I am curious about Vonnegut’s view of religion having read it – some quick research (and much of his novels) suggests he was an atheist, but I can’t see a definitive answer. His characters appear to knowingly participate in grand cosmic jokes – whether objectively they are intended to have meaning in the context of the novel is, perhaps intentionally, hard to ascertain.

Where’s the cat? Where’s the cradle?

Any serious travel is looking like it’s some time away at the moment – I’m thinking of New York (and looking through old photos) and wishing I was over there.

This is a remarkable building which still holds its own in a city full of amazing skyscrapers.

Fair to say I’m not hating it so far… 43 more free tracks to come, allegedly.

Studying in Melbourne this week.

Also interesting is that this could sometimes be a counter-productive process:

people in the grip of the uncanny tend to see patterns where none exist — becoming more prone to conspiracy theories, for example. The urge for order satisfies itself, it seems, regardless of the quality of the evidence.

I knew there was a higher purpose to all those hours I spent watching Monty Python.

Near Kapunda, South Australia.

Along with the wonderful V, I am reading The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas.  So far, I am hard pressed to think of a novel I have enjoyed less.

The novel apparently examines “identities and personal relationships in a multicultural society” and “taps into universal tensions and dilemmas around family life and child-rearing”.  So far, though, I have found the ‘multicultural society’ to be utterly contrived (roll call: indian, greek, anglo saxon, aboriginal, jewish, christian, muslim, working class, young, old, feminist, sexist, etc etc etc) and the ‘tensions’ and ‘dilemmas’ to be predominantly the product of characters who come across as fundamentally unpleasant, selfish, self-obsessed people with few, if any redeeming characteristics.  I remain hopeful that the next chapter will contain a bus crash which finishes the lot of them off.

If this is contemporary, multicultural Australia then I want out.

I am thoroughly enjoying V by Thomas Pynchon so far.

The novel is roughly divided between the listless drifting of post WWII New York City, the byzantine European intrigues of pre-WWI Florence and the surreal horrors late 19th Century/early 20th Century German colonial Africa.  As well as being a fascinating read in its own right it presages the event’s of the wonderful Gravity’s Rainbow via certain characters and events, such as the extermination of the Herero tribe by the Germans and the character of Kurt Mondaugen.

Many of the themes are typically Pynchon-esque, such as the theory of dentists as the natural replacement for psychiatrists and the notion of a plastic surgeon who regards surgery as a means of revealing the authentic nature of his patients rather than hiding it.  At its heart is the quest for the unknown (and perhaps unknowable) ‘V’ – a city, a woman, or something else.