RE: Not a Day in the Life of Ivan Desnovich.

Topic posted in response to Not a Day in the Life of Ivan Desnovich. : http://www.abctales.com/story/iamacuriousyellow/big-t-day-one

Some excellent bits. I was hooked despite the downbeat tone. Liked the last two paragraphs accelerating away into space, the cosmic perspective, the shorthand description of the characters around London...

My only problem (as with a lot of drug fiction) is the lack of moral perspective, the narrator's self-pity which walks a knife edge and falls into sentimentality with the gurgling toddler in the back of the car. There's a lack of sophistication to the junkie's perspective which may be true to life but isn't good for fiction. Why is it always the government's fault? sinister black operations and agents of control are always invoked (at one point Princess Di is blamed!) Why are junkies emotionally stunted, expecting to be breast fed for the rest of their life...how can one reeducate oneself from the immediacy of living in the present, the endless unfolding minute of the video game, the quick fix, the internet fuck, danger sports? These issues would be great if they were grafted into his inner life otherwise its the same old nihilism, well done but never enlightening.