21st Century Literature discussion

This thread is for discussing the first 5 chapters if you'd like to discuss as you read along or focus on specific chapters. First impressions?

These first chapters, for me, are where you decide you can flow with this story, or not. This is my second time through so I know what to expect and I'm anticipating the journey. But I remember feeling extreme frustration at first, on my first read. I was tackling the story as if it were a puzzle to be solved. It was frustrating. Once I yielded to the storytelling style (a.k.a. "gave up the fight") then I was carried along like a little straw in a river from one sentence to the next.

One thing that is happening to me this time, as it did last time, is that I keep coming across stunning images or event that I want to pull-quote or underline or somehow remember--but I can't, because there is no cohesive beginning or end to the image or event...it just keeps flowing forward. Maybe someone here will know what I mean.

Lark wrote: "...it just keeps flowing forward. Maybe someone here will know what I mean."

At the end of chapter 1 one of the notes I penciled down reads:
Movement--> circulation of bodies and sounds. Continual uncertainty and blurring of lines.

Reading something like this that operates on what initially feels like dream/spiritual logic transmits atmosphere, an emotional state/reaction, and/or shifting symbolism/interpretations more than narrative arc or answers/conclusions.

Lark wrote: "One thing that is happening to me this time, as it did last time, is that I keep coming across stunning images or event that I want to pull-quote or underline or somehow remember--but I can't, because there is no cohesive beginning or end to the image or event...it just keeps flowing forward. Maybe someone here will know what I mean."

I downloaded Frontier but probably won't really start it for another week or so.

However, Lark, I wanted to comment on your thought.... I have read only one Can Xue, Five Spice Street. One quote I pulled out of Five Spice Street, though, somewhat feels appropriate for your observation. Maybe this is Xue's mantra when writing?

"Having brought the story to this point, the writer has left innumerable issues hanging. The story cannot end here. Everyone on Five Spice Street knows it's not over. So the writer must do his best to clarify the mess piece by piece. It has no beginning ("The Beginning" is merely an assumption), and has no ending, either. If earth and sun collide, the story may end but will no doubt begin again on another planet. The writer's task is like boring into the maze of a gigantic anthill, but he cannot shirk it. He knows through experience that only the methods of abstract art, used in diagramming each aspect of the maze, will enable him to lead readers to grasp the "general idea," even if they can't find their way through the specifics. This is the fascination of art. Though it can't be fathomed, it has supreme influence. Only the heartless and coarse have nothing to do with art."

Stacia wrote: "Having brought the story to this point, the writer has left innumerable issues hanging. ..."

Stacia, thanks so much for quoting this passage from Five Spice Street--it seems to describe exactly what I was talking about.

Marc wrote: "Reading something like this that operates on what initially feels like dream/spiritual logic transmits atmosphere, an emotional state/reaction, and/or shifting symbolism/interpretations more than narrative arc or answers/conclusions."

Not sure I will be able to fit this book in with December being so busy and with no audio version to work into my commute. But this description makes me think I would really like the book! Sounds like the book works more in the way that a lot of poetry works, and I tend to really enjoy books like that.

I'm not sure if it feels as much like poetry as it feels like 'found art.' It gives the impression of disorganization while simultaneously feeling completely disciplined. Honestly I'm not sure I've had a reading experience like this before, not even when reading other Can Xue books. It's very beautiful, for instance. Some other Can Xue books lack this inner beauty and leave me feeling a little drained.

Lark wrote: "These first chapters, for me, are where you decide you can flow with this story, or not. This is my second time through so I know what to expect and I'm anticipating the journey. But I remember fee..."

I'm happy to have this opportunity to read an open letter volume I did not have the chance to get to earlier. I just finished chapter 1 and I agree with you. It's a bit puzzling to have to try to figure out what is going on. I'm wondering if the protagonist in this first chapter is dreaming or insane?

Dianne wrote: "I'm wondering if the protagonist in this first chapter is dreaming or insane? ..."

