The Light Bulb Fragment. The Red Queen Trey Fidorous UNSPACE QWERTY Big toe Ludovician
All of this. And at what point does Eric step out of the "real world" and into the "unreal world?"
23 comments:
Adam
said...
This section brought to light exactly what the book is about and the actual problem that Eric Sanderson faces. The idea of conceptual sharks swimming around in our stream of consciousness and thought and eating away our memories/identity is both intelligently creative and very hard to wrap your brain around. The entire section is filled with neologisms and wonky sounding names, which is indicative of the writing style of both Thomas Pynchon and Lewis Carroll. Though not much happens between Eric and Dr. Randle, we do see a growing relationship between him and his forgotten love, Chloe. It seems that as he reads the narrative journal written by himself when they were in Greece, the new Eric Sanderson becomes more and more attached as if he actually has feelings for someone he never really knew. My favorite part about this reading was the description of the “Un-space” and the committee that explores it. This idea kind of reminds me of the whole concept of keeping very out of the ordinary things hidden in plan sight such as the W.A.S.T.E courier system/Trystero. Though a highly inciting narrative thus far, I still feel that Hall made some cop-outs as an author in communicating the whole idea of the Ludivician that swims around in the stream of human thought. Mostly, it was just too much information to take in all at once. There is so much stuff surrounding this idea that it would’ve been a little better for me to have it come out gradually and dispersed throughout the novel. Though we still don’t know a lot of things about these conceptual fish, the details concerning this unique idea seemed like a long chain of “thought” puns and play on words. Don’t get me wrong; Hall has something very creative here. But for me, it just seemed way too rushed and thrown out onto these letters with each letter adding something new and more confusing. Plus, we hardly see a reaction from Eric who simply decides to take everything from these letters and put use it unquestioningly. There is no example of thought or consideration, just believe this crazy nonsense and do as I’m told. Finally, I believe that Eric leaves the real world right at the point when he starts dreaming of Chloe who is rationally responding to him and even makes a distasteful joke about necrophilia. It is also right at this point when the banging commences. So it seems that by thinking of Chloe, the Ludivician was able to find his whereabouts and begin hunting once again.
The idea of the Ludovician is an intriguing one; the shark is able to find is prey by swimming through the flows of human interaction. The explanation of how the shark finds it's prey (and how it exists for that matter) does seem like a whole bunch of puns, like Adam said, but I don't think Hall went overboard. As soon as this was explained I realized that the letter Eric read about the boat on the lake was a way of making a connection between him and the writer of the letter, an interesting idea which will probably come up again later. I found the method of keeping the shark at bay pretty cool too; the juxtaposition of people who don't have a connection to one another, means the shark has no means of transportation. The method of encrypting Eric's story, with the light bulb, was awesome, but I still am not sure why Eric had to make the video in the first place, if a future him was gong to have to decode it. I found unspace interesting as well and I assume it will become more important later in the story. I look forward to seeing how Eric will track down Fidorous.
I was intrigued with the way that Eric feels there is a shark swimming through his human interactions. The way that he sets up the tapes and follows everything that the first Eric Sanderson does shows exactly how vulnerable is at this point in time. He has no sense of who he is, which leaves him left to build himself based off of the first Eric Sanderson, because he doesn't seem to trust Dr. Randle. I get where he's coming from considering both Eric's went through the same thing. It lets this Eric connect with the first Eric because he knows that the first Eric really does understand what he's going through, how paranoid he is, how out of the loop he feels.
I thought it was interesting when it came to reading the letters that the first Eric slowly started to write the endings differently. It went from "With regret and also hope" to "With regret and hope" to "Regret and hope." Also sometimes he signed the letters with a simple E instead of his whole name. I don't know if this represents the first Eric starting to lose his mind again.
I enjoyed reading the part about how he cannot act like himself, how he can't leave any ripples in the world for the shark to come find him. It's an interesting concept and I laughed at how he got a job simply to learn the mannerisms of another guy, to clone who he is and how he acts to find safety for himself.
This second section was definitely a bit more confusing, although the more I think of it, maybe it is SUPPOSED to be all scattered and kind of weird. I really liked the part about Clio and Eric in Greece. Clio seemed really funny and laid back, which was cool. Their relationship was kind of interesting though. I found it a little odd how they didn't really have any friends or talk to anyone aside from each other. I like how Clio said "Speaking with footnotes" on page forty-one. Funny, and as I can imagine, very true.
I was SO confused with all the banging going on in the locked room, and I got even more confused when all there was in there was a file cabinet... What could have made that sound?! Also, I was completely lost when Eric was in his house and the TV essentially attacked him or something. It was a little creepy. It reminded me of "The Ring." Also, the Morse code didn't make sense to me at all. I would hate to have to figure it out!
I also did not really like the letters that much. I was a little disappointed with this section of reading, but I'm pretty sure it was just because there was a lot of information that hasn't been fully explained yet. I want to find out answers!
