To Be Continued

What does it mean to be complete?  Take a novel, say The Brothers Karamazov.  If you read all 776 pages, you have read the complete book.  If you only read Part I, you have not.  I don’t think anything in those last two sentences is controversial.  (And, yes, Dear Reader, I know it was exactly to be able to read such pointless assertions of obvious facts that compelled you to come to this here place and start reading (after all, why else are you reading this? (and, don’t pretend you aren’t reading this (unless you don’t exist, in which case feel free to pretend to exist and not be reading this)).)  But, now (surprise plot twist alert), imagine that someone took Part I of The Brothers Karamazov and published it as stand-alone book with title: The Brothers Karamazov: A Nice Little Sensualist Family in an Inappropriate Gathering: Book 1.  Is it now a complete book?

And before you hasten to answer that, remember (as you surely do remember) that the narrator of The Brothers Karamazov says right up front that the novel in question is really just a prelude to the real story the narrator intends to write (but alas was never written).  So, is The Brothers Karamazov itself a complete novel or just part 1 of an unfinished novel?

But, this isn’t really about The Brothers Karamazov.  (Though that volume is in the pile of recently read books awaiting review, but, honestly, it is hard to figure out how to review a novel of that scope, so it may take a while before it is moved from the pile in which it now sits back to its rightful place on the bookshelf (Crime and Punishment is really missing its neighbor, but it serves that book right (yeah, I don’t know why either, but it just seems like Crime and Punishment can do with a bit more loss and yearning)).)

The book that actually prompted these reflections is Jason Lutes’ Berlin: City of Stone: Book One.  Here is my problem:  how exactly do I think about this book?  It looks like a complete book (not exactly a difficult thing to pull off I just realized—if you want make something to look like a book, there aren’t a whole lot of steps).  But, the full story was serialized—think Charles Dickens with a higher picture to word ratio than that in Dickens’ serials (yes, Berlin: City of Stone: Book One is a comic book, or should that be a collection of comic books?  The mind reels)—and the serialization is still not yet completed.  So, this book is the first third of an as of now uncollected larger story.

Not surprisingly, reading this book leaves one (read; Your Humble Narrator pretending his feelings are universal) feeling incomplete.  Lots of characters are introduced, some develop a bit, there are some story lines developing, something dramatic happens at the end to one of the characters, and then…book over.  If this was the real end of the book, I would have one impression of the story I just read.  But, knowing the book didn’t actually end, it just looks like it did because it was printed as a stand-alone book, has me wondering if I should think of the stories as they are, or is this really just like reading the first third of a Dickens novel and then stopping?

This is a lot like television.  In the old days (for the young ‘ins) TV shows used to happen once a week, and if you missed an episode, it would air again the following summer.  For TV shows with stand-alone story lines, this worked OK.  But, imagine a TV show with a continuing story line (they did exist)—now if you missed an episode, you were in trouble.  In the days before VCRs (yeah, way back then), you couldn’t even record the show to watch later.  So, if you got invited for a night out on the evening when a serialized show was on, you had a pretty stark choice.  As can be imagined, serialized TV shows were rare.  Serialized shows are now a nickel a gross.

Fundamentally a serialized TV series and a serialized comic book are akin.  In both cases, there is a time lapse between one installment and the next.  And here is my problem—I am not a fan of unfinished installment series—I rarely watch a show before the complete run is over.   I rarely read a continuing series of novels until they are all published.  I like completeness.  So, when I turn to Berlin: City of Stone: Book One, I want to think of it as complete, but I know better and I don’t quite know what to make of it.

But, there is an added measure of angst here (yeah, I know that you, Dear Reader, think my angst on this point has already been a little absurd and over-the-top—this is the sort of thing all three of my children would mock me for expressing (fortunately, none of them read this blog)).  I have now read Berlin: City of Stone: Book One.  Book Two (Same title, different subtitle, different number) is published.  That would continue the story a bit further.  But, the final installment is not yet written and so not yet collected.  Someday it presumably will be finished and published.  At that point, will I go back and read the whole series?  If they were all published now, I would just read the whole thing—I like finishing things.  But, how am I supposed to know if the whole thing is worth reading a few years hence?  I have this sense of incompleteness, but since I cannot complete the series now, is it comforting that I can complete it later?  Should I just move on with a sense of completeness thinking that I have finished the book or rabidly check The Amazon  awaiting the publication of the final installment and then read the whole thing straight through?  I don’t know.  Berlin: City of Stone: Book One wasn't so good that I know the whole story will be amazing and awesome, but there was enough promise that it is possible that the whole story will be amazing and awesome, but there was also enough in the first book that the whole story could just get cliché and boring.  This is the problem: I don’t know if I should feel like I have completed this book because I read the book right here in front of me or feel like I have just started a longer book and not completed it. 

All of which is the reason I have spent this whole time agonizing about the completeness of the book and no time discussing the plot, characters, artwork, anything about the book.  I would never write up reflections on the first third of a book.  That would just be weird.