John Neeleman

Agree with you the Idiot is flawed. And the last part is derivative of Poe (
Of whom FD was a great fan). But I don't hate it. BK is a masterpiece.

I was!

Agree with your point about the zeitgeist. Eventually I have to say enough though.

I liked Infinite Jest better than I thought I would. There's rubbish but also some powerful humanist vignettes. There's even plenty of rubbish in Dostoevsky. The Russian chauvinism and antisemitic suggestions. But enough greatness to make masterpieces.

I keep reading the banalities out of gratitude to my friend LiteratureSupporter. Because of him I have also read In Search of Lost Time, Magic Mountain (twice), ten volumes of Anthony Powell, Anna Karenina (twice), Infinite Jest. Can't say I would otherwise have. Cusk and Knausgard keep us in touch.

What bothers me isn’t the banality itself but the presumption that repetition of the mundane equals insight. Cusk seems to believe that stripping away plot and drama will reveal some hidden truth of experience, but too often it just exposes the flatness of her subjects.

Setting it alongside something equally commonplace—a writing seminar—made the whole thing feel unbearably dull. 3/

#rachelcusktogether The story about the woman who gives in to her children’s pleas for a puppy, then regrets it once the dog grows up, was excruciatingly banal. I’ve heard that story a countless times. 2/

Is there a spine of tension that sustains all successful relationships?

#rachelcusktogether Interesting. "The polarisation of man and woman was a structure, a form: she had only felt it once it was gone, and it almost seemed as though the collapse of that structure, that equipoise, was responsible for the extremity that followed it." 2/

She's only a part of the outline to HIS STORY
#rachelcusktogether

Doctor Faustus yesterday: “I don’t want to call it beautiful; the word ‘beauty’ has always half-disgusted me, it has such a stupid face, and when they say it, people feel lewd and lazy.” Exactly. Not trying to depict beauty is lazy.

#Rachelcusktogether The narrator tells us Elena is beautiful but never shows us how. Saying a woman is beautiful without even a gesture toward what makes her so is a pet peeve of mine. It doesn’t need to be Tolstoyan detail—just something that earns the word. I happened to read this in Mann's 2/

#rachelcusktogether #Pilgrimage

'The word ellipsis...could literally be translated as "to hide behind silence"'

Seems to me this is always true to a degree. Ultimately, everyone is a mystery and we are all alone. Dark, I know. But fascinating.

What wounds her isn’t only what he says, but the collapse of that self-image—the realization that she’s peripheral to his story.

What’s interesting is how the scene reveals vanity disguised as love. Elena wants Konstantin’s affection to confirm her own worth; she wants to be seen through his eyes, and through Yanna’s envy.

Rivalry curdles into humiliation.

#Rachelcusktogether I don’t think Elena’s hurt is as pure as it seems. She begins by showing Konstantin off, half-hoping Yanna will envy her. When he says he doesn’t want more children, the pain isn’t just about motherhood—it’s the recognition that he doesn’t imagine a future with her.

#rachelcusktogether How sad. Ultimately, potential for highest satisfaction in a relationship is in the story that develops. "If the relationship is going to end, in other words, I want to know it and confront it as soon as possible...Very often I have felt that my relationships have had no story."

Why do you say you mistakenly read the interview?

It’s not just that I get bored; it’s the conceit that bothers me—the idea that this is somehow innovative or daring. That’s why Cusk’s remark that she doesn’t believe in characters grated.

I want to inhabit a consciousness more compelling—better or worse—to be reminded what oppression and suffering look like, to learn, to see vistas open. I like ideas in fiction; if it can make me laugh, all the better.

I think you’ve put your finger on why I’m not a fan of much autofiction or memoir. I don’t read novels to vicariously relive someone’s bourgeois life no more interesting than my own.

It would have been less predictable had narrator fallen for the guy. He's depicted as very unattractive, and just talked about himself. Never asked about her. His domestic tales and marital failures are commonplace.

I called it predictable because the novel settles for the easiest move: the lecherous middle-aged man, a familiar trope. In life, men often value women as friends and colleagues. With all its self-seriousness, I expected something more—but Cusk gives us the cliché.

If you want to see this polyphonic approach raised to absolute genius, read Bolano's The Savage Detectives, starting on page 126, "The Savage Detectives (1976–1996)."

#Rachelcusktogether Cusk claims she doesn't believe in "characters", but predictably she turns her "neighbor" into a grotesque caricature.

“I Don’t Think Character Exists Anymore”: A Conversation with Rachel Cusk An interview, from June, around the publication of “Kudos,” the final book in Cusk’s “Outline” trilogy.

@literaturesc.bsky.socia"I’m not interested in character because I don’t think character exists anymore."

This explains a lot.

"I Don’t Think Character Exists Anymore”: A Conversation with Rachel Cusk www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

I like the ending of Chapter VI. That last student is me reading Outline. I hope it's a gesture of humility by Cusk: I understand some may feel this way, reading this.