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rdspty01
Joined: 05 Apr 2006
Posts: 29
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 Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:50 pm Post subject: What if... |
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the entire story took place while Alan was sedated or in a stupor?
all of the characters aside from Alan were "not real" (Sorry Megan and Melissa)?
"wake up, sir" was said by a nurse or orderly in an asylum each morning?
the colony was really the institution?
there really was no nose fettish?
random thoughts among friends at B&B
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JeffKamin
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Nov 2005
Posts: 1065
Location: MPLS
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| Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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It's a big what if and very interesting...
I prefer to believe that Jeeves is the only fiction and actually wish he wasn
t a fiction...but as Ames said in an interview...Does it matter/ I mean they are all fictional, none are real...what is the line? or something to that effect...
any other comments or remembrances or additions to last night? should be photos of Jeeves up soon... |
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Carter
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 381
Location: Longfellow (Mpls)
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| Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:47 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | but as Ames said in an interview...Does it matter/ I mean they are all fictional, none are real... |
Well, I can see why he might want to leave it up to the reader, but this particular remark is a bit of a cop out. Taken to the extreme, why talk about fictional characters at all? After all, they are fictional. But once we accept as our starting point that fiction IS worth talking about, then it is reasonable to ask, within the context of the book, is this character/event real?
| Quote: | | I prefer to believe that Jeeves is the only fiction and actually wish he wasn't a fiction... |
This was a vibe some of the other disbelievers seemed to be expressing. For me, the power of the book would have been diminished if Jeeves had been real. If he were real, it would have been a story about a fairly goofy guy who bought himself a sidekick. So what? Instead, it was about a fairly goofy guy with this fascinating -- what? Coping mechanism? Psychological disorder? -- that allowed him to so completely split the rationally analytical functioning of his brain from more emotional functions that he perceived it as a separate person. I was actually quite shocked that no one made a comparison between what Alan had accomplished in his own mind in terms of a right brain / left brain division, and what Mangrove was trying to do by wearing the eye patch.
Don Quixote is mentioned fairly often in connection with this book. I'm not sure if it is because Wake Up, Sir comes off as more or less a picaresque, or because of the similarity of the Alan and Jeeves relationship to that of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. The interesting difference is that Don Quixote lives in a fantasy world through which he is helped to navigate by his more grounded ally. In Alan Blair's world, the ally himself is the fantasy. I thought this was pretty cool. |
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JeffKamin
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Nov 2005
Posts: 1065
Location: MPLS
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| Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:52 am Post subject: |
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| Excellent points, if I didn't bring up Don Quixote, it was in my notes, sorry. And if you are ever surprised no one brings something up...then YOU bring it up, please. Thanks. |
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Carter
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 381
Location: Longfellow (Mpls)
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| Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:10 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | And if you are ever surprised no one brings something up...then YOU bring it up, please. Thanks. |
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My general rules of thumb are:
1. Don't raise my hand every single time something comes to mind.
2. Don't start a comment with, "As an English major..." That would be obnoxious and untrue. Also don't start with, "As a Political Science major...", which would be true, but quite random and ridiculous.
3. Don't get distracted as soon as someone mentions sex.
Keeping Rule #1 didn't exactly stop me from bringing up that point, but breaking Rule #3 certainly did.  |
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