Reading Philip K. Dick is like looking at frames from a movie strung out in plotline sequences. In this case, the pictures are from different films that have been edited together. And yet, although different, the scenes still make sense to the meta-story. This strangeness is entertaining and you get what the Pink Floyd song calls, “the warm thrill of confusion and space cadet glow.” The sensual experience of these stories is mental, you get to dream and think and contemplate.
By contrast, in Yukio Mishima’s story, “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea”, this experience is more visual and tactile. Since I don’t know Japanese, I don’t know if this effect is a product of the translator or can be seen in the original text. I haven’t finished reading the story yet, so I’ll make another entry later to include any new thoughts on the story.
One common thread through all these different types of literature I am currently reading is that one can often use characters in a story to explore what one is thinking, feeling, yearning, and wondering about. Some would say that in the end, writing and getting published is merely about entertainment. If this is true, at least let us expand the reader’s mind and insert ideas in with the entertainment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment