Event Factory Book

I respect how hard it is to make not much sense while keeping a reader reading. At best, because of the author's race, gender, sexuality, and nationality, and thanks to metafictional textures introduced in the last third, this almost coheres as an abstract allegory about living in the land of the Nacirema. It almost coheres as being about writing something one step beyond coherence, like science fiction infused with a dreamy abstract surreal poetic (not lyrical) instinct and subtle sociopolitical flavors. A super-generous reading of this might call it a masterpiece of giving a reader lots of space to work with. Wondered what I would have said if a student had submitted something like this and I read it as a teacher in a workshop setting. No characterization. Disembodied proper nouns with odd names. Simple language, sometimes with odd Marcusian word choice ("convivium"). Intriguing in its "architecture" (a keyword) but dull for me and at times possibly intentionally bad/stunted/mannered phrases? Requires attentive reading since it often lacks transitional sentences or the sentences don't seem to follow. Attentive reading didn't really yield much coherent pleasure or insight or anything for me, however, which may be the intention (see first line above). Those who compare with Kafka (Amerika?!) probably don't know Kafka all that well (unlike K, narrator has no strong desire) -- at most it's sort of like "The Penal Colony" but without the harrow. Maybe more like Beckett's Watt, which I haven't read much of admittedly. A reference to Beckett's sixteen sucking stones in Molloy, which I have read and loved. A great novelist. Linguistics. Tourism. Random lesbian hookups. A fisting that maybe involves a sort of birth? An unspecified crisis among the people. Silence perceived as smoke. Not really my bag in the end but I sort of enjoyed reading it. Strikes me that the title is a joke or a criticism of the dominant narrative paradigm. Will read the other book by the author I acquired next but probably not the whole series.