Just finished reading a book - Time's Arrow by Martin Amis, which tells the story, backwards, of the life of a Nazi war criminal.
A pretty thin book with only 173 pages, but an intense one by all accounts. The book is interesting because it is written in backward chronology. One cannot just read and gloss over the details like in any other story book. Because the book is written backwards, my brain keeps having to realign the sequence of events so that it makes sense - my brain having been so used to the natural order of things eg. new to worn out, young to old.
This reverse sequence of writing has some interesting elements, including making the bad seem good, and the good seem bad, and everything just seems to clash again the natural human intuition I'm so used to. Here are some excerpts:
"Eating is unattractive too. First I stack the clean plates in the dishwasher...until some fat bastard shows up in his jumpsuit and traumatizes them with his tools. So far so good: then you select a soiled dish, collect some scraps from the garbage, and settle down for a short wait. Various items get gulped up into my mouth, and after skillful massage with tongue and teeth I transfer them to the plate for additional sculpture with knife and fork and a spoon...Next you face the laborious business of cooling, of reassembly, of storage, before the return of these foodstuffs to the Superette, where, admittedly, I am promptly and generously reimbursed for my pains."
"I can't tell - and I need to know - whether Tod is kind. Or how unkind. he takes toys from children,on the street. He does...The toy..will be offered to him by the smiling child. Tod takes it. And backs away...the child's face turns blank..Both toy and smile are gone: he takes both toy and smile. Then he heads for the store, to cash it in. For what? A couple of bucks. Can you believe this guy? He'll take a candy from a baby, if there's fifty cents in it for him."
"Signs say No Littering - but who to? We wouldn't dream of it. Government does that, at night, with trucks; or uniformed men come sadly at morning with their trolleys, dispensing our rubbish, and shit for the dogs."
"'Uncle Pepi' has surpassed himself with his new laboratory...in this new lab of his he can knock together a human being out of the unlikeliest odds and ends. On his desk he had a box full of eyes. It was not uncommon to see him slipping out of his darkroom carrying a head partly wrapped in old newspaper...The next thing you knew...a fifteen-year-old Pole sliding off the table and rubbing his eyes and sauntering back to work..."
By far one of the most interesting books I have read. But doesn't score too high on entertainment value for me as the writing style is pretty serious, and the storyline is generally all grim and grey. I much prefer books with hope and optimism - and naturally, a happy ending.
A pretty thin book with only 173 pages, but an intense one by all accounts. The book is interesting because it is written in backward chronology. One cannot just read and gloss over the details like in any other story book. Because the book is written backwards, my brain keeps having to realign the sequence of events so that it makes sense - my brain having been so used to the natural order of things eg. new to worn out, young to old.
This reverse sequence of writing has some interesting elements, including making the bad seem good, and the good seem bad, and everything just seems to clash again the natural human intuition I'm so used to. Here are some excerpts:
"Eating is unattractive too. First I stack the clean plates in the dishwasher...until some fat bastard shows up in his jumpsuit and traumatizes them with his tools. So far so good: then you select a soiled dish, collect some scraps from the garbage, and settle down for a short wait. Various items get gulped up into my mouth, and after skillful massage with tongue and teeth I transfer them to the plate for additional sculpture with knife and fork and a spoon...Next you face the laborious business of cooling, of reassembly, of storage, before the return of these foodstuffs to the Superette, where, admittedly, I am promptly and generously reimbursed for my pains."
"I can't tell - and I need to know - whether Tod is kind. Or how unkind. he takes toys from children,on the street. He does...The toy..will be offered to him by the smiling child. Tod takes it. And backs away...the child's face turns blank..Both toy and smile are gone: he takes both toy and smile. Then he heads for the store, to cash it in. For what? A couple of bucks. Can you believe this guy? He'll take a candy from a baby, if there's fifty cents in it for him."
"Signs say No Littering - but who to? We wouldn't dream of it. Government does that, at night, with trucks; or uniformed men come sadly at morning with their trolleys, dispensing our rubbish, and shit for the dogs."
"'Uncle Pepi' has surpassed himself with his new laboratory...in this new lab of his he can knock together a human being out of the unlikeliest odds and ends. On his desk he had a box full of eyes. It was not uncommon to see him slipping out of his darkroom carrying a head partly wrapped in old newspaper...The next thing you knew...a fifteen-year-old Pole sliding off the table and rubbing his eyes and sauntering back to work..."
By far one of the most interesting books I have read. But doesn't score too high on entertainment value for me as the writing style is pretty serious, and the storyline is generally all grim and grey. I much prefer books with hope and optimism - and naturally, a happy ending.
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