special halloween editionLost Songs: "The City Sleeps" by MC 900 Ft. Jesus

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I'm not sure I can count this as a "favorite" song that I've lost since I only ever heard it on Halloweens while I lived in Utah.

Radio station 107.5 The End would have a countdown of the "scariest" songs and I always thought this song was waaaay scarier than "Thriller" which always took the #1 spot. In fact, I found this song chilling. Most of the songs in the countdown weren't the least scary. But this one? About a murderous arsonist? This one's a bit unsettling.

I don't have much else to say about it. Today's probably only the fourth time I've heard the song.

But happy Halloween.

Vote in an election that matters

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If I have a time I'll write a post about that other election(s), but today, more on Everyday Mormon Writer's Four Centuries of Mormonism Contest. I've already promoted my own story and hosted a discussion of another, so of course I now want you to vote.

I'm a big believer that the secret ballot is an important option but should never be required. So I'm going to tell you where I stand at this point (but you should still decide for yourself).

I found things to like in all the stories and liked some a lot. But I can only vote for four. And at this moment I've narrowed it down to five. Actually, I've picked my top three with the final spot up for grabs, but I'm not going to rank them for you. Instead, I'm going to talk about my top five choices by order of their original appearance.

Mon. Oct. 15: “Little Karl” by Melissa Leilani Larson (19th century)

The contest started with this blow to the amygdalae that left parents everywhere shivering. And its matter-of-fact mannerisms only deepen the awful reality.

Thu. Oct. 18: “Maurine Whipple, Age 16, Takes a Train North” by Theric Jepson (20th century)

I know I know I know. This one is mine. And I've spent some time considering my motivations but I really do believe this is a pretty dang good story. And I'm pleased with how its metafictional elements caught people's imagination. Which thing I never did suspect.

Fri. Oct. 19: “When the Bishop Started Killing Dogs” by Steven Peck (20th century)

I was terribly happy when I got to host this story. Besides me being a Peck fan, I found this story hit all kinds of sweet spots. The one between individual necessity and community obligation. The one between easing the reader along and slapping the reader's face. The one between nostalgic Americana and Deliverance. You know. Sweet spots.

Mon. Oct. 22: “The ReActivator” by Wm Morris (21st century)

I think of all the stories in the contest, this is the one that I identified with the most clearly. This is a protagonist I understand---perhaps a little too well.

Tues. Oct. 23: “Oaxaca” by Anneke Garcia (21st century)

This is the only story in my final five that takes place in the future. Make of that what you will. I like how this story plays with the Americentric assumptions of Mormon literature and reveals our common humanity at the same time.

But don't let me tell you what to think. Decide for yourself.

Byuck & Sex

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The reëdit of my novel Byuck (out later this year!) is getting to the story's moments of greatest crisis. And as I'm reading these scenes I'm remembering the varied responses editors and other readers have had to them in the past.

And it occurs to me that it's no coincidence I started the LDS-eros series seven months after the most painful of the novel's many acceptance-then-rejections.

Viewed from this distance it's particularly obvious that with Byuck the young author is grappling with (sex-related) problems he and many other LDS youth have grappled with. The parts of the novel most difficult for some readers to accept are---isn't it always the case---the parts closest to his actual experience. And I can see why some people refuse to believe that the protagonist's neuroticism might be true. Because how awful would that be?

If only Dave had allowed himself to consider the topics addressed in LDS-eros.

Or, on the other hand, if only he had read Byuck.

Hhhhhhh.

In other news, I should rush to point out that while certain aspects of all the main characters in Byuck reflect me (proving the truism: all first novels are autobiographical), very little that happens in the story can be traced to my own experiences, and young Theric resembles Curses as much as Dave. Fun fact: People who know me primarily as Theric have generally assumed Curses is me; people who know me primarily as Eric have generally assumed Dave is me; people who know me primarily as The Richmond Ripper have generally run screaming from the room.

And in other other news, can't wait to see the Matt Page cover Strange Violin Editions is arranging. I don't think he's actually started on it yet, but I'm still excited.

And in other other other news, I need to get back to that edit I mentioned. I'm not supposed to be blogging right now.

