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Pace of plot is like riding the milk run on a Greyhound bus. Bursts of minor stops with long stretches of time in between.

For this book one needs to abandon common sense and reason and just accept each aberration in plot with the hope that it will eventually fit some theme. My larger gripe is that some chapters are too wordy. It’s like listening to your grandparents describing their challenges removing ear wax.
He eventually pulls it back to the plot and moves forward, fortunately, otherwise I think he’d lose a lot of readers.

While I’m only a bit more than halfway into this book, I’m savoring it a chapter at a time. LT’s writing is a comfortable mix of accessible science and humility about the current breadth and depth of human understanding of biology.
At times he unleashes biological terms on the reader and he seems to have an obsession with five and even six syllable words. E.g. “our reticuloendothelial system”.

An enigma wrapped in a melodrama.

The chapter “Across Osage Hill” begins with a 2+ page intro to Time/Space vs Info/Matter, the former far exceeding the latter.
“While I may pass my life in continuity and completeness, I comprehend it only in discontinuous fragments…
I’m speaking about shards and grids and crossings, about that great reticulum our past.”

Cont… And regardingan unfortunate encounter with an Elmdale local

“[a] friend,…whose mind is as eccentrically contoured as you can find among those of us walking at liberty, and he said, ‘You violated a fundamental rule of the road: you refused hospitality. As you well know, Plains Indians took umbrage at ungraciousness. Your insensitivity put the kibosh on you in Elmdale - forever.’ “

WLHM has an over abundance of words and he must use them up before he dies. Fortunately, he has the lingual gift to meet that challenge.
He spends a few describing his opinion of Elmdale, KS.
“…a man dies in certain places before he dies in otheres, dying in pieces and places. Maybe I’ve already, so to speak, gone west in Elmdale, Kansas. Maybe I’m the wraith here, a temporary ghost.”

Maybe the best chap so far is “En Las Casitas”, an interview with a Mexican lifelong “Trackman”. The core of the story is a hand drawn map that Felix creates during the course of the interview which quickly transitions to a work of art. WLM’s summary “of all the papers countians have handed me, this map of a man’s territory is the finest because is is the most wrought” says it all.

WLM is an eclectic writer. Some chapters are insightful, entertaining, informative. Others should be left out altogether. (IMHO) The chapter “In Ecstasy” is one of the latter. It is informative to know about an all women cattle ranch started from scratch by a young daughter of a rancher. I didn’t need the gritty explicit description of a calves transition to “Steerdom”.

WLHM seems to be obsessed with the prairie fire issue. It comes up time and again. Enjoyed the chapter about the Cottonwood Courthouse.
This is first level research.

Some bold claims in the outset.
Begins with the obligatory Descartes quote “Cogito ergo sum”. Seems like all books relating to the consciousness, the mind, or the brain start here. Continues on to a defense of even trying to understand consciousness. Still 439 pages to go though.

“Sail Shining in White” by Mark Halprin
Final story fittingly in the chapter "Call of the Sea"
I suppose the final story should be a glorious salute to the superhuman trials and sublime rewards of offshore seamanship. It may have been a bit over served in this case.
I hope humility isn’t a requirement for a peaceful afterlife.

“Now wakes the Sea” by J. G. Ballard is another Twilight Zone-like episode. It conflates mental illness with fantasy.
Pretty standard story line. Nice metaphor-rich description of the sea.

“John Marr” by Herman Melville was fitted to the chapter “Call of the Sea” but not that interesting. The whole story was summed up in the poem at the end which ended with the lines:
“To see you at the halyards main,
To hear your chorus once again!”

“The Young man With the Carnations” by Isak Dinesen In the chapter “The Call of the Sea”.

Complicated. More demanding of the reader. Requires several trips to Google Translate.

Stories within stories.

Disturbing.

“Titanic Victim Speaks Through Waterbed” by Robert Olen Butler
A very different kind of short story. The sea plays a secondary role, more of a context for the spiritual journey of the protagonist.
Most sea stories are man vs. nature. This one is man vs. himself.
I suppose all Titanic stories are anecdotal of the human face of disaster.

Just finished “Youth” by Joseph Conrad. This story outshines all the others before it. Maybe it’s because he writes from personal experience more than imagination.

“One for the Islands”, Patricia Highland, best story so far. Probes the psyche of the lone traveler or the wannabe lone traveler.

Completed first section, “Dangers of the Deep” which contained six short stories. Some from authors I would not have expected such as Edger Allen Poe (The maelstrom, we’ll researched but a bit wordy) and Ray Bradbury (The Fog Horn, classic mystery intrigue set on a lonely island but not a single martian.)

So far, a classic murder mystery with somewhat over wrought character and place definitions. More like a travel brochure for Quebec than a fictional story.

Slugging through this because its fascinating but rich in details and terms.
Experiment of showing subject stream of #s and letters, has sub memorize letters. When less than 200ms apart, 2nd let is missed. Brain imaging shows it is received and recorded but never fwd’d to conscious part of brain. (Can hypnotism recover it?)

There are a couple of different themes buried in a plot of scientific intrigue and romance. Author digs around in the dark corners of academic research and man’s search for meaning in the cosmos.

Canonical Sci Fi. Futuristic research station on mysterious planet? Check. Scientists experiencing mind altering hallucinations? Check. Beautiful alien women disrupting space station life? Check.
I’m being a little cynical here but the theme regarding one’s superficial vs actual mind is actually quite deep.
And the discussion of the alien ocean actually being a sentient being is fascinating.

Refreshingly simple and fast read. Mostly dialog and self reflection on the part of the murderbot. It’s the killer robot turned good scenario kind of like the movie iRobot.
Nice break from some of the other heavier stuff I’ve been reading.

Already, i am hoping that I can race thru this book and get.to something more demanding. Cynical robots get old fast.

“Shevek had learned something about his own will these last four years. In it’s frustration he had learned it’s strength. No social or ethical imperative equaled it. Not even hunger could repress it. The less he had, the more absolute became his need to be.”
This echo’s Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” (see Wikipedia article)
“…Rand's belief that individualism is superior to collectivism.”