Re: a comment on the books we read..
Peggy Drayer (mad7a@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu)
Mon, 5 May 97 10:30:04 EDT
Andy,
I see what you are saying about the groupings, but what about the connection
between Mumbo Jumbo and Empire of the Senseless. I mean in terms of the way
that the story is told. Both books patch together their stories using bits
and pieces from other stories. In Acker's case it borders on plagerism and
Reed carefully footnotes all of his sources, but it is still a piecing
together of many different works to tell a complete story of one's own. In
Reed's case I think he does it to exhibit how many different works are
involved in telling or retelling a history. That a story cannot simply be
told from one point of view, or even one method of telling, so he pieces them
all together to create one complete story. Acker, well, I had a bit more
trouble with what to me seemed like laziness. I mean you could say that she
was trying to further the character development of Molly in Neuromancer, or
that she was shedding light on new applications of the Huck Finn tale. But
again, I felt like she was using them. Regardless of my tangent, I think
there is a connection between the writing style of Acker and the style of
Reed that shouldn't be over looked. I also think that Reed would rather
resent being lumped into a particular "group" like that.
Peggy Drayer