I really like the concept of the shark—the Ludovician. It’s really cool that something exists in the world of minds. We all interact in reality, but we also each have our own inner monologue, our memories, our self-awareness. This shark seems to live somewhere in this world. Maybe this is also the world where dreams come from? A little like Alice in Wonderland….
This section also reminded me of a mix between “Crying of Lot 49” and “Number 9 Dream”. The secret codes and plots and identities was a lot like Oedipa – following instructions or what one thinks one SHOULD do. It was also like Eiji with the yakuza encounters. There is a huge conspiracy that we don’t even know actually exists or, if it does, of what nature it is. This section also went in and out of reality and dream/concept – like the past books did.
On page 75, with the talk of secret codes, there was some recursion! To decode it, one had to look at the letters, but to find them, one has to find words, and to find words, one needs sentences, and for sentences, one needs paragraphs!
So I started reading this section on my airplane ride. I was really tired but the first half went by so quickly. I hadn't realized I was on page 60 until I decided to check. It made me really happy when part of Erics past with Clio was revealed. I remember him saying how he would visualize her different ways each day. With a different personality. When we were finally able to read part of his life with her, I was satisfied but now I want to know more. I thought the description of Greece and what they did and his emotions were perfectly written for the part.
I was sooo confused when he started describing being pulled under. I had no idea what was going on and what he was trying to get across.
When Eric finally opened up the letters, I understood. I really liked the idea of the shark although it kind of confused me. It took me a minute to place the banging from the closed room to be caused from the shark. I thought it was interesting all the steps and precautions Eric has to take in order to not feed the shark his memories. I thought it was interesting how Eric decides to leave because at the beginning Dr. Randle asked if he had the urge to leave/run away etc. So I really enjoyed the end. And thought this section was really good as well.
This is an Amazing section of book. The first part is scary! That lightbulb video really really creeped me out at first, and a little less so once I found out that it was a coded message. It still creeps me out a bit. The scene with the TV was amazing... at first I thought it was like a horror movie but it isn't exactly. I hate horror movies. This author was able to create an intense, scary scene that wouldn't be the same were it created using a completely visual and audio medium. I loved creating my own landscape for that scene: a sea of darkness and conceptual reality. While I was reading that scene I was screaming at Eric in my mind; I had a theory. If he could re-form the conceptual liquid from of floor back into a solid concept, maybe he could escape the Ludovician. Why can only the shark re-shape reality into concepts? Now that Eric knows how to cloak himself, I think he could learn how to create his own conceptual world.
I feel so bad for the Past Eric, the First Eric. He is/was more alone than the present Eric is. The present Eric has the past Eric, yet all the past Eric has is his Dictophone tapes and what strips of memories he has left.
The first section of The Light Bulb Fragment was sweet, and real, and very well written. It was a nice breather from all of the uncertainty of Eric's reality. I liked the dream with Clio in it too. I have an image in my mind of that dreamscape, and especially of the pool with leaves on the surface, which the Ludovician uses to get to Eric. Hm, maybe Eric needs to avoid all water, especially conceptual water. The beastie seems to be getting to him that way.
"It's raining here in the past. I hope the weather there in the future is better."
So, my second blog post is somehow under the first reading, and the second reading has no blog post at all. Blogger, y u no like me?
Nico said... I wanted to say this for the first reading--Eric Sanderson is being controlled by himself. The mail system must be set up by a network of people working for the first Eric Sanderson, just as Dr. Randle is, but even this new Eric has imposed restrictions on his life very quickly--I'm thinking of page 29, where he describes his weekly routine: "Through these activities I began to develop some parameters, put together a minute but perfectly formed existence...a postage stamp of control." Is this his coping mechanism, or is this a defining trait of the original Eric Sanderson? If it is, it's creepy. It's going to make something bad happen.
p. 30: He isn't going to read the letters?! p. 31: He isn't going to unlock the door?! p. 36 He opens the journal!
p. 48: "'Is there something alive in there?' Clio nodded. 'Yes.' 'What is it?' 'I don't know,' she said, watching the waters. 'Something from down where it gets black.'
p. 57: The 'creature' in the white noise--he describes it as a living thing
p. 58: AN EYE IT'S THE SHARK'S EYE
p. 60: WHAT'S GOING ON I DON'T EVEN
I think the shark is his coping mechanism, Eric's way of avoiding the truth in his memories--and it's aggressive and mobilized. (p. 64: "The creature will find something I've missed because it never stops looking and its senses are very sharp...I can't stay in this shark cage forever.")
Ludovician-the shark creature menacing Eric's memories. "It feeds on human memories and the intrinsic sense of self [...] a Ludovician might select an individual human being as its prey animal and pursue and feed on that individual over the course of years, until that victim's memory and identity have been completely consumed."
pp 66-67--the 'shark cage'
QWERTY--the flickering light bulb tape is playing a double-encoded Morse/QWERTY message. QWERTY like the keyboard, I'm guessing.
