Friday, May 30, 2008

The Dog of the South

When Ray Midge’s wife, Norma, runs off with her former husband, Guy Dupree, Ray sets out after them -- not so much to reclaim Norma but to get back his Ford Torino and his credit cards.

The chase, if it can be called that, is a rather desultory affair that leads eventually to Mexico and Belize.

Along the way Ray encounters Dr. Reo Symes, a rogue of the same ilk as Dupree, and a bail bondsman named Jack Wilkie. All are typical Portis characters, eccentric, self-absorbed, and ineffectual.

Ray is a sweet oddball, while Dupree and Symes are pathetic con men. Here’s Symes reflecting on an earlier incident in his medical career:


"A patient named J.D. Brimlett developed osteomyelitis,” said the doctor. “That was the claim anyway. I’m convinced he already had it. He had everything else. Emphysema, glaucoma, no adrenal function, you name it. Two little hard dark lungs like a pair of dessicated prunes.

"He belonged in a carnival instead of an arthritis clinic. The world’s sickest living man. No blood pressure to speak of and you couldn’t find a vein to save your ass. Renal failure on top of everything else. The Mayo brothers couldn’t have pulled that chump through, but no, it was my zinc that killed him. A class B irritant poison, they said.

"I should have screened him out. I should have closed my eyes and ears to his suffering and sent him on his way. I didn’t do it and I’ve been paying for that mistake ever since. There’s always a son of a bitch like Brimlett hanging around, doing anything to get attention, dying even and just ruining things for everybody else. Do you want it in a nutshell? I was weak. I was soft."



Symes has a broken-down schoolbus named "The Dog of the South," which makes a brief appearance early in the book. Using it as the novel's title suggests that other journeys in the book will end up in a similar state, for the characters themselves are leading broken-down lives.

Charles Portis is a former marine and newspaperman (New York Herald Tribune). He’s written five unusual comic novels: Norwood, True Grit, The Dog of the South, Masters of Atlantis, and Gringos. His gentle portrayal of eccentrics, typified by self-serving monologues and folksy expressions (“in a nutshell”), have made him something of a cult figure.

Unofficial Website


Thursday, May 8, 2008

Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy

A self-described “quantum comedy,” this triptych of novels is spread across six parallel universes in a version of the USA called Unistat.

The writing is silly, sexy, and erudite. It uses a mosaic of events in place of a conventional plotline, and peels back layer after layer of reality and conspiracy. It's like an X-rated version of The X-Files scripted by Monty Python.

The trilogy's structure is as follows:

BOOK ONE – THE UNIVERSE NEXT DOOR
Part One – Purity of Essence
Part One – The Universe Next Door

BOOK ONE – THE TRICK TOP HAT
Part One – Stoic and Christian Ejaculations

BOOK ONE - THE HOMING PIGEONS
Part One – Who’s Zelenka?
Part One – Coming to a Head
Part One – Flossing

A large cast of recurring characters shows up in each part (universe) under a different guise. For example, Joe Malik becomes Josephine Malik, and Mountbatten Babbit is variously a scientific advisor to the President, a researcher at Orgasm Institute, and an admiral at Naval Intelligence.

Many of the names provide an indication of the author’s intent: Ms Karrige, Justin Case, Natalie Drest, Bertha Van Ation, Juan Tootreego, Frank Hemeroid, Clem Cotex, Furbish Lousewart, Marvin Gardens, the Mad Fishmonger, Benny “Eggs” Benedict…

A number of characters are motivated by a desire to know “what the hell is going on.” They lecture each other on quantum mechanics, politics, religion, philosophy, and economics. Some eventually come to the conclusion that they are simply characters in a novel.

Other common elements include a disembodied penis, L5 space cities, a computer called the Beast, and the town of Bad Ass, Texas.

The author, Robert Anton Wilson, was a former associate editor at Playboy. He is best known for co-authoring The Illuminatus! Trilogy with Robert Shea. The Schrodinger’s Cat trilogy is a kind of sequel, sharing a number of characters with the previous work.