A story in the acerbic marginalia of this book called The Ship of Theseus by V.M. Straka, who attracts an academic cult following akin to Amalfitano from 2666.

What if you quit making such a mess of it?

Overall I'm kinda disappointed in this book. Seems like it grossly under-delivers on such a promising mixed-media format. I think Abrams/Dorst over indulged in the ARG aspect, undercooked the emergent plot, and phoned in the 1st order plot which mainly exists as a plot device for the emergent plot between Eric/Jen.

There's at least 6 layers of story here:

1. The Ship of Theseus
2. Eric's teenage penciled comments
3. Jen/Eric's 1st read through (blue/black)
4. Jen/Eric's 2nd read through (orange/green)
5. Jen/Eric's 3rd read through (purple/red)
6. Jen/Eric's 4th read through (black/black)
7. (hidden codes that aren't explicated by Jen/Eric/Filomena)

The distribution of comments is unnatural e.g. no reason why revelations about V.M.S. would be concentrated in the back of the book. If J/E are reading through the book multiple times, there should be a uniform distribution of marginalia throughout, but instead Dorst/Abrams weight the density of marginalia to correspond to the reader's progression which is kind of immersion breaking. Additionally, are we to believe that Jen & Eric exchanged this book several times a day over the course of a semester before 1) ever meeting each other in person and 2) attracting attention?

Seems like we, as the reader, have to suspend our disbelief about a few things including hamfisted narrative passages from the SoT which motivate dialogue in the margins. Such passages only work in SoT because of how incoherent/surreal it is to begin with. Without the surrounding emergent plotlines it would be unreadable.

References to future chapters in the book which don't end up paying off much is a cheap trick to overwhelm the reader. It's like Abrams/Dorst really really want the book to be enjoyable under multiple reading chronologies. It's not though.

When it's more important to take in the spectacular than to worry about the pressing business of staying alive.

The characters are 1 dimensional where the dimension is secret trauma which is very edgy and cheap. Shitting on "lame ordinary life" seems very naval gazing about low IQ for someone who is struggling to get an English degree. Also– "my name is Eric (but not really) and I'm so dark and troubled and mysterious and have lost so many people in my life, please let me hit," is gross for a 15 year old, let alone a 28 year old hahahahaha

We’re all just in the muck trying to believe we’re capable of greatness but closer to breaking than we want to admit

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