Khana

just opened 'feuchtgebiete' ('wetlands') at some random page and read for 20 pages or so. and it is a disgusting as i remembered the beginnig being (which i heard in a readin on the leipzig book fair a few years ago). this particular section was about the main character's period and how she deals with it, her various visits to brothels, and how much she likes to eat all her various bodily ... things. (blut und popel, schorf und eiter, all sowas. mjam.)

seriously. I can't help but wonder how much of that the author does herself, because people don't just come up with all that shit, do they? I'd never even think of writing a character who eats her own boogers and calls it a hobby. just - what?

it's really pretty disgusting.

Conveying your character's mental state of confusion, restlessness and anger so well into your first 20 pages that your reader wants to throw the book out of the window or at least against a wall (and would have done, in my case, would I not have had to read it for the seminar [And is that even the correct tense? Done too much thinking today.])?

Really not the way to go, Mister Doctorow.

After out Dozent offered this explanation, the narration made at least remotely sense to me, but really, having your readers hating the text and not wanting to continue reading it is at least three kinds of stupid.