American Gods

I finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaimon today. On a side note, I would recommend picking it up. I felt a little sad to leave that particular world. More precisely to have my connection with that world cut off. If I had my choice I would just turn to the next page and continue reading. Page 588 would not be my last contact. I feel that way with books or movies that I really enjoy. I feel a sense of loss, of melancholy to leave them behind. But with the GIANT I don't have that same feeling. I have a good idea of what the ending will be, but beyond that I know not how THAT world will continue. No more than a reader of the book would. Of course the book isn't finished yet. And I do have a habit of not finishing things. As if finishing severs my connection with the thing? I'm not sure.

I do enjoy the process, the act of discovery. Many things that I start, I can see how they will end, and thus never complete them. But as I've now forced myself to not let the GIANT sit unfinished I am beginning to look at that philosophy differently. Before I typed one word I had sketched out much of the book. I knew the main characters, the settings, some of the journeys involved. I had pictures and mental maps.

So I began in early summer of 2005 typing. It would be what? eight or nine months until I returned to it. Now it is more than a year since the beginning and I am returning to what I had written initially. A lot of it was horrible. Blgh. A bunch of hacky crap. At one point I wrote a note to myself the that following paragraph was horrible, but I was leaving it in for reference. I'm not sure what I meant by "reference". Some point in the paragraph that I bumbled through, or for me to reference the abuse of the English language. Probably the latter, knowing me (and I should).

Once again I start on one topic and finish with another.

Thanks for listening.