Month / October 2006
Blogging Worse Than Masturbation in the Eyes of the Church?
The Restored Church of God: “Should teenagers and others in the Church express themselves to the world through blogs? Because of the obvious dangers; the clear biblical principles that apply; the fact that it gives one a voice; that it is almost always idle words; that teens often do not think before they do; that it is acting out of boredom; and it is filled with appearances of evil—blogging is simply not to be done in the Church. It should be clear that it is unnecessary and in fact dangerous on many levels.”
Protonium Crystals, Not Dilithium
New Scientist: “Mixing antimatter and matter usually has predictably violent consequences – the two annihilate one another in a fierce burst of energy. But physicists in Geneva have found a new way to make the two combine, at least briefly, into a single substance. This exceptionally unstable stuff, made of protons and antiprotons, is called protonium.”
Keep That Timely Literary Coverage Coming, Tanenhaus!
Daniel Mendelsohn reviews Jonathan Franzen’s The Discomfort Zone in the October 15, 2006 edition of The New York Times Book Review. It’s a fair enough review, but it’s worth pointing out that the book came out on September 5 and has already been roundly trounced by the likes of Cheryl Reed and Marjorie Kehe.
In fact, Michiko herself reviewed Franzen’s book on August 29, 2006 in the Gray Lady’s very own pages — almost seven weeks ago.
So why cover a book so late? Particularly a slim volume under 200 pages that has already been thoroughly covered by every major newspaper?
I suppose at this rate we can expect the NYTBR to cover the new Pynchon book sometime around March, Richard Powers’ The Echo Maker a little after the New Year — that is, assuming they even bother to cover these books.
Not only can we count on Sam Tanenhaus to offer disastrous literary fiction coverage (with such dependable critics as Liesl Schillinger and David Orr barely allowed to flaunt their critical acumen and Dave Itzkoff’s science fiction column appearing no more frequently than the equinox), but we can count on Tanenhaus to review obvious mainstream titles two months later. Heck of a job, Sam!
[UPDATE: An anonymous source tells me that Colson Whitehead will be reviewing Richard Powers’ The Echo Maker in the October 22, 2006 issue of the NYTBR.]
Next Up: The Coraghessan Pronunciation Campaign
This blog has launched the Restore Coraghessan Campaign — “the official international movement to bring back the beguiling middle name of author T.C. Boyle to all of his dust jackets and book covers.”
Esquire Redeemed by Tom Chiarella Hire?
Last year, I cancelled my subscription to Esquire after the magazine ran an egregious Thomas P.M. Barnett article that, without irony, played Rumsfeld up as a man’s man that you could hang out with. The article was devoid of a single whit of criticism. It was dishonest journalism and I had figured that the magazine was beyond hope, committed towards being more of a mainstream mouthpiece than a place for ideas.
But maybe, just maybe, the recent hiring of Tom Chiarella as fiction editor might be enough for me to resubscribe to the magazine. Not only is Esquire doubling up its fiction, but the November issue features a piece by LBC winner Michael Martone.
It’s reassuring to see Chiarella embrace the magazine’s long legacy of publishing short stories from the likes of Donald Barthelme, Stanley Elkin, Tim O’Brien and Barry Targan. Let us hope that this represents a sign that Esquire EIC David Granger is committed to some shadow of the daring fiction and journalism that Esquire was known for in the 1960s. Perhaps the time has come to give the magazine another chance.
(via Galleycat)
The More Tired Than You Roundup
- RIP Gillo Pontecorvo, cinematic revolutionary. (BATTLE OF ALGIERS, YES! BANG BANG SHOOT SHOOT ETHICAL CONUNDRUM BUY CRITERION IF YOU NO HAVE!)
- Various bloggers and booksellers cite their overlooked books, including a few pals of mine. (via Bookdwarf)
- Eight authors reveal how they write. (WITH PEN, WITH TYPEWRITER, WITH WORD PROCESSOR WOW! CAN THEY HONE WORDS?) (via Booksquare)
- Scott Esposito has a very thoughtful column on book reviews. He suggests that reviewers shouldn’t be in the business of making any good/bad pronouncements at all. I think Scott hits upon part of the problem of many reviewers, in that they go in for the big kill rather than trying to understand why other critics and readers appreciate a particular author. Reviewers often fail to be doubting Thomases or sometimes neglect to cast light on a bad book’s good points (or a good book’s bad points). I would add that any good review should not just be about where one can place a book, but about a reviewer trying to commingle her subjective views with those presented by the author, ideally citing specific examples from the book (which seems a lost art these days) and without the reviewer drawing too much attention to herself. (BAD ED! THIS PARA NO MAKE SENSE! TRY TO ARTICULATE THINGS AFTER YOU HAVE SLEPT! BUT YES, SCOTT ESPOSITO’S COLUMN IS GOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!)
