HjemGrupperSnakMereZeitgeist
Søg På Websted
På dette site bruger vi cookies til at levere vores ydelser, forbedre performance, til analyseformål, og (hvis brugeren ikke er logget ind) til reklamer. Ved at bruge LibraryThing anerkender du at have læst og forstået vores vilkår og betingelser inklusive vores politik for håndtering af brugeroplysninger. Din brug af dette site og dets ydelser er underlagt disse vilkår og betingelser.

Resultater fra Google Bøger

Klik på en miniature for at gå til Google Books

Indlæser...

The Infinite Future

af Tim Wirkus

MedlemmerAnmeldelserPopularitetGennemsnitlig vurderingOmtaler
765349,082 (3.62)1
An exhilarating, original novel, set in Brazil, Idaho, and outer space, about an obsessive librarian, a down-at-heel author, and a disgraced historian who go on the hunt for a mystical, life-changing book--and find it. The Infinite Future is a mindbending novel that melds two page-turning tales in one. In the first, we meet three broken people, joined by an obsession with a forgotten Brazilian science-fiction author named Salgado-MacKenzie. There's Danny, a writer who's been scammed by a shady literary award committee; Sergio, journalist turned sub-librarian in São Paulo; and Harriet, an excommunicated Mormon historian in Salt Lake City, who years ago corresponded with the reclusive Brazilian writer. The motley trio sets off to discover his identity, and whether his fabled masterpiece--never published--actually exists. Did his inquiries into the true nature of the universe yield something so enormous that his mind was blown for good? In the second half, Wirkus gives us the lost masterpiece itself--the actual text of The Infinite Future, Salgado-MacKenzie's wonderfully weird magnum opus. The two stories merge in surprising and profound ways. Part science-fiction, part academic satire, and part book-lover's quest, this wholly original novel captures the heady way that stories inform and mirror our lives.… (mere)
Indlæser...

Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog.

Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog.

» See also 1 mention

Viser 5 af 5
What just happened? That's the end?

I mean, I think it was brilliant...or crazy? As in, crazy like a fox? I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to think. I was glued to the story--the stories--because they're good, and then after writing 40-odd stories within stories, suddenly Tim Wirkus decides to...drop his narrative mid-beat? I don't know what he's trying to do and maybe I need to think about it more...or maybe I'm just not sophisticated and deep enough.

Okay, let me back up. If I was Wirkus, or Danny, or Harriet, or Sergio, or any number of other characters, I would tell you in detail how I found the book, who handed it to me, and how I forgot to read it because I was rushing to work, but then I stumbled upon it later, and as I began to read became absorbed in the mysticism of the tale. And the fact is, I very much enjoyed "The Infinite Future." It's one of those story-within-a-story-within-a-story stories, and Wirkus spins out story after story as each person has to tell every other person "what happened" with a perfectly constructed tale, not the quick off-the-cuff type stories you and I tell around the water coolers, but the kind that you only find in a novel, complete with descriptions of the environment, clothes, emotions, etc. But it works. Wirkus is a fantastic and creative storyteller.

Interwoven into the story are elements of the LDS faith, the Book of Mormon, and the culture and religion of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It seems like Wirkus is grappling with the faith--maybe his faith?--and the contradictions and trials of faith that modern members of the LDS Church have to deal with. What's less clear, and perhaps this is part of his point, is whether Wirkus has a conclusion. To boot, the book is as much a look at the creative life, at writers, and at the conflict between pursuing one's passion and pursuing a solid and stable career, and I'm not sure if it's an ancillary theme, or intentionally woven in with the religious themes.

Whatever the intent, Wirkus tells compelling and interesting stories, each one worthy on its own. I was often reminded of a quote from Orson Scott Card when responding to a question about where he finds story ideas: "Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any." Wirkus is capturing a few more than the five or six that a good writer finds. He just can't settle on any one particular story. He wants to tell them all, and he wants to weave into all of them the same narrative.

And then, with all those great stories, Wirkus suddenly spins to a narrative denouement and drops the whole thing mid-beat, ending the story, the novel, the whole thing, in the middle of a story. It's a bit unnerving and unexpected (I was listening to it--it's a great audiobook), and I went back and checked three times that I hadn't accidentally missed something. But no, it had ended unexpectedly and somewhat unsatisfyingly.