I've decided to interpret the protagonist as a regular person living in this world of the book, and that she's sane, and not dreaming, and that what's happening around her is really happening. For me it makes it easier to just go with it.

I love the way little tensions and anxieties seem to ebb and flow and ebb away again throughout a paragraph, as dependent clauses turn the mood in one direction, and then another.

One chapter in, the biggest challenge so is the translator's decision to switch SOME names to Western homophones. After dealing with Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem, I perceive Western names as Western characters. Here, they emphatically aren't, an unneeded layer of chaos.

Mark wrote: "One chapter in, the biggest challenge so is the translator's decision to switch SOME names to Western homophones. ..."

oh gosh, I agree. I neglected to notice the "Note on Names" in the front of the Open Letter edition on my first read and spend a lot of time wondering what "José" was doing in China. This puts a layer of mud between me and that elusive 'author intent' I'm always reaching for when I read.

"Of course he wasn't a farmer; one could see that from the expression in his eyes."

I was looking for a sentence that captured both the plainness and the disorienting-ness of this language. This one is a pretty good example. There is nothing ornate about the language, but even so it's continuously upending.

Mark wrote: "One chapter in, the biggest challenge so is the translator's decision to switch SOME names to Western homophones."

I have to say I find this distracting (in a bad way).

I've been referring to the list as new characters appear, to check if the original Chinese names had any interesting resonances with the events. I'm up to Jose and Nancy, and so far I haven't noticed any obvious connections.

My GR friends know by now that I can be awfully picky and grumpy, so they're probably not surprised to hear I'm less than enamored with the novel so far. (I'm sure what's going on in my trip is not helping.) The abundance of throwaway detail is one of my pet peeves. There are also a number of what I consider translation glitches that I find distracting. For some reason, most of my favorite translated lit is from Spanish, Japanese, and German, and I've had a lot of trouble with translations of Chinese fiction.

Bill wrote: "Mark wrote: "One chapter in, the biggest challenge so is the translator's decision to switch SOME names to Western homophones."

I have to say I find this distracting (in a bad way).

I've been re..."

I'm not reading this because of my last experience with Can Xue, but I found the translation of that one incredibly awkward. I remember copying out a bunch of strange constructions on here somewhere, but no one seemed to find them as off putting as I did! Repetition, unclear use of pronouns, static sentences, complete lack of any payoff...

I did hear an interview with Xue where she said she intentionally sticks in either Western characters or Western-sounding names, so this might not be as questionable a translation decision as it seems. I listened to her entire talk with the Asian Writers Workshop (Youtube link in Background thread) and took notes--I'm tempted to share those notes, but not entirely sure they help as I'm on the fence thinking she's either a total genius or full of $%^&.

Emily wrote: "unclear use of pronouns..."

There were certainly some instances in Frontier.

Marc wrote: "I did hear an interview with Xue where she said she intentionally sticks in either Western characters or Western-sounding names, so this might not be as questionable a translation decision as it seems."

I wonder why the Ayi -> Amy transformation was necessary. Amy was a pretty minor character in the first chapter. "Ah" is just a meaningless character often attached to a name informally, for someone who's familiar (a friend, a younger relative, etc). The Chinese character for "yi" means something like reliant (but of course a single Chinese character taken out of context is slippery). I can't think of any clever associations from the original Chinese name, and IMO it's certainly fine to leave Amy as Ayi.

(I'm relieved I'm not the only one finding some of this quite annoying. I feel a little less curmudgeonly now.)

Lark wrote: ""Of course he wasn't a farmer; one could see that from the expression in his eyes."

I was looking for a sentence that captured both the plainness and the disorienting-ness of this language. This o..."

