Blane Worley > Recent Status Updates

i’ve got a high fever, this novel (x4) is just a (fever) dream

it’s working its magic like a good David Mitchell novel. But i’ve read plenty of shitty Mitchell novels, so WE WILL SEE

This is the most uninspired i’ve ever seen Jay. Following something like Model Behavior, i can’t believe i’m reading garbage rhetoric from the same guy. The payoff better manifest as a physical certification for participation or i will 🤪 kill 🤪 myself 🤪🤪

mystifying, enrapturing. I'm however worried the entirety of the plot has been set up in the first few chapters, that the rest of the novel will be dedicated to this singular, unwavering forward momentum. Which is fine, but I'm not really feeling another On Beauty.

Gawsh this is so much better than that last garbage i was reading, but FUCK the pilot who landed the plane when i was only 5 pages from the end

So much better than that last pile of garbage i read

Still not funny, but also not alarmingly mindless. Just mild? Ugh, continuing on I guess.

I really can't find an excuse to read this for more than 10 pages at a time. It's boring, but it's picking up. The metafiction aspect is coming into play: the world is a tongue-in-cheek parallel universe that is almost exactly like our own, except that we (the readers) are in a parallel universe that the subject of the book (an author) created. If this turns into a goddam murder mystery, I'll kms.

From back of book: "The funniest novel I've read in years."

No? Two people making fun of the how slovenly and obese each other are isn't really qualifying as comedy. I have no one to even extend empathy toward since everyone is portrayed as a narcissistic (read: holier-than-thou), morally vacant piece-of-shit. Even the PKD references (that I've caught) have failed to save the humor in this. OH FEKKIN WELL

Finished but not reviewing or rating Same Same until I've had time to truly process it, tbf.

oop i forgot to update my progress at a bar. yes, i read at bars some time, yes it's not flattering

Okay, the absurdity is actually compelling. I think if this had had any clear guiding principle in place, it would have lost my interest. That said, I'm beginning to piece it together. Good pacing, fantastic and engaging writing. imho. obvs.

"!"

At first, the world-building was this novel's charm. Then after 100 pages, the vague symbolism inherent in every presented thing and person became apparent, though by that I don't mean to say understandable. Then the narrator turns inward, ignoring the majority of the cast that he established towards the beginning. I thought I would tire easily of the meta-fiction, but puzzling it together is its own stimulus.

:)(::)(:

:)

Is it fair for me to update a review from seven years ago without reading the book again?

I've changed dramatically, and I want my reviews to reflect that: I don't want people to see me as the guy who wrote those reviews, because it's a bit of an inaccurate depiction. A skewed portrayal. But I also understand there's a moral dilemma in doctoring an archive. I've done it once today, but there are other books yet.

Why am I reading this? It likely has very little literary value, but I picked it up anyway. The best thing in it so far is certainly the basset hound that repeatedly attempts to take its own life by walking into a pond, knowing full well it can't swim.

This has become, at the least, an interesting nexus/puzzle of character relationships. But, without spoiling an incredibly confusing yet illuminating chapter involving another author, that puzzle doesn’t matter.

But if how the stories connect doesn’t really matter (and how they connect is so interesting, hint hint), then the means is the point, and what’s to stop this from being just a short story collection?

"Soundly" was a good chapter, was a remarkable chapter. And maybe this chapter is the thing that'll stop this book from careening towards incomprehension.

Not exactly easy to get into. Not yet.

I carry a vague suspicion of Oliver; though he hasn't presented any devious narrative tendencies, there's something large plot-wise he's holding back, I CAN JUST TELL.

surely we can be friends again, hahaha ❤️