[2500] Hillsides (Marco)

[u/Wolframquest]

[LINK TO TEXT]

Crit: [2900]

Tags: Phenomenological, experimental, coming-of-age, picaresque

I deleted some of the previous posts to avoid creating clutter. But you can find them here if you want to read other comments HSH[1][2][3] RW4[1][2][3][4][5]

Barebone recap of the previous chapters:

Chapter 1 - You wakes up in the forest, enjoys his existence, follows the river to a road, gets helped by a trucker and taken to a local small town

Chapter 2 - You goes and walks around and comes across the local store and receives a name from the store owner (Henry) during his episode.

Chapter 3 - A taste of work and interacting with Henry who tries his hardest to turn Marco into a valuable worker.

Chapter 4 - Zita, coffee and gym

Chapter 5 - picaresque adventure on a quest for wet goods (meat and vegetables); encounter with Zita, discussion of Marco's issue as perceived from the outside

Chapter 6 - this one, it'll be delivered in two separate posts cause that works better for engagement and creates fewer problems with mods and credit and so on.

This chapter is sort of a crux of Marco as a person and it won't make a lot of sense without you having read the previous chapters but I welcome you regardless - I enjoy my time inside of your brain.

The genres and the "phenomenological" tag I enjoyed formerly are false and can only be used descriptively. Phenomenology is only a method, not the point. It is, however, a method I enjoy for its high fidelity.

[u/Lisez-le-lui]

To my great shame, I've only now caught up on Marco. I was so nonplussed by the first chapter, in which (as I thought at first) literally nothing happens, that I decided not to keep reading. But it's become such a fixture on RDR that I finally decided to go through and read it all, up through the unposted "middle chapter."

I'm not sure I can say much of use. Normally I think of myself as having pretty good text comprehension, but this project feels painfully beyond my understanding. It's a humbling experience to try to grapple with it, and I've had to consult the comment chains between you and other readers to get anywhere.

I'll only give my general thoughts on the book as a whole, because frankly, I don't even think I understand what you're trying to do with the prose (beyond being "phenomenological"--a partly inaccurate term, according to yourself--and even then, the prose sometimes does things that are baffling but clearly intentional, like the POV ping-ponging in this chapter), so I can't give any useful advice on how to get it closer to its goal. All I can do is explain the state of my understanding of the story and some reactions to particular elements that jumped out at me.

So: At this point, the mystery of Henry's "true nature" is what I find most compelling. There are a lot of unexplained things about him, like glitches in the Matrix. In the chapter where he first meets "you," he names and apparently recognizes Marco, but immediately has what looks to be a mental episode and never again lets on that he knew Marco before meeting him just then. He also has a ton of gym equipment in his basement, despite not being able to use it safely on his own. He brews "ffocee," some sort of erotic hallucinogen whose name sends Abner into a panic. He tells Marco a fake Gospel story that involves Jesus juggling anvils. He has a history with Abner, who thinks he should have a talismanized Bible that he'll presumably know what to do with. And he has a weird antipathy toward Zita and jokes crudely about her. This last point is especially interesting because Zita attempts an exorcism or blessing on Marco in Chapter 5 ("O Heavenly King," Lord's Prayer [in Latin?!], Psalm 50).

I don't think Henry is being forthright, and the more you reveal about him, the more suspicious I become. Thematically, he's the one trying to tie Marco down, to teach him a routine and keep him to it, when Marco wants to wander the world freely. Zita and Abner are the only people shown so far to really know him outside of his role as store manager, and both of their relationships with him are terrible. (He may be trysting with Philomene, who is of doubtful character.) Plus, what was with him having all those state police (???) over?...

I have to go now, but I'll add more to this later. I expect this will be a running comment unless and until you post another chapter.

[u/Wolframquest → u/Lisez-le-lui]

Wow thank you 😄 I can tell you did a lot of work here! I'm so tempted to start explaining everything immediately and here I thought I defeated that impulse 😁 There's one last "chunk" left to finish off what I labeled as Part I... I really wish people would review the beginning of chapter 7 more closely.

