That there is little joy in the world is not just a view of things. Every benevolence is suspect. You finally figure out that the world does not have you in mind. It never did. [...] The world has created no living thing that it does not intend to destory. ( )

An entire book without dialog tags or apostrophes of the conversation between a patient in an asylum and her resident therapist. And I finished it reading mostly in the should-be-sleeping hours and found it soporific in a good way. McCarthy uses this volume to clarify some of the first book, [b:The Passenger|60526801|The Passenger (The Passenger, #1)|Cormac McCarthy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1647021401l/60526801._SX50_.jpg|58040703] but also makes it a encyclopedia of mathematical, philosophical, scientific allusions to (last name only) myriad individuals Gödel, Hilbert, LaGrange, Teller, Turing, etc. whom are possibly familiar but not understood. There are interesting asides on psychology and music ("Music is not a language. It has no reference to anything other than itself. Why does some particular arrangement of these notes have such a profound effect on our emotions is a mystery even beyond the hope of comprehension.") and language: "We're the only mammalian species that cant swallow and articulate at the same time. Think of a cat growling while it eats, and then try it yourself. The unconscious system of guidance (necessary to survival)--everything from a blink to a cough to a decision to run for your life-- is millions of years old, speech less than a hundred thousand. Language arose from no known need." Or, finally, the gist of it all being that the father of these two troubled offspring (Bobby and Alicia) worked in Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project." Anyone who doesnt understand that the Manhattan Project is one of the most significant events in human history hasnt been paying attention. It's up there with fire and language. Its at least number three and it may be number one. We just don't know yet. But we will." ( )

Doesn't really seem like a novel to me, more like extra material relating to The Passenger. Maybe something like Tolkien's Silmarillion writings? Worth reading if you're into the main text. ( )

USA, Wisconsin, Black River Falls, den psykiatriske institution og hospice "Stella Maris", 1972
Mærkelig bog. Det er en slags dialog mellem en psykiater dr Cohen og Alicia (som er Bobby's søster, som nævnt i "Passageren"). Bogen hænger på den måde sammen med "Passageren". Hvert af de syv kapitler er en terapi-session. Alicia er i 1972 20 år gammel og professionel matematiker. Hun har opgivet matematik (topologi og topos-teori) fordi hun er blevet distraheret (af topologi og topos-teori). Hun har arbejdet sammen med Grothendieck (som er 44 på dette tidspunkt) på et institut oprettet til ham og en Dieudonne af en russer Motchane. (Hun nævner også Bourbaki, Riemann, Euklid, Hilbert, Poincaré, Dedekind, Cantor). Hun lader sig indskrive på den åbne afdeling og har taget en pose pengesedler med. Over 40000 dollars. Hun har sammen med sin bror arvet en hoben penge i form af kontanter og guldmønter, men uden at have de store behov. Hun har købt en Amati-violin for 230.000 dollars og er god til at spille violin, men ikke koncertviolinist. Hun er taget ind på Stella Maris for at slippe for at skulle tage stilling til om man skal slukke for respiratoren, der holder hendes bror Bob i live efter en ulykke i Italien. Hendes far arbejdede på Manhattanprojektet som fysiker. Hun er født den 25 december 1951. Hendes mor arbejdede ved en calutron for Manhattanprojektet, dvs berigning af Uran vha acceleratorer. Lawrence opfandt cyklotronen og kom af og til forbi og skruede op for strømmen til calutronerne og gik igen. Fem minutter efter stod det hele i flammer. Flere terapi-sessioner. Hun fortæller om planer for at drukne sig i Lake Tahoe, men den er for dyb og for kold. Og om at være forelsket i Bobby. På en meget legemlig og fysisk måde, men Bobby ville ikke vide af det, så det blev aldrig til noget. Den sidste session ender med at Alicia beder dr Cohen om at holde hende i hånden "fordi det er det folk gør, når de venter på at noget slutter".

Jeg kan godt lide at Alicia gamer stanford-binet IQ-testen for at se om hun kan score præcis 100 på den. Jeg kan ikke lide fornemmelsen af at Alicia og Cohen er to sokkedyr, hvis dialog bruges til at udstille at forfatteren har læst Arthur Schopenhauer, Immanuel Kant, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Willard Van Orman Quine, John Horton Conway, Kurt Gödel, David Hilbert, John von Neumann, Gottlob Frege og så videre og så videre. ( )

73. Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy
OPD: 2022
format: 190-page hardcover
acquired: April read: Dec 19-21 time reading: 5:26, 1.7 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: contemporary fiction theme: McCarthy & TBR
locations: Black River Falls, WI, 1972
about the author: 1933-2023. American author born in Providence, Rhode Island, who grew up mainly in Tennessee.

Expecting to be lost in complex ideas, instead I found this thoroughly enjoyable. It's all a conversation between a genius who has given up math, and now entered herself into a psychiatric ward, and a doctor who questions her and records the conversations, with her approval. I just found it fun to spend time here. The last 20 pages were a little tough, but otherwise it goes by on a quick dialogue pace the whole way. You can follow as well as her doctor can, who isn't a genius. So, it's very accessible. It's like McCarthy's comfort zone as writer.

On a side note, I was intrigued by the doctor, whose name is Michael, leaving me with the impression of St. Michael guarding the gates of heaven, or here the gates of the psychiatric ward. He has to play a perfect role to make this book work. Not entirely professional, but seemingly so. He has to be worthy listener. It works, and Alicia's confessions flow out in ways that allow the reader to think and enjoy (while knowing from [The Passenger] the tragedy around this.)

2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/354226#8323383 ( )