CutBank 77

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I always have a few subscriptions to literary mags running. I've been getting One Story and Irreantum for over half a decade now, and I'm still looking around and trying out others. On the audition stage now is CutBank; I have a year subscription and the first of two issues has arrived.

I'm only going to talk about the fiction today, but I did want to say that I really liked two of the four pieces of nonfiction and several of the poems, but sometimes I couldn't tell them apart. Can you tell which of these is a poem and which an essay?

(both continue onto the next page)

Their essayists need to spend some time with Montaigne and the poets with, I don't know, Frost or somebody. If we can't tell you apart, you ain't what you claim.

Anyway. The fiction.

General comment: The fiction was on average much more successful than the poetry and nonfiction.

Now let's get more specific:

Chelsea Bolan: "Man Already Falling"

A story about a suicide and the cop who tries to talk him back to life. The dreamy chaos of the suicide's mind infects every aspect of this story, and the tale's elliptical looping relationship with time prevents simple answers to complicated questions. As much a philosophical exercise as a a work of fiction, "Man Already Falling" is the sort of experiment that should not work as narrative, but in this case provides a measure of what I found to be honest pathos. Although a fair question is this: would this story work if it were not about a suicide? Or is Bolan pulling a Foer and picking up pathos on the cheap through a topic which will always provide it rather than through any actual skill in writing? I think she does have skill, but I would need to read more of her work before I put any money on the wager.

Naira Kuzmich: "The Fearcatcher of East Hollywood"

This was my least favorite story in 77. It had both the precocious adolescent narrator and the Crazy! Ethnic! Sorta Sexual! element that're so popular these days. I did enjoy the look at Armenians in East LA and the characters were decently drawn and some were truly great, but the story as a whole felt like a series of cliches that aren't really cliches because they're backwards and the colors are reversed and it comes served with baklava. And I love baklava! But still.

Amanda Shapiro: "Notes for a Eulogy, Undelivered"

Every once in a while, a writer will come up with a gimmick so brilliant that you wonder if you're witnessing the birth of a new genre. Certainly, this story's sequence of moments passing through the protag's mind and experiences following the death of her father covers a lot of breadth and depth. And it's not that any one element of this story is Utterly Unique, but the combination is so fresh and revelatory that all I could think about as I read it was wishing I had written that story first. And having recently been told something similar myself, I'm convinced this is one of the highest praises one writer can give another.

Plus: I love any game with the reader that remains a true work of narrative.

Matt Valentine: "The Hindu Shuffle"

Until I hit this story, I was settling into the assumption that CutBank's fiction would be aggressively modern in either form or topicality. Not so much here. This is more classically shaped short fiction (perhaps because the story was selected by Benjamin Percy rather than the editorial staff?), even if it does have some trendy elements such as the aging gay man.

And here's the thing: just because something (in this case, the aging gay man) is trendy doesn't mean it's not a legitimately human something worthy of consideration in fiction. The test is whether the story is celebrating humanity or celebrating trends.

"The Hindu Shuffle" celebrates humanity.

A failing journalist (is this also a trend? I ask because we'll see another of these in the next story) interviews a nearly forgotten elderly magician about his former partner. The journalist follows the magician through his routine. Both characters' lives are slightly sad, somewhat desperately lived on the edges of successful society---the story eventually takes one to the edge of his final failure and the other to the edge of an unwelcome / hoped-for opportunity for progress. But even the minor characters are drawn with reality and compassion.

Gabriel Welsch: "The Castle"

This failed journalist has actually lost his job. Which seems like just one more symbol of his emasculation. After all, his wife is in charge of everything, even running outside in the middle of the night in her sportsbra to solve their neighborhood problems, telling her husband to stay behind. But "The Castle" has more in mind than just presenting another emasculated modern male. Much more.

Our pov character (the journalist) has a foil in the "successful" (lottery-winning) nerd down the street who built a castle at the end of their suburban culdesac. That twerp is asserting his masculinity All Night Long by shooting off his cannon. But he's not much of a man's man either and the conflict between these two weak male characters leads the story to make some striking and original comments on the state of men in 2012.