Yes! I don't think I am unreasonably choosy about clarity: I've enjoyed Sebald and Ali Smith, but here I'm unsure whether it's a fault in the translation or the author's intent. Another questionable phrase is when José and Nancy (Hushan and Niansi) are noticing the clarity of the air in the village, unlike the "fog" of the city. I suspect "smog" or "smoke" is intended. Later, actual fog is a prominent part of the action. Basically, when confusion appears, I'm not confident in the quality of the translator.

There are other places where I'm confident that it's the author's intent to unsettle the narrative flow, as when the grove of poplar trees enters into the action with both Liujin and "José."

Still, I'm enjoying the look "inside" life in the North of China.

BTW, the Archive.org reading interface offers text-to-speech! It works fairly well, with four "flavors" of English: American, British, Indian, and Nigerian. Finally, about the names, I'm particularly troubled by "Mr. Sherman" (Shi Miao), as I can't stop envisioning the cartoon Peabody and Sherman

I’m in a zone of delight when I read this novel, or anything by Can Xue. The question of whether or not the translation is obscuring author intent is a good one but in this case it feels like a differently nuanced and less serious question, than, say, if we were evaluating War and Peace and the translator decided to give Napoleon a clever nickname. Can Xue’s intent, it seems, is to upend us, and to make us pay attention to language in a different way as we read. My assumptions about where a sentence is going are continually stymied.

The name thing feels less in conflict with the original text to me than, say, what I’ve read about Murakami’s translator’s approach to his work.

I feel like the reading experience is so unique here that I’m hoping people can keep reading. I wonder if there is a way to take the translation choices on their own terms and let the book keep happening to you. Like found art?

Greg wrote: "Marc wrote: "Reading something like this that operates on what initially feels like dream/spiritual logic transmits atmosphere, an emotional state/reaction, and/or shifting symbolism/interpretation..."

Greg, I agree with Lark--it's not really poetic or lyrical so much as a surreal juxtaposition of elements/characters. I'm always happy to chime in well after our allotted month if you do manage to squeeze it in.

Names aside, I thought I'd pull out a few examples of translator decisions that bothered me, all from Chapter 2.

This woman director had a nice way about her.

Huh?

The gardener was lying on the pavilion floors black cat beside him. This scene felt unreal.

When I read surreal/irreal fiction, one of the sure ways to break the spell is a comment like "This scene felt unreal."

As Jose was about to greet the gardener, the geezer turned his back and ignored him.

I'm sorry; the "geezer"?

Bill, how do you know these examples don’t track with the original language?

Lol about "geezer". It's not a word I use often but I do use it.

Lark wrote: "Bill, how do you know these examples don’t track with the original language?"

I do plan on checking with the source text sometime.

I cannot think of a Chinese expression that would match closely with "had a nice way about her".

I also cannot think of a Chinese term that necessarily translates to "geezer". For the 2nd quote, if that was faithfully translated from the original, I should not read any more Can Xue.

Lark, do these examples not bother you?

My preference is usually for the translator to take some liberties with the source text in favor of prose practices in the target audience's language/culture. I vaguely remember some conversations (with Vavita?) involving Mariana Enriquez. More notes (on a Chinese anthology) here; see my comments on the translation of the Dorothy Tse story, and the quote that prefaced it:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

I'm pretty close to applying my "100-page rule" (if a book bothers me around p.100, I seriously consider abandoning it). I will try to get my hands on Frontier in the original Chinese if I do abandon this translation.

Stacia wrote: "Lol about "geezer". It's not a word I use often but I do use it."

Oh, I use it too! But here I think it sticks out like a sore thumb. Just one grumpy geezer's opinion.

Bill, I can’t tell you why but the novel, the style, captivates me. Well one reason certainly is that it is so packed full of beauty. These simple sentences are full of charged sense impressions. The repetition of image and motif also gives me zesty zings of pleasure when they come along. The examples you pulled out don’t bother me. When something sounds odd, when it comes to this book it sounds just right, because the whole thing is odd. I’ve given up analyzing it carefully. I’m yielding to its story. Reading it feels like I’m a little twig in a river.