Big toe--The first Eric Sanderson remembered something Clio said, about getting a smiley face tattoo on her big toe so it would "look funny in the morgue".
Dr. Trey Fidorious--the man the first Eric Sanderson tried to find, believing he could help bring Clio back.
UNSPACE--open, abandoned areas in the world.
p. 88: Okay, I'm into the book now. I'm in this story with Eric for better or worse
In this chapter I liked that I was able to find out more about Clio's character and background. Eric loved Clio a lot and that she was funny and sacrastic at times. I thought it was funny to find out the reason why Eric and Clio named the cat Ian. But then I wonder what happpened to Gavin. In this chapter Eric reads all the letters after he expreiences his floor become an ocean and the feeling that a shark is after him. I really found it strange that there is a mental shark named Ludovician and that it goes through the channels in the mind and is able to eat your memories until it fianlly kills you. I did not like the puzzle code with the light bulb. I was competely lost over what Eric had to do in this section. The Alice in Wonderland refrences in this is the red cabinet in the locked room being the red queen. I really liked the end of the chapter where Eric leaves everything in the red cabinet and says the reason for doing that is to search for Trey Fidorous. I liked how he sounded like the first Eric with ending with "I'm sorry it's not much,".
I found the letters about the conceptual fish, the Ludovician, fascinating. The whole idea is brilliant and fun, if not a little scary for Eric. He is haunted by a figment of the world that may exist or it may just be his way of coping with Clio's death. The fact that Eric is an unreliable narrator and that we only see things from his head lead me to believe that my hypothesis is correct. However, being that as it may, the whole idea forces Eric into something that he himself designed. Clues to Clio and his relationship, and Eric jumps head first into the only answers he can find.
Clio Aames is a wonderful character. She is a good foil to the seriousness and shyness of Eric's personality. The two of them complement each other and seem to function very well. Eric loves her totally and completely which makes his mental break understandable. The idea of the fish to shield him from his own memories is brilliant on the part of the author.
The professor that the first Eric supposedly finds is an interesting character as well. He has supposedly created a theory of evolution in regards to words and letters. The idea is interesting to say the least.
I am very interested to see what the light bulb fragment will say if it says anything coherent at all. The fact that pieces of Eric Sanderson's life keep disappearing make Eric only search harder. One must wonder if he would be happier living his life out as a man with only the possibility of new memories? His old life keeps haunting him and the fish continues to follow him. One has to wonder what his memories hide.
The book is becoming all sorts of weird and intriguing. Holding true to its fashion of reading like a movie, I enjoyed the part where Eric has his flash backs about Clio while reading the journal entries. I also really enjoyed the parts where the (what I have come to call) “conceptual magical realism” where the shark is more or less explained. I like this idea of Eric being hunted by a creature that is more of ideas and words than flesh and blood. Something is confusing me though, obviously the shark is incapable of completely destroying Eric as he keeps on coming back. So what I'm wondering is what exactly is it that keeps Eric from slipping completely into oblivion every time he relaxes his defenses and the shark eats his concepts of who he is and what his life was like. This sort of brings up another potential factor. Has at any point Eric remained safe enough to fully regain his memories? If not, then are there certain parts of his self that are permanently gone, devoured forever by the shark? Relating to this, I also particularly liked the methods in which he has to disguise himself and fool the shark. In many ways, it seems a bit like trying to block out an annoying sound, it's just a matter of occupying your mind with other sensory details or a singular idea, but the thing in this case is Eric needs to distract himself from being himself. As for when Eric really seems to fall into the rabbit hole and enter Wonderland, I'd have to say that particular ball gets rolling when Eric has his dream after reading the journal entries about himself and Clio. It's one of the first implications that there is something metaphysical going on, then again it really may be the concept of metaphysicality.
In the beginning of the reading we get more insight on the relationship between Clio and Eric. In my mind the whole time I kept thinking "Please stop!" I found it hard to read and see how wonderful a couple they were knowing Clio dies. It was so cute how they were sarcastic and "mean" to each other. I did see what Clio meant when she tells Eric that he is "always comparing things in real life to things in film." I feel like that is what I am doing in the book. I see a strong correlation between the book and movies. In the reading in Chapter 5 we start to get the mixing of reality and dreams which we encountered in the previous books that we have read. The idea of the conceptual shark did and still confuses me. I loved the idea but it was hard for me to grasp. I want to ask Steven Hall how he came up with such a creative and complicated idea. At first I had a hard time reading the letters. It was hard for me to visualize the Dictaphone and the shark cage. My head hurt as well when he was describing the light bulb text encryption. I definately would not want to have to decode that. At the end of the story I question his decision to leave Dr. Randle. I dont' want anything bad to happen to Eric and I feel he might me safter at his house.
