ATD another encyclopedic narrative or just a list of jobs

terrance terrance terrorence at hotmail.com
Sun Nov 26 15:35:12 CST 2006


Malignd's challange has been ignored. It seems that the Pynut crowd prefers 
to treat any and all crticism of ATD as a personal attack on the author and 
his fans. What does the book add up to? Is it a satire that points nowhere? 
Is it a postmodern satire? A satire without a target? Is it a book about 
nothing in particular and everything generally. Is it held together, 
connected with whatever bounced into the author's lap? I hardly think so. It 
seems to me that ATD is an encyclopedic narrative (see Mendelson). In this 
form of narrative the author lists and lists, connects and connects and 
connect. But not everything is connected. No, there are things that don't 
connect. And there are others that hold the thing togethe because they 
connect everything and everyone. What that thing is, the white whale, the 
rocket, whatever, may be understood by reading the narrative and focusing on 
one topic. Religion is a good one. Sex is always good. Work is another. ATD 
is about work. If you can't accept this premise, don't let it get in your 
way. Take good notes. Copious notes. If you can suspend your argument, keep 
listening, reading, thinking, you may learn something. Hell, nothing worth 
reading is ABOUT anything. Right?

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