The beginning of this chapter starts with the melding of reality and sleep and dreams. Eric describes the weird limbo place of sleep and wake – a place with “un-sense” (pg 268). On pg 273, we finally learn why the First Eric pursued the Ludovician – to preserve Clio’s memory. Tragically, however, he only ends up losing her… We then learn who Fidorous is and where he learned everything. On pg 278, after Tekisui defeats the warriors with basically nothing, he says “what you have seen is the idea of skill, or un-skill. It is everything and nothing”. This is exactly what many of the weird occurrences in the book have been. I liked Eric having to drink the “concept of water”. The book’s continual talk of concepts of objects and the functions of objects, for some reason, reminds me of Plato’s idea that there is the concept of a chair, for example, and then there are all other chairs that are compared to that chair. We only understand chairs because of the concept of the perfect chair. We only understand many of the things mentioned in the book because of the CONCEPT of them. On pg 286, Eric starts writing his story in the air, and he starts the way “Raw Shark Texts” actually starts –a tie to Italo Calvino? I really like the idea of the boat. Eric doesn’t understand how the hell this makes any sense, but Fidorous explains: it is “the idea these things embody, the meaning we’ve assigned to them in putting them together like this, that’s what’s important” (pg 300). On pg 303, Eric thinks that the only way to fix things with Scout is to tell her that he thinks she is Clio – by bringing the past into the future.
So we finally learn what happened to Clio and Eric, kinda of. All I could glean was that Eric was trying to be reunited with her in some fashion, and fell prey to the shark instead. Was Clio attacked by the shark? Maybe the shark really is "living afterlife" like The Encyclopaedia of Unusual Fish said so. The first Eric seemed to think so, but Dr. Fidorous was very quick to dismiss this sentiment. "For memories to survive inside a Ludovician would be like - like a mouse surviving inside a cat." I don't really trust this though, but maybe that's because it would be cool if the book were right. Speaking of which, I liked how Hall described the book as "dead" when Fidorous threw it against the wall, in this massive space Fidorous lives in, books seem to have a mind of there own. One of my favorite lines was "The days and nights were meaningless here, replaced with switches and a steady electric forever." Eric hasn't even been underground for very long, and he is already loosing track of time, exacerbated by him staying up and air-writing his story. On page 303, Eric finally verbalizes (to himself) what it is he believes about Scout - that she is Clio. Which he thinks is stupid, but can't help but believe; I'm beginning to except that this is actually the case. I noticed that page 305 has a vertical line on it, leading to Eric's dream inscribed in a box. I'm pretty sure this is in reference to The Story of Tekisui and the Shotai-Mu the line is Eric's realization and epiphany. But he appears to have overdone it...
My favorite part of this section definitely was Fidorous’ telling of the story of the Shotai-Mu. Though seemingly just another story within a story, (post-modernism strikes again), it turned out being a large insight into the whole secret world of dangerous conceptual organisms. An origin story, in and of itself, what struck me so interesting about this story was the fact that this organization has been acting covertly and effectively for so long. Most of what else that’s going on only pertains to the present or Eric’s past and future. This story gave a lot of depth to the whole meaning and reality of the dangers that “bad characters” pose to the security and welfare of our world. Plus, it reminded me of a really badass samurai movie, except with “conceptual warriors” wielding a hilt but no sword.
Other this, we have Fidorous instructing Eric to write his story in the air with a paintbrush and drink a cup of paper strips with the word “water” written on them. This reminded me a lot of the plot of “Karate Kid” in which the Kung-Fu master instructs his student to complete a list of seemingly menial tasks which turn out to be extremely important to his training of the art of Kung-Fu. Though Eric isn’t learning this martial art, I believe that there’s the same principle behind these instructions: if Eric has known what he was doing these for, he would’ve been more focused on the outcome rather than the action itself.
One last thing to mention is Eric’s dream/moment of unconsciousness. I’m still not really sure what the whole line and boxing thing have to do with the contents of the dream but it seems to indicate importance. To me, this is more of Eric’s memories coming back to him. Just like when his feels emotions reading about Clio, these are his feelings taking concrete form. She is gone and lost forever, and the panic he feels when she has gone missing is reminiscent of the pain he must’ve felt after she had died. Whatever Eric was feeling let loose all of his innermost thoughts and ideas in the form of the ocean that the conceptual boat, Orpheus, now floats on.
