Sunday, December 1, 2013
Done: The Song (Anathem) is Over.
An incredibly long-winded sic-fi (I refuse to use speculative fiction). At least 40-60% of the exposition could have been deleted outright if not compressed severely. He owes a lot to Zelazny, Dick, Asimov, Gibson, and Clarke. The alternate world/reality with a mythic/science spin was entertaining to some degree, but too much time was spent explaining pretty much everything. The long description of the alien spacecrafts wiring system for example. If I wanted a Socratic dialogue on Plato's Ideals then I would have read Plato. The narrative was engaging but not enough to keep me from yawning during the explanations of alternate co-current narratives.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
I am Thankful for Books
Several years ago I made a list of 15 books, which have shaped
the way I see myself and the world (as if those are two separate entities). I think I would add Ann Carson’s “Eros
the Bittersweet”, and “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” by Paulo Freire to the list
today. Here is the list I made then, no specific order or rank:
The I Ching
Canterbury Tales: Chaucer
The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco
Howl: Allen Ginsburg
The Book of Nightmares: Galway Kinnell
Tao de Ching: Lao Tzu
Persona: Pound
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: Annie Dillard
The Non-Conformist Memorial: Susan Howe
Trilogy: H.D.
Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens
Poems for the Millenium, Vol 1&2, ed. by J. Rothenberg
After Ikkyu: Jim Harrison
Philisophical Investigations: L. Wittgenstein
Stand on Zanzibar: John Brunner
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Best Commentary on Anathem: Within Without You: The Beatles
We were talking-about the space between us all
And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late-when they pass away.
We were talking-about the love we all could share-when we find it
To try our best to hold it there-with our love
With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew.
Try to realize it's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows ON within you and without you.
We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul-
They don't know-they can't see-are you one of them?
When you've seen beyond yourself-then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.
And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late-when they pass away.
We were talking-about the love we all could share-when we find it
To try our best to hold it there-with our love
With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew.
Try to realize it's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows ON within you and without you.
We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul-
They don't know-they can't see-are you one of them?
When you've seen beyond yourself-then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Plate 'o Triangles
Still slogging through Stephenson's tome. Some times I feel as if I have been sentenced like Erasmus to copy the book, and eventually I will go mad, or perhaps gather wisdom like Jad. I am 400 pages into Anathem. The story proper began around page 200. Lots of set up, I hope it pays off. There is a lot of Plato, specifically the Timaeus, at least what I can remember from my Philosophy of the Middle Ages class I took as an undergrad. the Ideal world, the world we sense, the world contained by God. I remember drawing diagrams of triangles within triangles for the mid-term in that class. I suppose I could go look it up, but I know I'm not going to do that, instead I'll just rely on my idea of the ideal of the book (Timaeus) that I can glean from the "speculative" fiction of Anathem. But as the characters in Anathem have said, there are no new ideas. But then there wouldn't be in an infinite number of universes; all ideas would exist if all possible permutations of "worlds" existed. I think the Amber Chronicles played with this idea in a more succinct manner. I guess I aut to be going now.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Bitchin'
Considering I have only read around 25 pages, these comments
should be taken with massive qualifiers.
I wonder at the “speculative” fiction claim. Isn’t all
fiction speculative? Is there some kind of pejorative connotations associated
with sci-fi or fantasy (both of which I see this text being), which the author
does not want to be associated with?
I also question books when they come with a condescending
introductory explanation for those readers who are not
accustomed/willing/capable of “puzzling out works on your own.” Does the writer, from the start, assume
his readers are ignorant and lazy?
Or perhaps he is so enmeshed in his speculative world that he thinks “Earth
readers” (? who else?) cannot fathom the arcane language of Orth? Is there a
purpose behind the other world’s language taking such a prominent position in
the telling of the story? I hope so, since so much space in the text is devoted
to using the discourse of this world. Perhaps he is intentionally using the
screen of language to hide behind to instill in the reader a sense of
ignorance, or levels of knowing, or inability to see or know as well as others,
which seems to be one of the themes emerging from the first few pages what with
all the places to hide and move and screens through which they are all looking
and seeing each other.
I know I am impatient and arrogant, but I am not sure I am
willing to move through the mechanics of this book in order to see the
movements of the clockwork so that I will know “how to read it” (p.20); so I
can understand the “spotty recapitulation of our history, reminding us how we’d
come to know all that we knew.” (p. 20)
Ok, enough bitching, back to Anathem, perhaps the millennium
gate will open and allow me into this text.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Friday, October 25, 2013
I KNOW already.
