The following conversation occurred today between 11:47 AM and 12:38 PM. The book being discussed is Alex Garland's The Coma, released back in 2005. He is the same author of the critically-acclaimed novel-turned-Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer-slash-social commentary, The Beach, and The Tesseract, a gen-x dystopic reality set in Manila that was written when he was a mere 28-year old.
Spamwise Crunchy: the coma was great :)
although there's a feeling of inadequacy after i've read it. a thirst that spells a hollowness in the
ending.
it could've been because i read it too fast, and that it didn't had enough time to really transport
me into its reality.
voyeuristic and panoptic.
like a roller-coaster ride, done already when you've just started the adrenaline salivating.
sorry, did that sound too much like a critique?
on point naman yung reaction naman
you do have to race through it because it's designed like a suspense thriller
and with that hollowness also comes a possibility
SC: yun nga eh, i was cognizant of that. the way it was written forces you to rush through it.
maybe because its the first time i've read something so fast-paced? that i don't need to
contemplate the text and decipher clandestine tropes?
FH: besides, the sequences are very dream-like and hallucinatory that making sense, in the
'normal' sense, doesn't really count for much
the stories aren't always coherent but there still is a sense of continuity, fluidity and in a way,
logic, no matter how warped
SC: true.
an underlying logic. but one that is fed to the reader, as if we're with him when he realized he
was asleep, or when he was dreaming and he realized he was, or when he lost it, and then
regained it. the order of it was fed to us. it was not something the reader had to discover for
himself, but a motif that the writer used to establish pace and mise en scene.
FH: a good way to put it; but that doesn't take away from the confusion and horror that the guy
feels and undergoes, you still feel for him because, somehow, you've felt it, just under different
circumstances
that's why in the end, i felt hope
SC: you do become empathic for him
if solipsism could be a novel, this would be it
it captures the pain and fear, confusion and desperation that comes with being trapped inside
one's own mind, where no sense of the rest of the world is tangible enough to grasp on to
i wanted him to wake up, in the end.
FH: ang nakakatakot pa, parang totoo talaga lahat
and it feeds itself
that it becomes harder and harder to break free
SC: remember the spider?
the spider fibrosis of solipsism that DFW was taking about?
you have to starve the spider, you have to want to starve the spider, you have to want to
surrender to people who know how to starve the spider
FH: another thing i like about that book: the simple, uncluttered language
and now that i really think about it, the layout itself
the words are generously spaced spread out
in contrast to the claustrophobia of the narrative and the grimness of the illustrations
SC: a very good foil.
and an effective method of hightening contrast
by allowing the reader a breathing space, we are made self-aware of the morbid constriction
being trapped in one's mind may pose
very good observation. :)
even the woodcut plates helped define this grimness.
FH: tapos di ba may thick white border din yung woodcuts, hindi full page?
SC: yeah, there's a generous white space
it, too, is a visual foil
making the woodcut plates more confined and claustrophobic
FH: or, the space allows it to somehow breathe and not seemingly trying to eat the reader
whole
SC: that's an alternate, equally valid postulate :)
Original image from here.
4 redmarks:
I remember reading this book in PowerBooks. I was standing the whole time but it was a nice experience. Not to mention, I did not have to spend some hundreds to buy the book. I like how the novel was presented although, as you have said, the ending is not that satisfying. It is as if there is something more, something else, that the author could have provided us readers. That was... (checking my book list on my blog...) 2008 when I read it. After that, until now, I haven't seen another copy of the book. I have searched long enough. Different bookstores. Different lines of titles. But to no avail.
@midnightorgasm I too have the same habit, especially when the book in question is beyond my meager pecuniary facilities. Although, the lack of an open copy is the usual deterrent, expect me to return to the bookstore to do intermittent readings when one is. It is a rare book only because it doesn't have the same commercial success as other authors, but his fresh almost screenplay-ish approach to the issue of depression and the feeling of being trapped is one that is greatly appreciated by this reader, both SC and FH. Welcome to my blog, by the way. I see you are a bit of a bibliophile yourself. :)
book lover ka pala.
@elpidiogarimbao Yup. Among other things. :)
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