Learning what happened between Clio and Eric was heartbreaking. It broke Eric down in a way, but it also pushed him forward in a way. The more Eric discovers the truth and the more he finds answers, the more he develops as a person. It also brings up more questions. Some of which Fidorous answers, others Fidorous leaves open for Eric to figure out. I was a bit frustrated with this at first because I, as a reader, wanted the answers, but it makes sense to push Eric to pull together his own life. If everyone else did everything for him, then he wouldn't get anywhere in his life.
The "concept of water" was entertaining to say the least. I think that took the conceptual aspect of this book to a whole new level. With this reading, reality, dreams, and concepts are all melting together. It's fun to watch and see things become each other. It complicates things, but in a way to also simplifies things.
The more I read the more the idea that this entire book is based off of a concept starts to mess with my head.
I think there are a lot of wise quotes in this section. My first favorite quote is "But she's a girl who's come a long way from where she started and from who she was. Some of her edges have worn sharp." I really like the idea of edges wearing sharp, not dull, over time. Second favorite quote of the section: "Sometimes answers don't need to be given in words." This quote is from the part where Eric is talking with Fidorous. This section made me really like the old man. I like the old, knowledgeable, wise, and haunted character types.
I get why giving memories to the shark isn't a good idea now. The memories are not saved, they are incorporated into the shark. The memories cannot maintain their singularity when eaten by the Ludivician, they must become a part of it, a fin, or a tail, or a scale, no longer a memory in themselves. It is the same thing when we eat something. Yes, the proteins and the DNA of the mean become part of us, but it is no longer 'meat' in itself. I feel so bad for the first Eric Sanderson. What a sad story. But in a way what happened to him let him live a new life, a life (or sever lives) in which he could live and love again.
Third favorite quote: "Time is always running out... Life's much too uncertain to leave important things unsaid." This is very true.
I loved the thing on page 289, "...a void-black zero".
I was really impressed by the decoding thing. Imagine figuring that out, what a brilliant author Steven Hall is!
What I liked in this chapter is that Eric sees more of the first Eric's reasons for going to see Fidorous. When Eric got mad at the first Eric for putting him in the situation he was in I kept thinking that he was just getting mad himself since he is Eric only without the memories. We still don't see how Clio died but we get more information on what the first Eric wanted to do to bring her back. I felt bad for Eric not knowing anything that the first Eric wanted to do and then finding out that the first Eric went looking for Ludovican. Poor Eric is now facing an idea shark that wants to kill him when the first Eric tried to bring back Clio and it wasn't his (second Eric's) fault. I thought the story about fighting bad ideas with good was very interesting. I really liked how Tekisui was able to defeat the three brothers just using the paintbrush until he fought with no weapon at all. In this also chapter I also liked the fact that Eric had to drink the idea of water to create water. The boat was also interesting because it had the idea of a boat to make it a boat that would make the three of them and Ian safe from ludovician.
Yet again, another revelation heavy segment. I really liked the framed story with the three warrior brothers and the monk with the writing brush. I know I've said it before, but I'll just say it again, this story reminds me of this Chinese martial arts movie that was based around the three states of being of a swordsman. The first, is where the warrior is deadliest with his sword, the second is where the warrior can defeat his foes with anything in place of a sword, including a blade of grass. The final form is where the warrior has surpassed the need for any sword. I find it to be an interesting parallel in terms of philosophy. Not to mention that for these circumstances, the idea of a sword has far more potential than an actual sword. Of course that's not the only cool idea within this section. I truly love the ideas of Eric having to bring himself, Scout, and the good doctor into the conceptual ocean to fight and kill the conceptual shark, while riding around on the concept of the boat. I'm still fuzzy on why they're trying to kill the shark, when there's this other talk of trying to get the shark to mutually cancel out Mycroft Ward. - Asher
The chapter starts out with Eric getting lost in the tunnels and he follows a "dang" sound. At first I thought it was a clock but then it had thirteen dangs so I don't know what that was.
When Fidorous threw "The Encyclopedia of Unusual Fish" at the wall the description made me cringe. "I heard the pine crack. The dead book fell clumsily to the floor" (pg. 273). I felt bad for the book even though it gave Eric some bad ideas about the Ludovician.
I love when Fidorous said "Time is always running out...Life's much too uncertain to leave important things unsaid" (pg. 275). That's so true. It's like ever go to bed angry. You never know if it will be the last time you see that person.
