Fuzzy Dunlop

After finishing The Crying of Lot 49 for the bookclub, I am just starting Wolf Hall myself. It's kind of embarrasing how little I know about the actual historical events beforehand, but maybe that will just make it an even more exciting read. Yes! I read it this summer and absolutely loved it as well. Definitely one of my favorites. Even though you know what is going to happen (it's right there in the title) it is absolutely heartbreaking how it all plays out. It's been a long time since I felt such empathy for a fictional character as I did for Skippy. Maybe it's because I saw a bit of myself in him. I also highly recommend this book.

Oh, I should also say that I just finished the book yesterday and I liked it alot. My favorite part was probably the story within a story of The Couriers' Tragedy. I became completely wrapped up in that narrative as well, to the point that when it was over I had almost forgotten that I was actually reading the story of Oedipa Maas. The only Pynchon book I had read previously was his latest Inherent Vice. And while I found that a very enjoyable read as well, I felt that this book had more substance somehow, despite its shorter length. Or... that it deals with larger and more important ideas? Sorry, I'm not very good at explaining myself.

I also spent alot of time reading Wikipedia on this, and I have even taken a class in thermodynamics at the university (I wasn't very good at it, so take everything I say with a grain of salt), and I still don't fully understand it. But let me try to give an example based on my understanding of it. Say you have a glass of water, and you put an ice cube in it. The water molecules will automatcally try to reach a thermodynamic equilibrium i.e. the ice cube will melt and you will end up with a glass of water with a homogenous temperature a little colder than before you put the ice cube in. If take any number of molecules arbitrarily selected out of this water, you will always get the same avereage temeprature no matter where you look. But if you look at a individual molecule level you will find that some of them are actually slightly-slightly-slightly warmer than average and others slightly-slightly-slightly colder than average. Maxwell's demon is something that can somehow spot the difference between these molecules and sort them, all the warmer than average on one side and all the colder than average on the other, thus reversing the process of thermodynamic equilibrium.

Ok, as I said yesterday, I enjoyed this book very much. I agree that one of its biggest strengths is that all the characters feel so believable. I was surprised at how quickly I was being drawn into each new story, and world, despite the previous one ending sometimes abruptly. There was, however, some things that I could have done without. As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, the spelling used in the Sloosha's Crossin' section felt a little too much to me. Maybe because of English not being my first language, but to me it was just an extra barrier to break through before getting to the actual story being told. Once I got used to it though, I became engrossed in this story as well, it just took a while longer. I also agree with the whole birthmark thing. I feel that the other loose connections between the storys was much more interesting, and would have sufficed for me. David Mitchell, however, cleverly sort of comments on this criticism himself, using the Timohty Cavendish character editing The First Luisa Rey Mystery: Similarly, he also comments on the whole structure of the book, via Robert Frobisher describing his Cloud Atlas Sextet for Sixsmith: I found this very elegantly done, without breaking the fourth wall.

This looks like something I'd be interested in listening to. How spoilery is the podcast? Would you recommend finishing the book discussed before listening, or does it more recommend books to you that you might want to read? On another note, I just finished Cloud Atlas about an hour ago, and I really liked it! I think that's all I'll say for now, I need to let it sink in some more before I attempt to write something even half as intelligent as the discussion going on in this thread.