I love how this section opened with some random act of kindness from some random guy. I really liked the Light Bulb Fragment! I wanted that segment to keep going! In fact I wouldn't mind if that was the whole book. I really liked her idea for a tattoo of a smiley face under her big toe. That's such dark humor. I was so disappointed that there was only a filing cabinet and a piece of paper in the locked room. I don't know if this is significant or not but the filing cabinet is red like the Red Queen. I absolutely loved the description of fiction on pages 54 and 55. It's so cool how a writer can share something that is in their head just by having someone else read their writing.
I also loved the images in the T.V. it was so cool how they formed sharks and that the shark swam through the T.V.! It was so cool that it was a conceptual shark attack! That was exactly how I imagined a normal shark attack so it was awesome that it was in a house. The name of the shark, the Ludovician, reminded me of the Leviathan.
The idea of unspace is really interesting. You never think about those unoccupied spaces. It's kind of like "if a tree falls in a forest and no one's around does it make a sound?".
QWERTY made my head hurt! Its way too much thinking and guessing and concentrating for me.
The Lightbulb fragment is very strange. What i like most about this chapter is the imagery it creates. Books that are crystal clear and detailed allow me to flow through the sequences of events as if I were watching a movie. the lightbulb fragment, the flashbacks with Clio, the shark in the static all make this reading engaging. The author talks about water for a good portion of the book; a topic that when thought of metaphorically, can have you thinking for hours. Though there are many parts I enjoy about this book, I do find that some sections are dry and reserved. If only I could watch this as a movie!
I like the whole concept of confusing the shark with addresses of other people , i was like ohhh clever clever one you are lol. On chapter 4 ahhhhh clio and eric are sooo cute together. Unfortunetly we know that clio is for good dead. i really admire the fact that eric is really observant of clio and her features and all that shows how much attention he really gave her. On the bottom of page 39 we are getting a reference to the book , " This thing you have about always comparing things in real life to the things in film." i like how the author actually makes them sound like a couple a really cute couple and u grow with the characters as well and you just want them to be happy. i love this line on page 43, "I couldnt stand it if i ruined you," she said. Chapter 6 was really well written i can feel the intense descriptions as im reading this. Its very well written. Clio seems to me like she is blood for the shark and whenever he < eric, dreams of her the shark gets loser , closer,closer ...O...
I was very excited when we learned of Clio and Eric's past together. It was nice to read about their time in Greece and what happened there, it was a key piece to the puzzle that we're putting together as we figure out who Eric truly is and what he has gone through in his past, having been a man who has recreated himself 11 times. I like the way this book is written so far. We are able to see who Eric is in the present, but every once in a while, for example with this Greece flashback and through the letters, we'll get a nice look at what happened in his past and these moments usually have a few answers to some of my questions and are pieces to this puzzle.
I also like the concept of the Ludovician. It appears to me to be brilliant yet concerning. It shows how far Eric is from being in touch with reality. I mean, he believes that there is a shark swimming through his mind, eating his memories to the extent that it will eventually kill him!
I think that this second reading really answered many of the questions I had regarding the first reading. I was really confused of the shark at first but then I found out that the shark was a conceptual shark and that it was all in his head. I think that’s kind of cool but weird at the same time. I like Clio’s personality because when she says things, she sounds smart and sexy at the same time. I think it is also interesting that Anti sound relates to space and unspace. This is really postmodern in my point of view. HAHAHA it is funny how the animals and pets they own have human names such as Gavin and Ian. In fact what ever happened to Gavin. He disappeared out of no where and I thought he was kind of cool. I think it’s weird when Eric and Clio talk filthy to each other because it is nasty and perverted at the same time. I think that their love is so complicated in reference to page 45 because she says she loves Eric and he says that he enjoys spending time with her too. This is just hilarious HAHAHAHA. This Alice in Wonderland reference creeps me out because I was never a fan of that story. When they curse, it comes at the perfect time, like on page 49 when Clio says “Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition”. At the end of chapter 5, he is finally in the real world and not in the crazy land of his dreams. I like the scene when Eric hears a bang and it is the conceptual shark banging on the door. This made me remember the scary movie Scream. I found it interesting on page 54 that the television works as a normaliser and the letter after that, talks about what fiction does to you as a reader. The whole scary movie idea comes again when the TV breaks and it is pitch black in the room. The green light from the smoke detector seemed scary as I tried to visualize the whole scenario. I think it’s cool that the Ludivician shark is said to be a mighty predator. This makes me think that Eric is basically screwed. It weird that on page 69, letters are mentioned that don’t come up in the reading at all. Kind of fishy or it may not mean anything at all. Like we discussed in class, the idea of recursion comes up on page 73, but I didn’t notice that when I was reading it until the class discussion. Unspace is mentioned once again, and ENOUGH with the Alice in Wonderland references. HAHAHA it was really mysterious and funny.
