Though a fairly short, (yet extremely long for one weekend in terms of page number difference) section, this reading was suspenseful and full of descriptive action. Though it’s been talked about in our class before, I really didn’t see that much resemblance to the movie Jaws besides the obvious harpoon gun, barrels and the whole scene with Fidorous pretending to fall asleep on the fisherman’s chair with the green ranger’s cap covering his face. I guess if I had seen the rest of the movie I might catch more of the allusions.
Also it was funny to see that the name of the boat in Jaws was the Orca, (coming from the name of one of the only creatures in the ocean that actually hunts sharks) versus the Orpheus in the reading. Even though they share the synonymous “O”, the boats were outfitted very differently. Eric’s boat was supposed to be the concept of a sharking boat, “how anyone in the western world pictures one”, I got the feeling that it was a little too modernized compared to the Orpheus. With all of its ruggedness, damages, creaking and moaning wooden panels, slicked up front deck, that’s the boat that I’d expect to see a badass shark hunter using. Though not as ideal as what Eric, Scout and Fidorous are using, it paints a better picture if you know what I mean.
Besides the shark hunt, I must congratulate Eric and Scout for quasi-apologizing to each other and making out during an intense shark attack. It seems that the highly dangerous situation that they’re going through evoked an innermost sense of love and emotion that they feel towards each other. This could possibly be the last time that they have to be with each other and they’re definitely not going to let some mangy twenty-foot shark ruin the moment for them. I believe also that it was the fear of Eric being lost and drowned in the ocean that instigated the instantaneous kiss. Though only slightly touched on in the reading, I am eager to see how this moment affects their relationship in the long run.
I love the way that the reading started off with Eric being thrown into the water. It shakes his belief that he was on a conceptual boat, because if it was all and only a concept, then how is he in real water? When Scout calls for him and helps me back to safety, all I can do is hope that everything between them will go back to normal. Still though, I'm lost just in the idea of an idea boat and yet where they really are. Hall does a great job writing, leaving both Eric and the reader with the same sense of confusion, which grows into a weird and almost unaccepted acceptance of everything being nothing and something all at once. I can't lie, it's a hard idea to wrap my mind around. An interesting one, but still a hard one.
The scene from Jaws and the reading was more or less identical. From the barrels to the stick that they stab him with. I can completely see that Hall was influenced by Jaws when he was writing the scene with the Orpheus out at sea. The way he describes it makes me picture only chaos in my mind, which in an odd way works quite well with the story. Everything about Eric's life has been turned upside down, and now it's all chaotic. So why would there be a normal boat in a ridiculous story?
When Scout and Eric kiss, I get excited for them. Clearly when they get scared and they see the possibility of not living past this little adventure they're on, they put everything behind them. To me, that's what true love is. It's realistic. They fight, but in the end whenever they need each other, they're right there for support and a shoulder to lean on. I truly enjoy the relationship between Scout and Eric. Because of Scout, Eric has grown and moved forward with his life in multiple ways.
The description in this section was, as usual, magnificent. I love the way Hall described the conceptual ocean world through Eric's perceptions; How he makes it clear that Eric is swimming in the ocean, but makes the whole scene surreal at the same time. I love how Eric is described as "an old forgotten moment in the endless blue of the world's mind." The idea that we are all connected through our ideas and how we imagine the world to be is a great concept.
Of course, the shark flipbook part was awesome, and I enjoyed how the last image was made up of a part of the very beginning of the book. I'm still trying to figure out why that one line was repeated. Oh maybe the shark was somehow eating the end of the thought, or maybe sucking it up through the 'negative space' of its existence. Or something.
The scene with Eric and Scout right after Eric is pulled up onto the ship for the second time was so sweet! It is one of the few times that we see Scout openly show affection and love for Eric. Yes, I am a hopeless romantic. Suchhh a cute scene! : )
I'm glad that we watched that scene of jaws before reading this section. I made sure to hold it in my mind as I read, and once the story got to the part with the barrels they were truly parallel story lines. It's funny, and true, how the movie jaws created a universal picture of a shark hunting boat in the global mind. I found it kind of odd though that Eric had to wear clothes from other people' psyches, I find it like wearing strangers clothes. But the idea that everyone's perceptions of something coalesce in one conceptual place is really interesting.
