August 2007 Archives

the best character in Vol. III

he should "do" more things though.

Flashbacks only work if all the characters have them. Including Michael? He doesn’t really have a previous life of interest, though. The Helen flashbacks are interesting since we see her perspective on stuff we’ve only seen from Tim’s POV.

It’s a structural problem that the scenes work well in Helen of Santa Zita, but not so well in NFFN. So maybe they should be cut out? Or only included in the Helen-only path through the novel? One thing that’s interesting about the original version of NFFN was its immediacy—lack of back-story, flashbacks or context. You were just plunged into the characters’ live as they unfolded.

What's the sequence? Open with Michael's POV, then switch to Helen's.

What class is Helen teaching? And what book are they reading. In the NFFN version they are reading "Bartlebly the Scrivener." In HSZ it's changed to "China Men." I like both. Obviously I have to choose just one. It makes more sense for Helen to be teaching "Intro to American Fiction" since that's a lower division class.

Which is more effective? Seeing Michael getting dissed from his POV? Or from Helen's? Or both? Though that violates chronology. Switching at that moment? Michael feels his face burn, then slumps. Switch to Helen, trying to salvage the situation.

In terms of being a Virgilian figure to Michael at the beginning, Tim can't be too out of it. Otherwise why would Michael look to him for guidance? Perhaps one moment of despair is enough? Then Tim gets CFL (the golden bough) and is reborn. 

Matthew 5
   1And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
   2And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
   3Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
   4Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
   5Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
   6Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
   7Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
   8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
   9Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
   10Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
   11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
   12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
   13Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
   14Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
   15Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
   16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
   17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
   18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
   19Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
   20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
   21Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
   22But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
   23Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
   24Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
   25Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
   26Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
   27Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
   28But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
   29And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
   30And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
   31It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
   32But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
   33Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
   34But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:
   35Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
   36Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
   37But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
   38Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
   39But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
   40And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
   41And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
   42Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
   43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
   44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
   45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
   46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
   47And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
   48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 6
   1Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
   2Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
   3But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
   4That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
   5And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
   6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
   7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
   8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
   9After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
   10Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
   11Give us this day our daily bread.
   12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
   13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
   14For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
   15But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
   16Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
   17But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;
   18That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
   19Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
   20But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
   21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
   22The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
   23But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
   24No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
   25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
   26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
   27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
   28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
   29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
   30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
   31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
   32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
   33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
   34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matthew 7
   1Judge not, that ye be not judged.
   2For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
   3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
   4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
   5Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
   6Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
   7Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
   8For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
   9Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
   10Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
   11If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
   12Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
   13Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
   14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
   15Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
   16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
   17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
   18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
   19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
   20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
   21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
   22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
   23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
   24Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
   25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
   26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
   27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

 

In a sense, COTH, 1989 and tdp are like a trilogy about Tim’s life (with HSZ and DSW being companion volumes). They don’t overlap in time or plot. In that sense then, 1989 is like Empire Strikes Back or Two Towers. A middle volume, with all that that entails. The plot of 1989 should deepen and complicate the plot of the overall trilogy. Also add some disillusionment and darkness, like in Empire. Tim loses something vital, that he can’t get back. Maybe learns something about his past/father that disturbs him, forces him to look at himself and think about who he really is.

The continuous narrative arc in the trilogy is Tim and Helen. In 1989 Tim becomes disillusioned with Helen, and it leads him to stop hanging out with her by the end, until she helps him in his hour of need and they rediscover the connection that binds them.

CotH is about the head, 1989 about the gut and Volume III is about the heart. To put it another way, CotH is about ideas and the intellect, 1989 is about desire and lust and Volume III is about love, courage and will.

In a sense, one challenge of 1989 is not much changes absolutely for Tim by the end. He starts friends with Helen and Jessica, ends with him friends with her. He is changed internally, made less innocent, made into an artist (perhaps). However it is the middle volume of a trilogy. Tim discovers within him both a capacity for good and for evil that terrifies him.

But where on earth can this go in Volume III?