I feel the need to zing out a few comments, smiles, frowns in order to BE a part of the world, to be my TruYou/self in as much as I am defined and there fore exist through what everybody knows about me. Ok, only half way into the book, but I think I SEE what I am suppose to KNOW; it is all so TRANSPARENTLY consrtucted. A large narrative push just keeps driving me along. I like the read it is providing, but nothing is really new in this wave I am riding. Writing is crisp, to the point, but nothing that I want to write down as a a brilliant insight into life, or just a pretty line or two. I want to ask at this point: if everybody knows everything about everybody why would anybody care what they know about everybody. Secrets become power? What know one knows becomes the real TruYou (true self)?
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
May The Circle be Unbroken
I am about 80 pages into the Circle. Coincidentally (yes, I am a geek) I am randomly re-reading chunks of Foucault's Discipline and Punish. I ran into this quote and thought it pretty much sums up where the Circle is going.
“…throughout the social body, procedures were being
elaborated for distributing individuals, fixing them in space, classifying
them, extracting from them the maximum in time and forces, training their
bodies, coding their continuous behavior, maintaining them in perfect
visibility, forming around them an apparatus of observation, registration and recording,
constituting on them a body of knowledge that is accumulated and centralized.
the general form of an apparatus intended to render individuals docile and useful,
by means of precise work upon their bodies, indicated the prison institution, before
the law ever defined it as the penalty par excellence.”
--Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault, p. 231
But this is just a prediction. One of those reading skills I want my students to be able to do.
55 Books!
Ok, so I know very few read this blog, but I just counted the number of books listed on the sidebar. We are on our 55th book. Which makes us close to finishing out 5th year, considering we spent three months on Homi Baba. Pretty damn impressive just for the quantity of books we have gone through, but the quality of the list is also pretty damn impressive. We are one smart group of guys. Or at least ambitious. 55 books: just think how many pints of beer we have consumed as we talked about the books. The Gingerman should buy us the next book.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
65 Books You Need to Read in Your 20s
65 Books You Need To Read In Your 20s
The books that will move you, inspire you, make you cry, make you think, make you laugh. Even if you read them in high school or college, you’ll have a different perspective on them now that you’re Out In The World. (Trust me.)posted on May 13, 2013 at 7:48pm EDT
1. The Emperor’s Children, by Claire Messud
The best 9/11 novel that’s much more than a 9/11 novel. Weirdly relatable, even though the characters are all pretty much upper-class pseudo-intellectuals.
Image by npr.org
2. What She Saw…, by Lucinda Rosenfeld
Important twenties life lesson: Dating losers is not a life sentence. (Thank god.)
Image by goodreads.com
3. The Deptford Trilogy, by Robertson Davies
A wondrously insane and magical (in that it is actually about a magician) three-book series.
Image by http://penguin.com.au
4. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
The best time to read The Secret History is probably while you’re still in college, because it is about a secret society at a small liberal arts college gone horribly awry, but it is also worth picking up a few years later to be reminded about the intensity of college friendships, and also Ancient Greek.
Image by npr.org
5. Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin
A timeless story of masculinity, desire, and heartbreak that has become particularly resonant for young gay men.
Image by http://booksbenread.tumblr.com
6. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
These interwoven narratives (some of which were published as stand-alone stories in magazines such as the New Yorker) are brilliantly crafted, wryly tender portraits of life and love and the small tragedies of everyday modern life.
Image by rookiemag.com
7. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz
A book about the search for meaning even when life might be meaningless. (Also, my colleague Ariane says: “Yunior is also the dopest narrator you will ever encounter.”)
Image by http://xoxothereader.blogspot.com
8. Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid
A powerful coming-of-age story of an introspective 19-year-old girl from the West Indies who becomes an au pair in the U.S.
Via: invite.cl
9. The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy
The story of Binx Bolling is kind of like what might have happened if Dick Whitman never became Don Draper, and instead started wandering around first New Orleans, and then the country, on a neverending spiritual and existential quest.
Via: openroadmedia.com
10. White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
In addition to White Teeth being perhaps the ultimate 20th century British immigrant novel, it will also, possibly, inspire you to greatness: Smith finished it during her final year at Cambridge and was 24 (!!!) when it was published.