The story of Tekisui and the Shotai-Mu was interesting. I liked that there wee chapters in the story.
I really liked the two tasks Fidorous wants Eric to do. Writing his story with a paintbrush isn't so bad just kid of tedious. Drinking the concept of water would suck! What does Fidorous that the Tower of Babel and the Flood are the same things?!? That makes no sense! I liked when Eric started writing his story he started off the same way the book starts.
The new QWERTY code is insane!!! I don't know how Fidorous or the first Eric figured that out.
The Orpheus is pretty cool. I loved that on the map of the boat number 10 was "Ian the cat. Asleep" (pg. 299). The image of Eric chewing on paper trying to get it to turn into water was so funny! Then he made water!!!!! Unfortunately he made it a little too quickly and didn't make it back to the boat in time.
well he is sort of sleeping and dreaming.i like how the doctor acknowledged the fact that he kinda fucked up with the the whole deal between Eric and scout. " I believed i could change what happened, save her life somehow after she was already gone."(pg.273)Its so nice of eric to try and want to save clio , so cute . The whole story about kenshin n tekisui was so random. I like the whole fighting scene, first he K.O with a few moves and then with less and then a pice of hair and then none ....How impressive is that ? lol...The whole idea of strips of water being inside a cup and eric having to drink it and then he shall recieve water was crazy. it was funny and i was like wtf this book is crazy with ideas, but i like it. The whole qwerty code confused me ... i barely understand the code but i bet im not alone in this one.
The title on page 268 refers to Scout as being Clio because it says, “Who Are You Really, and What Were You Before”. It funny how the word DANG comes up like a billion times on page 269. HAHAHAHA… On page 273, I liked that he is trying to search for the lost memories he had of Clio. I thought that the story of Tekisui and the Shotai-mu was AWESOME!!!!!!!! I liked the fact that he uses a paintbrush instead of a sword. The story is more about the concept and the words. When they mention of what the idea of a warrior was made me think of samurais. This story adds an idea of time to Eric’s story. The idea of skill and unskill comes up which relates to unspace and space. When Eric begins to build a conceptual shark hunting boat, I began to admire him because he is fighting back. I liked that in the journal scene, everything fills up with water which attracts the shark.
I love the lines used while he is dreaming. It is probably more relevant to me then to most because I find the vertical lines before and after showing an absence of thought and then the box filled with writing in the middle to be his dream. I think this little detail is very creative and different. I feel like the potential for this story isn’t being met. The last several chapters are lacking excitement in my opinion. I also really like how he can remember his dream.
The beginning of this section was like Memento with the way the dreams and reality got mixed together. I really liked the line on page 260, "...all the hopes dreams and ambitions which make up any human life..." I really feel bad for the new Eric because he doesn't have the memory of feelings from when he was with Clio, he has to read about them. And he still is just a person and every person has some dream or hope to work towards, and Eric has to worry about not getting his memories eaten by the shark who thrives off of memories and stores them. At the bottom of 260, when he reads, "I think I believed I could change what happened, undo it, prevent it, save her life somehow after she was already gone," was really sad. Eric got even more angry and frustrated, and those feelings made him more alive. I was really happy when Eric wondered if Clio and Scout are the same person, because that was my initial thought. I also liked learning more about why Eric first went to find Fidorous. I thought it was interesting how Fidorous said, "I couldn't stop him. I don't think he could have stopped himself in the end." It's really sad how Eric got all this thrown on him because of the first Eric's ambition to save Clio.
I thought it was interesting how Fidorous said, "I couldn't stop him. I don't think he could have stopped himself in the end." It's really sad how Eric got all this thrown on him because of the first Eric's ambition to save Clio. On page 278 I liked the line, "'What you have seen is the idea of skill, or un-skill. It is everything and nothing, a picture, a lantern, a grain of sand from a distant seashore.'" I thought the "un-skill" part was a little funny only because of un-space. If the idea of un-skill could be skill, is it possible the un-space is the idea of space? It reminded me of the story within a story idea. The bad character resembled Mycroft Ward from the real story, and there was a different un-space similarity. I didn't realize that on page 238 where it begins, "He'll grow exponentially until there's nothing..." and ends with "...Forever," was what Bill Gates had said about Microsoft Word. The QWERTY code just confuses me. I mean how someone could possibly ever decode that is beyond me. I did like how it was two codes in one. I thought that was pretty interesting.
