Help Needed - The Contortionist's Handbook Thesis

I've only read the book once, a long time ago, but I still think about the scenes where he's talking about the act of forgery and what he had to do to create a false identity. I don't remember exact pages but I hope this helps.

I've not read the book, but I remember you mentioning a couple of passages that were plein de mots et idées techniques, so I would suggest taking small parts of those passages so that you'll have plenty to write about. Just my thought on the situation.

Just kidding. I only read that book once, though, and I don't remember much.

I've read it a few times, but it's been so long.

I plan on rereading it soon though. Maybe I can reread it in time.

You should read it!

As for passages... the first page is a good one.

Or one that I remember enjoying... which I found is the first two paragraphs of chapter 12... because I'm a romantic.

Wee, thanks.

@Steve: I'm not asking you to do my homework, I'm asking you to help me CHOOSE my homework.

@dbdurden: That's a good choice and it's very interesting from the translation point of view, due to different types of paper/documents in Romania and the US. So I have quite a few procedures to list there.

@Jess: OBVIOUSLY! There's also that part in Chapter 11 where, right after they had sex and he gets burned, we get this beautiful passage:

Every vein in my body carried the feeling like that first blast of coke years before, like all of the molecules in my body had bonded together for the first time ever. Wet heat ran down both sides of my face and I'm sure Keara thought I was in pain, but I wasn't. I was floating in the calmest hurricane eye of the deepest love I had ever felt for anyone in my life.
"I love you," I said. But not out loud.

I'll also pick the last chapter, when Keara's story becomes clear to him.

Also, where the hell is Matty when I need him the most? He'd surely choose a million passages and give the best ideas.

I read it a few years ago, and now my Mum has my copy, so goodness knows where it is now. If I get it back soon I'll contribute. Good luck Irina!

I knew I was forgetting the best one.

One more, when he talks about his hand being a rorschach blot... I'm not sure where that is but you haven't already, I'll find it when I get home.

I love this book a great deal... but that must be obvious.

I dug the pages in chapter six before this but the specific part I was thinking about...

My left hand is a Rorschach blotch all its own, a six-fingered, skin-blood-and-bone ink splatter. People see it and fly their worst fears and secret fetishes at full mast when they think they're being discreet. They see it as strange, fascinating, ugly, beautiful, disgusting or erotic depending on what's behind their eyes.

Grown-ups used to look right at me, point, tap each other and grab my wrist to get a closer look at my fingers. Kids can be cruel, they can ostracize you, but with adults, you're a specimen. As I grew older, the comments changed to whispers and the stares went from my face to my peripheral vision to my back.

Anyway, when is all of this due?

YES! Jess, you read my mind. That part is beautiful. I somehow want to balance descriptions and narrative passages, so I'll also pick the one where he describes the mutilated lady in the ER.

The woman in the bed next to mine looks maybe forty. Hard to tell. Two cops speak to her, writing what she says into a spiral notebook, but I can't hear anything. She's talking through clenched teeth, wired together to keep her jaw from falling apart. She's pretty, with metallic hair the color of wet rock past her shoulders and parted straight, the way Mom wore hers, but this woman's face is thinner, darker. A splint shrouds her septum, her left eye a protruding knob of mottled purple with a matching left cheekbone, a silver zipper of staples zigzags from her chin along the left side of her jawbone and a blue-black stain like an ink leak rings her throat, pronounced on the left side. Her husband must be right¬ handed. She pleads with the cops using her one, good eye-bloodshot and shiny-wet with the exit of shock and onset of reality-and gestures with her right hand (splints on her forefinger and middle finger, defensive splotches up and down her forearm). Her left arm is cast, so she's right-handed, as well. One of the cops, the shorter one, sees me staring and closes the curtain.

It's technically due in June, but I have to finish it much earlier because the professors who will be grading me should have the time to read it. The deadline my professor gave me for this chapter is early April.

This seems like such a fun project as long as you stay organized and don't end up suicidally stressed with days to go. Which doesn't sound like you anyway. I think you'll do a really great job with this.

I think you'll think of better passages than anyone else here will. You should totally list them as you decide on them though! I really like how he opens most chapters... you've already mentioned that awesome quote from chapter 11 but the first page of that is reallyyyy good too. I'm sure you've got that one though.

Trust me, I have no problem with the deadline. I have the theory, I have the translated text, all I need is to explain a bit of stuff. Not difficult at all. I just hope everything goes according to plan, I mean, my other classmates haven't even started their theses yet, so I'm waaaay ahead.