Not the message, since that's cheezy. But the meaning--created by the act of reading. The reader has been seduced by Santa Zita in  Vol. I (City On the Hill) and betrayed in Vol. II (1989.) If CotH is Star Wars, and 1989 is the Empire Strikes Back, does that mean Vol. III is Return of the Jedi, with all that that entails (Ewoks, Darth Vader suddenly turning good, etc.)? If CotH is thesis, and 1989 antithesis, then Vol. III must be synthesis and integration. Both for the characters, but also for the reader's relationship with the writer, and the work.

I now have a printable draft of Part I of Volume III. It has some scenes that need to be written, and is still a mish-mash of material from NFFN, HSZ and DSW, but it is something I can carry with me back and forth to work. It's pretty long right now-102 pages, more than 41,000 words. There is a lot I can and need to cut out.

I planned to add this sequence to the beginning of HSZ, but never did. Since I like the idea of beginning Vol. III on  Valentine's Day, I don't think I will actually write any of this, but it makes good back-story.

Helen goes to a party at the two Jakes’s place, held in honor of Peter’s birthday. Lots of people there are on drugs-the two Jakes are doing lines, and Sophie and Bernadette are Xing. Chris Corso, of course, is on acid. Helen sees Tim hanging out by himself out on the deck. She hasn’t seen him since the end of the previous quarter, and she was surprised he didn’t come to the big New Year’s rager at Sarah Wolfe’s house. They talk, but Tim is being super-intense, mourning the loss of his freshman friends, especially Robin. He just went skiing with her and nothing happened. Helen tries to cheer him up. Then Jessica and Jake come out to the deck. Everyone bums on being single. But Tim is impossible to cheer up. Peter comes out, brief conversation with him. Helen watches in the background, sees Jamie watching them with an evil look. Jamie comes out and puts her arm around Peter possessively. She and Peter go back inside, leaving Helen alone, irritating her. She looks to see what Todd is doing-talking to Perse, Torrance and some other guys. One of them is a tall friend of Perse’s from Folsom, that Roxy thinks is cute. Wonders why he doesn’t come out when she’s talking to Jake. (Later he does do that, and Helen gets irritated, maybe because she’s trying to help Roxy. Todd gets irritated, thinking that Helen is going after Perse’s friend, when Helen is just trying to save him from Missy). Jake asks Tim why he is so bumming and that’s when she makes her teasing remark about “Kane College cardiac injuries.” Tim storms out of the party without saying good-bye to anyone.

Roxy comes over to Helen and asks her what’s up with Tim. Helen tells her what happened. Roxy tells Helen that Tim is still in love with her, that’s why he goes off so much. Helen doesn’t believe her.

Helen decides she wants to go home. She finds Todd, who is totally wasted, and did some coke with Perse and Torrance, so he it totally wired as well. They leave the party and Helen asks for the keys to her car. Todd won’t give them, saying he’s fine to drive. Helen is infuriated, because she didn’t drink as much knowing she was going to have to drive home. Helen realizes that she absolutely must break up with Todd. When they get back to her place, Todd asks Helen if she wants to break up with him. Helen says she doesn’t know.

On Monday she gets a warning letter in her mailbox-since she failed a class fall quarter, her financial aid will be cut off if she fails another one, which means she will have to drop out of school.

Todd calls Helen during the week, but she doesn’t return his calls. She doesn’t want to talk to him without breaking up with him, but doesn’t want to deal with actually breaking up, so she procrastinates.

Talks to Jessica about breaking up with Todd, prompted by stacked up phone messages. Jessica tells her to do what makes her happy. If Todd is making her miserable, than he shouldn’t be in her life.
 
Helen talks to Gretchen, who wonders why Helen is breaking up with Todd. Despite Gretchen’s arguments, Helen still goes through with it. Helen talks to Todd, they break up.
 
Helen calls Tim, to tell him about the news about her and Todd and see if he wants to hang out. She’s determined, though, not to apologize to him, because she thinks he’s behaved badly, and that there are many things he should apologize for first.