I love the dialogue when Eric is talking to Dr. Fidorous. My favorite line and my motto, well it is now, was on page 275,”Life’s much too uncertain to leave important things unsaid.” I think that is something everyone should live by. I liked the story of Tekisui and the Shotai-Mu. It reminded me of Snow White; especially the scene where the witch, the traveler, delivers the apple, the letter. The story had a very dream quality to it and I liked the scene where Tekisui beats kenshi with nothing. It seems as the Second Eric Sanderson learns more about First Eric Sanderson’s life, the two of them come together. We see this on page 284, “After all the corridors and junctions it was good to arrive back at Eric’s door, good to know my things, my can and a warm comfortable bed were on the other side.” Eric has to drink the concept of water. This seems really hard to do. I tried to recreate the feeling of me drinking water but I could not. I did not understand the Qwerty Code Fidorous is talking about. It sounds complicated. I did read the description of the boat. It was an intense complete description. By the end of the chapter Eric has been able to recreate water!!! The adventure begins.
I really liked the the description of insomnia. I know exactly what that feels like and it is certainly annoying. I really liked the way Hall was able to capture the feeling without simply stating how it feels. Hall seems to use nouns as adjectives to describe the images or emotions he is trying to get across.
I am so glad we finally get some clarification from Fidorous about his relationship to Fidorous and why he went searching for her. The desperation the First Eric Sanderson felt in wanting to get Clio back was heartbreaking. The fact that Eric went to such lenghts to get her back just shows how much he loved her. Eric gave up his entire self to be with her again and the fact that he fails just makes the story even sadder.
The irony of his situation is that the present Eric Sanderson goes looking for Fidorous and may have found Clio along the way. He may complete his task even though he completely lost himself along the way.
I really liked the idea of the Shotai-Mu as the protectors of concepts and language. The story of the hermit that removed himself farther and farther from society to find enlightenment reminded me of an ancient story that I once heard in history. If I remember correctly it was about a man who was disgusted with society and so he isolated himself, but people kept trying to find him. They wanted the wisdom that he had found. He then asks them questions like "What is the sound of one hand clapping" to show them they must look inside themselves for the answers. This story (sorry for the long digression) relates back to Fidorous's because it is all about concepts. The story serves to show the power of concepts. The fact that Hall decides to include this story shows his dedication to the world he has created and it also serves to show how powerful concepts can be in creating and destroying.
I loved the way Fidorous has Eric enter into the completely conceptual world. Drinking a conceptual glass of water seems to be almost impossible. He is only able to do it when he is half asleep. This seems to me to be the only way a person would be able to enter a conceptual world. Dreams help to blur the lines between reality and imagination.
I found it sad, but also uplifting how Eric goes looking for the shark because he felt like he could have done something different with its memories and Clio. I like how persistent he is, and it is obvious that he is in love with her, and would do anything for her. “He found one and he gave himself to it. For Clio Ames. He did it for her, tried to save her life, preserve her after she was already gone, only it didn’t work. It didn’t work and the Ludovician ate his mind. It just chewed him up, didn’t it?” If only Clio knew all the trouble he was going through to figure everything out for her. (Maybe she does know...). I don’t remember who noticed this in class, but it is just like “Memento!” He is trying to save her after she is already gone. Good timing with the movie, haha. I didn’t like the story within the story at all. I don’t like when the subject changes completely. Even though I didn’t enjoy it, I did like how I could relate the unskill with unspace. Cool how Steven Hall put that in, I just didn’t like the story. I thought it was crazy how the quote “He’ll grow exponentially until there’s nothing and no one else left. Just Ward, Ward, Ward in every house, in every town and every city, in every country in the world. Forever” is identical to Microsoft Word! I was very entertained. The QWERTY code is so unbelievably confusing. I do not understand it at all, although I did try! Like, a code within a code, really? I thought Trey Fidorous’ boat and all its different parts was awesome on pages 298 and 299. Altogether, I really enjoyed this section, even though a lot of it was very confusing!
The story of the Shotai-Mu is one of my favorite parts of this book, next to the Lightbulb Fragments. The story had several influences in this reading--the brush,the conceptual water, Fidorous' new appearance and gong/private quarters with Asian influence. I'd love to see the Shotai-Mu story filmed like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It works very well as an origin story.
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Hello , haha i just wanted to be the first to blog ^-^.
