But more than that, this is a novel about people who have wasted massive chunks of their lives--Duncan in sterile rock-critic hermeneutics (he's like the worst-case-scenario future .
In his analysis of hermeneutic, Dillenberger argues that the abstract terminology employed by the Germans is too far removed from the language of daily life.
Robinson distinguishes the new hermeneutic (without the s) of the Marburgers and the traditional science of hermeneutics.