Tim doesn’t call Helen back and she is bummed out. She tries to get on with her life despite how sad she feels, and lonely.
 
Helen meets with her professor, Joseph Harkes. Though he makes no overt move on her, Helen can feel his attraction to her.
 
Helen teaching in section, frustrated in getting a conversation going. It’s much harder than it looks to be a section leader. She approaches Maria Gaier and gets rebuffed.

Helen gets a past due notice from the abortion clinic. She can’t afford to pay the bill. Todd said he would pay for half, but then never gave her money, and she doesn’t want to see him.

Lead up to Helen’s breakdown. Do we see earlier that night, as Helen and Roxy and Jessica hang out? They might give her news and gossip, and possibly talk about Tim as well. Helen has some insightful comments about thirtysomething to make.

This week's "From the Archives" selection, "Truth and Beauty", is a short story I wrote in the spring of 1990, when I was mainlining modernist English fiction like Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, about a literature student who decides that he wants his life to be just like that of the characters he’s reading about, but soon discovers that real life is just not amenable to aesthetic logic.

This story is one of a series I wrote with a main character named Mike or Michael, an over-logical young man, obsessed with philosophy and literature. He can, of course, be seen as an ancestor of Michael in Notes For a Future Novel/The Deep & Savage Way/Volume III. The Mike in “Truth and Beauty”, though, is more of a regular guy than the Santa Zita Trilogy Michael, which helps make the story a bit more satirical-like what if someone adopted modernist fiction as a lifestyle choice.

“Truth and Beauty” was included in my Christmas 1990 collection, Andy Warhol’s Sisters and Other Stories.

Here's the beginning of the story; click the link to read the rest:

One day Mike decided to instill values of truth and beauty into his life.

He was inspired by the books he had been reading in his literature courses. The order and structure of such novels as James Joyce's Ulysses and Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse were immensely appealing to him.

In comparison to these great works, Mike's own life seemed mundane and ordinary. Unlike Leopold Bloom or Lily Briscoe, he didn't have any philosophical or symbolic motifs running through his own life. He decided to do something about it.

Read the rest of “Truth and Beauty”

Jessica not a POV character in Vol. III? Should she be? Not sure, though it would be interesting. Helen and Jessica no longer live together (do they?) but they are starting to grown apart. Jessica is interested in her social work, and helping children. She has a definite career in mind.

Point of view in Vol. III should follow these rules:

• Every scene change should involve a change in point of view—ie, POV charcter never repeats from scene to scene
• Never go more than three scenes in a row without returning to character’s POV. For example, if the first scene has Michael, second Tim, then the third returns to Michael, the fourth has to go to Helen, it can’t go to Michael or Tim.

What are the character’s goals in Part I?

• Helen: Hang out with Tim again and get over Todd.
• Tim: become creatively inspired and psyched about something
• Michael: find a way to get closer to Helen and become known to her

If Tim isn't hanging out with Helen, why would he take Michael to her house? So maybe they should hang out during Part I, but it's awkward, at first. Then why doesn't Tim go to CFL? Still sort of pissed at her? Or she doesn't tell him? Calls him only at the last minute and Tim doesn't get the call until too late? She called him right after he left with Michael, or was in his room.

Napa weekend is like Easter Sunday. Friday at noon Karen calls Tim and says she’s not going to go. Tim gets really angry, fantasizes about breaking up. Enraged that he can’t make her do what he wants. Tim is in Hell until Sunday morning. He passes out in the vines, (hides in a cave?) Michael and Helen find him.

Does this mean Tim is Jesus though? And Helen and Michael are his disciples? Parodic anti-Jesus maybe.

What's the cave? Utility shack by the pool? Why would Tim pass out in there?

Tim never really realized how vulnerable Helen felt. She seemed so capable and confident, with friends, center of attention. She felt very alone, though. She didn’t have her family to go back to every weekend if she wanted.

What makes Tim finally realize this? Their talk after the Napa weekend? Or before?

