A Moral Problem

Submitted by vinteuil on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 5:06pm. Tags:

Culture

After a bit of begging, a certain poster on this forvm whose handle begins with the letter K sent me the first 49 chapters of his work-in-progress, entitled *The Book of Hope*.

I approached it, at first, with a certain amount of trepidation, because it was not what I was expecting - i.e., a historical novel (I have a special fondness for historical novels). Well, since I had asked, I felt obligated to read at least a little bit before saying, politely, "thanks, but no thanks."

But what I found was quite possibly the most brilliant, most hilarious first-half-of-a-comic-novel that I have ever read.

Unfortunately, at that point, I made the mistake of asking the poster whose handle begins with the letter K if he'd mind if I posted an adulatory review, here - and he vetoed.

So what should I do?

That's my moral problem.
--

God help the while, a bad world I say.

vinteuil's blog
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Oh, K.'s just being coy. (#103626)

by hobbesist on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 9:47pm

We all know it.

Review away.

Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.

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Sorry for being coy, Vint (#103685)

by Kierkegaard on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 9:42am

Please post your adulatory review.

It's very likely the only one I'll ever get ;)

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Excellent. (#103774)

by vinteuil on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 2:24pm

But first I have to read it all again from the beginning. Which will be a great pleasure.

God help the while, a bad world I say.

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Agreed. Be immoral. (#103681)

by mmghosh on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 9:17am

In a worthy cause!

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I'm not surprised (#103606)

by M Aurelius on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 8:11pm

K sure knows how to write. So much so that I never quite grasp why he graces us with his presence.

I'm not saying we are a bunch of illiterates or anything. But K is amazing.

Of course not!

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"Quite possibly"???? (#103568)

by Kierkegaard on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 6:30pm

If I were gay, we'd be so over! ;)

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Simple (#103557)

by HankP on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 5:42pm

do as he asked. A person's word means something, no?

BTW, I read an earlier version along with the supplementary materials, and have a similar take to yours.

I blame it all on the Internet

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Reading K is....Well....I Don't Know.... (#103569)

by Traveller on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 6:30pm

I did not like, "Hope," or the first few portions of it that I saw...the writing, plotting and characters were over my head possibly...

Then, I read Chapter 3 of K's Geezer Seduction Posts at an outdoor eatery down on Sunset and thought it was the best thing I'd ever read....

So I printed all Chapters of that Opus of K's, there are still only 4 I believe, and I am getting a sense that, at least for me, the complexity and density of K's writing needs to be approached in an outdoor setting on a balmy evening when everything around you feels soft.

Traveller

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OK, that was mean. (#103556)

by Macallan on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 5:38pm

Hilarious. Clever. For his own good.

But mean.

LOL

“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”

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Well, obviously you can't review something (#103555)

by Jordan on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 5:36pm

an author showed you in confidence and asked you not to review. It isn't the same as a work that's been put out for public consumption. All you can do with a recalcitrant author is a) offer as much encouragement as you can to finish the damn thing and b) resort to threats when a) fails. :)

James Joyce once wrote a 600-page satirical novel about a sensitive, artistic young man coming of age in a Dublin boy's school and learning to rebel against the stifling priggishness of Irish Catholic traditions and scholasticism. He showed it to his brother Stanislaus & other friends, who all loved it, thought it brilliantly funny with brilliantly innovative experimental prose, which it was. The novel was called Stephen Hero. They begged him to publish.

Joyce didn't think it was ready. (Which is to say, he was suicidally depressed. Writers.) Instead he cruelly pared the MS down to a slender volume called Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Which is one of the finest novels written in any language.

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH

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Offhand Response (#103553)

by M Scott Eiland on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 5:34pm

But what I found was quite possibly the most brilliant, most hilarious first-half-of-a-comic-novel that I have ever read.

I think the point is moot now--given your teaser, K is likely to be nagged unmercifully by the commentariat here until he caves in to your request or flees in terror.