Dissection Dread

Found the Poem

They used to call him Piggy.

Piggy!

Ralph danced as a fighter-plane,

machine-gunned Piggy and lay there laughing.

A child appeared among the heat haze. 

His name was Simon.

Ralph's last laugh died away.

Simon felt a perilous necessity to speak

His effort to express fell about him in ruins

Simon was crying about a dead man on a hill

About a body on the hill

They screamed, struck, bit, and tore

Simon's body moved out toward the open sea

Then the boys rushed screaming into trees

For a long minute there was silence

Ralph was shivering

He put his head down

He accepted this new fact like a wound

Now Piggy was dead

Simon dead.

Pages 12 13 21 28 31 125 126 219 221 220 223 224 268 290

Our Work Begins

While not really madness in the sense of Hooker Winslow's deranged condition, mental illness is a larger problem than most people think. That includes depression, schizophrenia, alcohol  psychopathy, kleptomania, insomnia and other ailments that are more common than you might assume. Mental illness is a huge theme in "The Last of the Crazy People." The main character is crazy, his mother is depressed, his brother is suicidal. This is why we have chosen to make a video

The main character's father

In chapter three we are introduced to a man named Nicholas, who happens to be the main character, Hooker,'s father. We find out that he is not married to Hooker's mother during the setting of the book. This is the first clue we have gotten as to what makes the family dysfunctional, and in turn make Hooker go insane. We know he does in the end. As I have said before, the ending was spoiled for me by an evil lady's misleading book, and its title. All is forgiven, though, as the ending gives me some insight into what to look for in the main character's behavior.

Oh come on! What's madness?!

It's been a while now. I'm almost half way through the book. Still no idea of what a crazy person is like, what makes him crazy, or why his parents aren't crazy, or what about me makes me think this man is crazy. No answers. I plan on reading the rest of the book by the end of the week, hopefully I'll have everything done by 7:00pm on Friday. Even though the book hasn't really addressed the inquiry yet, that the book is still giving me an idea as to the answer. What ever the answer is I can tell it's going to be subtle, and be something like "deciding who's crazy isn't helpful, okay?" I don't look forward to it. Maybe a little.

The end of chapter one

Our inquiry question is "what is madness?" and "who definitely isn't crazy?" So far the book we are reading, "The Last of the Crazy People," by Timothy Findlay, has offered little in the way of actual answers. What is madness? Well, according to the author, we aren't supposed to know that yet. Which is okay, I guess. There are only two hundred something pages in the novel, which means I will be done the book in the next few days, being that I like to read in bulk. What does that mean? Well, to go off topic, I once read for a whole day, about fourteen hours or so, and a few hundred pages. That was fun. I won't do it again for a while if I can help it. This book, the last of the crazy people, is not as compelling as I would like. Soon I hope it will answer some of my questions.

Started the Book

I have read the first twenty pages of the last of the crazy people and so far have very little to respond to. The book's story has progressed very little, but Timothy Findlay's writing makes it feel like a lot has happened, without the story having even started. The prologue was especially cryptic. I got no information out of those first few pages that I could make sense of. The main character, Hooker, pees his pants or something, and we don't know why. No real idea what's going on in the story so far. Kosta tells me that nothing happens in the story, and he's up to about page 70. That makes me a bit worried, I don't want to regret choosing this book.