I: When Did the Snake Enter the Garden?
II: The Deep & Savage Way
III: Come Bite the Apple
IV: Wanderday
V: Open Your Eyes
VI: The Sword of Fire
VII: North of Eden

Not sure about the last one—I think the sword of fire should be the last

Do the eden themed named work, though? Since right now Vol. III ends with the characters still in Santa Zita.

Something with exile? Out of Exile?

A Different Way to Paradise

South of Eden?

Right now I'm merging writing from several different projects into one document, which will serve as the basis for the project currently code-named Volume III. Tonight while riding home I contrasted the beginning scenes of Notes For a Future Novel with that of The Deep & Savage Way, both of which depict Michael in a lonely moment, regarding the dark woods behind his dorm.

I can't decide which I like better, or more importantly, which would be a better introduction to Volume III. Here for comparison, are the first four paragraphs of each. First, from Notes For a Future Novel:

The sun had set, but the moon would not rise for three hours. Michael Sullivan walked to the window and stared out to the dark wood outside. He lived in the uppermost floor of a college dormitory which stood six stories tall, holding back the forest like a dark green sea behind.

A layer of fog had moved in from the ocean and hidden the stars from the university campus on the hill, of which Michael's dormitory was a part. He retreated from the view, back to his desk. He sat and read back what he had written minutes before:

Without a clear conception of the proper path, Roger felt himself lost. Although Roger did not know which way to go, he did realize his lack of direction. If he had the failing of being unsure of the proper course; at least he knew of his shortcomings, unlike the great number of his fellows for whom ignorance was a welcome bliss.

That was where he had stopped typing. Michael felt he was lost in his own words. The words on the page were for Helen Zachary, for the novel he intended to write for her. Helen Zachary was Michael's TA in his Introduction to American Fiction class, and he was very much in love with her.

[Read the rest]

Now, the DSW version:

Michael Sullivan looked at his calendar and saw that it was the middle day of the middle week of the middle quarter of his first year at college, and he had still never gotten drunk, never had a group of friends and never kissed a girl.

He had seen all three of these things happening around him in the dorm he lived in at the University of California, Santa Zita. The day he and the other freshman had moved in, they had started drinking, partying, hanging out, but not with him. Somehow, by the way he looked and acted, they had seen he didn't fit in, and their new life had begun without him.

Michael attended classes, wrote papers, ate at the dining hall, but except for occasional brief conversations with his floor mates, he had no social life. Not that they were unfriendly to him. They just had a way of speaking and moving around him that told Michael he was not a part of their world.

Time had passed quickly. Already halfway through winter quarter. Halfway! And he was no closer to doing any of the things that his hall-mates took for granted, that they had been doing since high school, or even before. And worse, he saw no way out of the rut he was in. None of the cheerful pamphlets the university administration had handed out to them mentioned how to be accepted, how to find out where the parties are and how to show up at them and be welcomed.

[read the rest]

The biggest difference, of course, is that the first scene contains an element of meta-fiction, as you see a selection from the novel Michael is writing for the section leader he has a crush on, Helen. That's an element of the story I eliminated from DSW as I was trying to get away from the extreme meta-fiction of NFFN. However, I wonder if I lost some of the humor and irony in doing so. Meta-fiction is one device for adding tension in a world which lacks a lot of explicit, external impetus, and is very true to the world that the characters inhabit.

The DSW version more explicitly refers to the beginning of Dante’s Inferno:  “the middle of our life”, Among other tings, the Divine Comedy is the first fictional depiction of a “mid-life crisis” only with religion as the answer not a younger mate or trading in the station wagon for a sports car. Of course, with  a college student, I had to change it from the middle of one’s life since they are just beginning theirs. So for Michael it’s the middle of his freshman year, for Helen and Tim and it’s the middle of their time in Santa Zita. I also opened the novel on a Wednesday, the middle day of the week, to heighten the effect. Conveniently enough, Valentine’s Day 1990 really was on a Wednesday. 

Did you know that the fictional Kane College is based on the real life  Merrill College, one of the ten colleges of the University of California, Santa Cruz?