- James Tata examines Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and asks if its grisly horrors are all that dissimilar from The Pianist. (ME WANT BLOODY POLANSKI MOVIE RIGHT NOW! SO SATISFYING HIS TWISTED CINEMATIC VISION!)
- Excerpts from Chris Ware’s new work, Building Stories. (SAME SAME NYT FUNNY PAGES WARM UP FOR THIS PERHAPS? WARE ONE-TRICK PONY? ME HOPE NOT!!!) (via Maud)
- Bud Parr offers a great overview of Pamuk and the bloggers. (PAMUK PAMUK MY NAME IS TIRED AND I WOULD BE IN A COURTROOM IF ME VISIT TURKEY!)
- Stephen Metcalf prosecutes against Charles Frazier. (STEPHEN METCALF IS WORST REVIEWER OF HIS GENERATION? YOU MAKE CALL. ME IGNORE FRAZIER. BIG PYNCHON BOOK ON WAY!!!!) (via Rake)
- JCO ain’t got stones. (RE: JOYCE! ME WISH SHE LEFT ALONE TO WRITE WRITE WRITE!)
- Silliman on Creeley
- COFFEE GOOD! COFFEE VERY GOOD KEEP ED AWAKE! OH YES I AM SLUGGISH ME LOVE YOU LONG TIME I WILL KISS YOU!!!!!
BSS #69: Annalee Newitz
Author: Annalee Newitz
Condition of Mr. Segundo: Looking for an unwholesome bargain.
Subjects Discussed: Capitalist monsters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, brain movies, Birth of a Nation, the fear of white power being lost, class warfare, Sawny Beane, the individual impulses of serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer, the labor tools of killing, the Unabomber, serial killer and terrorist nomenclature, freeway snipers, Fight Club, avuncular hackers, V for Vendetta, narratives involving women who gorge, The Man With Two Brains, Darren Aronofsky, Pi, the labor principles of freelancing, a lengthy argument on H.P. Lovecraft, and the inevitability of decay.
BSS #68: Tommy Chong
Author: Tommy Chong
Condition of Mr. Segundo: Recovering from a medical mishap.
Subjects Discussed: Examining Title 21, Section 863, whether Clinton was in power in the 1980s, salsa dancing, the requirements for being an FBI special agent, plea bargaining, prison life, bodyguards, the Bush family, the advantages of celebrity status vs. a common offender being incarcerated, Michael Milken, humility, trying to remember prisoner numbers, respect for victims of disaster, looking at objects differently after prison, Cheech Marin, Up in Smoke, Chong as director, the benefits of pot, Chong as lyricist, Pipe Dreams: The Musical, Eric Idle, conflict between Cheech and Chong, Cheech’s art collection, Terence Malick, Lou Adler, Born in East L.A., Radiohead, and groups vs. individual artists.
Psychotherapy or Darth Vader: You Make the Call
Theory of Everything: “As a child, Bo was skinny and awkward. The other kids picked on him, called him Bomosexual and Little Bo Creep. It made him mad. But he was too shy to express his anger. So he just burst into tears. Darth Vader was everything Bo wanted to be. Commanding, vengeful, even violent. Two years ago, he had a voice synthesizer surgically implanted into his trachea so that he could sound more like Darth Vader.”
Smells like a grand hoax, but funny stuff.
Echo Maker Roundtable Next Week
For those curious about Richard Powers’ The Echo Maker, this is a reminder that next week, starting on Monday, a grand gang of literary enthusiasts will be discussing the book here at this site. Aside from this trusted group, who have been tossing around a number of extremely interesting ideas about the book, a very special person may be making an appearance. More to come.
Bartender Bobby Cook Dead
Robert “Bobby” Cook, the owner of the fantastic Owl Tree bar, has passed away. The Owl Tree, if you haven’t been there, is a fantastic bar loaded with all manner of owl memorabilia. Cook was as much of a staple on the San Francisco bar scene as the late Bruno Mooshei. If you didn’t talk with him or contribute to the conversation, Bobby Cook would order you to the other end of the bar.
No doubt Bobby is up there with Bruno mixing martinis in That Great Bartending Place in the Sky and ordering sanctimonious pricks to sit elsewhere.
RIP Bobby. I, for one, dig the owls.
(Thanks, Kim!)
In Which I Offer Another Roundup
- In which I stand defiantly against Steve Mitchelmore.
- Howard Junker has an interesting exchange with New Yorker editor Deborah Treisman over how much fiction The New Yorker buys. Apparently, Treisman sits on an arsenal of short stories anywhere between three to ten before running them.