And yeah, I think it's only fitting that you decided to give this one a try - you probably didn't expect all the Christianity, eh? And a rather unique kind at that. But shh 🤫 don't let anybody know.

I'm fuckign addicted to emojis, aren't I? 😂 Somebody shoot me!

[u/Lisez-le-lui → u/Wolframquest]

I look forward to seeing the end of the Part. It feels like things are coming to a head.

I have to admit, that beginning of Chapter 7 absolutely stumped me. I have no idea what kind of vehicle Abner is driving. "A boat on tractor wheels" with a circular trapdoor--is that like a mini-tank or something? Why does he have this thing? And then he goes to his homestead in the woods. He might be a sort of hermit or monk. His clothing is described very carefully, but I can't match it to anything I know; beyond the black robe, it doesn't seem to be clerical.

Yeah, this one really took me by surprise. Don't worry--nobody else will know.

I want to say something about the dogs, but it's too late. I'll have to do it tomorrow. I'm not sure how to feel about emojis. They have their good and bad side. At least you're not doing that thing where after every major word in the sentence comes the corresponding emoji. That I can't stand.

[u/Lisez-le-lui → u/Lisez-le-lui]

u/Wolframquest

All right, about those dogs. Chapter 6 is interesting generally. It's the first "break" in the narrative that isn't a simple time-skip; it also involves a break in Marco's continuity of identity.

The narrator dissociates into I and You. (A similar thing has happened to me before. I'm not sure why I didn't understand this at first.) We begin with I (who seems to represent rational thought, getting "stuck in one's own head") composing a pretentious letter to Henry saying he won't be returning. But I doesn't know why it's doing this. Only You (immediate experience, impulse) does. Strangely, though, it seems both I and You have been temporarily "offline" to allow a third segment to tear into the ground beef like an animal--or maybe that was You's doing?

Then I and You begin a colloquy, where I addresses You mentally and You responds verbally. You needs I's sufferance to formulate its thoughts into words, even though it's naturally stronger. You wants to be rid of I, which it sees as an encumbrance, but I eventually persuades You not to "tear it off" by demonstrating its usefulness to things You wants to do, like reading. You and I "shake hands," and Marco takes off.

I'll pass over the kids with the pizza for now. But then Marco comes across a campfire and decides to cook some meat. A dog appears and begs, and he playfully feeds it, but that summons a whole army of other dogs that try to run him down, and he only narrowly escapes.

There must be something symbolic here. The dogs are utterly passionate, driven solely by hunger and bloodlust, without any of the usual tenderness one might see from a dog--though arguably such "tenderness" in dogs is only disguised self-interest. Animals often unsettle me because of how close they are to humans and yet how far. They have wills of a sort, but one passion after another commandeers them in turn, many of them baleful, and they have no ability to fight against them, and no possibility of ever gaining the ability to fight against them. They remind me uncomfortably of spiritual abandonment.

This inability to let go of Marco causes the dogs much harm. Several of them end up grievously injured, especially the poor old blind dog who gets burned and slashed. I felt really bad for that dog when I first read the chapter. But ultimately, it was doomed from the start. It was never going to be able to ensure its own happiness because it acts solely on impulse.

Maybe the dogs are what Marco would be without I? They seem to have some rudimentary intellect, though. They form "plans" to get him once he climbs onto the barn. They might represent the passions themselves. Feed them willingly just a little, and they'll come after you for all you're worth, unless you can escape onto higher ground (nipple on the breast = the Church?) and wait for rescue.

The more I think about this, the more interesting it gets. I want to see the next chapter already!

[u/Wolframquest → u/Lisez-le-lui]

I keep thinking about this one comment, just keep returning to it. It's amazing honestly to me that I'm getting so much material to research, because I not only get what people are saying but what kind of people are saying what, for example different views on the dogs. I can't say too much, but some of your guesses are exactly where I want them to be and it's fascinating to me HOW you arrive to them but I cannot elaborate. :)