Book Report #2

So.

I finished reading The Awkward Age back in May. In my last report, I anticipated a match being made between the protagonist and a certain young woman. Things turned out to be less simple than that; life is messy, which makes for good storytelling. Overall, it was a good read, though the prose is a bit denser than most novels one might pick up.

Next came a few more novels, including Independence Day by Richard Ford and Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. The Ford novel follows a real estate agent dealing with customers and family over a holiday weekend. Not long on plot, though there are a lot of amusing incidents; it's mainly a meditation by a man reaching middle age. The Stein book is an exercise in style: three character portraits written in distinctive voices. There's a lot of repetition, and frankly the book is excruciating to read.

H.L. Mencken's Prejudices: First Series is a collection of his early essays. This was my introduction to Mencken's acid pen. Occasionally the arrows seem lazily tossed at his subjects—he can sound like an Internet troll with good spelling—but generally his aim is true. I look forward to eventually reading his account of the Scopes trial, several series down the road.

Rereading Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, I can see why this novel is a campus favorite: The prose is easy, the chapters are short, and the level of wisdom matches that of the thinking college student. Bad things happen, and it's the grownups' fault.

On to Saul Bellow's Herzog. Even more than Ford, Bellow dispenses with plot; mostly, we get the angry thoughts and writings of Moses Herzog, misogynist. Herzog would have been a terror in the era of email and blogs; he is constantly writing outraged letters to everyone who crosses his path. Bellow is a skilled writer, but this fellow is unpleasant most of the time.

Next is the Library of America's printing of Willa Cather's uncollected stories. One could devote a semester of American literature to the study of these truthful and fully-formed stories. Cather is top-tier.

Today I started reading John Cheever's first novel, The Wapshot Chronicle. It looks like it will be an almost clichéd portrait of a New England small town; the eccentric characters include an elderly nudist, nicknamed Uncle Peepee, who is mostly tolerated by the constabulary. At the time of its publication, the book was criticized as too episodic. We'll see.

Ranking the 2011 Academy Award Nominees

OK, so I'm a little late with this.

I finally saw the last of the nominees in June. Here's my list, top to bottom, of the Best Picture nominees, with the Best Animated Feature nominees folded in:

1. True Grit
Wonderful atmosphere, wonderful dialogue, wonderful performances. Makes me want to read the book.

2. The King's Speech
Charming, inspirational story. The critics who looked down on this as too middlebrow are bozos.

3. Black Swan
A totally insane melodrama. Crazy fun.

4. The Kids Are All Right
A smart, modern comedy.

5. The Illusionist
Beautiful animation, sad story.

6. How to Train Your Dragon
Cheerful story, better-than-average animation.

7. The Fighter
That's one nutty family.

8. Winter's Bone
Probably I am underrating this slow-moving Southern Gothic. The performances were very good.

9. 127 Hours
Proof that the Danny Boyle circus can perform anywhere.

10. The Social Network
The fad movie of the year, though still a good one.

11. Toy Story 3
The cords of manipulation are wearing through the fading fabric of this franchise. Even so, I liked the film.

12. Inception
Didn't hate it, but this one was way too clever for its own good.


Of course this list is just an excuse to mention, by the way, that my movie blog has moved; it's now at http://secondchancecinema.wordpress.com. I even classed the joint up with a movie index.

A More Perfect Union Buster

A man does a good turn to a genie. As reward, the genie offers to grant one wish. "I am a very powerful genie. If you wish it, I can put an end to HIV or world hunger. I can stop global w—."

"Abolish the unions!"

That's the reaction I would expect nowadays if that man happens to be a Republican officeholder. (Such sentiments may or may not be held by rank-and-file R's.) A GOP elected official may praise hard work; but let the working man try to organize, to accumulate power, and he will find that governor or legislator to be a savage enemy.

There seems to be something more than politics going on here. It's true that unions (with the occasional exception of the Teamsters) have supported Democrats at the polls. But other parts of the Democratic coalition don't seem to evoke nearly so much Republican wrath.

It's also true that unions have not always accomplished a public good. The auto unions have taken part in the dismantling of the American auto industry, and some of the failings of American schools can be placed at the feet of the teacher unions. It would seem that any trace of greed in the heart of a laborer is a very bad thing. (And yet greed in the hearts of executives and entrepreneurs is not merely a natural thing, but the very engine that makes our economy go! Amazing!)

I'm trying to work out the psychology of this whole mess.

Perhaps, as society becomes more and more unequal, the powerful become more and more jealous of the diminishing strength of the not-powerful. We will finally get through this bad stretch when the rich control everything!

Perhaps, deep down, many of the powerful sense their own lack of legitimacy, and that suspicion adds to their rage against anyone who would challenge their power. (I doubt this theory, though. I think that a great many people who have lucked into wealth are convinced that their riches testify to their inner virtue.)

Whatever the motivation, the Republicans seem to be pushing for a final, utter victory over organized labor. Earlier this year in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker went all-out against the public unions—and got his nose bloodied. And because of the messiness and uncertainty of the legislative process, the Republicans seem to be pursuing a second strategy: Pack the courts with pro-corporate, anti-union ideologues. Regardless of the law today, I foresee the day when judges rule that concentration of power in the hands of corporate executives is an absolute good, while concentration of power in the hands of workers is an absolute evil.