I've written about this topic's appearance in literature before and I daresay that Hemingway not only did not have the last word on the modern male, but that the literature has yet to really get started. If you're working on a dissertation on the topic, pick this issue up.

Anne Valente: "Until Our Shadows Claim Us"

Finally! A supernatural serial killer story in a reputable lit rag!

Told in first-person plural, this story has a boring enough monster (say his name three times in a mirror!) but the way his crimes dovetail with international disasters and the children's sense of responsibility is something challenging to the genre tropes. (Clarification: Great literary horror also appears in genre rags, but I've not seen anything quite like this story before. It's doing something new. And being reminded of Lake Nyos is always a good way to make me feel a little less safe on my planet.)

Like many horror stories, this one is very much about growing up and becoming an adult---the most scariest thing we do in life. I was glad to read it. I hope CutBank submits it for horror awards. I'm not sure how well it will do, but I think it has a shot at attention.

In conclusion, I want to quote some words to live by from Fridtjof Nansen, as quoted in one of the two essays I liked, "The Contours of Cold" by Kate Harris:

Let it be impressed upon the young never, when there is a choice, to do anything which can be done equally well or better by someone else. How many wasted lives would then be spared if each individual tried to find his own line.

Inaugural Lost Songs: "It Don't Matter to Me" by Bread "Straight Tequila Night" by John Anderson

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On someone's blog a month or so ago I ran across a post wherein said someone made a list of favorite songs they hadn't heard in at least three years. I thought it was a marvelous idea, but I couldn't think of any off the top of my head. In the age of Spotify and YouTube, if I want to hear a song, I can.

But it is true that my internal jukebox is filled with songs on constant repeat---songs I live with but maybe haven't heard in ages. Sometimes I'm glad I haven't heard the song in years (eg Alan Jackson's "Livin' on Love") but some of which I really do love and I'm always happy when the jukebox moves them to the front of the line. So when I heard myself singing "Cuz it don't matter to me / If I live or! if! I! die! tonight!" I knew I had my first post in this new, continuing series. (If you're reading this post in The Future, click on the lost songs tag at the bottom of this post to read about other songs.)

First thing I had to do was find the song so I could listen to it. Ends up it's by Bread:

Bread was one of my father's favorite bands, and the Bread vinyl were among the few records to survive 1987's moving-to-California purge.

I wouldn't be surprised if ten years have passed since I last heard "It Don't Matter to Me" (though we can't blame me having the lyrics wrong on that distance---I have the lyrics wrong on every song ever) and it's much more 70sy than I remembered, but it's still a pretty great little pop number. This song is prime for a sweet cover by a hip guitar band.

I remember this song providing me with the over-the-top emotions young Theric craved. The changes in lyrical pace, the pauses, the sudden bursts of volume/emotion (and what's the difference between volume and emotion?). I can't pretend this is one of the finest pieces of music in human history, but as a pop song to weep along with? It's terrific.

Not quite what I remembered, but I still like it a lot.

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The first song I realized I could put into this series was "Straight Tequila Night" when I saw it mentioned in a terrific short story.

Now here's a song I truly love. I hated most 90s country, but the songs I loved I loved deeply. And this one's near the top. We'll probably be seeing some more 90s country in this series, I'll warn you now.

Placed after the Bread song like this, I'm struck by the similarities. I don't recall the technical musical terms, I'm afraid, but, you know, the way the music moves up in volume and tone when the emotions get heightened. I'm a sucker for that stuff.

As a teenager, I had some cognitive dissonance, loving a song with this much alcohol content (I'll have to write a post on Jose Cuervo sometime), but the song was too great not to muscle through.

Listening to it now, it holds the same charm. I'm surprised how many times the chorus is repeated, but I suppose when you have one of the greatest choruses of the decade, you should wheel it out for a couple encores.

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This is fun. I may have lost most of my music vocabulary, but I've not lost my love for music. Expect some more self-indulgence in the future. And please: play along.

Irreantum 14.1 (part three) One in a continuing series on the LDS-Eros

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Today we return to this issue of Irreatum with our LDS-eros hats on to discuss the sex in the poetry of Elizabeth Cranford Garcia and the sex in an essay by Shelah Mastny Miner.

