Jocelyn vs. Western Civilization

Remember in grade 9, or so, when you learned all the types of conflicts books could have? Like Man vs. man, man vs. the environment, man vs. nature, man vs. himself? Well, for one thing, you should forget about that, because I'm pretty sure it's bullshit, but if we were to classify my life narrative, it would be Man vs. the Environment. And by man, I mean me, which is counter-intuitive, since I am not a man. And by the environment, I mean the culture marinade I find myself in. My book club (yes, I'm in a book club, shut up, because seriously, almost all we do is drink) is reading Jose Saramago's Blindness this month, and I can't read it. I mean, I probably can [insert appropriately hilarious blindness joke here], but not easily. It has way too many commas and not enough quotation marks! You know what else would help? Some paragraph breaks! And shorter chapters! And I get that it's probably about post-modernity, or something, but I'm too bored to really know for sure.

On the one hand, I respect the rights of readers, including myself. I know that it is OK for me not to like things. But a part of me can't help but think: well, he won the Nobel Prize. I think we know which one of us doesn't know what we're talking about.

Jocelyn: Could you put some more quotation marks in your book?
Jose Saramago: Um, Jocelyn... win any Nobel Prizes for Literature lately? For your, whatchamacallit, blog? I thought so.
Jocelyn: I feel chastized.
[Note: Jose Saramago would be speaking Portuguese, but in this imagined dialogue, we understand each other perfectly. A little too well, I would say.]

Fortunately, in my book club, reading the actual book is considered ideal, but reading the relevant Wikipedia article(s) is a close second and by no means disqualifies you from contributing to the conversation/drinking.