Posted by Ella on April 8, 2002, at 2:11:51
In reply to Ignatius c'est moi!, posted by Elayne on April 7, 2002, at 16:27:04
I enjoyed the symphony of thoughts and feelings dunces provoked in me when I read it. I just did. I was sympathetic to Ignatius, his mother and everyone else in the book while they strived to make a reasonably adequate life for themselves. I giggled at the funny things Ignatius said and the situations that were brought up with the files, hot dog wagon and the whole last part of the book.
When I look at characters in books, movies, and TV usually I see aspects of regular people that have been magnified in order to make the book, movie, or show interesting and allow us to examine what makes that aspect "tick" and gain further insight into our lives (hopefully). Looking at characters like Ignatius can be unsettling at times, yet I usually press, not always though. There have been times in my life that I couldn't stand any more pressure, so reading something disturbing was just something I avoided. Enjoyment of a book like Dunces depends upon where a person is in their life, what kind of person they are, and their present condition. Enjoyment really is relative.Dunces does deal with serious issues and show some of the uglier sides of people, but there is a completely absurd side to this book that I just love. Not that I didn't get anything out of the serious stuff, I just tried not to dwell on it too much and make myself crazier then usual.
Ellamiatabamboo at yahoo .com input is welcome
poster:Ella
thread:362
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20020206/msgs/366.html