Am I blogging...or am I pitching my existence?
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| High Concept Am I blogging...or am I pitching my existence? |
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Saturday, July 05, 2003 The Pitch: It's like The Island of Dr. Moreau meets Gravity's Rainbow! Finished Ratner's Star, and not a moment too soon.Actually, although I found the first half of the book (the "Adventures" section which is about 70% of the book) to be incredibly tedious, the second half (the "Reflections" section) was a lot more interesting, edifying and, occasionally, breathtaking. If the first half of Ratner's Star is frustrating, exasperating parody of academia (good ol' frustrating, exasperating academia....), then the second half is about the terror of creation, and Delillo's use of mathematics and mathematicians as an analogues for literature and authors becomes clear. It was something to be suspected in the first part, but seems to me to become pretty manifest as Delillo splinters the book's viewpoint across several characters, one of whom, a book author, gets such choice bits as this: "Writing is memory, she thought, and memory is the fictional self, the powdery calcium ash waiting to be stirred by a pointed stick." (pg. 362) The book also, with its second section deconstructing the first, reminds me, apocalyptic non-apocalypse, characters swapping identities. and etc., of Gravity's Rainbow, and that made a lot of it easier to swallow. Whereas in the first section of the book (as I mentioned back in my June 10th entry), Delillo deliberately confuses who's speaking, in the second section, Delillo switches internal viewpoints in mid-paragraphs, sometimes in mid-sentences, which I think is to make these characters equivalent to each other (in the mathematic sense, at least). It was a pretty stunning gambit to me--that, a few other meta-fictive conceits, were really fascinating, but none of it was quite enough to erase the memory of the first half's dead-pan tedium. I won't be rereading Ratner's Star anytime soon, I'm sorry to say. Oh, and looking through my previous entries about Delillo, I came across my June 10th entry where I say: I found it hard to believe a twelve-year old math prodigy would be so understatedly sarcastic to adult peers until I realized he was actually fourteen and from the Bronx. (Delillo was once asked if Bob Dylan was one of his heroes, to which he replied: "Someone from the Bronx doesn't have any heroes.") Amusingly enough, Delillo pulled this punchline from Ratner's Star itself--a scene where sinister men of science try to convince the putative protagonist Billy Twillig to do a book tour (and/or being the subject of some medical experiments: "I envision you in a silver lame kimono or a vinyl poncho. Once the incision heals. And the hair grows back. Leaving you without a scar. We'll package you with somebody you really admire. There must be one special figure in the world community of scientists. Who's your hero? Tell us and we'll get him."(pg. 274 in my edition) I think I just mentioned that to pat myself on the back. I probably should have warned you first. posted by Jeff Lester | 5:32 PM | |
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