Geek Love

I am in the not-quite-middle of "Geek Love" and am having a hard time continuing. So far, I can't say I notice a similarity to IM, except to say that it is even more exhausting. IM has rapid fire ideas, but I could still breath while reading them. Geek Love is really too much sometimes, for example:

"If I finally did it right and got all the way through from "Step up, friends" to "A vision of the miraculous extravagance of Nature for the same simple price as an overcooked hotdog" without a single bellow of rage from my beloved papa, then he would swoop me up in huge arms and tuck me onto a shoulder, where I could grab his astounding hair in my fists and ride high through the tent flaps into the light, with Fortunato's golden head chugging along far below, and we would parade the long street of booths with me laughing down at the red-haired girls who sold the candy and at the toothless wheelman and Horst the Cat Man all nodding at Papa's instructions, and hearing, feeling his huge voice rumble out from beneath my legs, "This little beetle did her lessons just right today." --p.46

A few sentences of that and I'm done. It's not that its a run-on that's my problem, I'm reading Vollman as well right now. But Dunn's lines are packed with everything every time. Impressive, but tiresome.
I think that's the similarity between IM and Geek Love, that it's the first book throw-everything-on-the-page syndrome. IM still had more breathing room.
I haven't read any other Dunn books, maybe she can write like that everytime. It seems a waste. I think that's why I enjoyed "Choke" so much. More development and control.
I agree though, I don't like the main character (so far), or really anyone else. But I did like the characters in IM.

My 2 cents.

loved, loved, LOVED this book. and i didn't have trouble with it like you say, bronskrat.

this book is on my "Gotta Read before I turn 20" list. I can't get any books at my Library that were published within the last 50 years and I am too cheap to buy a new copy. Still waiting for someone to give it to half-price books but no luck thus far. What's strange is they probably have every Dunn book there except for "GEEK LOVE"

That IS strange.

proto, i dig what you're saying. the whole idea of taking a common, everyday theme and putting a queer twist on it. its like one of the reviewers said about geek love "you'll never look at family values the same way," or something like that.

i find it interesting this book has so much buzz lately! i wonder how many of us are currently reading it, for the first, second, seventh time.

dunn's not one of my favorite authors, but i really enjoyed this book. and i like it for the same reason i like chuck's stuff: theme, form and ideas symbolized, as proto suggests. i don't look to dunn or chuck for style, but for content.

I've picked this one up a few times and the first few lines just didn't draw me in. Still, I bought American Psycho because of the AP thread here, so I'm probably going to have to check this one out too. I've been wanting to ever since Fugitives and Refugees.

Yeah, patioman, the first chapter pretty much turned me off of Geek Love, but it gets amazing after that. And actually, I did read this more for form, and less plot. She's a composer with words.

And American Psycho's first chapter should kill you. All the italicized syllables, you will need to sleep after the first 20 pages.

God, I love Bret Easton Ellis- he's a superhero of writing, but I hate every single book he's written. I can't explain how that works, but it does.

I wish I was half the writer Ellis is and I also can't even imagine having to experience one of his books a second time.

I actually loved the first chapter! I knew from the start that it was going to be worth reading. But you're right — his books are cold, but at the same time, they really are beautifully written. I kind of liked the italicized syllables, showed attention to detail, although too much detail can be overwhelming.

I knew as soon as I read this paragraph from American Psycho that I was going to enjoy (that sounds odd) reading it: [comments are typing this all: wow, that was much longer than I remember it being, but it all flows so smoothly together.]

"Outside this cab, on the sidewalks, black and bloated pigeons fight over scraps of hot dogs in front of a Gray's Papaya while transvestites idly look on and a police car cruises silently the wrong way down a one-way street and the sky is low and gray and in a cab that's stopped in traffic across from this one, a guy who looks a lot like Luis Carruthers waves over at Timothy and when Timothy doesn't return the wave the guy — slicked-back hair, suspenders, horn-rimmed glasses— realizes it's not who he thought it was and looks back at his copy of USA Today. Panning down to the sidewalk there's an ugly old homeless bag lady holding a whip and she cracks it at the pigeons who ignore it as they continue to peck and fight hungrily over the remains of the hot dogs and the police car disappears into an underground parking lot." (p5)

This is quite late since I've basically ignored this thread since I haven't read the book but I'm sure Vonnegut stole that thing about writers being theives. Ah, sweet irony, I'm sure he knew it and laughed as he said it.

i like the way it turns on its head conventional notions of normality, exploitation, family and even love.

and i'm done being a geek.

Kitty: ??

To which are you referring? IM, Geek Love or American Psycho?

geek love.

Right. And don't you see the similarity to IM?

