a book and a thought (or two) ~

one last kantor for the 50bookchallenge:

no. 27 ~ The Unseen Witness by MacKinlay Kantor. this little novel, about an orphan boy who escapes from a reformatory run by capuchin monks for fear of an impending punishment, isn't as strong at the others i'd read previously. i like kantor's southern and civil war stuff ~ his stuff aboout spain sorta grates on me (could be his use of spanish peppered throughout, which i have a peeve about). but i think the story is kinda weak on this one as well. like the idea, but feels like it could have been a short story of about ten pages for all that was there.

update: Goodie Proctor's got my Poppet

Day Two: acquired some important sources, but other than a lot of organizing in my head and gathering of texts, i haven't had time to devote to this over the last couple of days. i do, however, think that given the strained relationship between Mr. Poppet and the Chammy (all the characters have thin code names now), that i'm really going to need to add Mr. Hanty to "get the goods".

Day Three: i'm a little torn about Mr. Hanty and have called away for some material on him. i don't want the narrative to get all scattershot. it would seem the most sense to just follow the Chammy around and take the cues off of his interactions, but i want a broader perspective, first of all, and secondly, i'm thinking it will get very claustrophobic to stick to the Chammy (i seriously start having nightmares about tranny barges when i think about this stuff too much). also, part of the point of writing this is to address some of the BPIs (big political issues) that are still relevant today, and i sorta feel like i need that to come from Mr. Hanty or Mr. Poppet's perspective.

the jury is still out as to whether Mr. Poppet has a poppet, a dog named poppet, or a dog with a poppet (either of which might be named poppet).