A Visit From the Goon Squad

An Interview with Jennifer Egan c/o Seattle PI

Sped through Egan's latest in a day (hey don't get impressed yet - a whole section was Power Point slides). I didn't know if I'd like her, but since she's piling on top of the literary apocalyptic depression (we're all gonna die, politics are crazy, texting is brainwashing us!), it's worth reading as a litmus test of the next phase in literature.

There are two characters to keep an eye on - Sasha and Bennie. Sasha is a semi-gorgeous klepto. Bennie is a hairy music CEO who has a gold habit. Yes, he puts gold flakes on his tongue. Besides these tidbits, nothing much happens to them, they're just pulled along by their character flaws. They go exactly where you expect them. What's interesting is the Pig-Pen-esque clouds of characters they drag along with them. From punk kids in San Francisco to a safari group witnessing a lion pride to a massacring general meeting a movie star, there's never a dull moment.

Now, the real bone of the book is the Power Point. Some grad student will incorporate this into their thesis someday. I think Plascencia is a good example of an avant-garde fiction writer - he has a character in The People of Paper, Baby Nostradamus, that only speaks in black boxes. Also, Plascencia makes you turn the book every which way to read the paragraphs alotted to each character.

I'm not quite convinced of Power Point as literature, but I'm sure text-novels and multimedia-novels are here to stay. Whether they'll be a phase or not is still uncertain.

Dororo (volumes 1-3)

Osamu Tezuka and Craig Thompson are my favorite graphic novelists of all time. No busty babes, just intelligent writing and drawing. DORORO is the story of an extremely disabled teenager (born without 48 appendages due to his father's deal with demons). DORORO is actually the sidekick, an orphan and self-styled awesome kid thief (think of a crude Robin and you've got it) with a strange tattoo on his back. The warrior is on a journey to reclaim all his appendages from the demons and ends gaining Dororo as a brother. A good follow-up to Tezuka's PHOENIX and BUDDHA.

Breakage

Leaving school in a week. Gonna miss the class I saw this in:

Stan Brakhage: reads poetry and does something else.

Convergence of TV

I've been watching Kieslowski's The Decalogue for a month-long class. Like a good little student, I've been doing my Google Scholar research along with library stuff. But, little did I know that my down time would also contribute to my understanding of the series. A book published in 2009 connected the Decalogue Four, which we had just watched in class to Six Feet Under and Lost, both of which I have been watching through Netflix.

I'm on season three! Don't watch the youtube video unless you like spoilers:

Lorrie Moore - bonus points for a name with slant rhyme.

So here's her latest: following a college girl, bass player, would-be childcare provider. Lorrie likes the guilt trips and the pity sinking in to her characterizations; it gives her humor bite. I love Tassie (the college girl) and her fumbling responses to Sarah, the adopting mother. I didn't feel like the breakup with the boyfriend was handled well. The flashback to Sarah's past was handled well. The novel was too divided - Moore should've done some smoothing. Her stream-of-consciousness relation of the racism-solidarity group's conversations were okay in places, but in others it seemed like stand-up comedy, not suited to the flow of the book. Perhaps I wanted a little too much Flannery O'Connor in this book. Lorrie Moore is slightly off-beat, but I think she was being too political in this book for that to be an asset. Quick read, and more enjoyable/engaging than others. Jonathan Lethem's review for the New York Times is excellent. I like how he categorizes her - says she's a rageful writer hiding under the veneer of an endearing one. I'm looking forward to reading Lowboy and Stephen King's Under the Dome. Lethem's newest: Chronic City, will have to wait.

I'm currently watching Kieslowski's The Decalogue. Part One is my favorite (but I'm only halfway through 5). The watcher-character represents the gaze, is disapproving but distant. Christ-figure? Definitely in Decalogue 4. Cultured soap operas. Best taken with some stiff reading. Kierkegaard? Catallus? Eliot (recurs 2x)?

Bike Envy

Things I Want to Do to My Bike:

1) Get a rack on the back to hang packs. Then I can put an ever-classy milk crate on the back of it. Storage!
2) Get better lighting (front & back).
3) Decorate with this.
4) Replace it with a faster one.
5) Go on a road trip with it, with a group.
6) Water bottle holder. Why don't I have one?

Essential backpack kit: swiss army knife, pliers, batteries, water, extra layer, mittens, hat.

I own a weird duct-taped bike. It's slow. I'm slow. But we do the job. Here's to you, bike. And all I want to do to you.

PS: After a rough Christmas, I'm reading this: She's a children's/teen book author, which means short sentences, easy to read aloud, and palatable fantasy junk reading. So far only one character is getting on my nerves - too much of a gimick in the way she speaks. Otherwise, it reminds me of my glory days as a 5th grader, staying up late and reading Tamora Pierce. Yes, I admit it with pride. Wrede is showing her stuff off in this book, predictable for an adult, but good steady use of multiple plot lines, wizardry and coming-of-age nonsense. The parental issues are not shoved down the reader's throat. Wrede's touch is natural, which should (paradoxically) be the heart of every fantasy novel. Don't expose the ordinariness or the allegory of the story. Just let it flow and don't let it get too strange. I'm enjoying my procrastination. I should be reading Midnight's Children.