Wanted to let you know I liked the lesson on anthroplogy by Glenn. Oh and the other things on the episode ;-)
(And I can't understand how you are physically able to read this story while having a baby - I couldn't manage to do such things when my kids were babies, but then again I'm misophonic like Brandon, so I'm obviously just retroactively jealous.)
It took some perseverance, but after a while I got used to the language in this story. I think Moore indeed is very skilled in this. (You mentioned Joyce's Portrait - I haven't read that one, but I had to think about Ulysses when reading this - I really had to force myself reading that, even more than Moore's story, though Ulysses also had some great chapters where you really look at the raw stuff inside the head of the protagonist, just like in this story).
I also was surprised by the quote from Alan Moore. But because it's Moore, I doubt I should take his statement seriously. More so because my reading of the story (also before reading the introduction by Gaiman) was equal to yours: I thought the protagonist was mentally disabled, and I thought it was cool to think of such a point of view and to approach the language in an according way. But then again, other points in the story may indicate the opposite...
I'm interested in the fire motive of the book as a whole, so I hope that another chapter of Moore's book will be discussed on Elder Sign in the future.
When you discussed the language and its odd structures, I kept wondering if Moore was trying to represent the structure of pre-modern English or some Scandinavian/Germanic language.
We've got the next chapter on an upcoming ballot, so it's likely to happen very soon.
And it was a challenge to read! But not from sound, just from exhaustion. It required loads of coffee to get my focus going but I usually like to do my reading at bedtime. Fortunately the next chapter will be easier to digest.
And thanks for the vote of confidence! I didn't realize that had gone on for twenty minutes until I was getting ready to release the show -- way longer than I'd intended, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The language in this story is very difficult to parse initially. In relation to Joyce, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" starts with a child growing up and their grasp on language is slight. As the novel develops, the language becomes more involved, and more easily readable as well.
I also hope we get to cover more stories in this novel to see where it goes.