Music To My Ears

So I finally get the chance to get involved with this project or rather "voyage", as my partner in crime would no doubt refer to it. (I shall ask him if he has a quote to give me from his dearest Holden Whatever.) It has taken me nearly two weeks of endless e-mails to not only get his attention but to get him to contribute to this poor site. I am Dr. Z. and we had originally decided to this together. It was meant to be an 'online book club', as I still remember us meeting in a random chat room for Lovers, Worshippers and Admireres of All Kinds of Written Words. Granted it was a strange place to meet in the first place, but in those days I was still under the impression we were of similar opinions on various matters. That belief has since given way to doubt.
I had told him about Blognet and so he goes and starts without further consultation. It quickly became his solo project of ramblings and non-sense. It was only in the last blog that he started to somewhat write a book review the way we had originally agreed to. Review books and start discussions. Every week we change so we would have more time to read. But this M.M. is unreliable, unfriendly and if I may say so, more than a little pretentious. I have yet to see him but we are meant to meet sometime next week for a cup of coffee and maybe start discussing the details that could add some real weight to this project. (Podcasts: live readings, discussions, music, etc.) But I wouldn't be surprised if he will want to run the show completely and do my head in.
On a different note I just wanted to express my deep dissappointment with The Music of Chance by Paul Auster. While I could see some elements of originality in his other works, particularly The New York Trilogy, I felt that this story completely failed in engaging the reader. If it would have been read as a manuscript without knowledge of the writer then I believe my friend M.M. would have dismissed it immediately. It is utterly confusing and never directs the reader to any possible themes. I think comparing him to Kafka is one hell of a daring statement to make. The language and style is simple and while it allows the reader to establish a comfortable flow, it doesn't offer anything to me that I would not be able to get from say a newspaper article. I also feel that the characters are not developed fully and failed miserably in winning the reader's sympathy. If you want my advice: STAY CLEAR OF AUSTER and even better yet, STAY CLEAR OF FICTION ALTOGETHER. It is vain and pretentious and incredibly boring if there is no skill from the writer.
You probably won't be surprised to learn that Stuart was my choice and that it will be infinitely better. I should also add that the title from my esteemed M.M. is actually a line from the book. So don't be fooled by his (lack of) imagination.
Dear reader, fear not indeed because Dr. Z. will make a regular appearance from now on and try to keep the other culprit under vigilant control.
Away we go!
Music To My Ears.
Dr.Z.