Quote:
Originally Posted by Ea
 I'm not quite sure I can follow you - do you often read books where the main character changes gender? |
No, although I guess I did read Middlesex. No what I meant was where the author was of a different gender than his/her protagonist. Eg. "Water for Elephants" or "She's Come Undone".
I have now managed to finish the book and had a few more thoughts...
Loved the reference to the "undertow of words". I really wish he had focussed more on this, the incredible task undertaken and completed in the (from current perspectives) face of a lack of appropriate tools and resources.
Was, like others, a little put off by his memorializing of Merrett. First, because while he uses all these over the top words he has completely failed to make us as readers care about him as a victim. And second because he, somewhat offensively in my opinion, seems to be saying that Merrett should be honoured as a hero because his death made Minor's contributions to the dictionary possible. A little too much moral relativism for my taste.
I am now very enamoured of the word "poodlefaker" and must try to find a way to use it in everyday language.
Finally, when he uses the word "humorist" as a central definition and comments on how it ties into his own life - (i) it's on the OED bookplate he owns, (ii) it was the name of the horse that won on his mother's birth date he seems to be not so subtlely implying that he, himself, is a "humorist" but is too modest to say so. My only response is that if he is a "humorist" he has not demonstrated it by this book unfortunately as it could have done with some humour. I envisage how Stephen Fry or P.G. Wodehouse would have tackled the story...
Mel