There are plenty of books where I get stuck on word choices, though. Who knows why this isn’t one of them.

I’m not sure if this is relevant to the discussion but another thing I like about reading this novel is that it’s so concrete. I can visualize what’s going on with every sentence. To my way of reading and thinking this makes the novel, the act of reading the novel, deeply enjoyable. It might be surreal, but it isn’t vague. It’s solid and declarative.

Bill wrote: "Oh, I use it too! But here I think it sticks out like a sore thumb. Just one grumpy geezer's opinion."

Lol! Well, I always enjoy reading your grumpy geezer opinions, Bill!

Hoping to start this book in a day or two. (I did read probably the first 20 pages from an ebook sample so I guess I've started it a little bit.)

I have only read the intro and chapter one in a sample so I’m looking for the text now, but I’m mostly with Lark, there is so much going on and it’s all so weird but I felt like it was trying to create an emotional reality through intense experience so the rough edges didn’t bother me, it’s all experimental. I won’t say I find it that comfortable to read however. I don’t particularly like the main character, she seems suspicious and even hostile towards others, and her world is full of negative energies.

One thing I noted in the intro that struck me pertaining to challenges with the text - apparently she does not edit, writes a paragraph a day steadily.

Lark, I took your suggestion and had a look at the AAWWTV interview (it's LONG, and I haven't viewed all of it). It seems that Can Xue works closely with her translators, so we can assume that these various translation worries are part of her intent.

Jenna and Mark, it’s interesting and/or baffling to me to put your two observations together, to try to hold in my head that Can Xue is on record saying she writes forward always, and never goes back to revise, and that she is also meticulously aware of and careful about translations of her work. It feels a little contradictory in my head.

Lark wrote: "Jenna and Mark, it’s interesting and/or baffling to me to put your two observations together, to try to hold in my head that Can Xue is on record saying she writes forward always, and never goes ba..."

Lark, I think your comment about found art is exactly on point here. From what I understood (second hand only from the introduction), by giving us the first way she finds to express her ideas each day, she is trying to make the story carry a more direct connection to her creative process, the "raw genius" of her thinking. The occasional infelicities and neologisms are therefore perhaps important for contrast, she wants to keep shifting us off of an easy lyric reading mode and into one that is seeing the creation at the same time as the content. If so, it would be extremely important that a translator not over-write her by smoothing things out, so she would need to be very involved with the translation.

Lark wrote: "Jenna and Mark, it’s interesting and/or baffling to me to put your two observations together, to try to hold in my head that Can Xue is on record saying she writes forward always, and never goes ba..."
Could it be that because she does not go back & edit, she is meticulous about any translation preserving that authenticity?
I have only read the first chapter & haven’t read any of her other work. I was drawn to Frontier because of this discussion. I am very much in agreement on just going with the world of the book & also the upending nature of the sentences. I love to have my expectations confounded.

Here are my notes from the Asian American Writers Workshop talk in hopes they are of any use. I'm burying them in a spoiler tag just so they don't hog up the page. (view spoiler)[

AAWWTV: Stubborn Dirty Snow with Can Xue and Porochista Khakpour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulFdr...

From her Exploring the Body & Soul Through Literature:
“Human body and soul are a microcosm of the structure that reflects the structure of the universe.” (35min)

Characteristics of her own literature: exploration of artistic self (all characters are one character, the individual is universal & represents what is human and what is nature, can’t be read as realist or satirical–individual readers bring their own experience to connect to characters and the human spirit; lofty ideal of showing how paradoxes of life are broken through and sublimated–anti-postmodern–not intending to confuse for confusion’s sake or negate meaning/answers; literature “completed” by passing through the reader–reader must take part in the performance; requires readers to be highly sensitive to material and spiritual scenes; does not abandon rationality, but asks that the reader see the content and form from the inside to fully understand the enigma… thinking/feeling?... largest act of creation is to construct nature, not to destroy her; obscure, allegorical layers of material intentionality as opposed to logos; rational spirit of the dark mother earth–she harps on rejecting negativity and destruction of postmodernism; CX lit as an appeal for people to return to their bodies which Mother Nature maintains and raise that body to a metaphysical spiritual level)

