Brain Pain discussion

This discussion covers Chapter 7 – 16, p. 142 – 237


Book finally arrived, but will take me a few days to catch up...

At the rate I'm going, I don't think I'll ever catch up.
I love the writing but it's very slow going (and that's even without worrying about whether or not I "understand" anything!).

Ellie wrote: "At the rate I'm going, I don't think I'll ever catch up.
I love the writing but it's very slow going (and that's even without worrying about whether or not I "understand" anything!)."

Let's pull out an old chestnut for this snowy winter day: "It's the journey, not the destimation."

Hmmm... that doesn't help much, does it?

Just that I'm sad that once again I'll never keep up with the discussions.

Ellie wrote: "Just that I'm sad that once again I'll never keep up with the discussions."

Cheer up! At this point we're the only ones in the discussion, and you're already ahead of me, therefore, you're number one!

Lol (for these 2 minutes anyway).
By the way, where is everybody else?

Ellie wrote: "Lol (for these 2 minutes anyway).
By the way, where is everybody else?"

They're probably waiting for the easy books to begin...

Looooong wait then...

By the way, where is everybody else?

I for one am kind of hovering on the fringe of the discussion, waiting to find out whether this novel is something that might interest me or not. :P

Larou wrote: "By the way, where is everybody else?

I for one am kind of hovering on the fringe of the discussion, waiting to find out whether this novel is something that might interest me or not. :P"

I don't like to recommend books that are over 1000+ pages given the time commitment, but so far, I'm intrigued by the first two chapters.

I'm in! Okay, so I'm only on page four and technically, don't belong here in week two, but that will be part of my journey. It's been a heck a of four pages, though. Pretty excited about continuing.

I'm with you Rachel, only a very little bit further, but I feel the same way.

I don't like to recommend books that are over 1000+ pages given the time commitment, but so far, I'm intrigued by the first two chapters.

It's not like there was even a faint chance I'll ever manage to read every book I own, anyway, and I am on a book buying spree anyway... Also, from what a bit of snooping around in the interwebs turned up, it seems Miss Macintosh, My Darling is not the kind of novel you necessarily read in a linear fashion from beginning to end.

In any case, colour me intrigued; I ordered the novel yesterday. :P

Larou wrote: "In any case, colour me intrigued; I ordered the novel yesterday. :P .."

sehr gut!

I'll never catch up, I just got it from the library. But at page 5 I'm enjoying it so far! :-)

I like the design of the boards for the first edition. It'd be worth buying just for that, I guess!

Jason wrote: "I'll never catch up, I just got it from the library. But at page 5 I'm enjoying it so far! :-)

I like the design of the boards for the first edition. It'd be worth buying just for that, I guess!"

I'm predicting we'll all be caught up and in synch by around week 5 or so.

I could not help but notice that there is an awful lot of talk about death and indeed a lot of people who either are dead, or died at some stage, or are about to die in the present day chapters. Indeed, it makes me wonder if the bus driver could not be some modern day Charon, or at least some kind of psychopomp and if the "interior America" the bus is traversing is not really the afterlife? Which would imply that the novel's narrator is already dead, which I'm not quitie ready to conclude - maybe she is just a visitor, Dante or Odysseus?

I have to say that I was rather glad to see the novel return to the past - even though I still do not like Miss MacIntosh I found those chapters more enjoyable to read than the present day ones. Not quite sure why that would be, maybe I care more for the characters? (I still do not like Miss MacIntosh, though.)

Larou wrote: "I could not help but notice that there is an awful lot of talk about death and indeed a lot of people who either are dead, or died at some stage, or are about to die in the present day chapters. In..."

If you don't mind me asking, what specifically don't you like about Miss MacIntosh?

Of course I do not mind at all. And isn't she like the grandmother of all oppressive governesses, doing her utmost to drive every last vestige of fun from the life of the child entrusted to her, smothering her imagination and creativity with gruelling, mindless tasks? Also, she seems to be a religious nut and her ideas about the role of wome are... dated at the very least. As I said in the previous thread, I'd be very concerned if my daughter fell in with someone like that.

(I want to strongly emphasise though that I'm not of the school who thinks that people in fiction have to be likeable to be interesting characters, and as horrid as I think Miss MacIntosh is, as much I find myself fascinated with her.)

Larou wrote: "Of course I do not mind at all. And isn't she like the grandmother of all oppressive governesses, doing her utmost to drive every last vestige of fun from the life of the child entrusted to her, sm..."

It's true. Her protestant severity is off-putting, but in the context of the young girl's life, she is a source of stability and no-nonsense love in a family with a father who abandoned them and a mother who escaped into opium addiction. Miss MacIntosh is the girl's savior, no matter what her politics might be.

Agreed, there is the context, and the general theme of reversal which appears to be extremely important for the novel (and which I really should write about some time); so, on the principle that "fair is foul, and foul is fair", there might be some positive function for Miss MacIntosh to fulfill.

Okay, I'll cede you that there likely is, but at this stage of the novel (around p. 180, if I remember correctly), I can't say I know what it might be. And I'm not at all sure Vera actually is saved - from the hints she drops, she does not seem to have lived her life in the kind of severe austerity her erstwhile governess had in mind for her, and from the way she spins the tales of her fellow-travelers on the bus it seems she is still suffering from a fertile imagination - which might also serve to explain why she is on the road to seek out her former (and presumably dead) governess.

I am still suspending judgement on Vera's mother who we just don't know all that much about yet, and what we do know is mostly from Miss MacIntosh who I would not consider a reliable source (not certain the narrator is actually reliable, either). I continue to be thrown off by a such a highly imaginative work of literature practicing such open malingering of the imagination, something that has been a constant (and productive!) irritation to me pretty much from page one of Miss MacIntosh. And I'm only about 15% into the novel, so I wouldn't be surprised if I should change my opinion several times during the remaining 85%. ;)