fiction files redux discussion

I myself just started the book and while I admire the author's guttiness, I do feel tepid toward this book. Maybe it will get better but it is a pain in the ass to read one sentence paragraphs and try to guess what the heck is the woman narrator trying to said. And if she is really alone, then why bother typing the whole thing if nobody's around to read it.

Maureen wrote: "just wanted to let you guys know that i seem permanently stopped at page 125 on this book. the rhythm of the prose was crazy-making for me so i've set it aside for now. as i mentioned to patty, in ..."

I had the same issue with Infinite Jest this past week. I was cruising along pretty well when I hit a 10 page paragraph around page 165. Stopped me dead in my tracks for the good part of the week.

Reading for pleasure shouldn't be this much work.

Happy 4th of July everybody. Had a moment this morning to drop in and apologize for my lack of moderation skills. I am afraid I caught whatever Dan had regarding our groupreadicus here. Worked my way about halfway into Wittgenstein's Mistress, but bogged down trying to finish it. Reminded me of those times when the waitress comes over while you still are in the middle of your Lumberjack’s Special breakfast and asks, “Still workin’ on this, hon?”

On the bright side, the major reason I have been remiss in reading WM is my current love affair with DFW’s Infinite Jest. What a burly, good-humored, work of genius. Can’t say enough good things about it. Probably the best thing I have read in the past 5 years. I’ll be commenting shortly on the DFW thread more about this.

But one thing I have been meaning to do is follow up on a comment made some time back about the proliferation of The So-and-so’s Wife titles out there. It’s true. I just did a quick search of Goodread titles, and I was amazed:

The Time Traveler's Wife
The Pilot's Wife (also, separately; Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire)
The Kitchen God's Wife
Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (What is the rule on semi-colons here: can this go on indefinitely: or what: seriously.)
The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story
The 19th Wife (Also 2nd Wife, 3rd Wife, 4th Wife, etc.)
The Senator's Wife
The Antelope Wife
The Shape-Changer's Wife
The Diplomat's Wife
The Sunday Wife: A Novel
The River Wife: A Novel
The Wood Wife
A Hustler's Wife
The Salaryman's Wife
The Samurai's Wife
A Good Indian Wife: A Novel
The Rector's Wife
An Inconvenient Wife
The Saddlemaker's Wife
The Mapmaker's Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon
The Prisoner's Wife: A Memoir
The Emancipator's Wife
The Ideal Wife

And this is just a sampling of wifely titles from the first 3 pages of 170 pages of results! Unbelievable.
For those of you interested; on the last page you will find entries for both Oops! I Forgot My Wife and Oops! I Forgot My Wife Audio Book

mm

And don't forget The Wife: ...

by the same author who wrote


(The Position is better. And yes. It's about exactly what you're thinking.)

I've followed this discussion with some interest, as I have a fondness for Wittgenstein and a curiosity towards Markson's work.

I don't know when I'll get around to reading WM, but now it looks as if I'll have to and not just to feed my contrarian streak. A while back I read Markson's This is Not a Novel. It had no characters, setting or plot. It seemed to be merely a collection of factoids reflecting on mortality, and I hated it at first, but after taking the time to think about how the factoids were arranged I felt as if there were almost a proper story arc in the points the various factoids were illustrating. I'm quite curious to read a similarly constructed novel with a more apparent unifying principle.

At least WM has one character, that beats the hell out of TiNaN. ;P

Neil wrote: "I've followed this discussion with some interest, as I have a fondness for Wittgenstein and a curiosity towards Markson's work.

I don't know when I'll get around to reading WM, but now it looks ..."

Neil, maybe you can help us out here and moderate us forward a few pages. I have Infinite Jest open - in four places, by bookmark count - and found it useful to read it backwards and sideways as well. So I'm tied up moderator-wise. Can you offer any insight into WM that might encourage us forward with this baby?
mm

I guess I can discuss this. My hurt feelings have subsided.

As a novel I think it was clever. Accurately portraying an isolated woman suffering from PTSD. The twist at the end was cruel and entirely unexpected. Possibly the reason it was rejected so many times was the sustained symptomatic behavior. It's a bit much to be considered entertainment.

How did everyone feel (or think) about the PTSD? Escalating emotions, mental and physical breakdowns. The rapid firing brain, the intrusive thoughts, time lapses (or loss), mood swings, anger and frustration, depression, dwindling self care. I understood it and even connected with it. At what point did you lose interest in? become annoyed by? give up on? the woman. Did anyone sense the encroching suicidal tendencies? Or had you given up caring by then? What do you think about her attempt at therapy. Not so easy with no one to listen. I got a sense she was attempting to make a journal (as opposed to "keeping a journal"). Does anyone have an understanding of the difference between speaking of things and writing of things for therapy? Do you think she would be successful without any feed back or input from someone else. I thought she was doing the best she could. But I also knew she was doomed.

Published in the 80's but written when? Did the author have personal experience with PTSD? Possibly ahead of it's time?

The references to Wittgenstein, literature and art seem not so important to me. I had enough of a basic education to grasp the gist of her "sentences" and random mental wanderings. If I was more informed would it have made a difference in how I felt about the story? You tell me. I don't think so.

I still don't want to discuss the ending yet but I'm interested in how everyone "felt" about the story.

I attempted to read this with my book club a few months ago. I think I got to page 31. Only one of us managed to finish it and she wished she hadn't bothered. This was painful.

http://www.theknowe.net/dfwfiles/pdfs...

DFW explains WM. Maybe this was already posted here, I didn't go back and reread the whole thread. I figured it was worth duplicating anyway, it's a great essay.