I like the way it sounds as if this interacts with earlier books and stories but in a way that doesn't take over the new story (something I tend to struggle with when one story references another: the new story had better be really good or it'll just make me want to drop it and read the earlier work).
I can see Aurthur's teleplay as a rebuttal to Wylie, but Borden's identification with the novel feels exactly the way that people fasten onto books to me, especially if they hit them under the right/wrong circumstances. It gave him a template to make sense of his experiences, but not a model for surviving them. It reinforced how he felt about himself anyway. I like him a lot as a character.
"Gladiator" sounds unhinged and its ideology seems kind of Ayn Rand-ish, but I want to give it a fair try sometime.
I'd love to hear what you think. I have the weird rusty feeling that I may actually have read it—I recognized it as soon as the premise was described—but it must have been years ago and clearly did not make anywhere near the impression on me as it did on Borden.
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I can see Aurthur's teleplay as a rebuttal to Wylie, but Borden's identification with the novel feels exactly the way that people fasten onto books to me, especially if they hit them under the right/wrong circumstances. It gave him a template to make sense of his experiences, but not a model for surviving them. It reinforced how he felt about himself anyway. I like him a lot as a character.
"Gladiator" sounds unhinged and its ideology seems kind of Ayn Rand-ish, but I want to give it a fair try sometime.
I'd love to hear what you think. I have the weird rusty feeling that I may actually have read it—I recognized it as soon as the premise was described—but it must have been years ago and clearly did not make anywhere near the impression on me as it did on Borden.