The beginning of this chapter starts with the melding of reality and sleep and dreams. Eric describes the weird limbo place of sleep and wake – a place with “un-sense” (pg 268). On pg 273, we finally learn why the First Eric pursued the Ludovician – to preserve Clio’s memory. Tragically, however, he only ends up losing her…
We then learn who Fidorous is and where he learned everything. On pg 278, after Tekisui defeats the warriors with basically nothing, he says “what you have seen is the idea of skill, or un-skill. It is everything and nothing”. This is exactly what many of the weird occurrences in the book have been.
I liked Eric having to drink the “concept of water”. The book’s continual talk of concepts of objects and the functions of objects, for some reason, reminds me of Plato’s idea that there is the concept of a chair, for example, and then there are all other chairs that are compared to that chair. We only understand chairs because of the concept of the perfect chair. We only understand many of the things mentioned in the book because of the CONCEPT of them.
On pg 286, Eric starts writing his story in the air, and he starts the way “Raw Shark Texts” actually starts –a tie to Italo Calvino?
I really like the idea of the boat. Eric doesn’t understand how the hell this makes any sense, but Fidorous explains: it is “the idea these things embody, the meaning we’ve assigned to them in putting them together like this, that’s what’s important” (pg 300).
On pg 303, Eric thinks that the only way to fix things with Scout is to tell her that he thinks she is Clio – by bringing the past into the future.
So we finally learn what happened to Clio and Eric, kinda of. All I could glean was that Eric was trying to be reunited with her in some fashion, and fell prey to the shark instead. Was Clio attacked by the shark? Maybe the shark really is "living afterlife" like The Encyclopaedia of Unusual Fish said so. The first Eric seemed to think so, but Dr. Fidorous was very quick to dismiss this sentiment. "For memories to survive inside a Ludovician would be like - like a mouse surviving inside a cat." I don't really trust this though, but maybe that's because it would be cool if the book were right. Speaking of which, I liked how Hall described the book as "dead" when Fidorous threw it against the wall, in this massive space Fidorous lives in, books seem to have a mind of there own.
One of my favorite lines was "The days and nights were meaningless here, replaced with switches and a steady electric forever." Eric hasn't even been underground for very long, and he is already loosing track of time, exacerbated by him staying up and air-writing his story.
On page 303, Eric finally verbalizes (to himself) what it is he believes about Scout - that she is Clio. Which he thinks is stupid, but can't help but believe; I'm beginning to except that this is actually the case. I noticed that page 305 has a vertical line on it, leading to Eric's dream inscribed in a box. I'm pretty sure this is in reference to The Story of Tekisui and the Shotai-Mu the line is Eric's realization and epiphany. But he appears to have overdone it...
My favorite part of this section definitely was Fidorous’ telling of the story of the Shotai-Mu. Though seemingly just another story within a story, (post-modernism strikes again), it turned out being a large insight into the whole secret world of dangerous conceptual organisms. An origin story, in and of itself, what struck me so interesting about this story was the fact that this organization has been acting covertly and effectively for so long. Most of what else that’s going on only pertains to the present or Eric’s past and future. This story gave a lot of depth to the whole meaning and reality of the dangers that “bad characters” pose to the security and welfare of our world. Plus, it reminded me of a really badass samurai movie, except with “conceptual warriors” wielding a hilt but no sword.
Other this, we have Fidorous instructing Eric to write his story in the air with a paintbrush and drink a cup of paper strips with the word “water” written on them. This reminded me a lot of the plot of “Karate Kid” in which the Kung-Fu master instructs his student to complete a list of seemingly menial tasks which turn out to be extremely important to his training of the art of Kung-Fu. Though Eric isn’t learning this martial art, I believe that there’s the same principle behind these instructions: if Eric has known what he was doing these for, he would’ve been more focused on the outcome rather than the action itself.
One last thing to mention is Eric’s dream/moment of unconsciousness. I’m still not really sure what the whole line and boxing thing have to do with the contents of the dream but it seems to indicate importance. To me, this is more of Eric’s memories coming back to him. Just like when his feels emotions reading about Clio, these are his feelings taking concrete form. She is gone and lost forever, and the panic he feels when she has gone missing is reminiscent of the pain he must’ve felt after she had died. Whatever Eric was feeling let loose all of his innermost thoughts and ideas in the form of the ocean that the conceptual boat, Orpheus, now floats on.
