Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Just finished this very fun read... Franny and Zooey are vibrant, pedantic, and neurotic siblings of the dysfunctional Glass family. She, like an adult Holden Caulfield, is unequivocally opposed to phonies and egos, to the point, Zooey describes, of blind homicidal aggression when venting her frustration, so much that she collapses in crisis, reciting the Jesus Prayer in hopes of transcendent peace and wisdom; he, thinking that their older brothers Seymour and Buddy corrupted them into freaks by educating them with boocoos of knowledge (he admits that in the first two minutes of meeting someone he either becomes bored and never bothers with that person again or becomes overly talkative and preachy, and that the only people he'd care to have lunch with are dead or unavailable), tries to help Franny by launching convoluted and erratic diatribes that are oddly cogent. Their back and forth arguing and complaining is quite humorous... Adding to the laughter is Salinger's Henry Jamesian detail of every nuance, physical and mental, vocal and otherwise, often with hyperbole and peculiarity... Although a funny book, Franny's and Zooey's quandaries are serious and troublesome, but exploring them with the characters makes the book even more compelling.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
Set in post-Apartheid South Africa, the novel begins with the downfall of David Lurie, a man in his fifties and a professor of Communications. Willingly submitting to scandal, he resigns his position at a university in Cape Town, leaving the city for the country farm run by his daughter, Lucy, in Eastern Cape. While looking to patch his strained relationship with her, he also tries to find meaning in his sudden disgrace. That includes volunteering at an animal clinic where giving special care to the dogs he helps euthanize provides him comfort; it includes facing himself and his daughter's life and her maturation. Everything changes, however, when the reality of the new South Africa crashes upon them in an incident of horrible violence.
What I like most about this novel is the vividness of post-Apartheid South Africa. It is a place where Africans run rampant in bouts of pillaging and bloodshed. Nothing and no one is safe here, especially in the country moreso than the city. There is little the law can do; even for the most armed and vigilant of whites, becoming a victim of this brutality is only a matter of time. I did not realize that this is the face of South Africa today: Africans thirsty for revenge for years of racial prejudice, and the only refuge for their targets is to flee or be subjugated to unwanted peace proposals like that offered to Lucy. This is an intriguing moral complexity between David and Lucy. Both have different approaches in handling the violence that threatens and strikes them both.
I also like Coetzee's prose. His writing is simple, his sentences short. I liken it to Hemingway, although I don't know how the comparison would hold against literary analysis. Unlike Ernest, however, Coetzee's prose has more cadence and melody, is more poetic, while still easy to read. This, and it's replete with meaning and interpretation.
An example of that depth is the change in David. He insists he is too old, too close to the ends of his life, for him to learn any lessons, but he does. He becomes more understanding, more compassionate, and more of the father to Lucy he should. I liked witnessing that change, as at first I thought David to be despicable, but later more likable.
This is the second book I've read from the Nobel Prize winning J. M. Coetzee. This was a thoughtful, splendid read. Coetzee has become a favorite writer of mine.
What I like most about this novel is the vividness of post-Apartheid South Africa. It is a place where Africans run rampant in bouts of pillaging and bloodshed. Nothing and no one is safe here, especially in the country moreso than the city. There is little the law can do; even for the most armed and vigilant of whites, becoming a victim of this brutality is only a matter of time. I did not realize that this is the face of South Africa today: Africans thirsty for revenge for years of racial prejudice, and the only refuge for their targets is to flee or be subjugated to unwanted peace proposals like that offered to Lucy. This is an intriguing moral complexity between David and Lucy. Both have different approaches in handling the violence that threatens and strikes them both.
I also like Coetzee's prose. His writing is simple, his sentences short. I liken it to Hemingway, although I don't know how the comparison would hold against literary analysis. Unlike Ernest, however, Coetzee's prose has more cadence and melody, is more poetic, while still easy to read. This, and it's replete with meaning and interpretation.
An example of that depth is the change in David. He insists he is too old, too close to the ends of his life, for him to learn any lessons, but he does. He becomes more understanding, more compassionate, and more of the father to Lucy he should. I liked witnessing that change, as at first I thought David to be despicable, but later more likable.
