20 June 2010

This is not a review of Mrs. Dalloway


I just read Mrs. Dalloway!
There's probably some sort of format that reviews are supposed to take and probably some well thought out and agreed upon goal as well, but I think a single finite end can reduce the meaning of words. So I aim to ramble, perhaps to bore.  Such is the predicament of ADHD.

The most striking thing about this book is the way the narrative is arranged. It is told in third person by some omniscient narrator who follows characters like a flea jumping between hosts. (That metaphor only works if you ignore all the negative connotations of a flea.)  It makes for seamless transitions once you get the hang of making the jump between central characters.  Actually, I never completely got a hang of it but it kept me on my toes.

Relevant or at least very poetic (important) descriptions. I don't care that there is triumphant military music in the streets but when that music bursts into a room where someone just died, then I care.  But there was never anything that was unnecessarily flowery or too detailed and I appreciated that.

So instead of inaccurately describing this book anymore I'm just going to give you some quotes which struck me:
  1. "they had heaps of theories, always theories, as young people have. It was to explain the feeling they had of dissatisfaction; not knowing people; not being known. For how could they know each other? You met every day; then not for six months, or years. It was unsatisfactory, they agreed, how little one knew people."  (149)
  2. "Having done things millions of times enriched them, though it might be said to take the surface off." (159)
  3. "that very able fellow who should have made a name for himself but hadn't (always in difficulties with women)" (175)

So there's this guy named Arthur Tress:
This is from a series called "Theater of the Mind" and while it sounds pretentious, you should really check it out.  There's some really sweet stuff.


So no one ever really introduced me to Bob Dylan, so it wasn't until recently that I started listening to him.  By recently I mean around the beginning of this summer.  Blonde on Blonde is a pretty great album.
Here's the opening track.

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