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One quarter through this epic!

Wow he’s really rhapsodizing about some of these guys — Charles Ives in particular gets a very interesting portrait that motivates me to learn more. But that really reveals how perfunctory some of the other chapters are (even moderns like Britten).

lmao I think he spends more time lecturing the reader on why we should appreciate Schoenberg than he spent on the entire Renaissance

The structure of this book is lopsided, too. It’s fairly similar to Tommasini’s in some ways, but supposedly trying to be more comprehensive — although that is kind of hopeless and Swafford inevitably shows he’s more interested in some people/eras than others. Part I and Part II have two chapters each; Part III has four chapters, Part IV has 12 chapters, and Part V has 13!

Hell of a potboiler! It’s been ages since I read Tezuka but his energy is amazing

This narrator (Tom Perkins) is driving me crazy with mispronunciations 😑

Still inching forward!

Wow. Hans is having such an intense time! and Mann is really weaving all his elements together in a tight web of signification. And I get to feel like a genius because I think I’m catching some of what he’s up to, as it happens, and pat myself on the back when he takes another step along the path I noticed.

Settembrini is our first interesting character so far! Sleazy as he may be. The cousins are still pretty blank slates. Although maybe Settembrini is starting to rub off on Castorp, who has begun to philosophize about the nature of time…

Well, he did warn us in the foreword that this would be a book that takes its time! Just got through the section on Hans’ grandfather, which seemed both brief and lengthy at the same time — reflective and lingering on details but in a way that feels genuinely profound. And the prose of Lowe-Porter’s 1927 translation is a hearty meal. Buckling up for 700 more pages in that vein!

I found ch15 unsatisfying. Not clear when in the timeline this event happened, or really what happened at all, and why it matters. Some huge conspiracy is being revealed to Seivarden? …who doesn’t seem to care all that much, or to react in a way that explains the stakes. I’m used to being in the dark with this novel but this is presented as a big info dump, without a clear sense on how much info is being dumped

Starting to heat up! I’m getting echoes of NEUROMANCER and Zhang Yimou’s HERO, among others. The even-numbered chapters are a lot easier to follow now that I’ve gotten used to the idea of Awn as the protagonist and our narrator as her virtual assistant. Then the odd-numbers chapters are like a post-traumatic Watson after he’s lost his Holmes, and is forced to become his own hero.

Finished Chapter 4, which feels like a major landmark — the first time that I felt like I was getting a clear sense of what this book is doing. Not coincidentally it’s the first time we have a character (Lieutenant Awn) showing a clear point of view and dissatisfaction with the status quo. Also getting the hang of our narrator as, essentially, Siri/Alexa

I want to like it but it takes a lot of getting used to! Combination of sci-fi lore dumps, Russian-novel-itis where everyone has multiple different names, the plural consciousness of the AI narrator, the two main characters so far being totally emotionless, and the novel’s willingness to withhold important information from the reader… it adds up to a significant barrier to entry!

Just had a lovely scene with Lampo and Lyra on the shore — a portrait of two characters doing their best to overcome a lot of personal and systemic obstacles. Maybe a little too enlightened, but it offers an intriguing new dimension to our selfish and immature narrator.

Surprisingly similar in structure to Christopher Moore's "Lamb" (2002) with the selfish streetwise bully narrator accompanying his haunted Christlike best friend! But the tone and overall project of this one is more appealing.

“The Greek alphabet is concerned to symbolize not objects in the real world but the very process in which sounds act to construct speech… The consonant functions by means of an act of imagination in the mind of the user. I am writing this book because that act astounds me. It is an act in which the mind reaches out from what present and actual to something else.”

Getting pretty dark!!

I didn’t really have any idea what to expect, but what I’m getting is a fascinating, very accessible SF novel that feels influential on a lot of the stuff I grew up on: ElfQuest, X-Men, Orson Scott Card’s pseudo-biblical Homecoming saga, etc. All while bluntly engaging with the history of slavery and eugenics, and at the same time staying grounded in character psychology. Nice trick!

There’s a monologue from Jacques in chapter 3 that I’m amazed I haven’t come across before — it has the ring of an iconic passage.

One hell of a Chapter One. Maybe one of the best Chapter Ones I’ve ever read?

What an interesting detour that (Part V: Radioman) was. Sort of a step sideways into a different genre. God only knows what comes next!

Well that seems like a pretty load-bearing plot development! Not sure I’m on board, but we’ll see how it goes…

What a pleasure. It’s moving quickly (sometimes perhaps too quickly) because like Bradley Cooper’s movie MAESTRO, it’s more interested in the people than the work and what the work meant to its audience. Although it’s clear that Chabon himself cares a lot about comics and their readers, perhaps he doesn’t feel that the novel is allowed to.