I really liked the very first paragraph on pg 313; the way Eric was floating in the idea of water of concepts was really cool. When he’s in the water, the water is concepts, but once he surfaces, it is “just water, all cold, salty and deep”(pg 313). The description of the boat and how it is like every shark-hunting boat imagined reminded me of the lake description at the beginning of the book, except in this case, everyone is imagining the same boat rather than a similar but quite different lake. The lost and found clothes were a really cool detail. Just like the letter bomb Scout used had all the history of the stories written using the letters, these clothes are instead real because of the stories people use them in. When Fidorous set up the printer to feed Eric’s story into the water, he’s chumming the water!! That is really cool!!! Half-way through the pictures of the shark, the words that make him up change – I wonder why that is.
So Eric finds himself aboard an actual boat, and almost drowning in an actual ocean as well, I'm sure that shook his skepticism about drinking the conceptual water. I'm not sure if Eric made the boat himself or if the Doctor and Scout helped, but the concept is interesting either way. It was cool that the boat was an amalgamation of everyone's perception of what a shark hunting boat would look like, and not just the one Eric imagined.
I suspect that this boat and ocean, and world the three of them are in right now exists only in their minds. Fidorous says that it's "Easier if you just accept it." Which leads me to believe that if they don't believe in its existence, it won't exist. But we'll see...
I'm beginning to think the shark is a lot smarter than Fidorous said he was, he seems to have intentionally rammed the boat to send Eric into the water. Either way, I liked that Hall used Scout rescuing Eric as a way for them to finally make up. I think this was a lot more realistic and seems less forced than having them talk it out.
I think the parallel with Jaws was well done and not to obvious, after all the shark and the boat are concepts made up of people's perceptions, and when most people think "giant shark," they think Jaws. I can't wait to see how the rest of the shark hunting goes; someone's gotta get eaten by the shark.
I like the section in italics on page 323, the italics take you out of the story, and the section seems almost poetic.
This chapter reminded me a lot of the scene in Jaws we watched in class. Each time I saw something I kept thinking "that was in the movie". I don't understand why but I really find it amusing how much the characters treat Ian human like. They ask him questions and just by his facial expression they can tell what he is thinking about. I also thought that using Eric's story as bait was strange but then again it is an idea shark that they need to find. I also really like the quote "It's easier if you just accept it " and "try not to think about it" that Fidorous says because I think it really does go with what the book is about. Eric has to go along with the idea of everything just to create water and see the boat. He needs to accept it like it is a normal thing to him. After Eric falls into the water and sees ludovician I thought the sentence that is repeated "fingers clamped my wrist and forearm and dragged me up back towards the surface with a" would mean that his memories were going to get erased since Ludovician was so close to him but it is just like the same reaction that he has when he met Nobody and Ludovican was near.
OMGGGGGGG there at sea. i love it when he takes gasps of air because i can clearly picture it. i actually see alot of the jaws resemblence. I like how the Orphieus is a boat that i can clearly picture in my head. I see the boat really old and filled with barrels and the sea going crazy with waves. finally there is action...the Ludovician has to die. " you need to hit him in the head, near the brain or near the mouth." (pg.319)Ahhhhhhhh shark! ! -- o o -- vvv !!!
I like the paintbrush spear weapon because it makes since in relationship with the shark made of words. An eraser would have worked as well but a paintbrush looks more like a weapon. The fact that the story resembles Jaws makes sense because they are ideas that are thought about by many people that have watched the film. I love the repetition and fading of letters during the shark attack. That is probably the most suspenseful detail the author could have added to this book because you start to consider the possibility that Eric could be eaten and have to start all over. Another one of my favorite parts of this book is the title of chapter 31 “Feelings Or Whatever” coming right after the intense shark attack.
I liked that the Orpheus is the collective idea of a shark hunting boat. If the collective idea was different then the boat would look different. I love when Fidorous asks Ian if it's hot enough for him. I thought it was so cute.
