Bernard jou Iwaku

A saw a great movie the other day!

* The type where an underestimated character turns out to be a killing machine

The protagonist is alone in a diner at night, reading The Old Man and the Sea,

when the heroine talks to him. I loved that scene!

He catch that fish yet?

Huh...

Isn't that cool? I wanna try it!

I'll be the heroine, so you read some book that I might know!

What a pain...

Run, Melos! Dazai Osamu

What an awful night.

Melos... You mad?

That's just the first line!

I hear you've been reading famous classics lately?

Eleventh Volume: Exchanging Letters

Yeah, kinda.

I don't know if it's a classic, but want to read this?

What is it?

Thomas Pynchon.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (May 8, 1937 - ) A postmodern novella told from the perspective of housewife Oedipa Maas. Some say that given his complex writing style, it is best suited for newcomers to Pynchon's works, but it is also known as a book that gets more and more complicated from beginning to end.

It was too difficult for me, so I didn't get very far.

If you want to look like a reader, this might help.

Oh, you don't get it at all. When it comes to Pynchon, you don't read it. You say,

"Pynchon? Oh, I tried to read it, but I gave up."

That response is good enough.

Forcing yourself to read it so you can talk about it

makes you look desperate to come across as a reader.

Just the alibi that you picked it up once is plenty.

That realistic behavior is what really counts when you're trying to look like a reader!

The ideas you come up with are shocking in ways words can't describe.

Anyway, I'm thinking of taking a break from classics

to try to get closer to the inner workings of literary masters.

Probably a dumb plan, as usual...

Fitzgerald and Hemingway,

Kawabata Yasunari and Mishima Yukio...

Many past literary masters have done it. What do you think it is?

Do you mean exchanging letters?