Quick Thoughts

My last post was really long, so feel free to avoid it and just skim over these more basic thoughts:

Other things:

• There's a clear idea of appearance vs. reality throughout the novel. How Burnham envisions the fair and how it really appears. How Holmes appears to public and the reality of his antics. On a larger level, you can see Chicago struggling, as well, to appear as a great American city to its rival New York, while also faced with the city that it really is pre-Fair (I suspect this will change). Anyway, this quote kind of sums up this thought procress for me. "Later, no doubt, he wishes he had been more candid and had listened more closely to the whisper in his head about the wrongness of that building and the discontinuity between its true appearance and Emeline's perception of it" (166).
• Also, I like the idea of Chicago's legacy that comes from producing a marvel like this Fair, and producing a sadistic serial killer like Holmes.

Quick Thoughts:

• Is anyone else annoyed with Olmsted?
• What about Holmes' 'woman problem'? Isn't he someone I would completely fall for?
  
• I really get into Holmes' story. I wish we could explore his pysche a little more.
• I like that Larson parallels Holmes' and Burnham's insatiable need for complete and utter power and control over everyone's thoughts and perceptions. What an interesting pairing and doubling. Very Jekyll and Hyde.
• I will never forget the origin of PBR again.