I really like that you can still see the original version of the boat through the current version. I also like that the boat in "Jaws" is called the Orca so the Orpheus kind of echoes that.
I love that the chum they put in is the page of this book!!! That's so cool and the page they show is page 11. How did Fidorous catch the shark on a fishing pole? I don't understand that?
Then, OH CRAP!!!!!!!!! Eric falls overboard!!! Then FLIIIIIPPPBOOOOOOOKKKK!!! Then The shark almost eats Eric! Then Scout and Fidorous save him. Then Scout and Eric apologize and get back together! Yea!!!! :)
The actual amount of reading for this section wasn't too much. I liked on page 319 when Fidorous said "...there's always risk, but what you have to remember is this whole boat is made from a single powerful non-divergent conceptual loop..." The fact is, there is risk in reality and everyday life too, not just with this boat. I thought that was interesting and also that because they agree that they are on a boat, they are. Its a boat because they all say it is, but if they all said it was a motorcycle, it could be a motorcycle instead. Its such a weird concept to me. I also liked the lines that were smudged. I think it adds more detail and quirk to the book. I also liked in the flip book how the shark was made from half sentences that changed every so often.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the opening of this reading. It is so powerful and strong. It reminded me of the beginning of the book in this respect. I found a good reference to post modern writing on page 317. Fidorous says, “Easier if you just accept it.” I feel like sometimes when reading post modern fiction we must do this. I think this end is exactly like Jaws and watching Jaws made imagining the ending easy. The flip book is very creative and I believe the words that make up the shark are a part of the First Eric Sanderson’s memories. Oh at the end I am very happy that Scout and Eric get backed together. I find this book hard to blog about. It is so action packed and engaging but it is so straight forward so I don’t find that I have any mind boggling things to talk about like other previous post-modern books.
The fact that Hall has included a quote from Italo Calvino just made the book even more post modern. It connected our previous books while giving us more work to draw from in regards to Calvino. This helps us to better understand how the post modern movement connects to itself and it helps us to understand where Calvino is coming from as a writer.
Hall is again able to beautifully describe how it feels be under the influence of waves that are crashing over you. This serves the book well because it adds suspense and drama. By doing this, Hall is able to move the book forward from the much needed albeit boring exposition.
The characters are now in a completely different world. They are now for all intents and purposes, at sea. They feel the sun and the waves even though they are just inside a concept of Eric's creation.
The fact that their boat is called Orpheus makes important allusions or foreshadows to what may happen in the future. It may hint at the possibility of Eric failing to bring Clio back again or to him losing everything. This adds to the suspense that saturates this section of reading. The way this section ends also serves to heighten our attachment to the characters as we fear for their safety.
I liked that there was an Italo Calvino quote in here! It made me miss “If on a winters night a traveler.” The “Jaws” references were crazy in this section. I liked it though, and really enjoyed watching the end of the movie in class and comparing it with the book. The quote “Probably for the best, It’s easier if you just accept it” was definitely postmodern. I don’t like doing that though, because I feel like I’m left without answers! I always like to have answers, and I feel like postmodernism is all about NOT having answers to insanely confusing concepts. Not a very good thing for someone who has reading comprehension problems. The flip pages of the shark was awesome, of course. I mean, who couldn’t like that? I kind of wish that I didn’t know it was going to be there until I actually read all the way up to it and just happened upon it. I think that would have made it even cooler. Crazy how similar “Jaws” and the end of this chapter are! “One of the barrels of phone books and speed dialers leapt, threw itself across the deck, tumbled overboard and raced skidding across the ocean after the retreating Ludovician.” Identical to the movie!
Yes, they need a bigger boat. They need another Jaws sequel to be produced, where the boat is an aircraft carrier, so the collective idea of a shark boat changes considerably. Naming the boat the Orca is a good start, but it could go a lot further.
The sequence in the water at the beginning of the water was awesome. It's the same approach as in this part of House of Leaves--the text reflects the character's situation, involving the reader in a more visual way. And, THE FLIPBOOK. Yes, finally, there it is in context! It was creepy even though I knew it was coming.