Image by http://jameskennedymonash.blogspot.com
11. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
Jews, New York, World War II, superheroes, comics, Nazis, love: It’s all here, in spades. One of the leading contenders for Great American Novel status.
Image by http://mytruebirdcalling.blogspot.com
12. Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace
Because you’ll never have time to read it later.
Image by amazon.com
13. Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney
You read this book because even though they used typewriters and did way more cocaine than is even remotely healthy, it’s still a perfectly told story about being young and thinking you’re way too smart for what you’re doing. Also it’s possibly the only book ever written in the second person that actually works.
Image by jaymcinerney.com
14. The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
A beautifully told coming-of-age story that is also about how to reconcile in-betweenness: of culture, of place, of time.
Image by http://inesawolf.wordpress.com
15. Call Me by Your Name, by André Aciman
Says my friend Chris: “Super-duper gay sexy but also gorgeous.”
Image by tumblr.com
16. The Rachel Papers, by Martin Amis
The Rachel Papers is “a fairly essential ‘leaving adolescence and discovering that everything is still confusing and awful’ kind of novel,” says my colleague Jack, which seems like a pretty decent recommendation.
Image by etsy.com
17. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
You almost definitely read this in high school English class, but you will almost definitely also have a much different perspective on Milkman and his family and their struggles a few years later.
Image by http://libraries.usc.edu
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
Another English syllabus special, Hemingway’s tight prose and peerless storytelling are somehow more resonant when you are reading it on your own. Or as my colleague Matt put it: “I couldn’t keep my eyes open for more than five pages of Hemingway growing up, but for some reason I picked this up in my post-graduation haze and was mesmerized.”
Image by npr.org
19. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
The ultimate dystopian love story. If it doesn’t make you cry, your heart may be made of stone.
Image by http://meggarr.wordpress.com
20. A Home at the End of the World, by Michael Cunningham
A classic “queer Bildungsroman,” as my colleague Kevin says.
Image by vandellobooks.com
21. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
Gaiman’s dark, tragic comic series originally ran as a 10-book series from 1989 to 1996 but has now entered the graphic-novel pantheon.
Image by http://themaneatingbookworm.blogspot.com
22. The Group, by Mary McCarthy
How is it possible that a novel written in 1963 about a group of post-collegiate friends in New York City IN THE 1930S could still be so relevant? Probably because the struggles of being in your twenties — particularly, how much do you care about the opinions of other people, and what does success mean? — have been the same since the dawn of time.
Image by npr.org
23. Quicksand and Passing, by Nella Larsen
These two novellas written by a half-black, half-Danish woman in the 1920s capture the complications of that time — sexism and racism chief among them — while also being the beautifully told (and timeless) stories of deeply flawed young women.
Image by npr.org
24. Pastoralia, by George Saunders
I’ll let my colleague Aylin’s boyfriend explain this pick: “It just illustrates in such a breathtakingly beautiful, memorable way how easy it is for people to inflict pain on each other and how terrible it is to fall between the cracks in America, which it’s easier than ever to do now. I don’t know, I feel like reading it made me feel more compassionate toward people.” Aw!
Image by amazon.com
25. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
Says my colleague Krutika: “It’s the perfect mix of childhood nostalgia for anyone who’s in their twenties right now, and futuristic dystopian action/adventure where everyone’s unwittingly more earnest and sincere than they mean to be.”
Image by http://profunduslibrum.blogspot.com
26. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers
The title is astonishingly accurate, but also, Eggers’ work is a terrific window into what one of my friends calls “MTV lit.” (This is not pejorative.)
Image by http://books.simonandschuster.ca
27. The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
My friend Julia puts it well: “What the protagonist Esther Greenwood goes through pretty much speaks to my whole generation and the next. College graduates who don’t know what they want to do as a career, are not excited about things their parents say they should be, want to have sex but not babies… all of it. It also encourages young people to be unafraid to voice their feelings and opinions. Makes me wish Sylvia Plath could have read her own book without prejudice — it might have helped.”
Image by http://poetsorg.tumblr.com
28. Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
A book about an ambitious, difficult woman who is forced by circumstance (like being born in the wrong decade, in Minnesota) to keep settling for less than what she wants. But she doesn’t stop trying her hand at finding utopia.
Image by http://21stcenturylearning.sharepoint.com
29. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
The classic fantasy series — if you’ve only seen The Golden Compass, the film based on the first book in the series, you owe it to yourself to read the books (which are so much better).