Learning what happened between Clio and Eric was heartbreaking. It broke Eric down in a way, but it also pushed him forward in a way. The more Eric discovers the truth and the more he finds answers, the more he develops as a person. It also brings up more questions. Some of which Fidorous answers, others Fidorous leaves open for Eric to figure out. I was a bit frustrated with this at first because I, as a reader, wanted the answers, but it makes sense to push Eric to pull together his own life. If everyone else did everything for him, then he wouldn't get anywhere in his life.
The "concept of water" was entertaining to say the least. I think that took the conceptual aspect of this book to a whole new level. With this reading, reality, dreams, and concepts are all melting together. It's fun to watch and see things become each other. It complicates things, but in a way to also simplifies things.
The more I read the more the idea that this entire book is based off of a concept starts to mess with my head.
I think there are a lot of wise quotes in this section. My first favorite quote is "But she's a girl who's come a long way from where she started and from who she was. Some of her edges have worn sharp." I really like the idea of edges wearing sharp, not dull, over time. Second favorite quote of the section: "Sometimes answers don't need to be given in words." This quote is from the part where Eric is talking with Fidorous. This section made me really like the old man. I like the old, knowledgeable, wise, and haunted character types.
I get why giving memories to the shark isn't a good idea now. The memories are not saved, they are incorporated into the shark. The memories cannot maintain their singularity when eaten by the Ludivician, they must become a part of it, a fin, or a tail, or a scale, no longer a memory in themselves. It is the same thing when we eat something. Yes, the proteins and the DNA of the mean become part of us, but it is no longer 'meat' in itself.
I feel so bad for the first Eric Sanderson. What a sad story. But in a way what happened to him let him live a new life, a life (or sever lives) in which he could live and love again.
Third favorite quote: "Time is always running out... Life's much too uncertain to leave important things unsaid." This is very true.
I loved the thing on page 289, "...a void-black zero".
I was really impressed by the decoding thing. Imagine figuring that out, what a brilliant author Steven Hall is!
What I liked in this chapter is that Eric sees more of the first Eric's reasons for going to see Fidorous. When Eric got mad at the first Eric for putting him in the situation he was in I kept thinking that he was just getting mad himself since he is Eric only without the memories. We still don't see how Clio died but we get more information on what the first Eric wanted to do to bring her back. I felt bad for Eric not knowing anything that the first Eric wanted to do and then finding out that the first Eric went looking for Ludovican. Poor Eric is now facing an idea shark that wants to kill him when the first Eric tried to bring back Clio and it wasn't his (second Eric's) fault. I thought the story about fighting bad ideas with good was very interesting. I really liked how Tekisui was able to defeat the three brothers just using the paintbrush until he fought with no weapon at all. In this also chapter I also liked the fact that Eric had to drink the idea of water to create water. The boat was also interesting because it had the idea of a boat to make it a boat that would make the three of them and Ian safe from ludovician.
Yet again, another revelation heavy segment. I really liked the framed story with the three warrior brothers and the monk with the writing brush. I know I've said it before, but I'll just say it again, this story reminds me of this Chinese martial arts movie that was based around the three states of being of a swordsman. The first, is where the warrior is deadliest with his sword, the second is where the warrior can defeat his foes with anything in place of a sword, including a blade of grass. The final form is where the warrior has surpassed the need for any sword. I find it to be an interesting parallel in terms of philosophy. Not to mention that for these circumstances, the idea of a sword has far more potential than an actual sword. Of course that's not the only cool idea within this section. I truly love the ideas of Eric having to bring himself, Scout, and the good doctor into the conceptual ocean to fight and kill the conceptual shark, while riding around on the concept of the boat. I'm still fuzzy on why they're trying to kill the shark, when there's this other talk of trying to get the shark to mutually cancel out Mycroft Ward. - Asher
The chapter starts out with Eric getting lost in the tunnels and he follows a "dang" sound. At first I thought it was a clock but then it had thirteen dangs so I don't know what that was.
When Fidorous threw "The Encyclopedia of Unusual Fish" at the wall the description made me cringe. "I heard the pine crack. The dead book fell clumsily to the floor" (pg. 273). I felt bad for the book even though it gave Eric some bad ideas about the Ludovician.
I love when Fidorous said "Time is always running out...Life's much too uncertain to leave important things unsaid" (pg. 275). That's so true. It's like ever go to bed angry. You never know if it will be the last time you see that person.