This reading was kind of interesting, but not as much as some of the previous ones. What really caught my attention, are the titles of every chapter. I thought that the title of chapter 30, “Farewell and Adieu to You, Fair Spanish Ladies,” was interesting because it sounds cool, even though I don’t know what it means. On page 323, I like the description of the faded away words and how something huge and quick, probably the shark, pulled the page down and ripped it to shreds. Then it sank into the deep black of the ocean. The thing that I liked the most and found interesting, was little shark flipbook. I literally spent half an hour playing with that. I even got scared, HAHAHAHA, just kidding.
Excellent, this chapter is like one big Jaws reference! I liked the idea that through a cultural meme, and the idea of a collective subconscious that we have established an instinctive sense of what a shark hunting boat looks like. It actually makes sense as a real world idea. Anyone who's seen the movie and hears the term shark hunting boat will more than likely think of the Orca. I enjoyed how they were chumming the water to lure the shark in by using a printer running off pages from the beginning of the book. The idea is interesting, and the image of a printer continuously running pages off into the water is funny. The flip book section is one of, if not the most unique presentations I have ever seen in a novel, especially considering that the shark itself seems to be made up of what could be speculated to be some of Eric's lost memories. That whole section is incredibly evocative, especially when the detail about Scout grabbing Eric's hand and pulling him up keeps on getting repeated over and over again. It's kind of like Eric's mind is stumbling over the fact that he is about to be eaten, and isn't really processing what's going on around him correctly. Let's not forget that Scout and Eric get back together, immediately after she rescues him from the shark. Another detail that I thought was really fun to have is how each of the characters stands in for one of the characters in Jaws, even down to most of the direct physical actions that they take. It's as if in order to fully manifest the boat, the ocean, and the shark in order to combat it, they need to perfectly recreate this common concept of hunting a shark. - Asher
17 comments:
Though a fairly short, (yet extremely long for one weekend in terms of page number difference) section, this reading was suspenseful and full of descriptive action. Though it’s been talked about in our class before, I really didn’t see that much resemblance to the movie Jaws besides the obvious harpoon gun, barrels and the whole scene with Fidorous pretending to fall asleep on the fisherman’s chair with the green ranger’s cap covering his face. I guess if I had seen the rest of the movie I might catch more of the allusions.
Also it was funny to see that the name of the boat in Jaws was the Orca, (coming from the name of one of the only creatures in the ocean that actually hunts sharks) versus the Orpheus in the reading. Even though they share the synonymous “O”, the boats were outfitted very differently. Eric’s boat was supposed to be the concept of a sharking boat, “how anyone in the western world pictures one”, I got the feeling that it was a little too modernized compared to the Orpheus. With all of its ruggedness, damages, creaking and moaning wooden panels, slicked up front deck, that’s the boat that I’d expect to see a badass shark hunter using. Though not as ideal as what Eric, Scout and Fidorous are using, it paints a better picture if you know what I mean.
Besides the shark hunt, I must congratulate Eric and Scout for quasi-apologizing to each other and making out during an intense shark attack. It seems that the highly dangerous situation that they’re going through evoked an innermost sense of love and emotion that they feel towards each other. This could possibly be the last time that they have to be with each other and they’re definitely not going to let some mangy twenty-foot shark ruin the moment for them. I believe also that it was the fear of Eric being lost and drowned in the ocean that instigated the instantaneous kiss. Though only slightly touched on in the reading, I am eager to see how this moment affects their relationship in the long run.
I love the way that the reading started off with Eric being thrown into the water. It shakes his belief that he was on a conceptual boat, because if it was all and only a concept, then how is he in real water? When Scout calls for him and helps me back to safety, all I can do is hope that everything between them will go back to normal. Still though, I'm lost just in the idea of an idea boat and yet where they really are. Hall does a great job writing, leaving both Eric and the reader with the same sense of confusion, which grows into a weird and almost unaccepted acceptance of everything being nothing and something all at once. I can't lie, it's a hard idea to wrap my mind around. An interesting one, but still a hard one.