- Any guy who grooves to Sorrentino can’t be mainstream.
- I wish I could be in New York this weekend for this, if only to see how similar (or dissimilar) the array of views are.
- Kevin Smokler complains that The Paris Review costs $12 and that this is an inflated price to pay if you’re only looking for the interview. You know, my copy of McSweeney’s #19 was $22 and all I really wanted was
a Pepsithe T.C. Boyle novella (the leftover “novel” that Dana was working on in Talk Talk that wasn’t published). That I had to hunt for this in a cigar box containing ancillary illustrations was bad enough, but several of the other stories I read, particularly that mediocre pirate story, were DOA. So the argument cuts both ways. Do I bemoan McSweeney’s for charging this price or for offering a bad selection this time around? Not at all. Having once worked at a magazine and having lengthy conversations with the printing folks, I realize that printing in color is expensive. Methinks Mr. Smokler doth protest too much. - And while we’re on the subject of “what the New Generation wants,” since when is it “hip” to like Spiotta, Danielewski, and Powers? I’m troubled by the notion that one’s literary sensibilities are defined not so much by what one personally responds to, but by whether one is connected to some unknown inner circle or lofty organization. Should not a person read Danielewski because he is innately curious and not because it is the apparent thing to do? Further, who is anybody to determine “what the New Generation wants?” This presumes that writing, editing, and reading involves an exclusionary process based not on literary value, but on egregious market demographics. Should not great literature transcend generations? Or is it now apparently impossible for a McSweeney’s cigar box to appeal to someone outside of the 18-34 demographic? Or a Julia Glass novel to appeal to a twentysomething?
- Tod Goldberg tries out MySpace. And Carolyn observes that this is the first year that the National Book Awards has a nominee with a MySpace page.
- Elizabeth Crane pens a haiku for Lost. More on Lost ripoffs from the New Yorker.
- A list of collaborative writing projects.
- Mark Hare examines Tim O’Brien.
- Marco Materazzi has published a book about L’Affaire Zidane, in which he offers 249 possible phrases he could have said to earn the head butt.
New Thomas Pynchon a Terry Malloy?
According to Marianne Wiggins, one of the fiction judges for this year’s National Book Awards, “As for Pynchon, it was patently obvious it wasn’t a contender.'”
Orhan Pamuk!
Bechdel/Thompson Update
According to Tom Spurgeon, the library trustees voted against keeping the books on shelves (at least for the time being). More in the thread over at Alison Bechdel’s blog:
At the meeting tonight of the Marshall Public Library Board of Trustees, the Board President proposed that the board appoint a committee to revise the library’s materials selection policy. That proposal passed, but with at least one “no” vote. I was sitting in the back and could not see all the hands, so I don’t know how many voted against the proposal.
Here’s the problem, as far as I am concerned: While the committee works on a new materials selection policy, the two books (”Blankets” and “Fun Home”) will be removed from circulation. They will be unavailable. There was no mention of how long the process will take.
When the Board President asked which of the Board members wanted to serve on the committee, apparently most of the hands went up, because we heard her say, “Well, I guess the whole Board could be on the committee.”
There’s nothing yet at the Marshall Democrat-News, but if I find anything specific that we can substantiate, I will report on it.
[UPDATE: A reader from Marshall notes that the books are “temporarily removed” as a materials collection policy is being drafted and that the case is at a standstill. The Marshall Democrat-News is an afternoon paper and I will update this post as more qualifying coverage comes in.]
Give Me Harding’s Windbag Speeches Over This Spineless Incoherence Any Day
This is the President. And I think it can be said with absolute certainty that George W. Bush is the worst President in United States history.
Imagine if this sputtering drivel came from your attorney in front of a judge. Or if this inarticulate marsupial was speaking on behalf of your company to shareholders. You’d shitcan the guy without a second thought. You wouldn’t even give him a golden parachute. Hell, you’d convince the Board of Directors to leave this incompetent to rot. No severance. Call security. Don’t even let the blackguard clean out his office. Throw the bum out into the street and let him dumpster dive. Let him struggle. He screwed you over, and he screwed you over bad.
But this is a man who is responding to a question involving the deaths of 650,000 Iraqi lives. Not a mere civil suit or a bad business deal. And he doesn’t even have the temerity to stare right back into the eyes of the reporters and tell them that, yes, Iraqi lives were lost and that he knows what he’s doing. Hell, even Lyndon Johnson had balls when he was saying utterly despicable things about Vietnam. This is the man who so many voters voted for because they would prefer to have a beer with him? I wouldn’t trust this guy to pick up the tab.