Image by http://librossargantana.com/2011/04/28/his-dark-materials-philip-pullman-buy/
30. Generation X, by Douglas Coupland
To understand where everyone a little older than you is coming from.
Image by tumblr.com
31. The Fortress of Solitude, by Jonathan Lethem
About comics and superheroes and coming of age in a nearly unrecognizable Brooklyn.
Image by http://socionaut.blogspot.com
32. Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson
An important book to read to learn about being lonely.
Image by http://breakingoutofdreams.blogspot.com
33. I Love Dick, by Chris Kraus
I’ll let my friend Emily handle this one: “Readers will be rewarded with most psychologically astute sex scene ever written, plus a thorough, impassioned and wholly unique analysis of the power dynamics of heterosexual sex and love, how heterosexuality works to keep women unrepresented and unable to fully represent themselves, and how that affects the world.” Whew! (Also, sorta fun to read this one on the subway, IYKWIM.)
Image by http://therumpus.tumblr.com
34. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
So that you’ll realize the way you felt about this book in high school has totally changed.
Image by etsy.com
35. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins
I love what my friend Evie says about this book: “It is kind of a primer on absurdist literature and speaks volumes to self-doubt and discovery and body image and feminine identity reclamation. Plus, it has that sense of humor that you have in your twenties when you think you are SO FUCKING CLEVER, and sometimes you actually are.”
Image by bibliopolis.com
36. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami
Two complicated, brilliant, and intertwined yet distinct narratives (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World) about a surreal dystopia.
Image by http://underground-reality.blogspot.com
GREAT MEMOIRS:
37. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
This whole book is filled with brilliance — about work, about being a woman, about being a mom, about being a boss — but one of my favorites is what Fey writes about Amy Poehler: “Amy made it clear that she wasn’t there to be cute. She wasn’t there to play wives and girlfriends in the boys’ scenes. She was there to do what she wanted to do and she did not fucking care if you like it.”
Image by npr.org
38. Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain
Will immediately quash your fantasies of opening your own restaurant unless you are a masochist, in which case this book will be your how-to.
Image by jipaban.com
39. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, by Toby Young
Young’s memoir about his (mis)adventures in the New York media scene can seem a bit petulant, but he does manage to capture pretty perfectly that world’s bizarre rituals and petty status obsessions.
Image by http://oxfam.org.uk
40. The Dirt, by Mötley Crüe and Neil Strauss
You think your twenties were wild? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Image by http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122324697
41. Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis
Technically a novel, but more of a fictionalized memoir: “It’s about what happens when you reach your career goals yet you still find yourself haunted by ghosts,” says my colleague Michael. Also, it’s important to read Bret Easton Ellis before you get too old.
Image by http://thefringemagazine.blogspot.com
42. Just Kids, by Patti Smith
One of my favorite books of the last few years, maybe ever. Smith’s memoir is about falling in love — with a man, with New York, with her adult self — and will make you long for a New York that you never knew.
Image by npr.org
43. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, by Nick Flynn
For learning that trauma is traumatic.
Image by http://tvivf.wordpress.com
44. Oh the Glory of it All, by Sean Wilsey
I love what my friend Alex says about this book: “It’s just a fab memoir about growing up in San Francisco, but mostly the dude had a TERRIBLE childhood. And I think terrible childhood books are best for people in their twenties (file under whining, quit yer).” I would also add that it’s a fascinating window into a rarefied S.F. world of non–Silicon Valley wealth, and Wilsey manages the neat trick of making us empathize with him despite his family’s comfortable finances.
Image by npr.org
45. I Don’t Care About Your Band, by Julie Klausner
These hilarious interconnected essays about finding and losing (mostly losing) love as a twentysomething in New York City take place in the recent past, but something tells me they are timeless.
Image by http://thegirlfromtheghetto.wordpress.com
46. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
For how, and why, to be brave. And also how to hike for over 1,000 miles alone after your mother’s death, your divorce, and your recovery from a bit of a heroin addiction.
Image by http://goodbooksguide.blogspot.com
47. Lit, by Mary Karr
Karr’s memoir about her alcoholism is like a punch in the gut, in the best possible way. And as my friend Jess says, this book “will teach you to be honest with yourself.”
Image by npr.org
48. I’m with the Band, by Pamela Des Barres
Des Barres spent much of the ’60s as a rock ‘n’ roll groupie, and this classic memoir is a good reminder that a narcissist by any other name (aka rock star) is still a narcissist.