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23 comments:
This section brought to light exactly what the book is about and the actual problem that Eric Sanderson faces. The idea of conceptual sharks swimming around in our stream of consciousness and thought and eating away our memories/identity is both intelligently creative and very hard to wrap your brain around. The entire section is filled with neologisms and wonky sounding names, which is indicative of the writing style of both Thomas Pynchon and Lewis Carroll. Though not much happens between Eric and Dr. Randle, we do see a growing relationship between him and his forgotten love, Chloe. It seems that as he reads the narrative journal written by himself when they were in Greece, the new Eric Sanderson becomes more and more attached as if he actually has feelings for someone he never really knew. My favorite part about this reading was the description of the “Un-space” and the committee that explores it. This idea kind of reminds me of the whole concept of keeping very out of the ordinary things hidden in plan sight such as the W.A.S.T.E courier system/Trystero.
Though a highly inciting narrative thus far, I still feel that Hall made some cop-outs as an author in communicating the whole idea of the Ludivician that swims around in the stream of human thought. Mostly, it was just too much information to take in all at once. There is so much stuff surrounding this idea that it would’ve been a little better for me to have it come out gradually and dispersed throughout the novel. Though we still don’t know a lot of things about these conceptual fish, the details concerning this unique idea seemed like a long chain of “thought” puns and play on words. Don’t get me wrong; Hall has something very creative here. But for me, it just seemed way too rushed and thrown out onto these letters with each letter adding something new and more confusing. Plus, we hardly see a reaction from Eric who simply decides to take everything from these letters and put use it unquestioningly. There is no example of thought or consideration, just believe this crazy nonsense and do as I’m told.
Finally, I believe that Eric leaves the real world right at the point when he starts dreaming of Chloe who is rationally responding to him and even makes a distasteful joke about necrophilia. It is also right at this point when the banging commences. So it seems that by thinking of Chloe, the Ludivician was able to find his whereabouts and begin hunting once again.
The idea of the Ludovician is an intriguing one; the shark is able to find is prey by swimming through the flows of human interaction. The explanation of how the shark finds it's prey (and how it exists for that matter) does seem like a whole bunch of puns, like Adam said, but I don't think Hall went overboard. As soon as this was explained I realized that the letter Eric read about the boat on the lake was a way of making a connection between him and the writer of the letter, an interesting idea which will probably come up again later. I found the method of keeping the shark at bay pretty cool too; the juxtaposition of people who don't have a connection to one another, means the shark has no means of transportation. The method of encrypting Eric's story, with the light bulb, was awesome, but I still am not sure why Eric had to make the video in the first place, if a future him was gong to have to decode it. I found unspace interesting as well and I assume it will become more important later in the story. I look forward to seeing how Eric will track down Fidorous.
I was intrigued with the way that Eric feels there is a shark swimming through his human interactions. The way that he sets up the tapes and follows everything that the first Eric Sanderson does shows exactly how vulnerable is at this point in time. He has no sense of who he is, which leaves him left to build himself based off of the first Eric Sanderson, because he doesn't seem to trust Dr. Randle. I get where he's coming from considering both Eric's went through the same thing. It lets this Eric connect with the first Eric because he knows that the first Eric really does understand what he's going through, how paranoid he is, how out of the loop he feels.
I thought it was interesting when it came to reading the letters that the first Eric slowly started to write the endings differently. It went from "With regret and also hope" to "With regret and hope" to "Regret and hope." Also sometimes he signed the letters with a simple E instead of his whole name. I don't know if this represents the first Eric starting to lose his mind again.
I enjoyed reading the part about how he cannot act like himself, how he can't leave any ripples in the world for the shark to come find him. It's an interesting concept and I laughed at how he got a job simply to learn the mannerisms of another guy, to clone who he is and how he acts to find safety for himself.
This second section was definitely a bit more confusing, although the more I think of it, maybe it is SUPPOSED to be all scattered and kind of weird. I really liked the part about Clio and Eric in Greece. Clio seemed really funny and laid back, which was cool. Their relationship was kind of interesting though. I found it a little odd how they didn't really have any friends or talk to anyone aside from each other. I like how Clio said "Speaking with footnotes" on page forty-one. Funny, and as I can imagine, very true.
I was SO confused with all the banging going on in the locked room, and I got even more confused when all there was in there was a file cabinet... What could have made that sound?! Also, I was completely lost when Eric was in his house and the TV essentially attacked him or something. It was a little creepy. It reminded me of "The Ring." Also, the Morse code didn't make sense to me at all. I would hate to have to figure it out!
I also did not really like the letters that much. I was a little disappointed with this section of reading, but I'm pretty sure it was just because there was a lot of information that hasn't been fully explained yet. I want to find out answers!