The scene from Jaws and the reading was more or less identical. From the barrels to the stick that they stab him with. I can completely see that Hall was influenced by Jaws when he was writing the scene with the Orpheus out at sea. The way he describes it makes me picture only chaos in my mind, which in an odd way works quite well with the story. Everything about Eric's life has been turned upside down, and now it's all chaotic. So why would there be a normal boat in a ridiculous story?
When Scout and Eric kiss, I get excited for them. Clearly when they get scared and they see the possibility of not living past this little adventure they're on, they put everything behind them. To me, that's what true love is. It's realistic. They fight, but in the end whenever they need each other, they're right there for support and a shoulder to lean on. I truly enjoy the relationship between Scout and Eric. Because of Scout, Eric has grown and moved forward with his life in multiple ways.
The description in this section was, as usual, magnificent. I love the way Hall described the conceptual ocean world through Eric's perceptions; How he makes it clear that Eric is swimming in the ocean, but makes the whole scene surreal at the same time. I love how Eric is described as "an old forgotten moment in the endless blue of the world's mind." The idea that we are all connected through our ideas and how we imagine the world to be is a great concept.
Of course, the shark flipbook part was awesome, and I enjoyed how the last image was made up of a part of the very beginning of the book. I'm still trying to figure out why that one line was repeated. Oh maybe the shark was somehow eating the end of the thought, or maybe sucking it up through the 'negative space' of its existence. Or something.
The scene with Eric and Scout right after Eric is pulled up onto the ship for the second time was so sweet! It is one of the few times that we see Scout openly show affection and love for Eric. Yes, I am a hopeless romantic. Suchhh a cute scene! : )
I'm glad that we watched that scene of jaws before reading this section. I made sure to hold it in my mind as I read, and once the story got to the part with the barrels they were truly parallel story lines. It's funny, and true, how the movie jaws created a universal picture of a shark hunting boat in the global mind. I found it kind of odd though that Eric had to wear clothes from other people' psyches, I find it like wearing strangers clothes. But the idea that everyone's perceptions of something coalesce in one conceptual place is really interesting.
I really liked the very first paragraph on pg 313; the way Eric was floating in the idea of water of concepts was really cool. When he’s in the water, the water is concepts, but once he surfaces, it is “just water, all cold, salty and deep”(pg 313). The description of the boat and how it is like every shark-hunting boat imagined reminded me of the lake description at the beginning of the book, except in this case, everyone is imagining the same boat rather than a similar but quite different lake. The lost and found clothes were a really cool detail. Just like the letter bomb Scout used had all the history of the stories written using the letters, these clothes are instead real because of the stories people use them in. When Fidorous set up the printer to feed Eric’s story into the water, he’s chumming the water!! That is really cool!!!
Half-way through the pictures of the shark, the words that make him up change – I wonder why that is.
So Eric finds himself aboard an actual boat, and almost drowning in an actual ocean as well, I'm sure that shook his skepticism about drinking the conceptual water. I'm not sure if Eric made the boat himself or if the Doctor and Scout helped, but the concept is interesting either way. It was cool that the boat was an amalgamation of everyone's perception of what a shark hunting boat would look like, and not just the one Eric imagined.
I suspect that this boat and ocean, and world the three of them are in right now exists only in their minds. Fidorous says that it's "Easier if you just accept it." Which leads me to believe that if they don't believe in its existence, it won't exist. But we'll see...
I'm beginning to think the shark is a lot smarter than Fidorous said he was, he seems to have intentionally rammed the boat to send Eric into the water. Either way, I liked that Hall used Scout rescuing Eric as a way for them to finally make up. I think this was a lot more realistic and seems less forced than having them talk it out.
I think the parallel with Jaws was well done and not to obvious, after all the shark and the boat are concepts made up of people's perceptions, and when most people think "giant shark," they think Jaws. I can't wait to see how the rest of the shark hunting goes; someone's gotta get eaten by the shark.
