Pg. 65 of David Markson’s copy of Mao II by Don DeLillo:
On which Markson placed a line next to the words:
“I think there’s an intensity that makes certain subjects a little dangerous. And we don’t have the camera between us. This changes everything, doesn’t it? Scott said six-thirty.”
He then responded to that passage by writing in the margins:
“Again the spurious mysticism.”
—-
Judging from the comments in the margins, Markson seems to find DeLillo’s whole book to be spurious.
In fact, bullshit.
As I’ve mentioned here many-a-times, he placed the word “Bullshit” in the margins of Mao II rather frequently.
Though I do not own his copy of DeLillo’s White Noise, Readers (of Markson Reading) familiar with the whole Markson Treasure Hunt also know that similar comments were written in Markson’s copy of that book as well.
Many of which can be found here: in the London Review of Books article by Alex Abramovich and in that article’s comments.
Markson’s DeLillo’s White Noise being, as the Abramovich article clearly shows, the book that began the whole Markson Treasure Hunt.
Some of his DeLillo comments in that White Noise…
“I’ve finally solved this book—it’s sci-fi!”
(Which was originally reported as “Oh I get it, it’s a sci-fi novel!” in the Abramovich article—hence the article’s title—but is corrected in the comments by the owner of the book Annecy Liddell.)
(And which can be seen here.)
“Oh god the pomposity, the portentousness—the bullshit!”
(Which can be seen here.)
“Too cute.”
(Which can be seen here.)
“This book may have set the all-time record for boredom. At 1/3 of the length, it might have worked.”
(Which can be seen here.)
“D’ya ever fuck ‘er?”
(Which can be seen here.)
“Are we supposed to believe this?”
(Which can be seen here.)
“If this were not my first Delillo, I probably would have quit 100 pages ago. Surely now.”
(Which can be seen here.)
“Oh, wow! Big deal.”
(Which can be seen here.)
“This ‘ordinariness’ is just that—ordinary, i.e., a bore. Presumably it is meant as satire. Except, dammit, satire should be amusing!”
(Which can be seen here.)
“Boring boring boring.”
(Which can be seen here.)
“Once we get the point, it’s boring.”
(Which can be seen here.)
“I’ll say. Too bad you don’t convey them to us!”
(Which can be seen here.)
“Oh God.”
(Twice on one page.)
(Which can be seen here.)
“Gawd. This is awful.”
(Which can be seen here.)
“We got the point of this stuff a long time ago. A long time ago. It’s now BORING! And has been.”
(Which can be seen here.)