And this will be done without the aid of a genie.

Apprentice Punk

It happened a few months ago. I was walking across a parking lot in the middle of the day. My path took me near a youth, maybe eighteen, not very imposing. As I drew near, he muttered something. I looked around, thinking he might be talking to someone behind me. No one. So I turned back to the kid and said, "What?"

"G'meadolla."

It took me a moment to translate. "You want me to give you a dollar?"

"Yeh. Gi' me a dolla."

I looked around again, to make absolutely sure he was talking to me, and to see if any friends of his might be showing up. Still nobody.

Furrowed brow. "Why should I give you a dollar?"

This was his cue to produce a weapon, or a threat—in which case he would have gotten his dollar—but he did nothing.

I detoured slightly to get around him and went about my business.

So the kid got his feet wet. This may have been his first attempt at thuggery, and while he didn't get his dollar, the experience was relatively painless. Next time he'll be ready to back up his request. Maybe he'll elaborate: "Heh, I need a dolla to get a taco." Maybe he'll start carrying a knife. Maybe he'll bring friends.

But I'll be better prepared too. Of course, the main option will be to fork over the dollar (or whatever amount he requests). But I've got another idea that may work:

"G'meadolla."

"Kid, where do you live? I need to talk to your mama about you asking strangers for money."

Yeah, that might throw him.

Coincidence #6

The last three films I've watched are Catherine Breillat's 2009 retelling of Bluebeard; Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, a mostly unsuccessful comedy from 2006 that has Albert Brooks traveling (via Air India) to India and Pakistan to find out what makes Muslims laugh; and the 1962 French thriller Le combat dans l'île.

The thriller included a shot of an Air India jet and a mention of Bluebeard. Which is mildly cool.

The Great Recession

Periodically, Andrew Sullivan's blog, The Dish, links to a chart comparing unemployment rates for all the recessions since World War Two. The latest update is here. (Unemployment rates are compared in the second chart.) Have a look. Can there be any doubt that the name, "The Great Recession," is well-deserved?

Book Report

So what does one read after The Fountainhead, which is both an earnest self-help manual as well as a fount of misantropy; which manages to raise a paean to the human spirit, and pee on it at the same time?

I'm glad I asked.

When I decided to blog The Fountainhead, I had chosen another book to read, just for my own pleasure; but I hadn't started it. Now was the time to return to Nathaniel West's 1934 novel, A Cool Million. Boy, talk about a palate cleanser! This short novel (or long parable) tells the story of an innocent from the countryside who ventures out into the world and ... is torn to shreds. This is one dark and bloody satire. (It even touches on the political arguments of the time, such as the war between collectivism and libertarianism. Hmm, where have we heard that discussion?) In some ways the story resembles Candide—the protagonist has a Cunégonde-like admirer who is made to suffer greatly. But in West's world, anyone attempting to cultivate their garden would be trampled by common thieves and grasping capitalists. The book is an acid bath, a universal solvent of cynicism.

Now I am halfway through Henry James's 1899 novel, The Awkward Age. At a rented estate in the English countryside, the Duchess has just laid her cards on the table for Mr. Longdon, which revelation promises to drive the action of the remainder of the book. After reading Rand and West, it takes a while to adjust to James's overstuffed prose. It's a shock to the digestion, like suddenly reverting to certain recipes of the 1950's, when everything was prepared with lots of cream and butter.

"Would you," the Duchess said to him the next day, "be for five minutes awfully kind to my poor little niece?" The words were spoken in charming entreaty as he issued from the house late on the Sunday afternoon—the second evening of his stay, which the next morning was to bring to an end—and on his meeting the speaker at one of the extremities of the wide cool terrace. There was at this point a subsidiary flight of steps by which she had just mounted from the grounds, one of her purposes being apparently to testify afresh to that anxious supervision of little Aggie from which she had momentarily suffered herself to be diverted. This young lady, established in the pleasant shade of a sofa of light construction designed for the open air, offered the image of a patience of which it was a questionable kindness to break the spell. It was that beautiful hour when, toward the close of the happiest days of summer, such places as the great terrace at Mertle present to the fancy a recall of the banquet-hall deserted—deserted by the company lately gathered at tea and now dispersed, according to affinities and combinations promptly felt and perhaps quite as promptly criticised, either in quieter chambers where intimacy might deepen or in gardens and under trees where the stillness knew the click of balls and the good-humour of games....

OK, if you say so.

Seriously, I find I have to put my mind into four-wheel drive to take in such passages.

But the pleasure of reading James is his characters. These are people with good and bad tendencies, but their motivations are well worked out; no one is evil purely because the story needs a villain at some point. The conflicts are real (i.e., between real people), not expressions of ideology or cynicism. I'm rooting for Vanderbank and Nanda to get together, but if circumstances take the story elsewhere, it won't be because someone starts behaving out of character or someone else shows up from nowhere to intervene by magic. A true, sensible universe is comforting, and sometimes the reader needs comfort.