Q&A portion: mentions she writes fiction for only one hour per day and then reads 4 to 5 hours per day (has been studying western philosophy for the past 7 years); her literature is more about the essence (i.e., getting past the surface using a dialectical approach); uses western culture/philosophy as a mirror to look at herself & China; never had writer’s block (she can always write & it makes her happy)
(hide spoiler)]

Thanks, Marc! So many interesting ideas. I'm going to watch the video.

Just read the first chapter and appreciate everyone's thoughts . Lark , your advice about yielding to the flow has been really helpful ... although it's not possible to relax completely there's a sense of getting a feel for the rhythm and repetition of the storytelling without needing to understand every event or even whether they are real or not. I find all the animals really interesting . They seem to be sentient and active participants in the world of Pebble Town or heralding meanings beyond my comprehension . I think she is using animals and plants as a sort of anchoring , as they crop up again and again. I'm thinking about the threatening and unsettling chaos of a world where creatures resist compliance with our expectations . And Luijin can't trust hew own encounters either , trying to make connections and understand what she is experiencing . It's a novel way of describing loneliness and the disorientation she is experiencing . I felt that passage about the Snow Mountain Hotel was particularly poignant .

And, Mark, I listened to the video a couple of days ago . I can recommend it too.

Chapter 2 ..more disorientation for reader and characters . This seems to be the theme so far . Given that, in the translation of the parents names from the Chinese to Jose and Nancy we loose the meaning of their names completely , I'm now having to accept I am going to miss many of the other culturally significant meanings too. My reading is necessarily going to be instinctive and emotional, not particular and knowing .

All that said I might benefit from understanding a bit more about Uryger history ....

I have made it through Chapter 2 and, honestly, I am feeling pretty curmudgeonly about it.

I read Can Xue's Five Spice Street and would say doing so was more a labor of appreciation than one of enjoyment. I learned to just go with the flow with that one and that is how I approached Frontier too. (Frontier, by comparison to Five Spice Street, feels positively linear and mainstream, lol.)

While this book probably qualifies as abstract art, it feels clunky and a bit like I am being punked. I am not sure if I will stick it out or not. Either way, I continue to look forward to the coments here.

It's not clear to me if I might have the same reading experience simply by reading the same paragraph over and over again, vs. reading the next one to come along.

I like that about this book, though.

Or maybe: I've decided to like it.

Or maybe: I've decided to be okay with it.

Stacia wrote: "I have made it through Chapter 2 and, honestly, I am feeling pretty curmudgeonly about it. "

We have a club!

Bill wrote: "We have a club!"

I must admit that I snickered a bit when I saw that geezer was used more than once in Chapter 2! Lol.

I understand completely Stacia. Chapters 3 and 4 ...wandered off into incomprehension for me towards the end of chapter 4 but I am surprising myself by quite liking it . Given my visceral dislike of Love in the New Millennium ( cover was divine though) maybe the whole point of Can Xue's project is to create an extreme emotional response without the usual levers of plot or character development ? And to create a sense of disorientation that mirrors the experience of the characters . I certainly feel I'm in a strange and disquieting place .

"Disorientation" is definitely the word for this reading so far. Also, an overwhelming feeling of estrangement.

I wanted to ask how you all are reading two recurring things:

1) Sometimes, one character will speak to another, and the other character simply won't answer or will answer as if they hadn't heard anything else said. How do you frame this talking past one another? (i.e., did it never happen? are characters being rude? etc.)

2) Animals appear frequently. There's too many to be symbolic (or, let's say, for me to interpret in any way), but they often invoke either awe (the goshawk) or fear (the wolf). But seldom do they actually engage with the people. It's like they are photobombing the story. Sometimes it seems like they have attacked someone, but it turns out the person only thinks it happened. Are you reading these literally, as dream, as... ?

