35 Comments

I’m feeling like a school girl who didn’t study for an exam. Is this fiction? I want to say it is only because you have a knack for research and detail…and I want to erase this comment now because I’m afraid everyone will read it and think, “That Kimberly isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.” But please enlighten me anyway!

Expand full comment

When I read Moby Dick I remember thinking, “Is this fiction? What is this book? And why are you telling me all of this? Where’s the whale?” I don’t know if this piece is going to work, but where you are is okay.

Expand full comment

😮‍💨

Expand full comment

It took me a beat too, but the name muckraker was just too good not to be fiction!

Expand full comment

He was born Noel Rucker.

Expand full comment

You are not alone.!! I have just read this again to verify if there is anything glaring I’ve missed - of course though, this is Adam.. it is faultless!

So I’m sitting beside you in that blunt tool shed because I still cannot decide…!

Expand full comment

I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather hang out with in a blunt tool shed than you Susie.😂

Expand full comment

Same!! But then I remember that I momentarily had that thought at the beginning of Gondolier. Adam Nathan, you are good, my friend! And Kimberly, you are no blunt tool. ;)

Expand full comment

She is definitely not a blunt tool.

Expand full comment

For a story about communication brimming with sub-stories and footnotes and dialogue, this has left me tantalizingly both over- and under-enlightened. How do you do it?

Expand full comment

All I can say is: "wtf?" is the right response right now.

Expand full comment

Ibid.

Expand full comment

Haha.

Expand full comment

Those whale sounds always kill me. They contain so many things.

Expand full comment

They raise the hair on my arms. It’s almost cheating including them.

Expand full comment

Very clever. Potential to reach a 1938 'War of the Worlds' Orson Welles drama level.

Been a Heathcote Williams fan since the '80s - still trying to evoke their alien, sentient consciousness.

This particular 'fiction ≠ reality' element is closing to null : https://www.csail.mit.edu/news/exploring-mysterious-alphabet-sperm-whales

Expand full comment

sending you a note offline. 🤐

Expand full comment

Hey Adam, just wanted to drop you a quick note. I saw your self-doubt dive after posting part VII. So recognisable. Just want to let you know I am deeply impressed by the quality of your writing, and the only reason I stopped reading this...eh experience....is that it is too close for comfort. There are several similarities to the novel I am writing at the moment. Nothing worrying, (I think, don’t know yet of course) but I simply refrain from reading anything comparable when I am in the zone....I will dive into this one as soon as I’m done....

Expand full comment

Thank you and I get it. Years ago I had a screenplay called Kid Director and I worked evaluating scripts and one came in called Kid Director. First of all kind of freaky, secondly that was the death of that screenplay. Good luck with your work. If you’re still interested, Moby will be here when you’re done. (And I’m sure they’re not actually similar.)

Expand full comment

Usually, in the best fiction, you can feel something of the arc of the work while you're traversing it. The end appears ahead of the reader in shadows, but it's there. The mythical archetypes are in us, and they're in the fabric of the story. And those strands talk to each other. We like that! We say "that's a great story" in part because because we already know it. That's why Shakespeare is more true than the New York Times, Heinlein more real than a biology textbook, Frost more authentic than Freud.

In science fiction it gets really amped up. Pick your premise - anything goes! But you still have a sense of the ending, or you wouldn't care. In Adam's extraordinary "100 Stories (Number 5)" you will very much care. Adam delivers on the common promise of all his writing that you'll feel something in spades. In fact, strap in. I recommend you clear your schedule for half an hour and turn off your phone. You are not going to want to do this in pieces. The story is gripping, profoundly disorienting, and unforgettable. In the same way that Moby Dick is not about a whale, Moby - the story of humanity's first successful interspecies dialogue - is not about linguistics. And, while you'll know what's coming, you also won't.

One quick piece of advice which you can really take or leave, but which I think will increase your enjoyment: read each chapter in whole, and then read the associated footnotes whole. Like "Pale Fire", Nabokov's original footnote masterpiece, the notes are their own complementary story. They hold up their own narrative. In my opinion they're necessary, but nothing will be lost if you don't go back and forth from notes to text as you're reading. If you don't like the feeling of passing a footnote reference without checking it then ignore my advice. The story will deliver either way.

Expand full comment

🙏❤️

*

What I should do, but I don’t think is possible without massive surgery is to stitch all of the pieces together into a single post. The challenge is that all kinds of things don’t cut and paste (including footnotes.) Everything would have to be restitched by hand. Ugh.

Expand full comment

Whew, what a start! I love the way you are making use of artifacts in this, fits perfectly in the groove of the narrator's voice.

Expand full comment

Oh, Man, Adam, Catching up on you! And look what I've missed Moby Dick with insights that blow like that whale--and the opening sounds had me giggling. Then the writing blows and blows, explodes here. What an idea! I love it. ~ Mary

Expand full comment

Thank you , Mary. I feel like I'm chasing Moby Dick trying get this whole thing wrestled down! How well do you know Moby Dick?

Expand full comment

Pretty well though it has been a while since I've read it.

Expand full comment

It's a bit of a tough sled. I won't say anymore for now, but this is really connected to my experience of reading it and there are some non-trivial overlaps.

Expand full comment

Hey ! up here , yes, that’s me . Just because I’m standing on the roof of the shed with my arms waving, doesn’t mean I’m holding the sharpest instrument 😊

Expand full comment
Jun 17Edited

I don’t feel so bad about my own ‘ponderings’ after reading other comments .Must be fiction . I may be way off, but as far as I can tell, you’ve done an amazing amount of research to set the scene . I’ve been busy doing what I love, before I ‘dive in’ to the next chapter. I’m nourishing my brain with research. And I can almost feel how you built this story. Brilliantly. A mystery to unfold.The foundation, a Jenga game. Everything must be in its rightful place or the whole story will topple. Well at least that’s how my brain is interpreting this. An exciting start! Call me Ishmael, indeed.

By the way, I know we share a diversified taste in music, have you ever listened to Paul Winter, Whales Alive?

( Paul Winter Consort)

1980s. I’ve seen them in concert a few times, though, not with the whales .🐳

Expand full comment

I hope you are right about the first paragraph above. 😃 Otherwise, this is going to be a heck of a lot of work for crickets. There are a bunch of reasons for the feelings you are all having. I sure hope it falls into place later. We shall see.

I will go listen to Paul Winter now.

Expand full comment

Oh, I’m definitely right…

Expand full comment

Adam this is phenomenal ! And I still have no idea if it’s fiction or otherwise…

Expand full comment

I was just writing in another comment that “wtf?” Is the right place to be.

Expand full comment

Ha! I loved that you did … and loved too their gravity and importance next to the bits of dialogue between the two humans.

Expand full comment

Yeah. Hold that thought.

Expand full comment

Can’t wait for the next installation!!

Expand full comment