This is the second book I've read from the Nobel Prize winning J. M. Coetzee. This was a thoughtful, splendid read. Coetzee has become a favorite writer of mine.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Response to the post on Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree
I also read this book, and Fred's comments are spot on.
Louise Rosenblatt said when reading, "the human being is... continuously in transaction" (Making Meaning With Texts, page 3). That means reader and writer are always engaged in conversation, an exchange in which the reader's experience and knowledge influence his or her reading, and the text also affects the reader. This is strongly how I felt when reading Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree: it was as if I was communing with a fellow lover of books, in which our mutual bibliophilism danced.
In addition to revealing his reasons for why he bought the books he did, where he bought them, what he has read and what he thinks about them, and what he hasn't read, Hornby entertains with witty remarks and anecdotes:
Louise Rosenblatt said when reading, "the human being is... continuously in transaction" (Making Meaning With Texts, page 3). That means reader and writer are always engaged in conversation, an exchange in which the reader's experience and knowledge influence his or her reading, and the text also affects the reader. This is strongly how I felt when reading Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree: it was as if I was communing with a fellow lover of books, in which our mutual bibliophilism danced.
In addition to revealing his reasons for why he bought the books he did, where he bought them, what he has read and what he thinks about them, and what he hasn't read, Hornby entertains with witty remarks and anecdotes:
- Reading No Name by Wilkie Collins is like a boxing match. He'd read one paragraph and be knocked out. He'd read twenty or thirty pages, feel as if he'd won, but then have to go to his corner and wipe the blood and sweat off his reading glasses.
- Mark Salzman's True Notebooks was mostly written "naked, covered in aluminum foil, with a towel around his head, sitting in a car."
- Dickens should be the judge of the length of biographies. As a towering literary figure, a biography of Dickens should be around 1000 pages; anyone more important deserves a bigger book, anyone less important deserves a shorter book.
- He uses the Trivial Pursuit system to organize his books.
- He's one of seventy-three people who buy poetry. (Incidentally, I just purchased Tony Hoagland's What Narcissism Means to Me - so make that seventy-four now, Nick).
- Gabriel Zaid, in So Many Books, says it would take fifteen years to read a list of names and authors of all the books ever published. Hornby is tempted to do so because "A good chunk of coming across as educated, after all, is just a matter of knowing who wrote what..."
In addition, Hornby describes the realistic life of a bibliophile, which is refreshing. He admits that "... Boredom and, very occasionally, despair are part of the reading life, after all," reading can vary with your mood, and he has forgotten a lot of what he's read. He quips, "Being a reader is sort of like being president, except reading involves fewer state dinners, usually. You have this agenda you want to get through, but you get distracted by life events... and you are temporarily deflected from your chosen path."
All in all, reading this book is a sharing of the joy of reading: "Books are, let's face it, better than everything else. If we played Cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go fifteen rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. Go on, try it. 'The Magic Flute' v. Middlemarch? Middlemarch in six. 'The Last Supper' v. Crime and Punishment? Fyodor on points. See? I mean, I don't know how scientific this is, but it feels like the novels are walking it."
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Nick Hornby - The Polysyllabic Spree
This is a delightful book---a romp through one man's reading and purchasing of books. Nick Hornby is a bibliophile like those of you who are reading this blog, and it's wonderful to discover such people.
I have not read most of the books referred to in this book, but that's all right: it's the spirit of the writing that matters, a book-lover's delight at the book treasures at his disposal.
Read this book and enjoy the musings of another book-lover!
I have not read most of the books referred to in this book, but that's all right: it's the spirit of the writing that matters, a book-lover's delight at the book treasures at his disposal.
Read this book and enjoy the musings of another book-lover!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The Reading Effect of the Harry Potter phenomenon
Have the Harry Potter books increased reading amongst young people? Maybe so, but not as much as has been ballyhooed. In the long run, the influence of the Potter books on young people's reading is negligible.
From the NY Times
By MOTOKO RICH
Published: July 11, 2007
Of all the magical powers wielded by Harry Potter, perhaps none has cast a stronger spell than his supposed ability to transform the reading habits of young people. In what has become near mythology about the wildly popular series by J. K. Rowling, many parents, teachers, librarians and booksellers have credited it with inspiring a generation of kids to read for pleasure in a world dominated by instant messaging and music downloads.
