Mytsery

I've been reading "The Bridge" by Ian Banks. After two or three large chapters (many of the chapters have smaller sub-chapters), I'm still not sure what Ian Banks is getting at. Thus far the main character has changed, but not in any 'must clearly be leading somewhere' kind of way. There's something quite wonderful about a story where not only the surroundings of the obvious main story arc are obscured, but the actual points of the arc could lie anywhere. What is it about this sort of fog-obscured wandering story arc that makes my night?

I don't mean to drive your thoughts to twist endings or mystery novels, though I may be touching upon them in my description. Twists and 'conventional' mysteries don't create any sort of mind-bending experience, merely jerking artificially from the path one is expecting (teehee, Dan-Brownian motion). It is more the meandering mysterious quality surrounding the contents of a deep shadow in the woods or the possibilities lurking beyod the next corner on my walk home that inspires my innocent joy. The dancing in my head comes not from merely a feeling of not-knowing, but from having no purchase on an idea, from scrambling and constantly needing effort to not lose what I think I have already grasped. When I was younger, variables in algebra and logarithms both had this sort of effect on me. I would try to fully comphrehend them, and they'd just slip out again, like a little snake not able to completely fit it's toothless mouth around an egg (or a giant fish not quite able to eat my toe...), and without constantly looking from different angles, these ideas wouldn't solidify. Some combination of the wonderful feeling of accomplishment from learning and reaching into hazy misunderstanding for some mind-expanding wonder has led me to decide that Academia would be a great place to spend longer than my requisite 17 years.

In other news, due to some seriously over-zealous computer use I have broken my right shift key in twain. It wouldn't be so bad, but I tend to use my right shift key exclusively.... Expect poor capitalization in e-mails...

Also, may i recommend the "raisins" episode of south park to anyone and everyone. Butters has such a great outlook on life...

I'll probably start updating this more frequently.

--Sasha