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Bezig met laden... Masters of Atlantis : a novel (origineel 1985; editie 2000)door Charles Portis
Informatie over het werkMasters of Atlantis door Charles Portis (1985)
Books Read in 2024 (1,311) Books Read in 2020 (1,453) Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Masters of Atlantis is supposed to be a spoof on various secret societies in which "other people" participate. The main character, Lamar Jimmerson (an American)is a recently-discharged WWI vet who is swindled by a man who gives him a book, the "Codex Pappus," which is supposed to contain the collective wisdom of Atlantis, and for $200.00, allows him admission to the secret Gnomon society. Although the swindler is never seen again, Jimmerson, with Sydney Hen(an Englishman), starts a American branch of the Gnomon Society in which the swindler becomes a legendary figure, and the Codex Pappus, becomes the society's holy text. While many reviewers thought this book was hilarious,it didn't make me laugh. Its only purpose seemed to be to polk fun at people who Portis perceives to be fools, without offering anything insightful or redeeming about them, and the ease with which he filleted them suggested that the author enjoyed using his knife a little too much. ( ) I really wanted to like this. I love the idea: incidental discovery of an ancient rome of dubious authenticity, leading to an adventure among bumbling fools and a huckster or two. Here's the problem: it isn't sardonic. It isn't insightful. It doesn't say anything new. There are funny parts (selling the federal government compressed air as a weapon) but there are also pathetic parts (women aren't people, in this book; they are window dressing at best, perhaps more like pretty servants as the natural order of things). It feels much more old fashioned than a novel written in the 80s. And it just isn't saying anything when it could! Perhaps that's the saddest part: it could have done it, and it just...didn't.
It’s the perfect novel to explain QAnon, to explain Trump, to explain organized religion—hell, to explain America itself. Though he intentionally avoids diving too deep into the minutiae of Gnomonism, Portis nails the reasons why cults, secret societies, and conspiracy theories grip certain members of society: namely, a desire for deeper truths and hidden meanings to explain a world that no longer makes sense. And, crucially, a dangerous abundance of free time. From the outside looking in, America's personality dial is permanently set to 11 with citizens who are charming, maddening, innocent, foolish, xenophobic, gullible, optimistic, crafty, adventurous, bigoted, energetic, and ignorant, not forgetting all the go-getters, do-gooders and flim-flam men. This crazy quilt of emotions and characters is brilliantly portrayed in Masters, woven into a story that revolves around what might be the core of the American character: belief. No matter how extravagant the horseplay, it is never performed simply to show off. A purpose infuses the craziness, a sense that the author is after something bigger than jokes. He is giving us a picture of Main Street made silly, of Babbittry gone goofy. Yet for all its ridiculousness, there is a sweet, dopey integrity to Lamar Jimmerson's innocence. Austin Popper, on the other hand, is the mythic American hustler who tries everything from selling used cars to being ''a drunken bum.'' Together they form quite a team, Popper and Mr. Jimmerson. They're Laurel and Hardy, Mutt and Jeff, Abbott and Costello, the dummkopf and the wise guy, and, through an alchemical transmutation worthy of Gnomonism itself, they represent respectively the active and contemplative ways of life in 20th-century America.
Lamar Jimmerson is the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It's the Codex Pappus - the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of the noble brotherhood. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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