Sot-Weed
Michael Bailey
michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
Sun Feb 5 20:15:00 CST 2012
I agree that the early books are gems -- end of the road and floating
opera both have memorable characters and plot
and 2 different people close to me have cited that passage from the
beginning of end of the road where the guy doesn't know what to do
next as an inspirational one...
I liked GGB better than SWF but they were both good. One looking
forward, one looking to the past...
the GGB was psychedelic and made some interesting brushstrokes in my
mental picture of the world -- the old guy who charged people for the
time of day, the computer terminology, the guy who was asking the girl
to "just be" with him, these are all memorable and worthwhile...might
have to reread that because that leafy anagram stuff escaped me pretty
thoroughly at the time (you know how you just turn the pages till you
get to a part you get...)
SWF looked back to the colonial tradition and I did think it made much
of the tawdriness of the times, but the historical record suggests
that element was indeed very highly present. The pure desire of the
dude to climb Mt Parnassus was at least somewhat fulfilled, but
personally I was rooting for him to find love. Perhaps his true love
was poetry and yet that was not satisfying for me at age 19...
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