>>Really? I thought the ending of Bullet was one of
redemption as the
>>main characters turn their backs on corrupt
society and go off to >build
>and define their new family.
I would say that this is certainly what's intended. Damaged
but internally loyal refugee family complete with new mother
figure heads off to the frontier in search of purity,
internal and external...
>It has been a couple of years, and there were many
things I disliked about
>BULLET. Did you really get the sense that these
utterly damaged people were
>going to somehow become functioning members of
society, any society? I
>didn't.
Waaallll...no. But then I have to point out that the
corruption of that society is made clear by the end of the
book, and that you have therefore two alternatives: the
society of a corrupt civilisation, and the outlaw society
which preys on it. The protagonists are in opposition to
both, and ultimately make a third alternative for themselves:
at the end of the book it's Mayflower time, it's
covered-wagon time. I don't find this a false ending, Mark;
it seems logical in the circumstances. It doesn't sit in my
memory as a happy family scenario, though it might hope to
find one - fingers crossed. The fact that all 3 of them are
horribly damaged by events is unforgettable. I think the
reason that I would reject the false-ending idea is that it's
only an ending in the sense that there has been a lot of
destruction.
> Not even a society where they create their own
rules, since it would
>have to work in conjuction with the corrupt society
they were fleeing from.
>I much prefer when the characters attempt to find
their niche from within
>that society.
You must fit in to any society, just because it's there and
that's where you started from??? Isn't the book saying that
you have to flee corruption of all kinds, and that it's so
omnipresent that you'll be lucky to get away with your life?
This is Sodom and Gomorrah country, friends. There's the
(notice) hermit figure (I read it a year ago, too busy to go
back right now for a name) who informs people that God is a
bullet, and events certainly tells us this is true; there are
our
'family' - a very few may escape from the fire and brimstone,
and they might be able to get themselves cleaned up, look for
personal salvation somewhere away . Not the city, not the
desert, maybe the mountains... Their success is obviously not
guaranteed. Ending is not closure.
>
>Maybe redemption does not always have to be there for
me to enjoy a novel,
>but it is a preference.
Of course. But remember - God is a bullet. Destructive.
Redemption in this story is through death and the destruction
of evil, in the process of which there are sacrifices to be
made, possibly in vain. The Pequod founders. (Curiously
enough, I find this a very 'literary' book, almost academic.
I picture the author as this balding 55-year-old male
academic teaching American literature at a California
college....)
This is not a nice book. It IS nihilistic, not comforting,
not cosy. If there were a cat in this book, it would get
skinned. Probably alive. Like everybody else....
Marianne
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