dejah_thoris > Recent Status Updates

I swear I'm going to knock out the last chapter of this before the end of the year. I wanted it to be Gravity's Rainbow, and it so is not.

I regret purchasing this as our bedtime audiobook. There should've been several trigger warnings in the description. I expected racism and extreme poverty, but not all the sexual and physical assaults!

I'm trying to stop comparing this work to Gravity's Rainbow, and failing utterly. That's why it's taking me so long to slog through this one.

It feels like a lot of disconnected vignettes.

Pynchon still has his excellent vocabulary, but I'm not connecting with these characters as much as I did with Gravity's Rainbow. Still loving having lyrics to sing every so often though!

Switched to listening to this at bedtime. Feels like the focus on scholars drops off towards the end of the book, but maybe I haven't been paying attention.

Flush of Gold focuses on two men and their trek to a woman who has holed up in a cabin waiting for her man to return. I don't remember much about it other than the repetition of her name, Flush of Gold, getting on my nerves as I fell asleep.

Lost Face is an odd choice to end the collection on because it's a tale of a man who escapes torture by exploiting the indigenous people's supernatural beliefs.

Started this audiobook a few weeks ago on a trip, but haven't gotten back to it since.

That Spot features a dog with a big spot in its coat that loves the narrator and will never stop coming back to him, no matter what the circumstances. A nice refresher.

The Grit of Women is a feminist high-five that compares Sitka's wife with a Yankee travel companion. Jeff slows everyone down, whines like crazy, and barely helps with camp chores wheras Passuk works and suffers without complaint. The ending is very sad though.

To Build a Fire is a classic man vs. nature story where an unnamed protagonist ignores the warnings from an elder about the dangers of hiking alone. (Still applicable!) On the plus side, he's brought a dog.

The Law of Life was a bad choice for bedtime. It's about an Inuit chief abandoned by his son and the rest of the tribe to die. Poignant but morbid at the same time.

The Minions of Midas features an Anonmyous-like group blackmailing wealthy people by killing individuals until a ransom is paid. Of course, the next target for elimination is one relationship closer than the previous one.

An Odyssey of the North was about a woman torn from her people that eventually learns to love the man who took her. Meanwhile, a former suitor fights to find and rescue her only to be disappointed when she clings to her abductor.

A Relic of the Pliocene is about encountering a hunter with mammoth skin mukluks, and hearing his story.

Two chapters to go. Thought I'd like this more than I do.

The first story, A Thousand Deaths, is Jack writing science fiction. Very odd way to open the collection.

I forgot about the Hoppers. My father loved those guys!

Is there any money in the dust heaps?

One chapter away. Good except for the attitude towards sexual violence.

Reading as an audiobook.

I wish I hadn't paid full price for this audiobook. More about the dog!

Halfway through and debating if it was worth the $5. I didn't expect it to be so short!

Had a hard time not confusing it with Devil in the White City at first.