First Couple-Three Pages: 6/11 - ATDTDA (11): 296 - 326 --The Deep Read:

[Mark Kohut]

I, too, thought this section was, maybe, flatter than other sections when I first read it.
  But.....
   
  As I reread, knowing the whole, and boring in, I think it MAY have been chosen as the sample blurb section BECAUSE it contains much, much of the whole in its part. (synecdocheis the poetic term, I think. We can look it up).  I'll say why I think so tomorrow if 
  no one else tries to (if they agree).
   
  A-and.....that leads me to a line of T.(ough) S.(hit) Eliot---a poet we KNOW TRP deeply loves......the "telescoping" of one's theme.........and the belief that TRP is, maybe, more poet than whatever a 'novelist' is these days.
   
  For a day off the list, elaborate and comment and/or refute, please.
   
  Mark

kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
  Thanks for getting the ball rolling, Mark. Getting a little beyond the first couple-three pages of this section:

1. A number of posters have called both this and the last section a little flat. Both sections focus mostly on Frank. Frank IS a flat character, as are his brothers Reef and Kit. The three are differentiated not by any separate personalities, but by what happens to them. Reef and Kit end up in Europe, Frank in Mexico. Kit has his mystical moment in Tunguska, Frank in the Mexican jungle, Reef has his occasional hauntings, but none of these experiences is essential to any of the characters. These could easily have been reduced from three to two or even one character -- the only limitation being how much time they could spend in three continents in the given time period. Where Slothrop, a basically affable guy is infected with dread and paranoia, ultimately leading to his disintegration, these three are merely affable. Their mystical visions don't change them much.

And consider Frank's reaction when he hears about Lake:

(p. 312): "Frank felt coming down over him, like an illness, the dry-skinned feverishness of shame. 'No idea where they went to?'"

Shame? How about an all-consuming Ahab-caliber avenging rage? The most we get, a little farther down:

"'You have feelings for my sister and all, so don't take this the wrong way, but ...when I find her, I will kill the bitch. O.K.?'"

The great disappointment for me in ATD is, not only do we not get a Slothrop-Oedipa-Profane-Stencil-Mason-Dixon (even) Zoyd-Frenesi protagonist, many of the characters we do get (good-guys Lew-Merle-Reef-Frank-Kit) are virtually indistinguishable. Slothrop, Enzian and Pirate may not have been well-rounded characters, but they were very different from each other.

There's a lot that's intriguing in ATD: the themes of light and chaos as defining themes of the 20th Century, for example. But the characters are a weakness here moreso than in any of his other books.

2. Merle brings Dally to a brothel for a "program of study, brief and clandestine." ??? No father any time any place in our universe or any parallel universe even superficially resembling our own would EVER encourage his daughter to enter a brothel for anything but his own financial gain. My own take on this is that TRP is succumbing once more to his own particular sexual kink: he gets off on teenaged girls having sex. Opposing views welcome.

3. The current flat section contains the original sample blurb that was released pre-publication. Was this truly a random, flip-the-page-and-point selection, or is there some deeper significance to this passage? (p. 309-310) starting with "Back in 1899" Don't remeber where it ends.

Laura


 
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