Littrachure

I'm reading a novel called The Method Actors by a dude named Carl Shuker. On page 129/492 I believe this book to be about a couple dozen characters doing things in various cities, mostly Tokyo, across the span of about 10 years. I can barely keep up with who's who. Keeping track of which character is doing what in which year is made more difficult by the minimal information provided in any one designated section/chapter of the book.

Yes, I know that this is probably a literary device which the author uses to lead the reader to understand the chaos which the characters feel in their own lives, with no home to go to, and living in a relatively strange city that is unlike any other in the world. But even knowing this doesn't change the fact that it's a serious detriment to story telling. I want to know what's going on, but I'm left with fuzzy snapshots of transparent characters. At page 129/492 I don't care about any of them, I only enjoy the wonderful (though somewhat overly metaphoric) descriptions of the city.

I was led to believe that it was the best book to come out of 2005. Well, I surely would be stunned now if I discovered this to be true. I believe that it is a decent novel and I do feel a bit nostalgic about the setting. But somewhere on the internets this author was compared favorably to delillo and auster, and a good comparison this ain't, since unlike Shuker, they can tell a comprehensible story.

Oh yeah, I'm a total philistine.

I think literature in this country is leaving the general public behind. Art in general is leaving the public behind. That's a damned shame. High schools need to teach Shakespeare more better and stuff. Reading a half dozen of his plays is not going to do it. Teach the period, teach the history, teach the style, then read one, and only one play from set A and one, and only one from set B:
A) Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice
B) A midsummer night's dream, the Tempest

Above all, make sure they learn why he was important and why high schools all over the god damned english speaking world make their students read him. I suppose this implies that the teacher must know the answer to this question. I hope he or she does. Anyway, if that's the only lesson they learn, that should be the lowest setting on the bar.