Since Miner's essay comes first in the volume, let's start with it here as well.

What I liked most about it is its frankness. And while perhaps one might argue that she has been forced into frankness by her ten-year-old son who says, "I know [jumping on the bed]'s loud. . . . It's always hard for me to fall asleep when you and dad have sex" (21), her frankness is still most welcome.

How many Saints are willing to put in print that upon getting married "having sex became our favorite pastime. We soon realized that homework, making dinner, going to church, reading, picking up my mom at the airport, and watching NBA finals games could all wait half an hour, or even five minutes" (22)?

Of course, as has been discussed before in this series (for instance, for instance), maybe this experience is too rare among us. But if so, then her frankness is even more admirable for the example it offers all our newlywed virgins. (Who, of course, have Irreantum subscriptions.)

The other bit of taboo dealt with frankness is the one my wife appreciated most about the essay---the advice she gave her engaged younger sister three years ago: "'My best advice about how to keep the spark in your sex life can be boiled down to three words: Don't have kids'" (21).

(Her view will evolve over time but who's going to deny that young children get in the way of sex? Or that "motherhood and inhibition would arrive hand in hand" [22]?)

So we have two subjects weirdly taboo: the pleasures of marital congress and the imposition children place upon said congress.

For a culture so focused on sex (or, in other words, marriage and children---same thing), these are two important discoveries that should not be surprises.

The essay also discusses different ways to teach children about sex (from the frankly medical to the mysterious book appearing on a child's shelf), how sex couldn't have been such a sequestered secret in a one-room cabin, a Linda Sillitoe poem that suggests that in our culture "even gods engage in creation behind locked doors" (28), and how we can overload on touching with our children.

The essay ends with a terrible pun that nevertheless succeeded in keeping the essay fresh in my mind for days, as I would revisit the pun and thus revisit the essay.

I'm just happy with how healthy this essay sounds.

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Garcia's poems in brief:

Honeymoon at Thirty-Something

I read the poem as two virgins speaking (the virgin thing may be debatable---but certainly both get a stanza apiece to speak). I've not been a newlywed thirty-something virgin, but these characters read really old to me. But maybe (for instance) her slowness to arousal is more a result of conditioning than physiognomy?

In a world where the forty-year-old virgin is a ready-made joke, these characters deserve a voice. I'm glad they found one here.

Fling

Another existant but often unheard Mormon couple, the kinda good Mormon girl with the not-that-good Mormon boy. She has to "pry / [his hands] out of my jeans. I had lines, you know" (7-8) even though she knows she's made little effort to reveal those lines to him. Perhaps it is his stated disinterest in celestial glory that brings her resolve back? Spiritual goals informing physical goals?

Eve in the Garden

Nothing directly sexual in this one, but the provocative idea that Eve steals back into the garden "every afternoon" (7) would press similar boundaries even without phrases like "tongue another taste" and "sponge her belly / with epiphany" ((8, 9-10). Is she eating more fruit? Is she visiting the serpent? What does it mean to "gather green" (8)?

The poem closes with Eve walking past the cherubim and flaming sword "burning / like a moth, a hair for every visit / soaked in lightning, each white shaft / a thread of infinity" (12-15). You don't need to be Freudian to see the sexual layer to this imagery. The suggestion that a white shaft is Eve's thread to infinity is just as true if we're discussing how Adam assisting her in becoming the mother of all. Knowledge burns like sex burns like motherhood and how can we separate the three?

Irreantum 14.1.i 14.1.ii

/subscribe/

/more lds-eros/

ps: have you seen sarah's new poem on the subject?

Everyday Mormon Writer's Four Centuries of Mormon Stories Contest finalist“When the Bishop Started Killing Dogs” by Steven Peck discussion page

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Today in Thutopia I am hosting Everyday Mormon Writer's new contest. In case you've missed previous mention of EMW, it's an online zine bringing bitesize (single-sitting-size) portions of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. They are currently presenting the twelve finalists of their Four Centuries of Mormon Stories contest, with the discussions distributed across the bloggernacle (which I find a grand gesture of togetherness).

