Eric Hultgren > Recent Status Updates

End of book 2. more failed back and forth missions for call and Gus. A lot on Scull which was interesting to read about this Boston man who went west looking for war and the wildness and he found it and seems to revel in it even in his own torture. Both Gus and kicking wolf lose a friend. Very much a fight for land between Comanche and Texas and a fight for the future and their identities.

Finished book 1 and probably going to read each book and then something in between. So far it’s got more fun characters and an interesting focus on the Comanches POVs which is adding some new layers.

On emmet till. Reading this right after Everett’s The Trees…

You can also see Morrisons influence on Everett in naming and the importance and ridiculousness of it.

Chapter with the pingo the horse. Wow.

The last few chapters so this as a sort of hero’s journey and coming of age. But instead of east to west he is going west to east.

Ironically, across the salt desert, Hakan grows huge instead of being stunted. Larimer becomes his mentor and is obsessed with his search for the first creature, the primordial life.

End of part one the sickness, story started as a real found family in space story. But then that is ripped apart… and I really wanted that story for sissy and so as a reader I’m left mourning that lose of that story and as a narrative move it’s both ballsy and unsettling

End of 8.2 damn! What a twist.

Really liking the dichotomy of physicality vs technology. The native culture sisilla is raised in vs the extreme advancement of tech in this futuristic world. Usually we see an antiseptic and no physical futurism but this is a future of bioengineering.
Even all the language and metaphors are physical based.

You cannot stop progress. You can only mop up the mess.
Progress was necessary…even if that fuel was hate.

The world breaks everyone…but those that will not break it kills…if you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.

Good section between Henry and the priest on being tired of war and not caring about winning or losing

Not my fav Hemingway so far. Catherine is so valid and not real and so eager to please it’s def a bit comical. Not sure if it’s supposed to be yet. Henry is at least interesting in his non action and non brave way of getting injured.

The kid no referred to as the man when confronted by actual kids, one of whom he kills

This chapter ends with him trying to help an old woman only to realize she is long dead. He tries to help some pilgrim travelers and leaves them thinking they will be fine only to find them dead.

The mystery is that there is no mystery. Judge gets real philosophical in this section, some of this is McCarthy and some is also just the insanity of the judge. Like in the crossing you get real philosophical thought from McCarthy mixed with nonsense.

Very nietzche for a minute and then all morals and all else is subsumed under death, not very nietzchian

War endures. Young men love it and old men love it in them

The order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze

Started it again. I’m a little clearer on expectations and enjoying it a bit more. Finally got a chapter with the kid doing something when he doesn’t kill the injured man. Then gets stuck in a blizzard. Great nature writing of course.

You are killing me fish…I do not care who kills who. Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought.

Can we walk to the distance?
…the distance is always the same

So far an odd book. It’s written at times sparsely and matter of factly but with some wry attitudes from the narrator.

Themes of loneliness and lack of personal connections. Post war longing for identity and connection. Grotesque scenes at times echo O’Connor especially with the peg leg woman.

Both of them screaming.. this I believe is the story of America…

His baby buffalo friend!! Ahhhhh so heartbreaking

Does a great depiction of Montana trying to chug its way into the 20th century and modernity and shed its violent past. The sinking of the titanic symbolizes that folly

What I am is the Indian who can’t die. I’m the worst dream America ever had.

Damn! This and the section in him finding the slaughtered buffalo and the wandering calves. Echoes of butchers crossing again and of the violence of killing the pregnant elk in only good Indians. This is his awakening and the start of his vengeance.

Jones writes anti coming of age stories of Indians. In the only good Indians as well as here we have young men who have a sense of identity but are striving for more amidst a changing world and choose wrongly to betray a part of themselves and hence doom themselves.

Finished Wise Blood… whacky book. Hazel notes tried to start the church without Christ but is seeking redemption and forgiveness even if he denies it. Enoch is searching for human connection and purpose. Not sure what happens to him after he puts on the gorilla costume. Hazel kills his twin false prophet and then blinds himself and becomes a self torturing catholic for lack of better word.

Hazel Motes sermon on church without Jesus and looking for a new Jesus.

Taking a break for James. Still feeling more sentimental than I’d like. I like the sense of failure and not the typical go west and find your fortune narrative though. Still a bit too domestic and sentimental

Feeling meh on this one. Sort of a middle class narrative that lacks any grittiness that I’ve been enjoying lately. Well written though. Seems to lack a plot or conflict I care about so far. Starting to feel like an old man in the 70s bemoaning modernity and looking to history for comfort.