u/rnagikarp

hello, this is my first foray into the world of Gene Wolfe and still don’t know much bout him or his writing

I think I found Seven American Nights mentioned in the weirdlit subreddit, so I decided to give it a shot

I found it a little difficult to start but once I got into it I began to enjoy it more
Since finishing it, I found myself a little confused and decided to see what others online have to say about it

Let me tell you how much MORE confused I am after reading peoples thoughts and the timeline on the wiki and feeling like I read a completely different book

I had missed about 75% of what everyone/everything else is alluding to or discussing (secret weapons, search dogs, plots within plots, a “fake” entry, etc)

I feel incredibly dense that so much of this seemed to go over my head, and I acknowledge the possibility that perhaps this book isn’t “for me”, but I’ve heard nothing but praise for the story and I’d like to give it a fair shake

Is this kind of experience with this story normal? Normal for Gene Wolfe’s work in general? Did you catch everything mentioned in the timeline on your first read? Maybe I’ll have another go at it, this time with this outline in mind

Part of me wonders if some aspects are missing from my version since I am reading it on an e-reader and there were many artifacts and weird spellings and random symbols scattered throughout the text - it was certainly distracting enough that it made the first bit of the story challenging to read… or maybe I’m trying to justify the difficulty I had with it :P

Thanks for reading, please try to be kind, I typically don’t have that much trouble with text or following a story but this one confused me good and I wondered if anyone else felt the same

edit: thank you for the kindness in your replies, I suppose this is why the recommendation said it was like a “game”. I’ll definitely put aside some time to go over it again with all of your comments in mind :-)

the new(ish) speakers installed at their pumps were installed as torture devices, i just know it

it’s not like a tv commercial that i can walk away from, it’s not like a radio ad that i can change the channel from, it’s not like a spotify ad where i can turn the volume down, it’s not like a billboard that i can choose to look away from

my ears are being blasted with a cacophony of sound from ads about the lottery, and how i can earn pc points, or buy some stupid medallion, or pay 4.99 for a fucking chocolate bar

it’s loud as fuck and i have no choice but to take it straight to the fucking dome as i wait for my gas to finish pumping
i am a captive audience with no fucking choice but to tank their shitty loud advertisements

idk who authorized this - then again they’re partnered with pc and galen weston jr and his criminal family are involved so im not surprised a predatory and shitty decision was made to our detriment and to the benefit of the corporation
the way around this is stop buying from esso but fuck i shouldn’t have to put up with this shit, no one should

other gas stations advertise no problem without assaulting me with an inescapable wall of sound - this allows me to CHOOSE if i want to perceive the ads

thank you for listening to my rant, have a great weekend yall

I’ve heard less than 20 episodes and that was about 5 years ago but the show gave me huge Nightvale vibes with how casual people are about all the strange happenings

Especially at the end with the “trolley problem”

“oh you mean back in ‘42 when we built a trolley and all the workers disappeared?”

if you haven’t given it a listen and are looking for more Widow’s Bay type stuff, give it a shot!

Those who have, what are your thoughts? Did the show remind you of any particular segments?

i don’t know when this came in to effect but it’s really bothering me

when using the reddit app, you can click on the photo/video of a post to open it

normally, you can then swipe up to read the comments while the video continues to play

now, when you swipe up on the photo/video you have open, it goes to the next post in the feed - just like every other social media

i’m already scrolling the home page, i don’t need to open the image and scroll to the next one

i’d like to look at it, open the comments, read them, then swipe to the side to go back to my feed

this is terribly low stakes but what an absolutely awful UI change

it all worked perfectly for the position of my hand and the length of my thumb but now i have to adjust every time and it’s just kinda shit tbh

who knows, maybe this will encourage me to spend less time online due to lack of streamlining and ease of access

thanks for reading :-(

white guy, maybe british, often has a mustache and goatee(?), chin length hair for the roles he plays (would definitely be some kind of evil aristocrat or vampire or both), always seems to charm the lady I think

I can’t think of anything he’s in because he freaks me out a bit and I haven’t watched anything he’s in

he has a really intense stare and looks like he’s trying to hunt someone I’ve never heard him speak but he seems like he’d be british but maybe he’s not

I’d know him if I saw him, thanks so much in advance

tip: actor James Morosini kinda looks like Jake Gyllenhaal, George Russell, and this mystery guy all blended together if that helps

*FOUND* - Johnathan Rhys Meyers