The conceit of the contest is simple: three stories for every century of Mormon history---the 19th, the 20th, the 21st, the 22nd. If you've been playing along at home, so far we've read the 19th century and, including today, two of three for the 20th century. Join the fun and next week you can join us in the present and the future!

Today's 20th-century story is “When the Bishop Started Killing Dogs” by Steven Peck. I'm a great Peck fan, starting with his science writing. He's released two books recently which have received much love: A Short Stay in Hell (which I recommend) and A Scholar of Moab (which I intend to read soon). He's also the author of a terrific story about the Church of Jesus Christ of Martian Saints. Pick up Monsters & Mormons to read that one.

“When the Bishop Started Killing Dogs”
by Steven Peck

It’s funny what makes a man go crazy but one thing is sure no one expects it to be the Ward Bishop. It was Sunday morning and I noticed the police cars down the street at the Mullers’. Liz and I ran over to see what was going on. In our town when you see a police car at a neighbor’s yard you zip over because you know who it is that lives there. Plus we are all in the same Ward. When we got there it was plain to see what had happened. On their front lawn was their dog dead and with an arrow stuck in its chest. The officer was pulling it out and we could all see that it had a target tip and not a hunting tip and I think we were all a little surprised. It popped into our heads that this must have been teenagers because who else would have used a target tip when you want to take something down? The Muller kids were all crying and Sister Muller was crying too but she was . . . . read the rest then return

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Well! Wasn't that fun!

Let's get the discussion going. To start things off, may I suggest some topics for your consideration?

The 20th century is a long time. About a hundred years if I recollect correctly. When do you place this story? How can you tell?

The story reveals its big surprise right in the title. But this evil Atticus tale is saving its true surprise for the end. How seriously do you take the new bishop's thinking?

In some ways, the violence seems to draw the community together. Will the source of the violence negate that effect? Are we able to empathize with our leaders as we expect them to empathize with us?

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Thmazing's Thutopia is the blog home of Eric W Jepson, aka Theric, Th., Theudonymous, Thashionista, thetcetera. To read more thmusings about the Mormon arts, Mormon sex, things to read, svithes, whatever, feel free to click around. Either way, it was lovely having you here today. See you aroudn the Bloggernacle.

Change to commenting in Thutopia

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I've changed my commenting feature to allow nested comments. I hope no one will too-much miss the old standalone page of comments. Adios, old friend.

"Maurine Whipple, age 16, takes a train north"

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My short story "Maurine Whipple, age 16, takes a train north" is a finalist in Four Centuries of Mormon Stories contest and is up today on the Everyday Mormon Writer website. Read it, do.

When you've finished reading it, hop over to my pal Scott Hales who was asked to host discussion on the story. I'm pleased he was chosen because when I was writing the story, I was afraid I was writing it for him and no one else would like it. I mean---this is pretty geeky MoLit stuff.

But don't let that scare you. I think, next to "The Widower", Lady Steed would say this is my best work.

Hoorah for pleasing the wife!

Anyway. You should go read now.

Irreantum 14.1 (part two)

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The language of the poetry of Javen Tanner

This poetry engages the challenge presented by James Goldberg a couple issues ago. (Listen to a verbal draft here.) Briefly, his point is that scripture provides LDS writers vast quantities of allusions to connect with their LDS readers. Tanner has accomplished this task with aplomb. Consider this third stanza from "Genesis":

And the water he called blood. And the darkness, night.
The warm night of darkness was parted from the blood.
And this is how it was: the darkness bled out light.

I wish I could quote the whole poem, but know that it constantly plays with the creation language of Genesis is unexpected ways, sometimes with lightness, sometimes with stabbing.

Keep an eye on his blog. "Sweetwater may show up.

The Jesus of Lisa Madsen Rubilar's poetry

Here too the poet is exploring stories and language we already have intimacy with. I wasn't much impressed with the first poem, but, like "Sweetwater", I wish I could simply reproduce "Just Telling It Like It Is" and "A Day in the Life of Jesus" and discuss every line, word, phrase.

