No subject

[Vaska]

I'm disgustingly pressed for time today so just this bit in response to what
davemarc says here:

"I'm fascinated by his practice of caricaturing most if not all of his
characters.  One issue I've been thinking about recently has to do with
interpreting, understanding, and reacting to caricatures.  I often think of
Bosch when I think of GR's Europe.  To me, there are elements of anarchy,
moralizing, sympathy, anger, comedy, and sentiment (probably among a great
many other qualities) in the distorting lens P. uses to draw his one- to
three-dimensional characters."

H. Bosch is a great visual analogue, though he lacks the warmth and the
humanity that _GR_ is so rich in.  Sometimes, the novel reminds me (wrong
word of course) of an encyclopaedic late-20th century Rabelaisian fabliau,
complete with its cartoon-like satires and its earthy sensuality.  A very
dark Rabelaisian fabliau, to be sure, full of expressionstic distortions and
Bosch-like vignettes.  

Vaska