I think I’ve finally got my head around one of my characters in the new book I’m writing. I think I know who he is, now. I got to meet him for the first time tonight.
That’s an exhilarating thing. It’s one of the reasons I write full-stop, for moments like that when I get to “meet” someone from my imagination. It can take a while sometimes, like it has here. But, I think I’ve got him. And he’s great.
Bit of an odd day. I decided to finish reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Wasn’t a big fan, unfortunately, and it had been highly HIGHLY recommended to me. It pulled some twists at the very end that not only felt to disconnected from what the novel had been building toward, which robs the narrative of a satisfying catharsis, but it also felt uncomfortably outdated and hostile towards certain genders. Perhaps not outright hostile, but exploitive at the very least—using them for shock value rather than any sort of genuine insight or truth.
I do not recommend it.
Which is a bummer. It had been so highly praised, which was why I picked it up. It is wonderfully written and, though it’s certainly disturbing, I found it had a surprisingly well-crafted narrative drive. It really just fell apart in the end. It, astonishingly to me, had nothing really to say in the end. I wasn’t expecting that. Certainly not from the level of writing. It was so empty. So hollow. Very disappointed.
That left me rather…foggy. I kind of lose track of time when I read like that. It zonks me out, like watching too much television. But, I recovered well enough. I took a nice nap. Had a great therapy session. Watched the Niners finally play like a good team. Hung out with Liz. Walked the pups. Did the laundry (in nice clean sheets tonight, baby!). And I got the Film School podcast set up for the morning.
It was a good day, after all 🙂