It’s bad enough that this tyrant is responsible for mass deaths and who knows how many grieving families, all in the name of a connection with WMDs that has never been proven, but that he so systematically destroys lives and, with that, any lingering impressions that the United States of America means well is inexcusable. Unpardonable. No different from a Pinochet or a Stalin.
He will never listen. He will never find a halfway point, even if it means bombing any country with a tenuous connection to al Qaeda into the Stone Age. He is an outright menace that every decent citizen must vote against by voting Democrat (if there is a Senate race) in a few weeks’ time. Someone must stop him, even if it’s a gang of pussyfooting Democrats whose political relevance is deeply in question. Particularly as they stare doe-eyed into the headlights and risk becoming as soulless and vacuous as our Dear Leader, who just so happened to kill a few hundred thousand Iraqis.
The reporters sitting in that lovely garden ought to be ashamed of themselves for not giving this murderous rodent the third degree. What, me worry?
Cryptographic Protocols, Complex Quantum Mechanics: Just to “Fool Around”
While looking for something else, I discovered this episode of Radio Zero. About sixteen minutes in, there’s a story involving Richard Powers, a VR lab similar to the one depicted in Plowing the Dark called “The Cube” (where apparently Powers tinkered around with on the keyboard, just to “fool around”), and Wired‘s Steve Silverman. I can find no trace of the Silverman article mentioned.
Police Confuses Alec Baldwin With Younger Brother Stephen, Alec Uses Glengarry Speech to Pass Line Without Success
Maybe This “Garment District” Thing on Bloggers Explains Tanenhaus’s Snobbery
New York Observer: “‘It will be so much better when you can just say “Hey” across the table or down the hallway,’ said Mr. Rosenthal. ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to get five bloggers on tonight to talk about North Korea, rather than having to phone or walk down to the garment district?'”
Aleksey Vayner, Two Egos (140 Lbs Each!)
I don’t know how I missed it a few days ago, but this is an unintentionally hilarious video.
Metafiction Meets Vlogs
Integrity in Cheese Journalism
Leave it to the Wonder Chicken to put his gouda where his mouth is: not only does he compare unfettered life away from the wife to “gnawing on a block of cheese the size of a car battery,” but he offers photographic evidence to back up his claim.
Isn’t Journalism Supposed to Be Controversial?
More on the Iraqi death count from Greg Mitchell: “The AP report by Malcolm Ritter called the study ‘controversial’ right in its first sentence, then went on to cite Cordesman as the only critic. Ritter also noted that the invaluable Web site, Iraq Body Count, which has tried to keep a running tally, places the number of dead at 50,000. At least he admitted that base their count strictly on confirmed media reports. But, as I said at the top, media reports have been scattered, partly due to disinterest (in the beginning) and the dangers of investigating (later on).”
Litblog 2.0
Web 2.0. Cinema 2.0. The Novel 2.0.
Since so many people are interested in things that are “2.0,” I have decided to take the plunge and declare Return of the Reluctant, a “litblog 2.0 in tenebrous standing.”
What does 2.0 mean? Ostensibly nothing, outside of a second grade arithmetic lesson on decimals. But every concept needs a buzz marketing term. And I’m looking for any edge I can get. No matter how dubious.
So why should litblogs be any different? This is an exciting time where people must stand atop a numerical dais of self-importance.
So I’ve laid down the gauntlet. This is a Litblog 2.0.
If I’ve learned anything from watching the blade wars in disposable razors, it’s this: If another litblog goes “Litblog 2.1,” then I’ll go “Litblog 2.2” or even “Litblog 3.0” if I have to. We’ll keep on upping the ante until we get into ridiculous four-digit territory (Litblog 1526.0? If that’s what it takes, baby.).
Of course, like a childhood game, I expect this all to dissolve once one litblogger declares, “Infinity!”
But for the moment, I am Litblog 2.0. It doesn’t mean anything to anyone outside of Chris Anderson. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles, vernacular-wise.
THE TERRORISTS ARE AT IT AGAIN!
10/11/06 is 9/11/01 upside down! Contact the Department of Homeland Security! Head to the hills!
Customer Service Hacks
Get Human: an invaluable site for getting a human being on the phone.
All Your iTunes Are Belongs to Us
Best. Blog I Hadn’t Heard Of. This Week!
Miéville Goes YA?
Rick Kleffel gets his hands on the new Miéville: “The Miéville you’ll find here is a rather different writer than the one who wrote ‘Perdido Street Station’. He’s stripped down his prose, and though his imagination is slightly less grotesque, it is no less fecund. ‘Un Lun Dun’ is the sort of novel that parents can actually, easily read their children, one chapter at a time. The chapters are short, titled and any single chapter tends to be say three to four pages, a nice easy chunk to read them before they go nighty-night.”