I like the section in italics on page 323, the italics take you out of the story, and the section seems almost poetic.
This chapter reminded me a lot of the scene in Jaws we watched in class. Each time I saw something I kept thinking "that was in the movie". I don't understand why but I really find it amusing how much the characters treat Ian human like. They ask him questions and just by his facial expression they can tell what he is thinking about. I also thought that using Eric's story as bait was strange but then again it is an idea shark that they need to find. I also really like the quote "It's easier if you just accept it " and "try not to think about it" that Fidorous says because I think it really does go with what the book is about. Eric has to go along with the idea of everything just to create water and see the boat. He needs to accept it like it is a normal thing to him. After Eric falls into the water and sees ludovician I thought the sentence that is repeated "fingers clamped my wrist and forearm and dragged me up back towards the surface with a" would mean that his memories were going to get erased since Ludovician was so close to him but it is just like the same reaction that he has when he met Nobody and Ludovican was near.
OMGGGGGGG there at sea. i love it when he takes gasps of air because i can clearly picture it. i actually see alot of the jaws resemblence. I like how the Orphieus is a boat that i can clearly picture in my head. I see the boat really old and filled with barrels and the sea going crazy with waves. finally there is action...the Ludovician has to die. " you need to hit him in the head, near the brain or near the mouth." (pg.319)Ahhhhhhhh shark!
!
-- o o --
vvv
!!!
i tried making a shark and failed lmfao
aww thats wack when i was posting it everything was alligned and wen i submitted it messed it up. BOOOOOO
I like the paintbrush spear weapon because it makes since in relationship with the shark made of words. An eraser would have worked as well but a paintbrush looks more like a weapon. The fact that the story resembles Jaws makes sense because they are ideas that are thought about by many people that have watched the film. I love the repetition and fading of letters during the shark attack. That is probably the most suspenseful detail the author could have added to this book because you start to consider the possibility that Eric could be eaten and have to start all over. Another one of my favorite parts of this book is the title of chapter 31 “Feelings Or Whatever” coming right after the intense shark attack.
I liked that the Orpheus is the collective idea of a shark hunting boat. If the collective idea was different then the boat would look different. I love when Fidorous asks Ian if it's hot enough for him. I thought it was so cute.
I really like that you can still see the original version of the boat through the current version. I also like that the boat in "Jaws" is called the Orca so the Orpheus kind of echoes that.
I love that the chum they put in is the page of this book!!! That's so cool and the page they show is page 11. How did Fidorous catch the shark on a fishing pole? I don't understand that?
Then, OH CRAP!!!!!!!!! Eric falls overboard!!! Then FLIIIIIPPPBOOOOOOOKKKK!!! Then The shark almost eats Eric! Then Scout and Fidorous save him. Then Scout and Eric apologize and get back together! Yea!!!! :)
The actual amount of reading for this section wasn't too much. I liked on page 319 when Fidorous said "...there's always risk, but what you have to remember is this whole boat is made from a single powerful non-divergent conceptual loop..." The fact is, there is risk in reality and everyday life too, not just with this boat. I thought that was interesting and also that because they agree that they are on a boat, they are. Its a boat because they all say it is, but if they all said it was a motorcycle, it could be a motorcycle instead. Its such a weird concept to me. I also liked the lines that were smudged. I think it adds more detail and quirk to the book. I also liked in the flip book how the shark was made from half sentences that changed every so often.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the opening of this reading. It is so powerful and strong. It reminded me of the beginning of the book in this respect. I found a good reference to post modern writing on page 317. Fidorous says, “Easier if you just accept it.” I feel like sometimes when reading post modern fiction we must do this. I think this end is exactly like Jaws and watching Jaws made imagining the ending easy.
The flip book is very creative and I believe the words that make up the shark are a part of the First Eric Sanderson’s memories.
Oh at the end I am very happy that Scout and Eric get backed together.
I find this book hard to blog about. It is so action packed and engaging but it is so straight forward so I don’t find that I have any mind boggling things to talk about like other previous post-modern books.