I really like the concept of the shark—the Ludovician. It’s really cool that something exists in the world of minds. We all interact in reality, but we also each have our own inner monologue, our memories, our self-awareness. This shark seems to live somewhere in this world. Maybe this is also the world where dreams come from? A little like Alice in Wonderland….
This section also reminded me of a mix between “Crying of Lot 49” and “Number 9 Dream”. The secret codes and plots and identities was a lot like Oedipa – following instructions or what one thinks one SHOULD do. It was also like Eiji with the yakuza encounters. There is a huge conspiracy that we don’t even know actually exists or, if it does, of what nature it is. This section also went in and out of reality and dream/concept – like the past books did.
On page 75, with the talk of secret codes, there was some recursion! To decode it, one had to look at the letters, but to find them, one has to find words, and to find words, one needs sentences, and for sentences, one needs paragraphs!
So I started reading this section on my airplane ride. I was really tired but the first half went by so quickly. I hadn't realized I was on page 60 until I decided to check. It made me really happy when part of Erics past with Clio was revealed. I remember him saying how he would visualize her different ways each day. With a different personality. When we were finally able to read part of his life with her, I was satisfied but now I want to know more. I thought the description of Greece and what they did and his emotions were perfectly written for the part.
I was sooo confused when he started describing being pulled under. I had no idea what was going on and what he was trying to get across.
When Eric finally opened up the letters, I understood. I really liked the idea of the shark although it kind of confused me. It took me a minute to place the banging from the closed room to be caused from the shark. I thought it was interesting all the steps and precautions Eric has to take in order to not feed the shark his memories. I thought it was interesting how Eric decides to leave because at the beginning Dr. Randle asked if he had the urge to leave/run away etc. So I really enjoyed the end. And thought this section was really good as well.
--Amanda
This is an Amazing section of book. The first part is scary! That lightbulb video really really creeped me out at first, and a little less so once I found out that it was a coded message. It still creeps me out a bit. The scene with the TV was amazing... at first I thought it was like a horror movie but it isn't exactly. I hate horror movies. This author was able to create an intense, scary scene that wouldn't be the same were it created using a completely visual and audio medium. I loved creating my own landscape for that scene: a sea of darkness and conceptual reality. While I was reading that scene I was screaming at Eric in my mind; I had a theory. If he could re-form the conceptual liquid from of floor back into a solid concept, maybe he could escape the Ludovician. Why can only the shark re-shape reality into concepts? Now that Eric knows how to cloak himself, I think he could learn how to create his own conceptual world.
I feel so bad for the Past Eric, the First Eric. He is/was more alone than the present Eric is. The present Eric has the past Eric, yet all the past Eric has is his Dictophone tapes and what strips of memories he has left.
The first section of The Light Bulb Fragment was sweet, and real, and very well written. It was a nice breather from all of the uncertainty of Eric's reality. I liked the dream with Clio in it too. I have an image in my mind of that dreamscape, and especially of the pool with leaves on the surface, which the Ludovician uses to get to Eric. Hm, maybe Eric needs to avoid all water, especially conceptual water. The beastie seems to be getting to him that way.
"It's raining here in the past. I hope the weather there in the future is better."
Regret and hope,
S
So, my second blog post is somehow under the first reading, and the second reading has no blog post at all.
Blogger, y u no like me?
Nico said...
I wanted to say this for the first reading--Eric Sanderson is being controlled by himself. The mail system must be set up by a network of people working for the first Eric Sanderson, just as Dr. Randle is, but even this new Eric has imposed restrictions on his life very quickly--I'm thinking of page 29, where he describes his weekly routine: "Through these activities I began to develop some parameters, put together a minute but perfectly formed existence...a postage stamp of control."
Is this his coping mechanism, or is this a defining trait of the original Eric Sanderson? If it is, it's creepy. It's going to make something bad happen.
p. 30: He isn't going to read the letters?!
p. 31: He isn't going to unlock the door?!
p. 36 He opens the journal!
p. 48:
"'Is there something alive in there?'
Clio nodded. 'Yes.'
'What is it?'
'I don't know,' she said, watching the waters. 'Something from down where it gets black.'
p. 57: The 'creature' in the white noise--he describes it as a living thing
p. 58: AN EYE IT'S THE SHARK'S EYE
p. 60: WHAT'S GOING ON I DON'T EVEN
I think the shark is his coping mechanism, Eric's way of avoiding the truth in his memories--and it's aggressive and mobilized. (p. 64: "The creature will find something I've missed because it never stops looking and its senses are very sharp...I can't stay in this shark cage forever.")
Ludovician-the shark creature menacing Eric's memories. "It feeds on human memories and the intrinsic sense of self [...] a Ludovician might select an individual human being as its prey animal and pursue and feed on that individual over the course of years, until that victim's memory and identity have been completely consumed."
pp 66-67--the 'shark cage'
QWERTY--the flickering light bulb tape is playing a double-encoded Morse/QWERTY message. QWERTY like the keyboard, I'm guessing.