And so it has, for many children. But in keeping with the intricately plotted novels themselves, the truth about Harry Potter and reading is not quite so straightforward a success story. Indeed, as the series draws to a much-lamented close, federal statistics show that the percentage of youngsters who read for fun continues to drop significantly as children get older, at almost exactly the same rate as before Harry Potter came along.
From the NY Times
By MOTOKO RICH
Published: July 11, 2007
Of all the magical powers wielded by Harry Potter, perhaps none has cast a stronger spell than his supposed ability to transform the reading habits of young people. In what has become near mythology about the wildly popular series by J. K. Rowling, many parents, teachers, librarians and booksellers have credited it with inspiring a generation of kids to read for pleasure in a world dominated by instant messaging and music downloads.
And so it has, for many children. But in keeping with the intricately plotted novels themselves, the truth about Harry Potter and reading is not quite so straightforward a success story. Indeed, as the series draws to a much-lamented close, federal statistics show that the percentage of youngsters who read for fun continues to drop significantly as children get older, at almost exactly the same rate as before Harry Potter came along.
Monday, July 9, 2007
A NOT SO LITERATE REVIEW by Moyna
Fred has insisted that I add to this blog - all about my 'educational' and/or 'philosophical' books that I read! I'm not as "well-read" as Fred, at least not anymore. In my late teens and all through my 20's, my main interest was in science - particularly books on cancer/leukemia and blood. I kept up with all the newest research, reading a lot of the current books on those topics. I had seriously considered a career as a doctor, doing research in leukemia, but I had to choose between 10 years of study or partying...no need to say anything more. When I married Fred, he suggested I read a murder mystery book by Thomas Thompson. I WAS HOOKED!! I read everything he wrote and have been reading murder mysteries ever since. When Thompson died, I had to look for a new author(s), and found 2 that I really enjoy - Patricia Cornwell and Sue Grafton. My review below is on Patricia Cornwell's PREDATOR. It's not a new book, having been published in 2005, but I've just gotten around to reading it. Here goes:
PREDATOR by Patricia Cornwell
One reason I like this writer (as with Sue Grafton) is that she usually writes using the same characters - Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner, being the main one. There is also the same group of characters in her books - Marino, Benton Wesley, Lucy, Rose, etc.
This book was a little different than her others, and I wasn't as enthralled as usual. There were a lot of chapters just a few pages each. It's like her thoughts were scattered & she wrote a small chapter for each thought. And also a lot of characters...I had to read a little slower to keep everyone straight - who was who doing what! It took me 3 days to read rather than my usual 2. I knew though, in the end, everything would tie together and everything would be made clear - and it was!
In this book, Kay has left the head position as chief medical examiner in the state of Virginia and moved to Florida, where she is 2nd in command of a company started by her niece, Lucy. Lucy was a former FBI agent, but found there was just too much red tape, so she left and started her own company...doing pretty much the same forensic work as the FBI. In her new position, Kay doesn't do the autopsies like in previous books, but does more in examining the information to help solve the cases. She also teaches - to help students that believe they want to become forensic pathologists.
This book had the murders (how else would it be a murder mystery?), but you had to really work on "who did it?" You think it might be this one person, and then you think 'no,' it has to be this person, or wait..., this person might be working with this person doing the killings... The story takes place in Hollywood, Florida, around where Kay lives, and also in Walden, Massachusetts, where Kay's lover Wesley Benton lives. You wonder as you read how the two areas will tie all the murders together, but you know it will be done.
It begins with an old case being brought to Kay's attention; it was ruled a suicide, but there are those that think it was murder. On examining evidence, it leads to more questions, and other people that have "disappeared" and others being murdered. Kay and her crew continue to examine the evidence, with all of its twists & turns, leading to more & more questions, until the evidence begins to bring everything together - with a twist to the ending that I didn't see coming! The last 75 pages made reading the first 350 or so pages worth it! Another great ending to a Patricia Cornwell book! I am one - I'm admitting it - that for about 25% of the time, will read the ending before I start the book. That way, I can see more clearly how things are done to reach the end. I didn't do it this time, and was quite happy I didn't. If I had known the ending beforehand, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the book with all of its short, what I consider scattered-thoughts, chapters.