Chuck has said IM is really about family in America. Plus there's the whole disfigurement, the idea of doing things you cannot come back from.

And again, the TOTAL lack of likable characters.

I think the only likable character Chuck has ever penned is Denny in Choke.

your right prototype, i really liked denny. maybe its cuz im a chronic masturbator though i dont know.

Sweet. Good reasoning.

yeah that was a lie. but there is something in denny that makes you like hime more than anyother character in chucks books. i mean they all stood out but not for better reasons. oh that chick what her name, in survivor she was able to see the future. i kinda liked her and her black humor. like watching places burn down.

Yeah, I enjoyed all his characters, but I didn't really like any of them or care about them. Everyone who has shit come down on them, you sort of see that they deserve it.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a critique or complaint. This is just me saying that Denny is the only one you might want to know in real life.

i don't think geek love has no likeable characters.

so all the characters are likeable.
sorry its early and i dont understand that statement.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by godspeed [/i]
[B]so all the characters are likeable.
sorry its early and i dont understand that statement. [/B][/QUOTE]

in my opinion, yes.

oh ok, that was more understandable.

yeah how can you not like the seal boy, come on.

my favorite was artie. i thought he was the shit. evil, yes, but the shit nonetheless.

i havent read that in a while, borrowed it from my teacher, which is the one that perfectly well, but has the special power, mind control, can read your thoughts, something like that

that would be fortunato, aka chick.

yeah, ok thanx

This may contain spoilers.

I don't mean I didn't think the characters were well thought out or interesting or entertaining. I mean that they're not likable, not people you'd respect or care to know intimately. They're jerks.

GEEK LOVE
Arty is a megalomaniacal control freak who mistreats and manipulates everyone. He's cruel and obnoxious and conceited.

Oly is manipulative and incestually in love with her brother. She's also a murderer.

Chick is so soft he ends up in the pocket of Arty doing all manner of terrible things to people too dumb to take care of themselves. He also helps with the twins incident.

The twins are both dislikable in opposite ways. Iphy is a sycophantic twit who's in for incest and Elly is a bitch to everyone.

Pa decided to genetically engineer his own children to exploit them.

Ma went along with this and eventually becomes a disgusting and insane eccentric. She also used to brutally bite the heads off of chickens.

_______________________
INVISIBLE MONSTERS
Shannon is a conspiring and aspiring murderer who's living by the ethic "if I can't have him then no one will." She's also formerly a narcissist who cared little when her brother got mangled.

Shane is formerly the kid that everyone loves while someone needs attention and is ignored. The type who's great to your face and a jerk when the backs of the parents are turned. He's now B.A. and a total bitch. (S)He's cruel, also tinkering with Manus and
for that matter they're all theives. She's a drug addicted manipulator.

Manus is a whiny and deceitful son of a bitch who has ruined everyone who has loved him "The person that you love and the person that loves you are never the same" because of this shmuck. He also gave a fourteen year old gonorrhea. Come on.

Ma McFarland and Pa McFarland are both closed minded homophobes who destroyed the life and esteem of their children in seperate ways. And then post Shane's "death," they become the kind of zealots that make the causes they stand for shudder with shame. Seriously, PFLAG might just as well call them up and ask them to start hate criming, since they're an embarrasment to the organization with all their superflous overcompensation. They also do their very best to spoil the life of Shannon by amplifying the Shane factor after he disappears.

Evie is self-explanatory.

Does this clarify it for anyone? Who wants to cuddle up next to any of these characters?

maybe not cuddle up but maybe people like them so much because they feel sorry for them who knows. there are some things u just cant figure out

I just have a quick question, what's the name of Oly's daughter again? I don't have access to the book ATM, being a few hundred miles from my book collection. Anyone can help me out, here?

[QUOTE=Marky Lazer]I just have a quick question, what's the name of Oly's daughter again? I don't have access to the book ATM, being a few hundred miles from my book collection. Anyone can help me out, here?[/QUOTE]

Miranda

Quick and correct. Thanks, mate.

An old guy just gave me an extra copy of this book and I think it rocks a casba or two.

just started reading this myself yesterday
so far the pig tail girl and the chick with the ankle length hairy cooch are my favorites

I just read this thread (ignoring proto's spoiler post) and the one long ass sentence about Oly practicing her lines was really enjoyable for me. I read that post after reading that part of the book and when I read it in the book it wasn't difficult at all. It was harsh, real, touching and kinda happy. This book is filled with such things and I know I'm only a fifth through it but I love it nonetheless. I just hope it has a happy ending... I hate sad endings.

I gotta say I like the characters, but maybe because they remind me of my family, but only because they are so much better than my family. I won't go any further cause that was angsty enough.