This went into a direct that I did not foresee at all. Walser on his own Spirit Quest, drinking recycled fly agaric (basically shamen's pee), whilst trying to find his inner self with the Siberian natives. I have finished the book and it is incredible...but....it needed more than a little hurried annotation to make any sense. At least now, I think I get what Angela Carter was on about - making it into a cohesive argument, well that's another matter. Issues re transformation, maybe? Certainly, there is a central theme of hybridity, though I am not sure I want to persue this course of argument.
Part of me is reminded of the end of Northern Exposure, when Joel comes out of his trance/dream state and finds himself back in New York (Walser himself is American). So pleased to have finished - am taking some time off now, but as of Friday, I am reading the rest of The Bloody Chamber that I didn't read the first time round.