One last thing: besides the main story, there is also a secondary story. It's about a man named Joe Amos who is on a fellowship with Lucy's company. It's about all the things he's into to try to ''get-ahead..." Marino, the top-notch cop, figures out what Joe is up to, and gets him in the end!
This book is a good (not as exciting & great as some of her others) read if you're into murder mysteries. If you like them, you will more than likely know Patricia Cornwell.
PREDATOR by Patricia Cornwell
One reason I like this writer (as with Sue Grafton) is that she usually writes using the same characters - Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner, being the main one. There is also the same group of characters in her books - Marino, Benton Wesley, Lucy, Rose, etc.
This book was a little different than her others, and I wasn't as enthralled as usual. There were a lot of chapters just a few pages each. It's like her thoughts were scattered & she wrote a small chapter for each thought. And also a lot of characters...I had to read a little slower to keep everyone straight - who was who doing what! It took me 3 days to read rather than my usual 2. I knew though, in the end, everything would tie together and everything would be made clear - and it was!
In this book, Kay has left the head position as chief medical examiner in the state of Virginia and moved to Florida, where she is 2nd in command of a company started by her niece, Lucy. Lucy was a former FBI agent, but found there was just too much red tape, so she left and started her own company...doing pretty much the same forensic work as the FBI. In her new position, Kay doesn't do the autopsies like in previous books, but does more in examining the information to help solve the cases. She also teaches - to help students that believe they want to become forensic pathologists.
This book had the murders (how else would it be a murder mystery?), but you had to really work on "who did it?" You think it might be this one person, and then you think 'no,' it has to be this person, or wait..., this person might be working with this person doing the killings... The story takes place in Hollywood, Florida, around where Kay lives, and also in Walden, Massachusetts, where Kay's lover Wesley Benton lives. You wonder as you read how the two areas will tie all the murders together, but you know it will be done.
It begins with an old case being brought to Kay's attention; it was ruled a suicide, but there are those that think it was murder. On examining evidence, it leads to more questions, and other people that have "disappeared" and others being murdered. Kay and her crew continue to examine the evidence, with all of its twists & turns, leading to more & more questions, until the evidence begins to bring everything together - with a twist to the ending that I didn't see coming! The last 75 pages made reading the first 350 or so pages worth it! Another great ending to a Patricia Cornwell book! I am one - I'm admitting it - that for about 25% of the time, will read the ending before I start the book. That way, I can see more clearly how things are done to reach the end. I didn't do it this time, and was quite happy I didn't. If I had known the ending beforehand, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the book with all of its short, what I consider scattered-thoughts, chapters.
One last thing: besides the main story, there is also a secondary story. It's about a man named Joe Amos who is on a fellowship with Lucy's company. It's about all the things he's into to try to ''get-ahead..." Marino, the top-notch cop, figures out what Joe is up to, and gets him in the end!
This book is a good (not as exciting & great as some of her others) read if you're into murder mysteries. If you like them, you will more than likely know Patricia Cornwell.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
This Month in Books - The Gnu's Room - Auburn
July 2, 1961
In Ketchum, Idaho, the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature, Ernest Hemingway, (The Old Man and the Sea) dies at 62 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Explaining how he worked: “When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes, and that is my idea.”
July 4, 1845
Henry David Thoreau begins his 26-month stay at Walden Pond: “I went to the woods because I wished to…see if I could learn what it {life} had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
July 4, 1855
Walt Whitman, 36, publishes Leaves of Grass at his own expense. The book does not sell.
July 7, 1535
Sir Thomas More (Utopia) is beheaded for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as the supreme authority of the Catholic Church.
July 8, 1822
Percy Bysshe Shelley (one of the major English Romantic poets), 29, is drowned while sailing with a friend off Viareggio (north of Tuscany, Italy) and is cremated on the beach onto which his body is washed. Strangely, his heart will not burn. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Frankenstein) carries it with her in a silken shroud for the rest of her life.
