TRTR - Chapter VI au revoir

[alice wellintown]

So, I disagree wit MB's reading which suggests that WG has created a
fictional character we should somehow excuse or fogive or even like.
Otto is a cool creation, but Otto ain't cool.

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 7:03 PM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> James Wood says that there is nothing harder than the creation of
> fictional characters. Of course, diamonds are harder and dirt is
> tougher and a chocolate Jesus is sweeter, but Wood is talking about
> fiction and how it works, so...and itz a itzy bitzy book...and
> well...we get his point. Sorry you didn't get mines, what it that I
> likes Otto well enough sure as fiction but he sure do stink up the
> joint. What WG does well, and the list is quite long, is to animate
> his portraits. And he do the policeman's voice so sick. Wood talks
> about Conrad writing longer works to try to convince the reader of his
> characters. He kept adding more and more, like a painter with a brush.
> Ever painted? Well, after a while more makes a mess of less and you
> got to think about a new canvas. An unfinished man, as Yeats calls his
> portrait of the young artist, is not like a character of fiction. What
> finishes a character can be nothing more than an ashplant or a dream
> about something beautiful. Otto is finished and trim. His sling and
> his jottings in shorthanded theatrics, his fictions, he reminds me of
> the sad eyed lady of Dylan's Lowlands but on a whole nuther beveled
> bleed.
> He ain't mo friend of mine.
> But I like to see him kick just the same.
>