Symptoms of the Lunatic
By David Keffer
()
About this ebook
The author asks that the following disclaimer be included at the beginning of the description of Symptoms of the Lunatic.
Symptoms of the Lunatic is a novel written about a lunatic in the manner of a lunatic. Readers possessed of a sane mind may find that the writing of a lunatic contains what appears to them to be circuitous arguments of questionable logic that seek to justify both ends of any debate, incredibly detailed examinations of trivial minutiae in which no one can be expected to have any sustained interest, arbitrary diatribes against random facets of the physical world, innumerable pointless detours and digressions of unconscionable length. That the writing of a lunatic should challenge the attention of even the most patient reader should not be surprising. Disclaimers aside, herein lies the testament of a lunatic who lost sight of what it means to be part of the human community and who struggled with the internal machinations he developed to occupy himself in its absence.
In Symptoms of the Lunatic, the artifice of a DEA stake-out is employed to examine the psychological state of the lunatic, who has through a combination of history and genetics come to a point where he has isolated himself from virtually all contact with society, despite living within the metropolitan area of Washington, DC. Rejecting the external world, the lunatic turns his focus inward and is lost inside himself. That his ruminations refuse to follow conventional paths is to be expected. That his thoughts meander at a glacial pace, which lie beyond any reasonable expectation of tolerance, is simply a reflection of his isolation and his acceptance that there was no audience for these internal reflections. When the lunatic is extricated from his cocoon by circumstances beyond his control he interacts poorly with those with whom he comes in contact, which again would be surprising only if it were any other way.
Nevertheless, this book was written and there is no other quite like it. At times, one hears the obsessive compulsion for detail reminiscent of Kobo Abé in, for example, The Face of Another. At other times, one is reminded of the solitary protagonist in Thomas Bernhard’s Concrete. Still, this lunatic displays his own unique brand of lunacy, highlighted by his haunting by the ghost of Lee Dong Il, the lost child whom his younger brother was prior to being adopted and brought into the lunatic’s family under a different name thirty years earlier.
One understands from this novel that uncertainty permeates the universe. There are a wide variety of responses that human beings adopt in response to this uncertainty. The particular response adopted by the lunatic in this novel is one in which there is limited utility and redemption.
Symptoms of the Lunatic was written from February to July of 1997, when the author was working as a post-doctoral fellow in the Theoretical Chemistry Group at the United States Naval Research Laboratory in Southeast Washington, DC.
David Keffer
David J. Keffer was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He pursued a technical education earning a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. After a year as a post-doctoral scholar at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., he began his career as an engineering professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he remains today. He has published about 100 technical papers in archival journals. He was awarded a Fulbright Grant to learn and to teach about sustainability in Seoul, Korea.Outside of engineering, David Keffer studied world literature and creative writing. He has published analytical articles on the works of Primo Levi and Kobo Abé. He created various reading aids to several classical Chinese novels. Over the past two decades, David Keffer has been active writing novels, poetry and stories. Several novels and illustrated stories are available from the Poison Pie Publishing House at http://www.poisonpie.com.Beginning in 2012, David Keffer began teaching a course on the subject of non-idiomatic improvisational music, of which he is a devoted listener and a topic which has led aided him on an investigation of a literature of non-idiomatic improvisation.David Keffer lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife, Lynn, and two children. As a family, they enjoy hiking through the local mountains and are always on the look-out for poison pie and other ambivalent mushrooms that dot the landscape.
Read more from David Keffer
The Sutra of Reverse Possession: A Novel of Non-Idiomatic Improvisation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThese Stars Are All The Same: A Survey of Constellations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (Revisited) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Horties: An Invisible Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlton & Eugenia: Twelve Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJune and Jitter (The Bugs) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Saw Blood and Then Everything Went Black: Sixteen Dark Fables from the Future Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerhaps: The Continuing Exploits of Alton & Eugenia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ruins of My Daughter's Cities: An Imaginary Travelogue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlow Ecclesiastes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInsect: An Entomological Fairy Tale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Memory of Fire: A Novel of Indeterminate Conflagrations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWouldn't the Wood Weird Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHysteresis: An Asymmetric Account of an Individual Apocalypse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Implacable Absence: A Non-Idiomatic Improvisational Duet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Symptoms of the Lunatic
Related ebooks
The Squatter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdventures on the Go Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Silent Soliloquy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarshall's Story: the Beginnings of the Inner Circle: Book One of the Island Experiment Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTin Universe Monthly #15b 2014 Extra Stuff In April Special Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTin Universe Monthly #15 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Ghost's Monologue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhost Hunting Diary Volume II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhosthunting for the Sensible Investigator; second edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Roller Coaster of My Bipolar Disorder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRobot Evolution: Perfect Partners, Inc. Vols 1-5: Perfect Partners, Incorporated, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath Comes for the Deconstructionist: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDemon Attacks: Evil Spirits & Serial Murder Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marital Arts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnd Then There Are Bitches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Evil Is a Pretty Face: Narcissistic Females & The Pathological Relationship Agenda Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death in a Funhouse Mirror (The Thea Kozak Mystery Series, Book 2) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 3 Indispensible Rules for Taking Charge: A Reptilian Guide to Personal Finance and World Domination Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Temptation 201: The Reluctant Devils, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAyahuasca Magic: the Spell of the Unconscious Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolyamorous Love Song Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prodigal Angel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dream Catcher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJourney Into The Unknown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomancing Grendel’s Mother: Fear & Loathing on the Internet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hairbrush and the Shoe: A True Ghost Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Good Prison Guide Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Many Faces of Anxiety: Does Anxiety Have a Grip on Your Life? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHive Minds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
General Fiction For You
The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beartown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The King James Version of the Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Terminal List: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Symptoms of the Lunatic
0 ratings0 reviews