Maybe this is the whole point, to leave the reader with a sense of the incomplete nature of many of life's questions. I don't know. I am still unsure what to think, but maybe that's what metafiction is all about, right? ( )
1 stem publiusdb | Apr 4, 2023 |
What a strange book. I guess the moral of the story is that a Mormon will find meaning and inspiration in the wackiest story. I don't mind replacing Jesus with a space pirate, actually. I think it would make the bible more engaging. ( )
  Paul_S | Dec 23, 2020 |
'The Infinite Future' involves nesting stories: There is a fictional 'Tim Wirkus' who receives this manuscript out of the blue from a distant acquaintance. The manuscript is the story of how the acquaintance, Danny, uncovers a literary mystery with two other people that leads them on a altogether different kind of spiritual quest. Danny begins as a former Morman missionary and financially strapped would-be author who has run afoul of the thugs of the religious-fiction industry. In Brazil, while doing research for a doomed novel he is befriended by a librarian, Sergio, who introduces him to an obscure Brazilian sf writer - Salgado-MacKenzie - who left hints of a trans-formative novel, 'The Infinite Future', and vanished without a trace. On their search for more answers they meet Harriet, an excommunicated Morman historian who had corresponded with the author some years before.

The three of them have little in common, but they are inextricably drawn together by what Salgado-Mackenzie's work makes them feel. Each finds themselves hinging their different hopes on what they may find when they track down the elusive author and the manuscript for his masterpiece. What they discover is too good a story to reveal here. The second half of the book is the novel-within-the-novel 'The Infinite Future'. Readers can judge for themselves its worth. ( )
  ManWithAnAgenda | Feb 19, 2019 |
Strange religions (one of which I belong to), alternate universes and stories nested within stories - if you are jonesing for some quirky sci-fi than boy, oh, boy do I have the novel for you. ( )
  jasoncomely | Feb 8, 2019 |
This going to remain a DNF for now. There are subplots that go nowhere, completely unneeded 20 page diversions to supporting character's backstories, and the formatting simply wasn't working for me. It's unfortunate because the sci-fi ideas presented are interesting, but the format simply wasn't working. Perhaps I'll pick it up again in a year or so and see how it fares then. ( )
  kateprice88 | Jul 19, 2018 |
Viser 5 af 5
ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
Du bliver nødt til at logge ind for at redigere data i Almen Viden.
For mere hjælp se Almen Viden hjælpesiden.
Kanonisk titel
Originaltitel
Alternative titler
Oprindelig udgivelsesdato
Personer/Figurer
Vigtige steder
Vigtige begivenheder
Beslægtede film
Indskrift
Tilegnelse
Første ord
Citater
Sidste ord
Oplysning om flertydighed
Forlagets redaktører
Bagsidecitater
Originalsprog
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

Henvisninger til dette værk andre steder.

Wikipedia på engelsk

Ingen

An exhilarating, original novel, set in Brazil, Idaho, and outer space, about an obsessive librarian, a down-at-heel author, and a disgraced historian who go on the hunt for a mystical, life-changing book--and find it. The Infinite Future is a mindbending novel that melds two page-turning tales in one. In the first, we meet three broken people, joined by an obsession with a forgotten Brazilian science-fiction author named Salgado-MacKenzie. There's Danny, a writer who's been scammed by a shady literary award committee; Sergio, journalist turned sub-librarian in São Paulo; and Harriet, an excommunicated Mormon historian in Salt Lake City, who years ago corresponded with the reclusive Brazilian writer. The motley trio sets off to discover his identity, and whether his fabled masterpiece--never published--actually exists. Did his inquiries into the true nature of the universe yield something so enormous that his mind was blown for good? In the second half, Wirkus gives us the lost masterpiece itself--the actual text of The Infinite Future, Salgado-MacKenzie's wonderfully weird magnum opus. The two stories merge in surprising and profound ways. Part science-fiction, part academic satire, and part book-lover's quest, this wholly original novel captures the heady way that stories inform and mirror our lives.

No library descriptions found.

Beskrivelse af bogen
Haiku-resume

Current Discussions

Ingen

Populære omslag

Quick Links

Vurdering

Gennemsnit: (3.62)
0.5
1
1.5
2 4
2.5
3
3.5
4 5
4.5 2
5 2

Er det dig?

Bliv LibraryThing-forfatter.

 

Om | Kontakt | LibraryThing.com | Brugerbetingelser/Håndtering af brugeroplysninger | Hjælp/FAQs | Blog | Butik | APIs | TinyCat | Efterladte biblioteker | Tidlige Anmeldere | Almen Viden | 203,252,564 bøger! | Topbjælke: Altid synlig