Big toe--The first Eric Sanderson remembered something Clio said, about getting a smiley face tattoo on her big toe so it would "look funny in the morgue".
Dr. Trey Fidorious--the man the first Eric Sanderson tried to find, believing he could help bring Clio back.
UNSPACE--open, abandoned areas in the world.
p. 88:
Okay, I'm into the book now. I'm in this story with Eric for better or worse
I think I missed the Red Queen?
In this chapter I liked that I was able to find out more about Clio's character and background. Eric loved Clio a lot and that she was funny and sacrastic at times. I thought it was funny to find out the reason why Eric and Clio named the cat Ian. But then I wonder what happpened to Gavin. In this chapter Eric reads all the letters after he expreiences his floor become an ocean and the feeling that a shark is after him. I really found it strange that there is a mental shark named Ludovician and that it goes through the channels in the mind and is able to eat your memories until it fianlly kills you. I did not like the puzzle code with the light bulb. I was competely lost over what Eric had to do in this section. The Alice in Wonderland refrences in this is the red cabinet in the locked room being the red queen. I really liked the end of the chapter where Eric leaves everything in the red cabinet and says the reason for doing that is to search for Trey Fidorous. I liked how he sounded like the first Eric with ending with "I'm sorry it's not much,".
I found the letters about the conceptual fish, the Ludovician, fascinating. The whole idea is brilliant and fun, if not a little scary for Eric. He is haunted by a figment of the world that may exist or it may just be his way of coping with Clio's death. The fact that Eric is an unreliable narrator and that we only see things from his head lead me to believe that my hypothesis is correct. However, being that as it may, the whole idea forces Eric into something that he himself designed. Clues to Clio and his relationship, and Eric jumps head first into the only answers he can find.
Clio Aames is a wonderful character. She is a good foil to the seriousness and shyness of Eric's personality. The two of them complement each other and seem to function very well. Eric loves her totally and completely which makes his mental break understandable. The idea of the fish to shield him from his own memories is brilliant on the part of the author.
The professor that the first Eric supposedly finds is an interesting character as well. He has supposedly created a theory of evolution in regards to words and letters. The idea is interesting to say the least.
I am very interested to see what the light bulb fragment will say if it says anything coherent at all. The fact that pieces of Eric Sanderson's life keep disappearing make Eric only search harder. One must wonder if he would be happier living his life out as a man with only the possibility of new memories? His old life keeps haunting him and the fish continues to follow him. One has to wonder what his memories hide.
The book is becoming all sorts of weird and intriguing. Holding true to its fashion of reading like a movie, I enjoyed the part where Eric has his flash backs about Clio while reading the journal entries.
I also really enjoyed the parts where the (what I have come to call) “conceptual magical realism” where the shark is more or less explained. I like this idea of Eric being hunted by a creature that is more of ideas and words than flesh and blood. Something is confusing me though, obviously the shark is incapable of completely destroying Eric as he keeps on coming back. So what I'm wondering is what exactly is it that keeps Eric from slipping completely into oblivion every time he relaxes his defenses and the shark eats his concepts of who he is and what his life was like. This sort of brings up another potential factor. Has at any point Eric remained safe enough to fully regain his memories? If not, then are there certain parts of his self that are permanently gone, devoured forever by the shark? Relating to this, I also particularly liked the methods in which he has to disguise himself and fool the shark. In many ways, it seems a bit like trying to block out an annoying sound, it's just a matter of occupying your mind with other sensory details or a singular idea, but the thing in this case is Eric needs to distract himself from being himself. As for when Eric really seems to fall into the rabbit hole and enter Wonderland, I'd have to say that particular ball gets rolling when Eric has his dream after reading the journal entries about himself and Clio. It's one of the first implications that there is something metaphysical going on, then again it really may be the concept of metaphysicality.
In the beginning of the reading we get more insight on the relationship between Clio and Eric. In my mind the whole time I kept thinking "Please stop!" I found it hard to read and see how wonderful a couple they were knowing Clio dies. It was so cute how they were sarcastic and "mean" to each other. I did see what Clio meant when she tells Eric that he is "always comparing things in real life to things in film." I feel like that is what I am doing in the book. I see a strong correlation between the book and movies.
In the reading in Chapter 5 we start to get the mixing of reality and dreams which we encountered in the previous books that we have read.
The idea of the conceptual shark did and still confuses me. I loved the idea but it was hard for me to grasp. I want to ask Steven Hall how he came up with such a creative and complicated idea.
At first I had a hard time reading the letters. It was hard for me to visualize the Dictaphone and the shark cage. My head hurt as well when he was describing the light bulb text encryption. I definately would not want to have to decode that.
At the end of the story I question his decision to leave Dr. Randle. I dont' want anything bad to happen to Eric and I feel he might me safter at his house.