Image by beatbooks.com
49. Dear Diary, by Lesley Arfin
Arfin revisits her funny, dark diary entries from the ages of 12 through 25. There’s lots to relate to here, and also some deeply cautionary tales.
Image by tumblr.com
POETRY:
50. The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton, by Anne Sexton
Sexton was a revolutionary: She wrote frankly and breathtakingly about incredibly personal and controversial topics — including her mental illness, drug addiction, and abortion — until her suicide in 1973 at age 45.
Image by http://wellreadweare.wordpress.com
51. Actual Air, by David Berman
You may know Berman best as the lead singer of the Silver Jews, but in 1999 he published a slyly sweet book of poetry that takes on everything from Abraham Lincoln to his ex-girlfriend.
Image by opencity.org
52. The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch, by Kenneth Koch
For fans of Frank O’Hara who are ready for something a little more exuberant.
Image by http://ebookstore.sony.com
53. Alien vs. Predator, by Michael Robbins
Michael Robbins is maybe my favorite contemporary poet. Here is a verse from a poem he published on The Awl last year:
Maybe it’s Maybelline. Why can’t you be true?
You re-gifted the VD I wrapped up just for you.
My penis and my brain team up to penis-brain you.
It is now my duty to completely drain you.
You re-gifted the VD I wrapped up just for you.
My penis and my brain team up to penis-brain you.
It is now my duty to completely drain you.
Image by goodreads.org
54. The Collected Poems of Audre Lord, by Audre Lord
Audre Lorde called herself a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, and poet,” and her poems — about race, sexuality, love, loss, parenthood, politics, and death — are emotional and angry and warm all at once.
ESSAYS THAT WILL MAKE YOU THINK AND/OR LAUGH:
55. Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
Because it’s sometimes instructive to realize that your awkward, quirky upbringing can become the stuff of best-selling essays.
Image by http://beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com
56. How to Be a Woman, by Caitlin Moran
Moran’s book is a sharp, wise, and, most of all, hilarious exploration of modern-day womanhood, feminism, and being generally kick-ass. (Also,this Tumblr.)
Image by theatlanticwire.com
57. My Misspent Youth, by Meghan Daum
The titular essay in this collection was published in 1999 in The New Yorker, when the 29-year-old Daum realized that she was totally, utterly broke and needed to leave New York, and her lament is the timeless one of the upper-middle-class liberal arts college graduate who cannot live in the New York of their fantasies: “I spend money on Martinis and expensive dinners because, as is typical among my species of debtor, I tell myself that Martinis and expensive dinners are the entire point — the point of being young, the point of living in New York City, the point of living.”
Image by autostraddle.com
58. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion
The Bible for anyone who’s fancied themselves a writer, ever. Didion has probably said what you wanted to say, and earlier and better.
59. Up in the Old Hotel, by Joseph Mitchell
Mitchell was a New Yorker writer whose essays about the city in the 1930s to the 1960s are each gems of keenly observed daily life. Wherever you live, these will make you look at your everyday surroundings a little differently.
Image by http://januarymagazine.blogspot.com
GENERAL LIFE HOW-TOS:
60. How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman
No task — whether making pasta or scrambling an egg — is too basic for this book of basics, and sometimes you really need to start with the basics.
Image by http://theglazedcucumber.wordpress.com
61. How’s Your Drink?, by Eric Felten
As my colleague Ray says, “You gotta learn how to drink like a person sooner or later.”
Image by cookwithclaire.org
62. The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White
To know how to write.
Image by http://girlwithasatchel.blogspot.com
63. Letters to a Young Contrarian, by Christopher Hitchens
However you feel about Hitchens’ work, this little volume is incredibly instructive in teaching you how to write things without giving a shit about what other people think. Or to learn how to just not give a shit about what other people think, generally.
Image by http://coreysbook.wordpress.com
64. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards
My colleague Summer says that this book is “so great for creativity in general and encouraging everyone to draw like they did as children.” (And not just for lefties!)
Image by http://engagingright.blogspot.com
65. He’s Just Not That Into You, by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo
Because sometimes clichés are true, and it’s important to figure out when.
Image by http://simplysimplesimplifylife.blogspot.com
With extra-special thanks for their suggestions to the BuzzFeed editorial staff and my friends Chris, Alex, Shaya, Jess, Emily K., Emily G., Melanie, Carolyn, Kate, Elizabeth, Mary, Evie, Julia, Alia, Abbey, and CK. And my mom!
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