Travels in Nihilon is a book I bought recently, and wrote a whole post about as well a few months ago, so I don’t have much more to say about it. Embarrassingly I’ve only noticed that insert/ edit link feature just now, brainlet moment… Anyway I’m hesitant to throw it away because it’s such a recent purchase, but I also think it’s likely I will read it again some day. It’s a short novel, and I found it quite charming. It has a very early 70s british science fiction feel to it, if that makes sense. Even though it’s not really a science fiction novel, I mean it could be described that way kinda, if you’re reaching. It reminds me of the first coloured episodes of doctor who (the few that I’ve seen) and it also very much reminds me of another book that I’ll talk about, Rebecca’s World by Terry Nation. Sometimes the best way to describe a feeling is with colour, so think mauve and burgundy.
Quickly though, I’m going to take the opportunity to say something about that other post linked above. One of the main things I talked about in it was this idea I’ve been kind of arrogantly putting forth as my own, of the “cultural” or “consensual” definition. It’s not a complicated idea really, I’ve just always noticed that many words are used slightly differently than how the dictionary says they should be. Or at least they evolve and take on a different meaning in some cases. It goes back to a discussion I had with my friend when we were about 14 or so. We walked past this bakery and I saw a pretzel, and I called it a “giant pretzel”. See, nowadays here where I live anyway “pretzel” is associated with these tiny things you can buy in packets. The big baked bread thing I saw had the same shape, so I called it a giant one. Now my friend told me that the original thing that was named pretzel in Germany whenever it was initially created looked a lot more like the “giant” one than these mass produced little things you can buy.
I didn’t think much about that discussion for years, until starting this blog actually. One of my first posts was about school shootings and the difference between the colloquial use of the term and the official definition and how that’s used to mislead people. Or at least that was one of the things I talked about. I still think what I have said was worth saying, but I regret implying or suggesting that this observation is particularly unique. I do think I came to it independently, I just don’t think that it’s terribly impressive. I imagine it’s something that’s just apparent to most people, and not something they consider as worth commenting on. I could be wrong though, maybe this is just my self doubt talking.
Rebecca’s World is really quite strange, and it’s funny that I also mentioned the early Doctor Who episodes (which are nothing like the show that exists today, assuming it’s still running I haven’t watched it in a few years) because the writer Terry Nation was apparently also involved in that show, and was the mind behind the daleks which I would imagine are the most famous monsters from the show. Now I used to love this book, it was a gift from my uncle’s partner (they’ve lived together for over a decade and have children but never actually got married) and she’d had it since her own childhood and I remember reading it and rereading it many times over. It’s essentially just an adventure story, think something like Alice In Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz. A little girl gets lost in a strange world, and with the help of some new and unusual friends manages to eventually get home safely. What I liked about it so much was how surreal and colourful the world was, and the many illustrations that accompany the words are fantastic. In fact I’ve taken a few pictures to use throughout this post, because I couldn’t find any of the illustrations online anywhere, and they remind me quite a lot of some of the work of one of my favourite artists Moebius. I’ve used one or two of his works for header images here before as well.
Now as I don’t remember the book very well I don’t have much to say about it, nor do I even have a tangent I could go off on inspired by it. Sticking to the main point of these posts though, this is the first book in the pile that I’m quite conflicted about. On the one hand, it is just a children’s book and I doubt I’m going to get much use from it. In fact the only real reason I can think to hold on to it is because perhaps one day there’ll be someone I want to give it to. If that’s the case though, I could probably find another copy on Amazon or whatever equivalent there is in the future. I know that this specific copy would be more meaningful, after all it was a gift to me and I’d be passing it along further, however even if I give it to a charity shop I’d still be passing it along. It is a little damaged, so there is a chance they’d just throw it away, but I wouldn’t ever find out. I’m just thinking how likely it is that that would actually happen, that there will ever be a child for me to pass it along to. Honestly if this book is going to send me down that rather upsetting train of thought than perhaps that alone is good reason to get rid of it. Not that I do look at it often, the last time I read through it was over a decade ago. I think the right decision is to let it go, even if it’s a difficult one. Here’s one last picture from it.
Speaking of the surreal I also have a copy of Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs that I never did manage to finish. In fact I didn’t even get through the second chapter, supposedly they can be read in any order but I started at the beginning. I just found it unbearable, same with The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon which I also only managed to finish one chapter of. On first glance both books seem rather similar, although I’m sure that there’s someone who could explain why they’re not. After all Thomas Pynchon is celebrated as a literary genius and The Crying of Lot 49 is considered a masterpiece of postmodern fiction whatever that is meant to mean, filled with subtle cultural and philosophical references. Whereas William S. Burroughs and Naked Lunch in particular doesn’t seem so widely appreciated, there’s more of a cult following there although Naked Lunch is seen as something that broke new ground.
They seem rather similar to me, both books have a plot that comes secondary to the various asides the authors go down. You must have heard the expression “read between the lines” which suggests that if you pay close attention you’ll realise that there’s more to a text than what is immediately apparent. In the case of a novel or short story, perhaps that would mean there are certain themes and ideas that underlie the plot. In the case of these books it’s like those things have been dredged up and brought to the forefront, while the plot sinks below the surface. Anyway I tried with both, but I couldn’t make any progress. Some part of me doesn’t want to get rid of them, because they’re both kind of respected and held up as something you should read. I imagine they’re in a lot of lists of books “you should read before you die”, you see those all over the place. I also don’t like throwing away gifts and The Crying of Lot 49 was one, and recently too my uncle gave it to me for my birthday I think last summer, but I just don’t actually think I’ll ever read it. I think they both can go.
I know this is quite a short entry, and at the rate I’m going this could drag out to another three parts, but I’ve just been working a lot this week and also doing a lot of very early morning shifts so by the time I get home I don’t have the energy to write. It’s been over a week since the last upload though and if I don’t just upload something today it could just be there as a draft until Friday. Maybe next post will be about something else, and then I’ll come back to finish going through these books later down the line.
Ramblings of a neurotic mess 