I second your enthusiasm for this selection, MikeStrange. This book looks like it will be a real change of pace from the majority of WUiB selections, 10 of which were written by men, and all 11 being written by English-speaking authors. Not to say that we haven't already run a wide stylistic gamut, but Emily's choice…

Poetry. Sheer poetry. It's so bracing to read someone posting profane, confrontational missives written all in capital letters.

Awesome. I hope you enjoy it, MikeStrange. While the first 100 pages take a little bit of investment, it's so worth it if you hang on.

Well I have read Pynchon, and I am sorely disappointed in the both of you.

It's all good with me, man. I need to re-read that damn thing anyway, and I'm just hoping to rope WUiB in with me.

I don't know, wouldn't Cryptonomicon be a better choice for discussion? I feel like there are more substantive choices out there for Neil Stephenson apart from Snow Crash.

Oh man, if we go for a graphic novel, it's gotta be From Hell. That'd be a fabulous discussion piece, and bring WUiB back to its dark, bloody roots.

::shrugs:: Gould's Book of Fish is a book that's certainly not lacking for gushy, kinky, spectacularly violent content, but I am but one man with one voice. Perhaps it would not be engaging for others. What do I know about the will of the Commentariot?

My Suggestion
Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan.

Wish I could make it
Have a good time ya'll. Watch out for any fires, earthquakes, emergent volcanoes, or other such cinematically documented dangers of Los Angeles. I'm sure I'm forgetting several.

My love for this feature is fervent and long-standing. I always learn a tremendous deal about how to be a better reader from the staff and especially, the commentors on this feature. Thanks so much, guys!

Well, that strikes me as something of a loaded question, Swibble. I mean, the language of that question assumes that M&C's artistic worth is defined by it being "just" a well told adventure story, while I'd personally vouch that its accomplishments amount to more than that. Similarly, I can't really think of anyone…

Yeah, that was largely my experience with the book, too. I was beginning to fear I was the only one…

I kept thinking of Chris Jericho when envisioning Michael. A little old for the part, I confess, but I just couldn't shake that image.

Well…humor can be a pretty subjective thing. You're right: Funny is definitely a risk, but, speaking just as a counterpoint, the vast majority of this book's humor just didn't resonate for me, with the spectacular exception of that Ernest Hemingway shtick.

Yeah, Muldoon's realization of the Santa vs. Satan fight, subsequent expulsion from the Wrestling Association, and then rebirth as an apostate rebel organizer struck me more as a deluded defeat than the universe-shattering victory that Muldoon tried to posit it as.

Ernest Hemingway
While much of the book's humor was diverting for me rather than downright hilarious, the passage where Wally runs into the trio of dissolute English scholars and gains instruction on his new identity and his "short, declarative sentences":

You've done it again, man. Great insights, WR.

While humor certainly isn't doing a good job if it's not entertaining its audience, I'd still say that humor always has some secondary purpose, though I guess it's not always to subvert and critique.

Are you talking about structurally? The various beats of the story (Quest given, trials undergone, self-knowledge attained, reward attained) mirroring the storytelling beats of a classical myth?