The story of Tekisui and the Shotai-Mu was interesting. I liked that there wee chapters in the story.
I really liked the two tasks Fidorous wants Eric to do. Writing his story with a paintbrush isn't so bad just kid of tedious. Drinking the concept of water would suck! What does Fidorous that the Tower of Babel and the Flood are the same things?!? That makes no sense! I liked when Eric started writing his story he started off the same way the book starts.
The new QWERTY code is insane!!! I don't know how Fidorous or the first Eric figured that out.
The Orpheus is pretty cool. I loved that on the map of the boat number 10 was "Ian the cat. Asleep" (pg. 299). The image of Eric chewing on paper trying to get it to turn into water was so funny! Then he made water!!!!! Unfortunately he made it a little too quickly and didn't make it back to the boat in time.
well he is sort of sleeping and dreaming.i like how the doctor acknowledged the fact that he kinda fucked up with the the whole deal between Eric and scout. " I believed i could change what happened, save her life somehow after she was already gone."(pg.273)Its so nice of eric to try and want to save clio , so cute . The whole story about kenshin n tekisui was so random. I like the whole fighting scene, first he K.O with a few moves and then with less and then a pice of hair and then none ....How impressive is that ? lol...The whole idea of strips of water being inside a cup and eric having to drink it and then he shall recieve water was crazy. it was funny and i was like wtf this book is crazy with ideas, but i like it. The whole qwerty code confused me ... i barely understand the code but i bet im not alone in this one.
The title on page 268 refers to Scout as being Clio because it says, “Who Are You Really, and What Were You Before”. It funny how the word DANG comes up like a billion times on page 269. HAHAHAHA… On page 273, I liked that he is trying to search for the lost memories he had of Clio. I thought that the story of Tekisui and the Shotai-mu was AWESOME!!!!!!!! I liked the fact that he uses a paintbrush instead of a sword. The story is more about the concept and the words. When they mention of what the idea of a warrior was made me think of samurais. This story adds an idea of time to Eric’s story. The idea of skill and unskill comes up which relates to unspace and space. When Eric begins to build a conceptual shark hunting boat, I began to admire him because he is fighting back. I liked that in the journal scene, everything fills up with water which attracts the shark.
I love the lines used while he is dreaming. It is probably more relevant to me then to most because I find the vertical lines before and after showing an absence of thought and then the box filled with writing in the middle to be his dream. I think this little detail is very creative and different. I feel like the potential for this story isn’t being met. The last several chapters are lacking excitement in my opinion. I also really like how he can remember his dream.
The beginning of this section was like Memento with the way the dreams and reality got mixed together. I really liked the line on page 260, "...all the hopes dreams and ambitions which make up any human life..." I really feel bad for the new Eric because he doesn't have the memory of feelings from when he was with Clio, he has to read about them. And he still is just a person and every person has some dream or hope to work towards, and Eric has to worry about not getting his memories eaten by the shark who thrives off of memories and stores them. At the bottom of 260, when he reads, "I think I believed I could change what happened, undo it, prevent it, save her life somehow after she was already gone," was really sad. Eric got even more angry and frustrated, and those feelings made him more alive. I was really happy when Eric wondered if Clio and Scout are the same person, because that was my initial thought. I also liked learning more about why Eric first went to find Fidorous. I thought it was interesting how Fidorous said, "I couldn't stop him. I don't think he could have stopped himself in the end." It's really sad how Eric got all this thrown on him because of the first Eric's ambition to save Clio.
Sorry I got the titles confused!!
I thought it was interesting how Fidorous said, "I couldn't stop him. I don't think he could have stopped himself in the end." It's really sad how Eric got all this thrown on him because of the first Eric's ambition to save Clio. On page 278 I liked the line, "'What you have seen is the idea of skill, or un-skill. It is everything and nothing, a picture, a lantern, a grain of sand from a distant seashore.'" I thought the "un-skill" part was a little funny only because of un-space. If the idea of un-skill could be skill, is it possible the un-space is the idea of space? It reminded me of the story within a story idea. The bad character resembled Mycroft Ward from the real story, and there was a different un-space similarity. I didn't realize that on page 238 where it begins, "He'll grow exponentially until there's nothing..." and ends with "...Forever," was what Bill Gates had said about Microsoft Word. The QWERTY code just confuses me. I mean how someone could possibly ever decode that is beyond me. I did like how it was two codes in one. I thought that was pretty interesting.