I really feel, in part, like I'm watching someone's jumpcut home movies...

I've been thinking a lot about location/geography. Other than Liujin so far, everyone else has come to Pebble Town from somewhere else and usually, has been looking for a better future (or, at minimum, a less "smokey" one). It's described as a "northernmost" territory and seems both directly in juxtaposition to the city (literally and symbolically) and as a kind of boundary edge (to civilization? to reality?). And we get a lot of different perspectives on it in these first 5 chapters:
- We learn about the disappearing hotel
- The mountain frequently dominates visually and snow leopards come down to visit the town
- The design institute almost seems like a permanent fixture
- A train station brings people there
- A certain wall changes or disappears at night
- There's a much heralded garden that no one can ever find/visit (invoking Eden/paradise or something else, you think?)

Character Perspectives

Chapter 1 (Liujin)
- "Somehow, Liujin felt that Pebble Town had a big heart. All kinds of strange people could find places to fit in. Liujin, who had been brought up here, didn’t know whether other cities … were the same. Was this a virtue? Perhaps it was—-if she could solve the puzzle about those people."
- "She felt that Pebble Town was a slumbering city. Every day, some people and things were revived in the wind. They came to life suddenly and unexpectedly. … It was as though each of them had emerged from the earth’s core: they came with some features of old times that were incomprehensible to her."

C2 José & Nancy
- " …he smelled again the distinctive clear, fresh air. The day before, this had almost brought him and his wife to tears.
- “I just want to ask: When the wind blows over the roof, why does it sound like someone pounding it with a wooden stick?” [Qiming]"Ah—good question. That’s how things are on the frontier—the intangible is tangible…”
- [Lee] “Young José, my wife and I came to this Design Institute more than a year ago. Here, we can’t see our future. Of course, we didn’t come here to find our future. We just wanted to find an atmosphere, an atmosphere that could constantly inspire us. And in this, we were right to come here. People living in Pebble Town always feel a covert motivating force.”

Chapter 3 Qiming
- "The newly-arrived young couple were completely bewildered, especially the man. Qiming could see this, because he used to feel the same. Who wouldn’t be puzzled by Pebble Town’s strange ways? Back then, besides feeling gratified, he was also puzzled and uncomfortable—until the incident that changed him. Qiming’s “incident” was, of course, the appearance of the Uighur beauty. Before that, when he was working in construction, he frequently felt so confused that he didn’t want to go to work. He would sit at the riverside for several hours looking at the tamarisk trees. The foreman was a folksy middle-aged man. He squatted down, clapped Qiming on the shoulder, and said, “You can’t go back, son.” He tole Qiming to look up at the sky. Qiming did—and saw only a goshawk. The sky was so high, and its color held no gentleness: it was completely unlike the sky at the seaside. The foreman told him to take another look, to look more carefully. So he looked up again—and suddenly realized what had puzzled him. He stood quietly followed the foreman back to the work site. It was such a wondrous feeling: the foreman was terrific. Before this, he had paid no attention to the old man…
- "Nancy looked bewildered, and—as though discussing a problem with an invisible person—said, “Hunh. I’m puzzled by lots of things here; they’re mixed together. Still, this place is magnetic. Look at the eagle, flying and stopping … Everything’s unresolved.”
- "Nothing seemed to be a secret, yet everything was mysterious at the same time."
- "Everyone could find shelter in this Pebble Town, especially people like him with no home to return to."
- "Pebble Town had a superiority complex, and everyone who lived here was soaked in this atmosphere. Outside events never interested them. He rarely even thought about his own family."
- "Qiming had noticed a phenomenon here for years: everyone who came to Pebble Town took on certain traits that made them just like the people already here. At first, people weren’t so much the same, but after a few days, they were talking just like the locals. Qiming sometimes felt fragile. At such times, he wanted to confide his feelings to a person from his hometown in the dialect he’s spoken as a youth."
- "He was astonished to see Haizai sleeping on the lawn below… “Why are you sleeping here?”
“Someone chased me. The dead are struggling for territory against the living people.”