July 16, 1951
Little, Brown publishes J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.
July 20, 1869
Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad is published. In chapter 19 he quips: “They spell it Vinci and pronounce it Vinchy; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.”
July 24, 1940
A former bank teller and bookkeeper at the First National Bank of Austin, Texas, William Sydney Porter, better known as short story writer O. Henry, is released from an Ohio penitentiary after serving three years of a five-year sentence for embezzlement.
July 25, 1914
The day before leaving Barcelona for the United States, 11-year-old Anais Nin (pronounced ana-ESSE neen) makes the first entry in her diary: “I am sad to think we are leaving a country that has been like a mother and a lucky charm to me.” Except for a four-month gap in 1917, she will continue the diary for the rest of her life.
July 30, 1918
Alfred Joyce Kilmer, 31, prolific American poet, journalist, literary critic, lecturer and editor, is killed in fighting near Seringes, France during World War I.
In Ketchum, Idaho, the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature, Ernest Hemingway, (The Old Man and the Sea) dies at 62 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Explaining how he worked: “When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes, and that is my idea.”
July 4, 1845
Henry David Thoreau begins his 26-month stay at Walden Pond: “I went to the woods because I wished to…see if I could learn what it {life} had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
July 4, 1855
Walt Whitman, 36, publishes Leaves of Grass at his own expense. The book does not sell.
July 7, 1535
Sir Thomas More (Utopia) is beheaded for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as the supreme authority of the Catholic Church.
July 8, 1822
Percy Bysshe Shelley (one of the major English Romantic poets), 29, is drowned while sailing with a friend off Viareggio (north of Tuscany, Italy) and is cremated on the beach onto which his body is washed. Strangely, his heart will not burn. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Frankenstein) carries it with her in a silken shroud for the rest of her life.
July 16, 1951
Little, Brown publishes J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.
July 20, 1869
Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad is published. In chapter 19 he quips: “They spell it Vinci and pronounce it Vinchy; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.”
July 24, 1940
A former bank teller and bookkeeper at the First National Bank of Austin, Texas, William Sydney Porter, better known as short story writer O. Henry, is released from an Ohio penitentiary after serving three years of a five-year sentence for embezzlement.
July 25, 1914
The day before leaving Barcelona for the United States, 11-year-old Anais Nin (pronounced ana-ESSE neen) makes the first entry in her diary: “I am sad to think we are leaving a country that has been like a mother and a lucky charm to me.” Except for a four-month gap in 1917, she will continue the diary for the rest of her life.
July 30, 1918
Alfred Joyce Kilmer, 31, prolific American poet, journalist, literary critic, lecturer and editor, is killed in fighting near Seringes, France during World War I.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Response to Mike
Mr. Mike---
Let me first quote from a book called The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby.
"I don't want anyone writing to point out that I spend too much money on books, many of which I will never read. I know that already. I certainly intend to read all of them, more or less. My intensions are good. It's my money. And I bet you do it too."
I couldn't say it better myself. If I buy books impulsively, if I buy books that I know that I will probably never read, then hey, what the heck? Books are meant for reading. But for me, books are also art objects---things of adoration to have adoring your walls to look at and admire even if you never read them. That's my philosophy, and I'm sticking to it.
Yes, you did talk me out of purchasing those Lincoln books in California, and that was a good thing because I would, in fact, never have read them and would probably never appreciate seeing them on my shelf as you would. So you saved me there, and I applaud you for it.
OK. So there. Silly me. I admit it.
All kidding aside, I'm glad that you have joined this blog. I hope you continue to post, about books your reading and any other jostling as you see needed!
Let me first quote from a book called The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby.
"I don't want anyone writing to point out that I spend too much money on books, many of which I will never read. I know that already. I certainly intend to read all of them, more or less. My intensions are good. It's my money. And I bet you do it too."
I couldn't say it better myself. If I buy books impulsively, if I buy books that I know that I will probably never read, then hey, what the heck? Books are meant for reading. But for me, books are also art objects---things of adoration to have adoring your walls to look at and admire even if you never read them. That's my philosophy, and I'm sticking to it.