I love the dialogue when Eric is talking to Dr. Fidorous. My favorite line and my motto, well it is now, was on page 275,”Life’s much too uncertain to leave important things unsaid.” I think that is something everyone should live by.
I liked the story of Tekisui and the Shotai-Mu. It reminded me of Snow White; especially the scene where the witch, the traveler, delivers the apple, the letter. The story had a very dream quality to it and I liked the scene where Tekisui beats kenshi with nothing.
It seems as the Second Eric Sanderson learns more about First Eric Sanderson’s life, the two of them come together. We see this on page 284, “After all the corridors and junctions it was good to arrive back at Eric’s door, good to know my things, my can and a warm comfortable bed were on the other side.”
Eric has to drink the concept of water. This seems really hard to do. I tried to recreate the feeling of me drinking water but I could not.
I did not understand the Qwerty Code Fidorous is talking about. It sounds complicated.
I did read the description of the boat. It was an intense complete description.
By the end of the chapter Eric has been able to recreate water!!! The adventure begins.
I really liked the the description of insomnia. I know exactly what that feels like and it is certainly annoying. I really liked the way Hall was able to capture the feeling without simply stating how it feels. Hall seems to use nouns as adjectives to describe the images or emotions he is trying to get across.
I am so glad we finally get some clarification from Fidorous about his relationship to Fidorous and why he went searching for her. The desperation the First Eric Sanderson felt in wanting to get Clio back was heartbreaking. The fact that Eric went to such lenghts to get her back just shows how much he loved her. Eric gave up his entire self to be with her again and the fact that he fails just makes the story even sadder.
The irony of his situation is that the present Eric Sanderson goes looking for Fidorous and may have found Clio along the way. He may complete his task even though he completely lost himself along the way.
I really liked the idea of the Shotai-Mu as the protectors of concepts and language. The story of the hermit that removed himself farther and farther from society to find enlightenment reminded me of an ancient story that I once heard in history. If I remember correctly it was about a man who was disgusted with society and so he isolated himself, but people kept trying to find him. They wanted the wisdom that he had found. He then asks them questions like "What is the sound of one hand clapping" to show them they must look inside themselves for the answers. This story (sorry for the long digression) relates back to Fidorous's because it is all about concepts. The story serves to show the power of concepts. The fact that Hall decides to include this story shows his dedication to the world he has created and it also serves to show how powerful concepts can be in creating and destroying.
I loved the way Fidorous has Eric enter into the completely conceptual world. Drinking a conceptual glass of water seems to be almost impossible. He is only able to do it when he is half asleep. This seems to me to be the only way a person would be able to enter a conceptual world. Dreams help to blur the lines between reality and imagination.
I found it sad, but also uplifting how Eric goes looking for the shark because he felt like he could have done something different with its memories and Clio. I like how persistent he is, and it is obvious that he is in love with her, and would do anything for her. “He found one and he gave himself to it. For Clio Ames. He did it for her, tried to save her life, preserve her after she was already gone, only it didn’t work. It didn’t work and the Ludovician ate his mind. It just chewed him up, didn’t it?” If only Clio knew all the trouble he was going through to figure everything out for her. (Maybe she does know...). I don’t remember who noticed this in class, but it is just like “Memento!” He is trying to save her after she is already gone. Good timing with the movie, haha. I didn’t like the story within the story at all. I don’t like when the subject changes completely. Even though I didn’t enjoy it, I did like how I could relate the unskill with unspace. Cool how Steven Hall put that in, I just didn’t like the story. I thought it was crazy how the quote “He’ll grow exponentially until there’s nothing and no one else left. Just Ward, Ward, Ward in every house, in every town and every city, in every country in the world. Forever” is identical to Microsoft Word! I was very entertained. The QWERTY code is so unbelievably confusing. I do not understand it at all, although I did try! Like, a code within a code, really? I thought Trey Fidorous’ boat and all its different parts was awesome on pages 298 and 299. Altogether, I really enjoyed this section, even though a lot of it was very confusing!
The story of the Shotai-Mu is one of my favorite parts of this book, next to the Lightbulb Fragments. The story had several influences in this reading--the brush,the conceptual water, Fidorous' new appearance and gong/private quarters with Asian influence. I'd love to see the Shotai-Mu story filmed like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It works very well as an origin story.
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