Great book but a completely different story from the movie. Slightly disappointed with the ending. ( )

Good

Well-written, gripping thriller, though ending was disappointing ( )

Favorite sentence: "The old man nodded the way old men do when repeating words that have stunned them to the point of disbelief." ( )

This story brought me pleasure. The first time I read Joseph Conrad saying in that book that sometimes a philosopher is less instead of more than an ordinary man, I thought he was just real-man-ing me, you know. And you know how Joe is. Snakes and salamanders were sunning themselves side by side all season—no really! I’m selling you the s’ruth! You can s’leave see!

So I was like, Whatever Joe.

But now, I don’t know. I still haven’t thrown away Kant’s Lectures on Ethics, but certainly Manny was overparticular about What Counts As Reason, you know, and sometimes I do wonder if I’m too intellectual, even too religious. Of course, I don’t mean that as a scam, you know. Are you too religious? Join MyReligion, today! —Of course, the classic Calvinist/Lutheran theologian is probably an Enneagram One, so they probably unconsciously think that they’re leaning on Two or something, and in another world where people are what they appear to be they might be. But in this very like, Choose the Right Answer, OR, go fuck yourself, way that they have, it’s like they think that you’ve just gotta be strong, even though they Say you’ve just gotta be in relationship, because they idealize the Other Thing, but they can’t very well Be that way, because it’s like, Choose the Right Answer, OR go fuck yourself: but you’ve got to choose! (And Biden’s a Democrat!)

But it’s like, Prayer is supposed to change your quality, not just give you a quantity of this or that kind of knowledge, and one of the qualities is honesty, right. (You go on and be in relationship with me. Go on, then. Run along.)

But, I don’t know, in Opposite Day World there’d be a lot of good to it. Strength leaning on relationship, empowering both.

And anyway, if Matt Damon can get traumatized and lose his memory and wake up and find out that he’s a spy or whatever, I just think that’s great, you know. It did something for me. It made me feel good.

…. Apparently Robbie believed in conspiracy theories, or at least he “believed” in conspiracies for the purposes of writing novels, and I’m a Six, you know, I’m asleep beneath Odin’s tree, even if I am an Aquarius (no idea what’s normal and what isn’t), but it’s just such rocking, rolling entertainment to have Matt Damon fight the global terrorist-authoritarian conspiracy of evil, you know. Maybe Robbie wasn’t even really that paranoid, who knows. (Who cares! Even if he was, he did something good!)

…. I’m not sure whether it’s chauvie or not, you know. It’s not as obviously non-chauvie as the Zig & Nola guy—that’s very non-chauvie for a thriller—but it also doesn’t seem as bad as what I imagined some of the books I decided not to read were. So I don’t know. It’s def Eight on the Enneagram—‘real man’, but without too much connection to Five, serious ideology, and it’s not huge into Two either, although there is a woman, but it’s just kinda Eight leaning on I guess a Nine; Matt Damon’s going to kick some serious ass for six hundred pages, and it’ll be great. I don’t watch many movies, and I’m sure they have different qualities due to the length, and maybe I’ll watch the movie too, but I don’t think this was an inferior production. And maybe it wasn’t even chauvie, you know—it’s just, ‘bad’, lol.

…. So, you know, yeah. Life is an adventure; sometimes men with guns come after you…. There’s a certain truth to it.

…. It’s actually not too bad.

…. —Oh, God! Did I kill that man! Was it me?

Books are usually good. In practically all video games, you’d just be happy to have a rifle, a job, and a pay out; you wouldn’t care. In a lot of TV you wouldn’t care, either, although I guess the video game would be worse.

…. It is very American—one man versus the system. I guess that IS our system; we have a strange system! At least it makes me feel like we have our own way, despite the problems with it, and that we’re not JUST wannabe-Nazis, you know; although obviously this is a conspiracy thriller and not a patriotic thriller. We let a lot of devils loose in Vietnam!

…. But even devils fall in love, Jason; don’t say you’re not worthy….

…. Neither one’s a straight romance, although adventures ARE romances and vice versa, but it’s actually a lot more ‘romantic’ than the Irish Village book I read, a ‘feminine’ ‘cozy’ adventure, (although there’s still a murder, lol). That one’s very la la la, ho ho ho, maybe you killed someone; I don’t know; let’s dance and drink some scotch—with a ha ha ha, ho ho ho…. Merry old land of Oz.

This is less comedic, but more romantic. It’s a real dizzying, fuck-up-your-life romance; a really “good” one, you know.

I really should make some money doing SOMETHING, you know. Make business friends….

…. And was there a world before smartphones? Even though they had handguns? Interesting…. 😸

…. Curiouser and curiouser: it’s like a psychedelic Alice, you know. Actually a psychedelics cult is the Only thing that I think could make it stranger and cooler, but I guess the Cold War crap is cool too. Office worker…. Vengeance. Code name: Office worker…. Assassination! 🥸

(And I almost believe some of what he says or whatever that he thinks about America. I think you can be an empire or whatever and a democracy—an empire that responds to popular pressure; popular greed, basically: popular power and popular violence—but there’s really no way that you can be dominant and idealistic. Power corrupts, right. One nation isn’t meant to rule the world as though this were LOTR or something 🧌

…. (Harrison Ford or somebody backing up slowly because there’s a gun on him—it’s funny Matt Damon got this part, it must have been great for him and good for him he’s so handsome, but it’s like, it’s funny because you think of Matt you don’t think ‘Delta is for Charlie and Charlie is for Cain’, you know, it’s funny…. Anyway: Harrison Ford backing up) Listen, buddy: you’re making a big mistake here—this has all been just a big, BIG misunderstanding, basically from a word ‘Go’, you know…. I mean, you don’t have all the information. Even Eye I don’t have all the information, and I— (he unintentionally trips over something and then there’s an action sequence)

…. Obvs is a very un-Jane-like novel, but it’s also a sort of North’s Anger Cafe book: she almost comes out and says in that book that we ruin things for ourselves by saying that it doesn’t matter how we feel, you know. “Novels just make you feel good. (makes face)”. But we can’t usually accept that really, nor should we, in the overwhelming majority of situations, at the very least.

…. I kinda like it when he says ‘Delta is for Charlie and Charlie is for Cain’; it’s boss, you know. 😸😎🥸

…. (near-climax) Hermes Child: Awww, the man found his heart! The man is good! He found his heart, mommy! (beat) And I love my heart.

(twenty minutes later) (whispers and guns) The man is bad. He’ll never find his heart! He hasn’t got one!
Harrison Ford: (hands) You guys, this has all been a big, big! misunderstanding…. Say, you wouldn’t have a drink, would you?

…. Obi-Wan Kenobi: That was not a very good book, Harrison. It was rather, “bad”. Not nice.
Harrison Ford: (slurred speech) Well, I think it WAS good—in fact, it was great! It was shouper! Hic! Super!
Princess Leia: You’re a schmuck, Harrison. I hate you.
Harrison Ford: But you’ll marry me someday! Hic! Deep down, you love me!! Hic!

…. It’s a “bad” book, but I like it. I read a lot of the “good” books, some of which actually carry their ponderous weight well, but you read what people write about them, and a lot of it is just this screen of prestige promotion and indecision and hiding behind the standard opinions, you know. It’s nice sometimes to honor a book, a thought, because it is a book or a thought, even if it’s not an intellectual book or thought.

And it’s not stupid.