Yes, you did talk me out of purchasing those Lincoln books in California, and that was a good thing because I would, in fact, never have read them and would probably never appreciate seeing them on my shelf as you would. So you saved me there, and I applaud you for it.
OK. So there. Silly me. I admit it.
All kidding aside, I'm glad that you have joined this blog. I hope you continue to post, about books your reading and any other jostling as you see needed!
Friday, July 6, 2007
1st Post
This is my first comment on Mr. Hudson's blog. I have no idea that my comment will ever be read--Mr. Hudson is a very busy man--but here it is.
The Hudsons are exemplary folks, although Mr. Hudson has a tendancy towards collecting books which he never intends to read. Mr. Hudson appears to suffer from a condition wherin one is struck by a compulsion to purchase books whenever certain books that he is on the look-out for becomes available, regardless if he ever intends to read them or not. It is a fairly common malady among readers, and especially those of a serious and intellectual nature, to buy books that one either imagines himself enjoying reading or buys simply out of the sheer orgasmic compulsion of having spent years looking for a book and all of a sudden finally seeing it available on a shelf. A true and recent example is that I, personally, was able, via the internet, to talk Mr. Hudson out of purchasing a serious and voluminous set of books which he had found at a great deal but which both of us doubted he would ever actually read. Nevermind that the set was on sale at a great price; nevermind that this particular set is becomming harder and harder to find in good shape; nevermind that the set he had found was in good shape without any water marks or outward signs of serious wear--no matter the price, if he had no intention of actually plowing through the set then I (and he) considered it money wasted.
I am in no way trying to imply that Mr. Hudson is a "phony" reader, one who buys and buys books yet never reads them. Mr. Hudson reads a lot, more so than many of us. Yet, sadly, he--as aforementioned--suffers greatly from the compulsion to buy almost any book that he can in his mind justify buying, usually on the spur of the moment and without much regard as to the cost. Imagine an "impulse buy" section of books at a check-out in a store, and you can bet on Mr. Hudson clearing the racks in rapid order. As a fellow book buyer, I am proud to have been in a postion to have at least once in my lifetime talked him out of a wasted purchase.
With that said, I once again want to praise Mr. (and the more even-minded Mrs.) Hudson's generosity, intellect, and overall humanity.
Now, if anyone can please put me in contact with someone who can put in my hands the as-yet-unpublished short stories of JD Salinger "An Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" and "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans" I will be willing to pay a handsome price, as I have been wanting those two items on my shelf of envy for many, many years...
The Hudsons are exemplary folks, although Mr. Hudson has a tendancy towards collecting books which he never intends to read. Mr. Hudson appears to suffer from a condition wherin one is struck by a compulsion to purchase books whenever certain books that he is on the look-out for becomes available, regardless if he ever intends to read them or not. It is a fairly common malady among readers, and especially those of a serious and intellectual nature, to buy books that one either imagines himself enjoying reading or buys simply out of the sheer orgasmic compulsion of having spent years looking for a book and all of a sudden finally seeing it available on a shelf. A true and recent example is that I, personally, was able, via the internet, to talk Mr. Hudson out of purchasing a serious and voluminous set of books which he had found at a great deal but which both of us doubted he would ever actually read. Nevermind that the set was on sale at a great price; nevermind that this particular set is becomming harder and harder to find in good shape; nevermind that the set he had found was in good shape without any water marks or outward signs of serious wear--no matter the price, if he had no intention of actually plowing through the set then I (and he) considered it money wasted.
I am in no way trying to imply that Mr. Hudson is a "phony" reader, one who buys and buys books yet never reads them. Mr. Hudson reads a lot, more so than many of us. Yet, sadly, he--as aforementioned--suffers greatly from the compulsion to buy almost any book that he can in his mind justify buying, usually on the spur of the moment and without much regard as to the cost. Imagine an "impulse buy" section of books at a check-out in a store, and you can bet on Mr. Hudson clearing the racks in rapid order. As a fellow book buyer, I am proud to have been in a postion to have at least once in my lifetime talked him out of a wasted purchase.
With that said, I once again want to praise Mr. (and the more even-minded Mrs.) Hudson's generosity, intellect, and overall humanity.
