04/18/2025
I’ve had this book for some time but never got around to reading it. The movie was incredible and I was shocked to hear a line in the film that had been sampled by the band Ministry in the 90s. The movie, to me, was very close to the book. I cannot believe how much research Paddy did to really sell Jessup and his infatuation with learning the mysteries of proto-man. Going alone this phycological journey was interesting because the depth that Jessup feels for his work, above all us, borders between narcissism, obsession and brilliance.
There are two things that I think I might have done different with this piece. First, there is a section where the protoman is loose and the author starts a huge number of sentences in a row with “he” and I am not sure why. It’s very odd. I don’t remember seeing this anywhere else in the book. Maybe the editor got lazy. The second thing is the end, it was a little too open ended for me. I felt we could have pushed into the craziness of what was happening even further so we understand where it resolves. I only say this because we are brought down such an incredible journey of craziness that really pushing into those final moments a bit more, I think the payoff would have been bigger.
2025-18