To keep it brief, "Just Telling" is a description of Jesus from those nonaccepters who nevertheless stil love the boy they once knew. Suddenly, the sound uncomfortably like the people we are each week at Church, sometimes confusing motes and beams. "A Day in the Life" moves into the sometimes awkward second person and makes that awkwardness a strength; beginning with the line "You learn that your cousin John is dead", the poet forces us into Christ's position and thus recognize just how difficult his life was. As a work of midrashim, it is phenomenal. Prepare to understand Him as maybe you have not before.

The interview with Tyler Chadwick

Or you could just buy his book and discover the marvels he uncovered for yourself.

Borders as explained by Scott Hales

A very helpful way to understand how Mormons interact with the world. But I'm not going to be able to sum it up in a couple paragraphs.

Bradford Tuckfield compares Borges to Lewis

I was unsure what Tuckfield meant by Mormonism having a vulnerable God until a couple days later when I heard the Givenses speak on the same topic. But his main point was that Borges as Mormon as C.S. Lewis, although for completely different reasons. It seems like a thesis worth exploring further.

Melissa Dalton-Bradford mourns

And it is painful to read, but I left this essay feeling more capable of love and empathy. And our faith requires us to mourn with those who mourn, and so this essay made be a better Saint.

On Monday, we'll return to this issue of Irreantum one last time and talk about, wait for it, S!E!X.

/subscribe/

Irreantum 14.1

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Although, traditionally, I only intend to write about the fiction when I get a new Irreantum, I will need to address some of the poetry and essays that refuse to be ignored. Fiction first, but I will be brief that I may hit all points.

"Conference" by William Morris

I'll admit my first layer of thinking about "Conference" consister in large measure of "How dare he write the sort of story I am trying desperately never to write again?" Which is hardly a fair spot to begin judging a work on its merits.

So never mind the fact that much of this story takes place in the protag's head as she debates the lousy options she feels life is providing her. Or, rather, let's not never mind them, but accept them and be glad someone else is writing them instead of me.

I'll admit I'm not sure what I am meant to take from this story even though it is clear our protagonist does have a victory of some sort. The sort of victory I might expect from a protagonist of Melissa Leilani Larsen's, which should be taken as high praise indeed.

Like much of Mel's work (both plays here, for instance), William is aptly drawing a woman trapped in the liminal spaces left for (especially single) women in Mormonism. She's trapped in no-man's-land (unfortunate pun)---an observer struggling to be more fully an actor. Whose triumphs can be disrupted by those who will never have to navigate her space.

And with that, I'm already failing to be succinct.

"The End of Happy Endings" by Courtney Miller Santo

I just picked up Santo's new book largely on the strength of her last Irreantum tale, and this story makes me want to drop all the Important Stuff and Already Begun Books and get to it right away. A brilliantly drawn and layered story of a woman who kills a dog and tries to save a soul and the spiritual and emotional whirlpool these opposing fronts result in.

There. That's what brief looks like.

"The Sinkhole" by Larry Menlove

I'm a fan of one Menlove story I've read and not so much the other. And how does this tiebreaker fair?

Quite well.

I will admit the tidy way all the threads come together is a bit much, even with a nod at them, but still: it's hard to bicker over such a demonstration of craft. This is a story I could present my AP kids and they could do marvels with it. While leaving plenty behind for the professionals to uncover still.

I don't know that "too perfect" is a substantial enough complaint, so let's just say this midcentury Montana tale fits snakes (with their symbolic weight), a halfbreed (with all his symbolic weight), a blonde girl (ditto), a Jack Mormon (ditto), and other plainfaced symbols (that function solidly as their realworld counterparts as well) around none-too-subtle centerpiece of a sinkhole.

Holy smokes, but the more I think about it, the more every single bit of everything in this tale is a loaded symbol. The fossils! The dead horse! The placement of the wound! Et cetera!

I really should seriously consider teaching this story. If you can't analyze this thing, there is something wrong with your analyzer.

And with that, I think I'll postpone the rest of my Irreantum discussion until Wednesday.

