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I just finished The Passenger. I've got Stella Maris on the shelf, but I'm conflicted on whether I should let it sit or start immediately. There were definitely Goods: a narrative of a life slowly burning down, in contrast to the violent ends his earlier protagonists met. A pretty bold choice to completely drop "the passenger" as a plot hook, leaving it sit as a metaphor for an encounter with the unknown that Western probably could have fathomed, but didn't have the inner drive to pursue. That unknown force slowly seems to end the people around him, just as his father's role in The Bomb seems to have left a lingering force which slowly unravels his life. Contemplative, consistent with its theme and tempo, the pages flew past me even as not much really happened. He wasn't afraid to leave vast, open spaces in the story. And some obvious Not So Goods: Like most posters, I was over The Kid's schtick after about the first page. I was on the edge of putting Stella Maris in a dusty pile until an earlier poster mentioned that thread doesn't re-appear. And a subtlety I might be misreading: Given the section on quantum physics, I'm assuming Alicia and Bobby are named for 'Alice' and 'Bob', the two "observers" used to elaborate on communications problems like cryptography, and especially in quantum communications. That joke would be a bit anachronistic, but there are some other anachronisms: The Kid makes a "Don't call me Shirley" joke, which would have been in theaters in 1980 - well after Alicia was already dead.
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Feb 3, 2024 02:39
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 18:18 |
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Carthag Tuek posted:everything about the kid is anachronistic. his clothes, his companions, his language. he seemed out of time to me, not an eternal figure but just beside time. next to it. mdemone posted:Guarantee that last one was intentional, to tease the reader about the possibility that the Kid exists independent of Alicia. Looking back, I really like these interpretations. I got over it, but I didn't like how the novel uses the schizophrenic genius trope. You don't have to have spent much time at all around a real schizophrenic to know their brain isn't special, it's a molten, non-functional mess. But if I take the Kid et. al. as an independent visitation, Alicia is a lot more tasteful.
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Feb 4, 2024 02:54
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