January 18, 2003
Velocity
Posted by bopuc at January 18, 2003 06:19 PM
Despite the stack of "theory" books I want to get to, as well as the two recently gifted Murakami novels (thank you!), I sat down with an earlier acquisition which was still staring at me from the coffee table: "You shall know our velocity" by one Dave Eggers.
Thirty pages in and I've already got about a million quotes I'd like to share with you.
It's not terribly interesting so far, plot wise. It is however... very... familiar... If I wrote a novel, it would feel something like this one. Schizophrenic, drifting in and out of ... the real world and one's perception of one's internal processes...
People say I talk slowly. I talk in a way sometimes called laconic. The phone rings, I answer, and people ask if they've woken me up. I lose my way in the middle of sentences, leaving people hanging for minutes. I have no control over it. I'll be talking, and will be interested in what I'm saying, but then someone--I'm convinced this is what happens--someone--and i wish I knew who, because i'd have words for this person--for a short time, borrows my head. Like a battery is borrowed from a calculator to power a remote control, someone, always, is borrowing my head.
/.../
I opened my mouth but couln't think of any way to answer. Someone was using my head to power a coffeemaker"
Comments
Sounds intriguing, B. You should, if you're on that neo-psychological-internalmonologue-cum-stream-of-consciousness-cum-ohshitgodisdead wavelength, also try Sartre's "La Nausée," Rilke's "The Notebooks of Malte Lauridds Brigge," Knut Hamsun's "Hunger," and, hats off to you sir, a little more Kafka.
I do this in good faith,
Keep wizarding, B.
You are sorely missed.
Posted by: n at January 18, 2003 08:24 PM
Yes yes, those are fine and dandy. I agree. I do however appreciate the more recent writers for they live in our times, and there for a shaped by the same forces as I.
This Eggers novel is fascinating insofar that I can see it as the product of the same hyper-culture that I am a product of. It's just interesting. Especially considering that that is my area of interest of late: the effect of technology on culture.
Nazo, it seems we both failed at getting in touch over the Xmas holidays. I am very sorry and hope this summer to see more of you.
Don't let the ankle-biters bring you down. ;)
Posted by: Boris Anthony at January 19, 2003 03:59 PM