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Special Topics In Calamity Physics

post #1 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:35pm
Thread Starter 
I think it made me grow a vagina, but it's a fun time all the same. It nearly flies off the rails near the end but quickly rights itself.
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post #2 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:38pm
I loved it last year, and was recently thinking about reading it again. The humor is something I know I won't get tired of, and maybe I'd pick up on some obscure clues to the mystery this time, with knowledge of what's to come.
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post #3 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:40pm
Thread Starter 
All I know is once her friends turned on her I was enraged.
I'm kind of annoyed that the murder/suicide thing was never definitely solved. I realize the mystery was secondary, but still...
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post #4 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
I think it made me grow a vagina,
Just because the main character's a girl? It's not like it was about a bunch of women sitting around talking about shoes and menstruation or anything.
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post #5 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
I'm kind of annoyed that the murder/suicide thing was never definitely solved. I realize the mystery was secondary, but still...
I still feel like if I read it again and am brilliant enough, I will figure it out. Probably impossible, though.
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post #6 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:47pm
Thread Starter 
Specifically, Dave, how angry I felt when the Blue Bloods lashed out at her and the dude called her a bad kisser in front of everybody. In that moment I knew what it was to be a teenage girl. I wanted to cry and scratch their eyes out.
So I went home and beat my wife and then I felt like a man again.
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post #7 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:48pm
As I said elsewhere, I just read this and "The Lovely Bones" back to back. Both were great reads that just so happened to feature teenage girls as their narrators. Afterwards, I felt the need to read something manly... maybe some Tom Clancy Op Center.

No, but seriously, who cares about the main character's gender so long as it's a good read?
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post #8 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Kimbell View Post
I still feel like if I read it again and am brilliant enough, I will figure it out. Probably impossible, though.
Yeah, I don't think it's possible. Blue basically indicates as much--and that she's an unreliable narrator--during the Final Exam.
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post #9 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Kimbell View Post
I still feel like if I read it again and am brilliant enough, I will figure it out. Probably impossible, though.
I think it definitely leans toward murder because of Eva's line about Hannah being "too vain for suicide". That rang true. But then I always tend to look for the truth of the character's motivations as opposed to the contrivances of plot.
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post #10 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:52pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post

No, but seriously, who cares about the main character's gender so long as it's a good read?
Guys, guys! It was just a joke!
Sheesh.
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post #11 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
Guys, guys! It was just a joke!
Sheesh.
I'm... I'm sorry. It must be that time of the month.
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post #12 of 20
8/14/08 at 3:57pm
Bob was being completely serious about the wife beating thing, though.
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post #13 of 20
8/15/08 at 12:08pm
Thread Starter 
Interestingly enough, my wife and I were out to dinner last night and discussed this book. She said the author left no doubt that it was murder and was surprised that I saw any ambiguity at all.
So I beat her.
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post #14 of 20
8/15/08 at 12:13pm
It's not a sure thing, but I did kinda assume it was murder, and for me the mystery was who/how/etc.
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post #15 of 20
8/15/08 at 12:22pm
I agree that the implication from Blue is that Hannah was murdered. She interjects enough ambiguity, however, to make that a real question. And, even if she was murdered, it's not a surety that it played out as a result of Hannah's alleged membership in the Nightwatchmen.

With regard to my earlier comment about the unreliable nature of Blue's narration, I just read that one of Pessl's inspirations in writing "Special Topics" was the unreliable narrator in Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess". This, to me, suggests that some of Blue's story (especially in light of the Final Quiz) may be nothing more than the flights of fancy of brilliant and lonely girl.
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post #16 of 20
8/15/08 at 12:34pm
Thread Starter 
I suppose it's inevitable in this post-Fight Club society of ours to follow that thinking through and decide that the entire conspiracy is a deluded fabrication. That her dad is just a flakey louse who abandoned her and she had to create an exotic lie to deal with it. Oh sure, you'll pull out the chapter where she convinces herself that her dad was kidnapped as proof. But that theory undermines so much and accomplishes so little that I would like to call a pre-emptive HORSEFEATHERS and never speak of it again.

That's right. I said horsefeathers. I would even go so far as to call it hogwash and even balderdash. I'm not kidding around.
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post #17 of 20
8/15/08 at 12:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
I agree that the implication from Blue is that Hannah was murdered. She interjects enough ambiguity, however, to make that a real question. And, even if she was murdered, it's not a surety that it played out as a result of Hannah's alleged membership in the Nightwatchmen.

With regard to my earlier comment about the unreliable nature of Blue's narration, I just read that one of Pessl's inspirations in writing "Special Topics" was the unreliable narrator in Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess". This, to me, suggests that some of Blue's story (especially in light of the Final Quiz) may be nothing more than the flights of fancy of brilliant and lonely girl.
That's kind of a weird inspiration to cite unless Pessl's intent is that we're supposed to consider Blue, herself, the murderer, and I don't remember seeing much evidence for that. As for parts of the story being complete fantasy... maybe, but offering Browning's poem up as an inspiration doesn't really suggest that, since his unreliability is mostly a matter of perception, not outright fabrication, and he also has a motive.
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post #18 of 20
8/15/08 at 12:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
I suppose it's inevitable in this post-Fight Club society of ours to follow that thinking through and decide that the entire conspiracy is a deluded fabrication. That her dad is just a flakey louse who abandoned her and she had to create an exotic lie to deal with it. Oh sure, you'll pull out the chapter where she convinces herself that her dad was kidnapped as proof. But that theory undermines so much and accomplishes so little that I would like to call a pre-emptive HORSEFEATHERS and never speak of it again.

That's right. I said horsefeathers. I would even go so far as to call it hogwash and even balderdash. I'm not kidding around.
Would you say that you're declaring shenigans on that whole line of thought?


But, no, I agree with you. If the whole mystery/conspiracy is nothing more than Blue's elaborate daydream, it ultimately renders the story pretty meaningless. And, personally, I hate that sort of nonsense (it drives me crazy when people argue that the whole of "American Psycho" is all in Bateman's head, for example). So, while I prefer to believe Blue's story (more or less), I think there's enough deliberately placed ambiguity to make it somewhat questionable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB
That's kind of a weird inspiration to cite unless Pessl's intent is that we're supposed to consider Blue, herself, the murderer, and I don't remember seeing much evidence for that.
Agreed. As an aside, I think the only fact that would suggest Blue is the murderer (which I don't believe) is that she was the last person (other than the murderer) to see Hannah alive.
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post #19 of 20
8/15/08 at 12:48pm
Thread Starter 
Blue as murderer is such a baseless accusation it's used to illustrate what a bunch of moronic, frightened children the Blue Bloods are.
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post #20 of 20
8/15/08 at 12:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli View Post
But, no, I agree with you. If the whole mystery/conspiracy is nothing more than Blue's elaborate daydream, it ultimately renders the story pretty meaningless. And, personally, I hate that sort of nonsense (it drives me crazy when people argue that the whole of "American Psycho" is all in Bateman's head, for example). So, while I prefer to believe Blue's story (more or less), I think there's enough deliberately placed ambiguity to make it somewhat questionable.
It's been a while since I read it, but I think that "more or less" might be the key. If I recall, Blue does play with the reader and seems to omit things where she thinks it appropriate (thus that cagey Final Exam device). So, in a sense, she's absolutely unreliable, but I don't think she's making much of it up. Most unreliable narrators are reliable on some level. Browning's Duke gives you enough clues about what really happened, Humbert Humbert gives us enough information about his actual relationship with Lolita that we know we're getting a romanticized view of things.
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