Now, if anyone can please put me in contact with someone who can put in my hands the as-yet-unpublished short stories of JD Salinger "An Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" and "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans" I will be willing to pay a handsome price, as I have been wanting those two items on my shelf of envy for many, many years...
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen
This book purports to reveal how the mind of the average American male works. With that mission, the unnamed narrator is a twenty-something male who works an unimportant job, caring only about physical satisfaction from his girlfriends and other girls, playing video games, and hanging with friends. He does not care about a career, avoids commitment in his relationships, and candidly expresses whatever he thinks about anything and anyone, which is often crude and debasing. Basically, he is driven by his primal and selfish urges, the sort of male that men aren't supposed to be.
It is hard to figure this book. The narrator's honest, brutal, and unrepressed sexual feelings and actions incessantly barrage you, filling every chapter and every molecule of this narrator. It gets trite quickly, yet remains funny and appealing too. I found myself relating to the narrator's thoughts and reminiscing about similar experiences. I laughed aloud. But there is also so much of this stuff that the narrator appears cartoonish. Is this what the average American male really is like? Or is there something more important going on?
I did some reading about the book, and this is the debate. It could be argued it's the kind of story with the kind of guy for keg-chugging, dim-witted, prankish college guys. It would thus have little literary value. Indeed, CNBC reported that print publications would not review the book because of its raunchiness. Harper Perennial then launched a marketing campaign by showing short videos on YouTube, a site that appeals to young people like college students, which drastically increased sells and led to multiple new printings. Hmmm... using the Internet to promote a book and more people end up reading - I wonder what Andrew Keen would say?
As much of a pig slop as the book can seem, it also could be a response to the male mold that culture has fashioned for guys, a male who should be sensitive, a good listener, and thinking about the relationship's future (or just thinking), someone who does chores and errands and stands in line while she buys her nineteenth pair of shoes, all so he can watch a few hours of football. This is the type of male Dr. Phil and Oprah would approve: he exists to obey and make his woman happy. As such, I don't know what kind of message Kultgen has. I think there is a lot of truth to the notion that this is what men are really like, and it is tempting to say this male is endearing and many would want to unhinge this beast inside and be this male. But there may not be a place in our culture for this male. Can such a guy really exist and still get married and not change? Or, should he exist and is culture right about how guys should act and think? I think the novel's ending has an answer that gives it its power, perhaps a resounding, but reluctant and regrettful, goodbye to primal malehood.
It is hard to figure this book. The narrator's honest, brutal, and unrepressed sexual feelings and actions incessantly barrage you, filling every chapter and every molecule of this narrator. It gets trite quickly, yet remains funny and appealing too. I found myself relating to the narrator's thoughts and reminiscing about similar experiences. I laughed aloud. But there is also so much of this stuff that the narrator appears cartoonish. Is this what the average American male really is like? Or is there something more important going on?
I did some reading about the book, and this is the debate. It could be argued it's the kind of story with the kind of guy for keg-chugging, dim-witted, prankish college guys. It would thus have little literary value. Indeed, CNBC reported that print publications would not review the book because of its raunchiness. Harper Perennial then launched a marketing campaign by showing short videos on YouTube, a site that appeals to young people like college students, which drastically increased sells and led to multiple new printings. Hmmm... using the Internet to promote a book and more people end up reading - I wonder what Andrew Keen would say?
As much of a pig slop as the book can seem, it also could be a response to the male mold that culture has fashioned for guys, a male who should be sensitive, a good listener, and thinking about the relationship's future (or just thinking), someone who does chores and errands and stands in line while she buys her nineteenth pair of shoes, all so he can watch a few hours of football. This is the type of male Dr. Phil and Oprah would approve: he exists to obey and make his woman happy. As such, I don't know what kind of message Kultgen has. I think there is a lot of truth to the notion that this is what men are really like, and it is tempting to say this male is endearing and many would want to unhinge this beast inside and be this male. But there may not be a place in our culture for this male. Can such a guy really exist and still get married and not change? Or, should he exist and is culture right about how guys should act and think? I think the novel's ending has an answer that gives it its power, perhaps a resounding, but reluctant and regrettful, goodbye to primal malehood.
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