from "A Confederacy of Dunces" we get no memorable quotes, only memorable characters, and one dead author. No history of New Orleans, thanks be to God, but talk about extremes! This is not a novel for the faint of ear, nor of the hypersensitive olfactory apparatus. But if you would like a thoroughgoing layman's review of the disorders of the personal pyloric valve, this book is for you! ("say no more, say no more, nudge,nudge,wink wink.") This is how I spent my Thanksgiving vacation. Alas.
Please note my reply to Dennis Hall under the comments section, with thanks. And with gratitude to the Bathroom Readers Institute, from whence will come some of my future quotes--but consider the primary source, and correct as needed. I liked this one, to kick off my series on History Channeling:
"History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice."--Will and Ariel Durant
or
"Historian: an unsuccessful novelist." GB Shaw (I think)(what happens to unsuccessful historians? Any guesses? Anyone? ANYONE?)
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What happens to unsuccessful historians?
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that they get teaching positions in "higher" learning institutions.
I thought it was interesting that Mr. Toole, before putting a hose from his tail pipe into his car killing himself, visited the home of Flannery O'Connor. I wonder what influence she had in his own writing and his decision to take his life. Suicide, not a Catholic thing and one which Flannery, who suffered from Lupus, did not attempt.
ReplyDeleteToole disappeared on January 20, 1969, after a dispute with his mother. Receipts found in his car show that he drove to the West Coast and then to Milledgeville, Georgia. Here he visited the home of deceased writer Flannery O'Connor. It was during what is assumed to be a trip back to New Orleans that Toole stopped outside Biloxi, Mississippi, on March 26, 1969, and committed suicide.