Wordsmoker

I have to go now. Thanks for the literary pummeling. I needed that.

Nice. I like that.

They were metaphorical.

All of the discussion about riding the bike in the room — that was code for saying he was masturbating.

Sorry — I didn’t mean for my comment about the title to be a “response” to the Kafka discussion.

I haven’t quite figured the title. What is the significance of the missing half? Of “grace of God go I” ???

It is what we think when we see someone who is worse off than ourselves. and instead of judging […]

That’s wonderful.

I thought that Anna was an appealing character. Her job with the refugees was heartbreaking.

Especially the committee that decides whether someone’s story is convincing or not.

Very Kafkaesque.

A lot […]

ha ha she “borrows” it

That was a bit garbled, sorry. I’m trying to get my all thoughts posted before I have to go. I don’t really have my thoughts very well pulled together.

But if I were to write a paper on this book I’d […]

Yes! That was nice.

Haha!

I think that there is something to be made of the significance of the Thames — the “historic river” which is discussed in the last paragraph — and yes Vaq it is a great allusion to Finnegan’s Wake.

And her […]

I liked the “cleverist” distinction too.

The various indignities of growing old. I thought that was really well done.

I also liked the old woman. I liked the discussion of Harbour House — the fear of the nursing home. And nursing homes are places where people are locked in rooms in a way.

And then on page 233 there is the discussion of her story:

“Brooke said…I want the story to be true and factual as well as a made-up thing. So you want miraculous talking frogs and realism, her father […]

page 229 “…I can see the point of a joke, and I can see the point of a fact, but what is the point of a book, I mean the kinds that tell stories?”

I flagged that discussion, naturally.

Wences – I also liked the “ruminations (and worry) over the circled words in The Secret Agent”

The Secret Agent was an interesting choice.

I mean because it is about the use of violence as a means of […]

“Sometimes, her mother said, it’s the only way to describe what’s real. I mean because sometimes what’s real is very difficult to put into words.”

That seemed important to me. The reason why Miles locked […]

The lack of quotation marks was annoying to me.