Black Dog

Been afflicted with a serious case of the black dog all day today, so I really can’t contribute much. Revving and overheating in neutral, I had but no choice except slip out of work at lunch to motor to the park, and read for a bit.

I’m about 20 percent done with Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, and so far I have mixed feelings. It’s an ambling mammoth of a novel, over a thousand meandering pages. At page 225 I still can’t tell you what it’s about, not really knowing for sure. We seem to be transitioning back and forth between three storylines: Lawrence Waterhouse, a mathematician working with Alan Turing during World War II in breaking Germany’s secret Enigma codes; Corporal Bobby Shaftoe, a battle-hardened marine commando in the South Pacific theater of the war; and Randy Waterhouse, a 21st-century programmer working on some sort of revolutionary internet startup company in the Philippines. How they are related, I have no idea, but I’m interested in finding out, and I hope Stephenson does not disappoint.

You can’t read this book in a rush; you have to sit back and enjoy the way the story comes at you, the images, the metaphors and similes, the intricate details, like wave after wave upon the seashore. It’s a vacation book, something to drink deeply of and savor, and as such it requires a massive investment of time. I’m learning a lot about the craft of writing through reading this book, and I’m anxious to put such learning to the test: Relax. See the scene in your mind, and write it. Relax. No rushing allowed, just be the conduit for the scene in your mind. Find the detail that speaks to you, and bring it to the reader. Oh, and did I say do it all while relaxing in a relaxed mood?

Hegel’s proving to be quite the pebble in my shoe. I have two-and-a-half short books to get through, then back to the philosopher’s own words as I reread the anthology. But time (or lack thereof), family and work demands, other readings and writings, and ye old black dog, are all conspiring to make it a quite formidable task. Also noticed I tend to get headaches whenever I start to concentrate on this philosophy thang. And I really can’t wait to find something else to hop onto, like Aquinas.