I love how this section opened with some random act of kindness from some random guy. I really liked the Light Bulb Fragment! I wanted that segment to keep going! In fact I wouldn't mind if that was the whole book. I really liked her idea for a tattoo of a smiley face under her big toe. That's such dark humor. I was so disappointed that there was only a filing cabinet and a piece of paper in the locked room. I don't know if this is significant or not but the filing cabinet is red like the Red Queen. I absolutely loved the description of fiction on pages 54 and 55. It's so cool how a writer can share something that is in their head just by having someone else read their writing.
I also loved the images in the T.V. it was so cool how they formed sharks and that the shark swam through the T.V.! It was so cool that it was a conceptual shark attack! That was exactly how I imagined a normal shark attack so it was awesome that it was in a house. The name of the shark, the Ludovician, reminded me of the Leviathan.
The idea of unspace is really interesting. You never think about those unoccupied spaces. It's kind of like "if a tree falls in a forest and no one's around does it make a sound?".
QWERTY made my head hurt! Its way too much thinking and guessing and concentrating for me.
The Lightbulb fragment is very strange. What i like most about this chapter is the imagery it creates. Books that are crystal clear and detailed allow me to flow through the sequences of events as if I were watching a movie. the lightbulb fragment, the flashbacks with Clio, the shark in the static all make this reading engaging. The author talks about water for a good portion of the book; a topic that when thought of metaphorically, can have you thinking for hours. Though there are many parts I enjoy about this book, I do find that some sections are dry and reserved. If only I could watch this as a movie!
I like the whole concept of confusing the shark with addresses of other people , i was like ohhh clever clever one you are lol. On chapter 4 ahhhhh clio and eric are sooo cute together. Unfortunetly we know that clio is for good dead. i really admire the fact that eric is really observant of clio and her features and all that shows how much attention he really gave her. On the bottom of page 39 we are getting a reference to the book , " This thing you have about always comparing things in real life to the things in film." i like how the author actually makes them sound like a couple a really cute couple and u grow with the characters as well and you just want them to be happy.
i love this line on page 43, "I couldnt stand it if i ruined you," she said. Chapter 6 was really well written i can feel the intense descriptions as im reading this. Its very well written. Clio seems to me like she is blood for the shark and whenever he < eric, dreams of her the shark gets loser , closer,closer ...O...
I was very excited when we learned of Clio and Eric's past together. It was nice to read about their time in Greece and what happened there, it was a key piece to the puzzle that we're putting together as we figure out who Eric truly is and what he has gone through in his past, having been a man who has recreated himself 11 times. I like the way this book is written so far. We are able to see who Eric is in the present, but every once in a while, for example with this Greece flashback and through the letters, we'll get a nice look at what happened in his past and these moments usually have a few answers to some of my questions and are pieces to this puzzle.
I also like the concept of the Ludovician. It appears to me to be brilliant yet concerning. It shows how far Eric is from being in touch with reality. I mean, he believes that there is a shark swimming through his mind, eating his memories to the extent that it will eventually kill him!
I think that this second reading really answered many of the questions I had regarding the first reading. I was really confused of the shark at first but then I found out that the shark was a conceptual shark and that it was all in his head. I think that’s kind of cool but weird at the same time. I like Clio’s personality because when she says things, she sounds smart and sexy at the same time. I think it is also interesting that Anti sound relates to space and unspace. This is really postmodern in my point of view. HAHAHA it is funny how the animals and pets they own have human names such as Gavin and Ian. In fact what ever happened to Gavin. He disappeared out of no where and I thought he was kind of cool.
I think it’s weird when Eric and Clio talk filthy to each other because it is nasty and perverted at the same time. I think that their love is so complicated in reference to page 45 because she says she loves Eric and he says that he enjoys spending time with her too. This is just hilarious HAHAHAHA. This Alice in Wonderland reference creeps me out because I was never a fan of that story. When they curse, it comes at the perfect time, like on page 49 when Clio says “Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition”. At the end of chapter 5, he is finally in the real world and not in the crazy land of his dreams. I like the scene when Eric hears a bang and it is the conceptual shark banging on the door. This made me remember the scary movie Scream. I found it interesting on page 54 that the television works as a normaliser and the letter after that, talks about what fiction does to you as a reader. The whole scary movie idea comes again when the TV breaks and it is pitch black in the room. The green light from the smoke detector seemed scary as I tried to visualize the whole scenario. I think it’s cool that the Ludivician shark is said to be a mighty predator. This makes me think that Eric is basically screwed. It weird that on page 69, letters are mentioned that don’t come up in the reading at all. Kind of fishy or it may not mean anything at all. Like we discussed in class, the idea of recursion comes up on page 73, but I didn’t notice that when I was reading it until the class discussion. Unspace is mentioned once again, and ENOUGH with the Alice in Wonderland references. HAHAHA it was really mysterious and funny.
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