered on a house that was 2 feet longer inside than on the outside. That story book centers on that discrepancy. I highly recommend it: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It would probably drive Pam and Ed crazy as its format is very unconvertible.
I tend to read books that experiment with form. Many suck because the form gets in the way of the story. I keep trying until a find a keeper.
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