/subscribe/

Searching the clouds for paranoia

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061) Amulet: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi, finished October 14
060) Amulet: The Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi, finished October 13
059) Amulet: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi, finished October 10

I've been aware of the Amulet books and their sterling reputation for some time, but never bothered to pick them up. Perhaps because of my ambiguous feeling's toward the author's other work. But a friend lent us the first three books. Lady Steed read them and was underwhelmed, but the Big O read them and loved them. So when Large S asked me to read it to him, I did.

He and Little Lord Steed were utterly and completely raptured by the first book. I had not intended to read more than a few pages, but we read the entire book in one sitting, the little lord's head often between me and the words as he followed the pictures with an intensity I have not often seen.

We've now read the first three books (books four and five are now out as well) and the kids loved them. Me? I think I liked them more than Lady Steed because I read them with the kids. But no question that any skepticism I had about the fantasy was overcome by how fully I was sucked in by the realistic prologue.

Read them with your kids.

under a week



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058) Feedback by Robison Wells, finished October 9

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD --- PROCEED AT OWN RISK --- [or skip to next book]

The night this novel arrived from Amazon, I pulled my copy of Variant off the shelf to reread the last three pages. Heck, that's not enough. How 'bout the last thirty pages. You know what? Those were great. Let's read the twenty pages before those. Now the twenty pages before those!

I may have read the entire book that night if Lady Steed hadn't said something about it being Monday and back-to-work and and it's-2am and turn-off-the-darn-lights or something. That's how propulsive and exciting and awesome the story of Benson's escape from Mayfield Academy is.

And the cliffhanger at the end of Variant is one of the most wrenching I have ever experienced.

Then we go to Feedback, whose first page is essentially Variant's last page.

But the sequel loses the first's intense and unrelenting sense of paranoia. Why? I'm not entirely sure. It's not like the threats suddenly ended.

I realized at the end of chapter twenty-four, when Benson breaks back in to Maxfield Academy, what Feedback is missing.

A sufficiently threatening setting.

The real antagonist of Variant I realize now, was not the bad kids or the exposed androids or the absent adults, but the building itself. Its claustrophobic, towering, locked-down menace. Because when Maxfield Academy reenters the story, the stress hormones reenter my bloodstream.

But sadly, that's about 270 pages into a 310-page book. And so just as the paranoia---the true star of the first book---finally makes its reentrance, the book comes crashing to a close. And while parts of these last forty pages are as exciting as what we saw in Variant, it all flies by just too darn quickly. And then the reveal of the bad guy and the victory over him and The End of the Book are all just too quick and simple and anticlimactic. Not quite a Mac virus in an alien ship, but close.

The book doesn't really end with the world all better--or even the sense that it will become all better. It ends with evidence of how intractably corrupted the world is. And yet the book attempts to end on a upbeat note. And it does most certainly end---it doesn't leave you with the sense that the a further six books of resolution are to come. And while I lauded Wells's choice to write a two-book series (how fresh!), if he really wanted to end it with the second book, I think this grand revelation at the finale is the wrong size and shape and color and smell. It's not an end. It's a beginning. And that means our sense of resolution is pulled away from us.

A parallel problem that intensifies this uncomfortable result is the resolution of the love triangle. I never had any clear grasp why one girl was better than the other (besides the p-o-v's say-so) and so I'm not left with a sense of rightness or completion when these two teenagers get to be together at novel's end. The world's overrun with alien-programmed robots and I'm supposed to get satisfaction because this kid's figured out which cute girl he'd rather kiss? I don't think so.

So in short, I'm disappointed. I still recommend reading both books just to experience the propulsive explosion of paranoia Variant has to offer, but when you start book two, tell yourself the best parts are already past. Then maybe you won't be as disappointed by Feedback as I was.

post script: all the same, I did spend the entire book arguing with myself how to film it

two days



===========================================================



057) Mormons in the Media, 1830-2012 by Jared Farmer, finished October 8

See my thoughts on AMV.

a month max



Previously in 2012 . . . . :

Read the review of 56.
056) The Garden of the World by Lawrence Coates, finished October 5

Read the reviews of 52-55.
055) The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake, finished September 27
054) Lote That Dog by Sharon Creech, finished September 25
053) Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech, finished September 24
052) Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse: It Only Hurts When I Pee by Ben Templesmith, finished September 24

