Warlock & low traffic

[Paul Mackin]

On Sat, 16 Mar 1996, Wolfe, Skip wrote:

> 
> Clicks is Army slang for kilometers.  I haven't read IJ, but I assume that's 
> how he's using the term.  Does this mean the US has gone metric by the Year 
> of the Depend Adult Undergarment?

Thanks. Metric seems to be used all through IJ, which would mean back
to the Year of the Whopper, seven years before the YDAU.

The action of the book takes place over the nine years that 
"Subsidized Time" has been in effect, though neither chronologically nor 
exactly as flashbacks or flash forwards from some _current_ time.
A lot happens in the YDAU and the Year of Dairy Products from the 
American Heartland, one year earlier.

I loved the book and am thinking it may turn out to be addictive in
a similar way that GR is for so many people. There is the display
of erudition, and though it is made mild fun of, there is no question
in my mind but that it will be compelling and inspiring to many readers.
The fact that the subject matter itself is addiction is not incidental
to a possible parallel effect on the reader. Anyway that would be my first 
take on the thing. Plan to read it again after resting up a while.

The criticism some reviewers have made that it doesn't resolve plot lines 
adequately seems to me to be pretty much beside the point. (Plot lines
qua plot lines were never the point.)  The 80 pages or so of footnotes
didn't bother me either. Mostly, I didn't bother with them until finishing
the text proper. Then, they _did_ help resolve some  things I was 
wondering about.

This has been kind of wordy, but traffic _is_ low. 

				P.