Saturday, August 7, 2010

The Dentist: Another One of THOSE Chapters

...by which I mean that's it's short.

Anyway, Mary McMahon pointed out to me that the chapter ends with "...Curt Lemon was all smiles," (p. 84) which is a rather clever pun. This is the part where I try not to mention how I spent an inordinate amount of time searching for pun-related videos on YouTube and fail(ed) at both endeavors.

Also, is it me, or is this novel mostly a compilation of anecdotes? It's particularly evident in the short chapters. It's a collection of war stories, and I actually have a bit of a problem with that. He talks about how none of them are true, but sometimes he says one of them is true, and then he says they're love stories, really, and I just don't really know what he's talking about anymore. There are too many abstract ideas floating around at once. Just tell it to me straight: is it the truth or not?

5 comments:

  1. I give this a thumbs up, because my name is mentioned and because I agreeeeeee with you! But I also gave this a meh, because I don't like that I agree with it because it means I am also confused..

    Also, I don't think I was the one to point that out to you. I think we talked about there being a lot of similes.. in the car ride to Meijer, but no puns.

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  2. Oh. Hm. Well, still. In my mind, you contributed, sooooo thanks =D!

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  3. The thing about the truth is extremely tricky. Don't worry, by around chapter 16, you start to get a better understanding for what is actually true, and what is kinda not actually true. Ultimately, after reading through the whole book, you'll have no better understanding of anything that aaactually happened in Vietnam, but you'll know what it felt like, which is the real truth in and of itself. =D?

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  4. MMmmyeeeeeessss, after having read the whole book at last, I really dunno what happened and what was made up. It reminds me of something, but I'm gonna save it for a blog post.

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  5. I guess truth isn't as black and white as we sometimes assume/hope

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