The Sleepy Conscience Club discussion

The Introduction was interesting, I like the background story about Toole and his family and the state law, it seems even after his death Toole was getting dirt kicked on him. In a Way the Neon Bible and the way his Aunt Mae was treated and the way his mom was treated after his suicide is similar.

So my favorite passage so far, and it is as good of line that I have ever read in any book is: On one of the smaller windows Aunt Mae Put a curtain she made out of a shroud she wore in some murder play, and on the other one she had a red satin costume from a minstrel show. When the sun came through all three windows, it made the room so red and bright that Poppa said it reminded him of Hell, and he would never sit with us in there. I think This was because the curtains were Aunt Mae's Costumes, too, and he didn't want the sun to shine on him through them.

This says so much about the mind of Toole, At 16 he understood an intimate detail of the Human condition, The way in which we see ourselves and others. It is almost biblical, and that blows my mind as well, That last sentence is like scripture, An entire essay could be written on why a person would not want light to shine on them through a piece of material because of the origins of the material. Fascinating to me.

Finally got my book in the mail. I agree, this seems like a fast read type of book, though I've just read through the Harry Potter series at a breakneck pace, so I'm probably stuck on that speed now for a while. Maybe I need to read a chapter of Infinite Jest to slow me down a bit har har har...

The introduction was very interesting to me as well. In Confederacy, we got the story from Walker Percy, so now with the Neon Bible we have two versions of the sad and short life of Toole. I've always thought that Toole was writing about himself as Ignatius J. Reilly, and this introduction, focusing on his mother's determination to protect her son even after his death, did not disuade my opinion.

Now, onto chapter 1. I had a bit of a tough time getting the flow of the text at first, but I chalked that up to the fact that we are reading a (I assume) very lightly edited draft of a 15 year old's manuscript. Still, there are flashes of brilliance in his writing, case in point in Rob's post. Aunt Mae is an interesting character. I took her as some kind of prostitute/burlesque dancer who left the big city and came to this very conservative town and was subsequently despised by the populace. However, underneath the surface there we saw the true nature of the town, with the frequent winks directed toward Mae from the men, who then turned around and trashed her behind her back. I'm not sure if George raped her, I think perhaps it was more that she was willing, but she thought there was more of a relationship whereas he was just in it for the sex?

yeah, that sounds about right...I'm not sure if she was even trying to be something new to begin with, but maybe she saw a light and then it was crushed, killing the last hopeful childish part of herself. Thus, her lackadaisical behavior while playing with the kid after the event with George.