Chapter 4 Sherman
- "He said the garden seemed near, but if you walked toward it, you’d never reach it. He had tried this a long time ago."
- "Pebble Town residents love competing to see who could live longer. This made Sherman think: Pebble Town didn’t have a large population, but there wasn’t one secluded place. There was no way to find a desolate place to be alone, because someone was always already there—this old man, for instance. Sherman couldn’t even see what he was doing all year long in this desolate area because he hid everything from view with that strange smoke screen."
- "It’s so late—it’s dangerous to walk around, isn’t it? Yesterday, Mama told me there were sharks in the neighborhood." [Because it’s so surreal, I don’t know if Xue means aquatic sharks or some type of criminals/gang members.]
- "At this moment, he suddenly understood Yuanqing’s crazy behavior: at the gate to their building, the sailor had been acting as an invisible obstacle that he and Yuanqing couldn’t cross over. That explained why Yuanqing took a knife along to deal with it. She was a courageous woman. But this was from his and Yuanqing’s viewpoint. What significance did the sailor see in all this? Ah, ah! So many webs woven together! And what about Liujin? It seemed she hadn’t met any obstacles she couldn’t get across. She was a heroine."
- [discussion about where Little Leaf went] "It might be the riverside. It might be the mountain. Are they any different?"

Chapter 5 The Baby
- "A long, long time ago, he and Nancy had stood on the iron bridge visualizing their future. They lived simple lives then, and they based all of their plans on the present reality. Although they weren’t very content with the present, still—shrouded in the heavy smoke—the contours of things softened a lot. Oh, how the smoke had disguised the realities! Nancy couldn’t see the truth at first, either. “I have some knots of past events in my mind that I can’t untie.” Nancy often said things like this. Now, he heard his daughter babbling at his chest, and e sort of understood what Nancy meant.
- "She thought one of the frontier’s characteristics was that the scenery outside exerted tremendous pressure on people. Every time before a major incident occurred in her life, the scenery all around was filled with particularly intense intimation of it."
- "Pebble Town gave her other memories. Some of them resolved the riddles from before, but most were dark holes that were even harder to penetrate."

wow, this is great, Marc.

I need to think about these things before I have anything to say about them.

One thing I'm doing that really helps is that I take everything literally as I read and don't try to overlay meanings or metaphorical interpretations. I don't interpret at all. I just allow my brain to take it in, and make a picture of what's happening, even if it's trees that are moving closer and further away or whatever else is going on...I just let myself see it and keep reading without judging it or trying to understand it as meaning anything other than "trees are moving"

Hester wrote: "I understand completely Stacia. Chapters 3 and 4 ...wandered off into incomprehension for me towards the end of chapter 4 but I am surprising myself by quite liking it ..."

I'm right there with you! (And I also couldn't get into Love in the New Millennium, either)

Lark wrote: "One thing I'm doing that really helps is that I take everything literally as I read and don'..."

I'm trying to do this, as well. I keep thinking about her saying the reader completes the story by bringing their perspective/experience to it, but I finished chapter 7 last night and my perspective was:
Can Xue? No, I Can Not.

Marc wrote: "Can Xue? No, I Can Not.
..."

There is ONE PARAGRAPH that I remember so lovingly, from my first read, that I'm reading forward in intense anticipation for the moment when I get there. I can't skip. I can't search. I need to arrive. That's a feeling that I've never had before in any book. Ok, maybe I do with The Magic Mountain. In that book's case I'm reading it again in anticipation of the "Snow" chapter.

Also Henderson the Rain King, actually--in anticipation of the Smolak scene.

So I guess Frontier is not unique but it's in a handful of books where I very much want the whole experience, I can't skip, I can't stop.