"Confessions of A Crap Artist (1975)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dick Phillip K)

nitwit beliefs and opinions... an outcast from
our society, a totally marginal man who sees
everything from the outside only and hence must
guess as to what's going on.

In the Dark Ages there was an Isidore of
Seville, Spain, who wrote an encyclopedia, the
shortest ever written: about thirty-five pages,
as I recall. I hadn't realized how ignorant they
were then until I realized that Isidore of
Seville's encyclopedia was considered a
masterpiece of educated compilations for a hell
of a long time.

It came to me, then, back in the '50's, to
wonder, What if I created a modern-day Isidore,
this one of Seville, California, and had him
sort of write something for our time like that
of Isidore of Seville, Spain? What would be the
analog? Obviously, a schizoid person, a loner,
like my protagonist. But underneath, most
important of all, I wanted to show that this
ignorant outsider was a man, too, like we are;
he has the same heart as we, and sometimes is a
good person.

In reading the novel over now, I am amazed to
find that I agree even more that Jack Isidore of
Seville, California, is no dummy; I am amazed to
see how, below the surface of gabble which he
prattles constantly, he has a sort of shrewdly
appraising subconscious which sees maybe very
darkly into events, but shit--as I finished the
novel this time I thought, to my surprise, Maybe
ol' Jack Isidore is right! Maybe he doesn't just
see as well aswe do, but in fact--incredibly,
really--somehow and somewhat better.

In other words, I had sympathy for him when I
wrote it back in the '50s, but now I have I
think even more sympathy, as if time has begun
to vindicate Jack Isidore. His
painfully-arrived-at opinions are in some
strange, beautiful way lacking in the
preconceptions which tell the rest of us what
must be true and what must not be, come hell or
high water. Jack Isidore starts with no
preconceptions, takes his information from
wherever he can find it, and winds up with
bizarre but curiously authentic conclusions.