Commonwealth excursion

When Silverlock comes up in conversation it's usually in relation to the wealth of literary references it yields. Deriving every important character and passing incident from well known works of literature -- setting the story in a literal 'literary landscape' -- is precisely what led me to pick up the book originally.

Though this central conceit is entertaining, my inclination to return again and again to the "Commonwealth of Letters" stems not so much from the incidental references as from my appreciation for the travel-adventure of the framing story, and a traversal of a well-stocked library shelf has proven secondary to Silverlock's there-and-back-again journey in the tale that unfolds. This story is engaging and well told, offering a structure that supports a much wider range of milieus and events than would be permitted by logic or consistency or good sense in any ordinary tale.

Laudable as the story might be, as I pick up the book to read it again I notice two things that I previously overlooked: despite the fact that the various works referenced in Silverlock ('engaging and well told' in their own right) occupy a substantial amount of real estate on my bookshelves, reading them is mostly something I've only done once, despite having some of these volumes since junior high. Having already read them is the reason the premise of Silverlock appealed to me initially.

Outside of a Great Works book club, references from Silverlock comprise the most thorough yet eclectic aggregation of literature sourced from 'Western Civilization' that I can name. Deriving a reading list from characters and events encountered by the protagonist, ordered by the haphazard sequence in which he meets them as he swims/sails/walks/rides/rafts/flies through literary history, navigating by the three traditional methods, looks to be a large and ambitious enterprise, even if the casual references are dismissed from consideration and only the first person encounters are kept.

As a matter of form I can record the references here, choosing just one work or source for each encounter and defending it with an argument or citation or what have you.

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