GRGR(6) - Ep. 16 (up to the advent section)

[Gary Thompson]

Sorry for the full quote, but I don't see a convenient place to cut.

Jeremy Osner wrote:
> 
> Gary Thompson wrote:
> 
> > I can see why Jeremy had trouble getting a purchase on the Advent
> > section . . .
> 
> I was going over 16 pretty closely last night and saw that my complaints
> yesterday about the episode should actually have been pretty much confined to
> the Advent section; the rest of it I can dig pretty well. I really enjoyed, this
> time through, what M. Perez describes (and thanks for the description; it
> helps!) as "a ping-pong match" between the narrator of Roger's experiences and
> the Jessica narrator.
> 
> One thing that kept rising up in my consciousness (like an approaching iceberg?)
> as I read pp. 120-8, was the idea that something like a montage of stills in a
> motion picture was going on. Look: on p. 122, Jessica  says "... pictures, well
> scenes, keep flashing *in*, Roger. By themselves, I mean I'm not *making*
> them..." Then after a funny bit about the anthropomorphic bedroom and a story
> about Jessica showing her tits in the car, making Roger nervous, we see some of
> the images that "go, flowering, in and out": Jessica sitting in a chair, looking
> at a landscape with vivid colors, the chair empty, nighttime. And later on (p.
> 147), as we move into the Advent scene, another jumble of images: waits (btw, if
> anyone's curious/ didn't pick it up from context, a "wait" is a group of
> carollers), moors, minefields (how did that get in there?), snow, wind,
> loneliness.
> 
> What do you think of this idea: The director is cutting the action with stills
> (maybe voiced over, maybe silent) to set a mood; his characters are a little
> confused because they don't quite know what's going on (Jessica's quote on p.
> 122).
> 
> Don't know if it works, any other ideas for how to explain what's happening
> here?
> 
> Jeremy

I like seeing parts of the first book in cinematic terms as you do
here--I agree that Jessica's dialogue above works as one of those
planted clues. I think the cinematic model applies to scenes and how the
book moves between them, but there are other features of the text which
aren't particularly filmic. The narrator as director reminds me of von
Goll with his talk of going over to the other side--but that would be
getting too far ahead. 

Gary