tyedie, whose username I JUST NOW AS I TYPED IT realized how it is meant to be pronounced. Also got some good helpful information and google-lore from him and his cubemates. No matter how many futuristic computer communication things we humans invent, oral tradition remains stubbornly useful.Read a bunch more of Franzen's "Freedom". Getting closer to finishing it, having started it on the plane trip here. My opinion of it is hard to summarize. Coming from the last book I was reading, (and still haven't quite finished, since I left it at home with ~40 pages unread) "The Eight", the authorial voice seems altogether more grown-up, but there's the occasional slip and fumble. My suspension-of-disbelief is thwarted when it comes to (some, but mercifully not all) mentions of technology, sex, and fictional bands. The momentum of the characters and the story is huge, though. I'm thinking that I should maybe go back and read Ethan Frome. I read it in high school, and couldn't stand it --- it was just a story of a dude fucking up his life. But "Freedom" is showing me that I can appreciate the stunning arc of a beautifully perfect fuck-up; just as I can enjoy the aesthetic qualities of a slow-motion explosion.
