I liked this: humorous, even though the idea of sitting in the loo writing 8s horrible IMHO. Conversation without quotation marks reminded me of NW by Zadie Smith: drove me nuts. Good back and forth though.
I've just finished reading it. She uses all different styles, interestingly enough. It's a modernist work, in the tradition of Virginia Woolf, whose stuff I think is clever but unenjoyable. Yeah, so I'm a pleb. I'll dig out my review of To the lighthouse in a sec
Love ZS but agree I was a little perplexed at parts of NW! Much more experimental stylistically than her other stuff. I guess the lack of quotation marks made everything feel like we were inside a mind. Not sure.
It is. It's interesting, and I liked it in parts. A few people in the lit class I'm in said that they really loved it, and got a lot more out of it, after they had read it a second time. I'll do that one of these days, but at the moment I'm engrossed in the next book, Home Fire, which I'm enjoying very much.
It seems to be one of those books where it's easy to miss things. For example, I didn't notice at first the preponderance of the number 37, including as the chapter heading in several instances.
I really enjoyed this one! Loved the back and forth, the lukewarm coffee, hating that your fingers kept typing away. Also, fully believable. If you said this was non-fiction I wouldn’t have second guessed it for a even a moment. Loved it!
Thanks so much for working your way through my archive, Andrei. You're amazing.
This ended up being one of my favourite pieces last year. A bit silly, but in that sense it was something of out of the norm for me, and for that I really enjoyed the process.
It seems like bathrooms in general are a bastion of creativity. I do much of my best thinking in the shower or on the toilet as well. I now suddenly feel a bit self-conscious about the toilet in my bathroom.
Ha! This is wonderful, and all the more so because it did not veer into the most obvious but unctuous of possible lanes a piece about sitting on the toilet might have, toilet log notwithstanding... "Dark's embrace" - yes! "Toilet architects...nodding, strolling, uttering small approvals" - I can see them! Well done, Nathan.
Funny story, during uni, me and my housemates actually did have a "log" book attached by string to the toilet roll holder. But it was for writing down jokes to each other, not for any other kind of logging.
I wonder what happened to that book. Perhaps it was incinerated for hygiene reasons...
It was funny, first and foremost. Pythonesque, even. I'm down with that. I am not writing this comment from the sacred location in the hallowed halls of white Cera Mic. No, absolutely not. Of course, there is one thing that I must lament, vehemently so. WER.LOE.
Need to make that happen! I would very much want to walk right in because you can get anything you want at Wer.Loe's Restaurant! (Arlo Guthrie has to change the song title.)
The implied dialogue works for me, it's great. It's not easy either. Even more so if you do not mention what the other party says (I have a scene like that in one of my chapters) you only read one part of the conversation and have to infer what has been said by the other party. Peter Sellers acts this out masterfully in Dr. Strangelove.
Hilarious!! Imagining an audible version, with atmospheric sound :)
Glad you enjoyed ;)
I liked this: humorous, even though the idea of sitting in the loo writing 8s horrible IMHO. Conversation without quotation marks reminded me of NW by Zadie Smith: drove me nuts. Good back and forth though.
Thanks Terry, really appreciate the comment.
Haven't heard of that, but I'll look it up.
I've just finished reading it. She uses all different styles, interestingly enough. It's a modernist work, in the tradition of Virginia Woolf, whose stuff I think is clever but unenjoyable. Yeah, so I'm a pleb. I'll dig out my review of To the lighthouse in a sec
Here it is Enjoy: https://open.substack.com/pub/terryfreedman/p/review-to-the-lighthouse?r=18suih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Heh, thanks. Haven't read any Woolf, so perhaps I'm the pleb.
I shall clickety-click the link to your post.
Love ZS but agree I was a little perplexed at parts of NW! Much more experimental stylistically than her other stuff. I guess the lack of quotation marks made everything feel like we were inside a mind. Not sure.
I've been enjoying reading the Goodreads reviews for NW after Terry mentioned it. Sounds experimental.
It is. It's interesting, and I liked it in parts. A few people in the lit class I'm in said that they really loved it, and got a lot more out of it, after they had read it a second time. I'll do that one of these days, but at the moment I'm engrossed in the next book, Home Fire, which I'm enjoying very much.
Definitely give it a go. I liked it but just have to go back to it. She’s one of my favourites so I’m pretty sure I missed a few things!
Cool, thanks. Never read any of her stuff.
It seems to be one of those books where it's easy to miss things. For example, I didn't notice at first the preponderance of the number 37, including as the chapter heading in several instances.
My levels of intrigue increase!
Yes, definitely experimental I think.
I really enjoyed this one! Loved the back and forth, the lukewarm coffee, hating that your fingers kept typing away. Also, fully believable. If you said this was non-fiction I wouldn’t have second guessed it for a even a moment. Loved it!
🙏 thank you, Taegan. So glad you enjoyed. That means a lot.
Oh God, fantastic! I had a real laugh at this, but it was also very well-written, very compelling.
Thanks so much for working your way through my archive, Andrei. You're amazing.
This ended up being one of my favourite pieces last year. A bit silly, but in that sense it was something of out of the norm for me, and for that I really enjoyed the process.
I’m really glad you wrote it. I truly enjoyed it!
Funny and entertaining!
It seems like bathrooms in general are a bastion of creativity. I do much of my best thinking in the shower or on the toilet as well. I now suddenly feel a bit self-conscious about the toilet in my bathroom.
Hehe thanks for reading, David.
And yes, bastion of creativity is a great description. The shower is certainly a place of many thoughts for me.
I feel the deep woe of the toilet architects. This was so much fun 😊
Thanks for reading. Glad you enjoyed! I had a lot of fun writing this one.
"Hating my fingers" major lol
And yes I enjoy the flow, sans quoties
Ha! This is wonderful, and all the more so because it did not veer into the most obvious but unctuous of possible lanes a piece about sitting on the toilet might have, toilet log notwithstanding... "Dark's embrace" - yes! "Toilet architects...nodding, strolling, uttering small approvals" - I can see them! Well done, Nathan.
Thank you, Troy, that's oh so kind of you to say.
Funny story, during uni, me and my housemates actually did have a "log" book attached by string to the toilet roll holder. But it was for writing down jokes to each other, not for any other kind of logging.
I wonder what happened to that book. Perhaps it was incinerated for hygiene reasons...
I’ll take all the editing tips I can get! 😂
Haha, you don't need any such tips ;)
So enjoyed this! Very funny indeed
Ah that makes me happy that you enjoyed, Annie 😊
It was funny, first and foremost. Pythonesque, even. I'm down with that. I am not writing this comment from the sacred location in the hallowed halls of white Cera Mic. No, absolutely not. Of course, there is one thing that I must lament, vehemently so. WER.LOE.
Need to make that happen! I would very much want to walk right in because you can get anything you want at Wer.Loe's Restaurant! (Arlo Guthrie has to change the song title.)
The implied dialogue works for me, it's great. It's not easy either. Even more so if you do not mention what the other party says (I have a scene like that in one of my chapters) you only read one part of the conversation and have to infer what has been said by the other party. Peter Sellers acts this out masterfully in Dr. Strangelove.
Thank you! I love how you ran with that idea 😁
It's been so long since I've seen Dr Strangelove that I had forgotten all about that.
Only I will ever know the truth on that one, haha 😉
Thanks as always for taking the time to read, Nadia!