The fact that Hall has included a quote from Italo Calvino just made the book even more post modern. It connected our previous books while giving us more work to draw from in regards to Calvino. This helps us to better understand how the post modern movement connects to itself and it helps us to understand where Calvino is coming from as a writer.
Hall is again able to beautifully describe how it feels be under the influence of waves that are crashing over you. This serves the book well because it adds suspense and drama. By doing this, Hall is able to move the book forward from the much needed albeit boring exposition.
The characters are now in a completely different world. They are now for all intents and purposes, at sea. They feel the sun and the waves even though they are just inside a concept of Eric's creation.
The fact that their boat is called Orpheus makes important allusions or foreshadows to what may happen in the future. It may hint at the possibility of Eric failing to bring Clio back again or to him losing everything. This adds to the suspense that saturates this section of reading. The way this section ends also serves to heighten our attachment to the characters as we fear for their safety.
I liked that there was an Italo Calvino quote in here! It made me miss “If on a winters night a traveler.” The “Jaws” references were crazy in this section. I liked it though, and really enjoyed watching the end of the movie in class and comparing it with the book. The quote “Probably for the best, It’s easier if you just accept it” was definitely postmodern. I don’t like doing that though, because I feel like I’m left without answers! I always like to have answers, and I feel like postmodernism is all about NOT having answers to insanely confusing concepts. Not a very good thing for someone who has reading comprehension problems. The flip pages of the shark was awesome, of course. I mean, who couldn’t like that? I kind of wish that I didn’t know it was going to be there until I actually read all the way up to it and just happened upon it. I think that would have made it even cooler. Crazy how similar “Jaws” and the end of this chapter are! “One of the barrels of phone books and speed dialers leapt, threw itself across the deck, tumbled overboard and raced skidding across the ocean after the retreating Ludovician.” Identical to the movie!
Yes, they need a bigger boat. They need another Jaws sequel to be produced, where the boat is an aircraft carrier, so the collective idea of a shark boat changes considerably. Naming the boat the Orca is a good start, but it could go a lot further.
The sequence in the water at the beginning of the water was awesome. It's the same approach as in this part of House of Leaves--the text reflects the character's situation, involving the reader in a more visual way. And, THE FLIPBOOK. Yes, finally, there it is in context! It was creepy even though I knew it was coming.
This reading was kind of interesting, but not as much as some of the previous ones. What really caught my attention, are the titles of every chapter. I thought that the title of chapter 30, “Farewell and Adieu to You, Fair Spanish Ladies,” was interesting because it sounds cool, even though I don’t know what it means. On page 323, I like the description of the faded away words and how something huge and quick, probably the shark, pulled the page down and ripped it to shreds. Then it sank into the deep black of the ocean. The thing that I liked the most and found interesting, was little shark flipbook. I literally spent half an hour playing with that. I even got scared, HAHAHAHA, just kidding.
Excellent, this chapter is like one big Jaws reference! I liked the idea that through a cultural meme, and the idea of a collective subconscious that we have established an instinctive sense of what a shark hunting boat looks like. It actually makes sense as a real world idea. Anyone who's seen the movie and hears the term shark hunting boat will more than likely think of the Orca. I enjoyed how they were chumming the water to lure the shark in by using a printer running off pages from the beginning of the book. The idea is interesting, and the image of a printer continuously running pages off into the water is funny. The flip book section is one of, if not the most unique presentations I have ever seen in a novel, especially considering that the shark itself seems to be made up of what could be speculated to be some of Eric's lost memories. That whole section is incredibly evocative, especially when the detail about Scout grabbing Eric's hand and pulling him up keeps on getting repeated over and over again. It's kind of like Eric's mind is stumbling over the fact that he is about to be eaten, and isn't really processing what's going on around him correctly. Let's not forget that Scout and Eric get back together, immediately after she rescues him from the shark. Another detail that I thought was really fun to have is how each of the characters stands in for one of the characters in Jaws, even down to most of the direct physical actions that they take. It's as if in order to fully manifest the boat, the ocean, and the shark in order to combat it, they need to perfectly recreate this common concept of hunting a shark. - Asher
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