I don’t have a particular passage to talk about, and I am not sure how I feel about this book yet. I like the fact that the author seems to be mocking self-important writers, who try to give everything meaning–as well as the reader, who tries to find meaning in everything. I was afraid when we began reading this that he was going to be taking himself a bit too seriously, but I’m glad that the names (Dr. Hilarious) and puns are there simply for the joke of it. I am in a ridiculous creative writing class at the moment, which was a mistake in itself, and I am really getting fed up with forcing meaning into meaningless bits of nonsense. So, it is rather nice that we can just expect the nonsense in this book to be taken as what it is rather than expecting meaning from it. (I was actually a bit worried that you were going to claim there was meaning in the N+7 process, as that is precisely what my creative writing teacher attempted to convince me a few weeks ago.) I’m sure there is meaning that I am not getting so far, but so far my only reaction is relief that we aren’t going to be overanalyzing every pun the author makes in order to find some universal theme.
Crying of Lot 49 1
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