2500 Things...

So, I was really prepared to hate 2500 Things About Me Too - probably because that's my approach to most things and the size of the book was off putting (the dimensions, not the number of pages). I read the introduction first (which I normally skip) and it brought up some interesting points about the flightiness of online communication. It's not printed, so it almost doesn't exist, or it does briefly when it's being read and then poof! off it goes into the ether. Not only do we not remember much of what we write online, but we also forget what we've read as well.

The lists themselves were fascinating on a few levels. One, that they did truly seem random - if it were me I'd be tempted to edit out the less interesting or more offensive items, but here Matias Viegener has left them all in. Second is the meta-writing, how Matias often comments on the writing process itself and how difficult it is, as well as how hard he's trying to avoid narrative or excessive sentiment. If it's that hard to avoid in a list, it must be near impossible with other types of writing.

Throughout the lists there were certain recurring themes. Several were related to Matias and made sense as many of his items were recounting past or present events. His mother, his stepmother, his dog (I'm only halfway through, no spoilers!), his family's flight from Germany to Argentina to the US. Many of the themes are sad, which makes sense as it's the sad things that tend to stick with us, but there were a few funny/interesting themes as well, such as his love of certain fruits and couches.

I also enjoyed his references to great thinkers (Freud, Barthes, Zizek) - since I've read them too I felt like we were somehow talking to each other. He seems, at times, a very deep thinker:

- "Heterosexual didn't come into use until "homosexual" was coined (p66)
-  Did I make this up? Is it something I saw in a movie? That's how I remember it, like a movie. (p62)
-  Taking photographs is a way of controlling the gaze instead of being its focus. (p78)

Overall, I thought it presented an interesting cross-section of a person, in a different style than a straight memoir, which for all you know may have been written by a ghostwriter and heavily edited. I could have gone without all the sexcapade anecdotes, but that would mean he was hiding part of himself, so I suppose it was necessary.

Hopefully I'll get together a small list of my own soon. See you Thurs!