Read the reviews of 49-51.
051) The Zabîme Sisters by Aristophane, finished September 20
050) Little Death by Thomas Kriebaum, finished September 16
049) God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut, finished September 11

Read the reviews of 44-48.
048) American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent, finished September 7
047) Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, finished September 6
046) Simply Science by a number of authors and illustrators for All Aboard Reading, finished September 5
045) Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach, finished September 3
044) The Strange Case of the Walking Corpse: A Chronicle of Medical Mysteries, Curious Remedies, and Bizarre but True Healing Folklore by Nancy Butcher, finished August 27

Read the reviews of 40-43.
043) How to Analyze the Works of Stephenie Meyer by Marcela Kostihova, finished August 13
042) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, finished August 10
041) Captain America: Man Out of Time by Mark Waid and Jorge Molina, finished August 1
040) If You Believe in Mermaids . . . Don't Tell by A.A. Philips, finished July 28

Read the reviews of 37-39.
039) The Smartest Man in Ireland by Mollie Hunter, finished July 27
038) Blockade Billy / Morality by Stephen King, finished July 12
037) Dispirited by Luisa M. Perkins, finished July 9

Read the reviews of 34-36.
036) Hyperion by Dan Simmons, finished July 2
035) A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck, finished June 27
034) Kampung Boy by Lat, finished June 22

Read the reviews of 29-33.
034) The Giant Joshua by Maurine Whipple, finished June 20
033) Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl, finished June 18
032) Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart, "finished" June 18
031) Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese, "finished" June 15
030) The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, finished June 9
029) Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick, finished early June

Read the reviews of 25-28.
028) Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, finished May 24
027) The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan, finished May 16
026) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, finished May 10
025) Dominant Traits by Eric Freeze, finished April 10

Read the reviews of 21-24.
024) The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White, finished April 2
023) UNTITLED MS by Kyle Jepson, finished March 12, 2012
022) The Complete Peanuts 1981-1982 by Charles M. Schulz, finished March 4
021) The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, finished March 3

Read the reviews of 14-20.
020) Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire, finished February 25
019) Good-bye, Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson, finished February 26
018) Madman 20th Anniversary Monster HC by [everybody], finished February 25
017) Billy Hazelnuts and Crazy Bird by Tony Millionaire, finished February 25
016) Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire, finished February 25
015) Habibi by Craig Thompson, finished February 20
014) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1910 by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, finished February 15

Read the reviews of 12-13.
013) Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, finished February 12
012) Black Hole by Charles Burns, finished February 11

Read the reviews of 6-11.
011) The Complete Peanuts: 1979-1980 by Charles M. Schulz, finished February 4
010) Blankets by Craig Thompson, finished February 4
009) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, finished February 2
008) The Millstone Necklace (forthcoming) by S.P. Bailey, finished January 31
007) American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, finished January 27
006) Across a Harvested Field by Robert Goble, finished January 23

Read the reviews of 1-5.
005) Hark! a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton, finished January 21
004) The Death of a Disco Dancer by David Clark, finished January 12
003) Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons by Clifton Blue Parker, finished January 9
002) Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestly, finished January 9
001) What of the Night? by Stephen Carter, finished January 5

The Garden of the World

.

056) The Garden of the World by Lawrence Coates, finished October 5

Louis suddenly saw the entire vineyard in motion, all at the same time; pickers on their knees in the fields, cutting clusters into buckets and pouring the buckets into boxes. His grandfather, standing with the reins in his hands while Prince walked serenely up and down the allées and boxes were slapped onto the wagon bed. John and Angelo, emptying box after box onto the wire mesh above the crusher, himself using the paddle to separate the berries from their stems, and the juice and must falling in the gravity-flow design down into the basket press. For this moment, changing the living fruit into living wine. (163-164)

The Garden of the World is not a long novel (exactly two hundred pages), but it is rich. The basic structure of the plot is fairly simple, held to two major p-o-v characters, and all the characters have that Shakespearean quality of being complex enough to breathe while simple enough to be mere cog in the tragedy.

Lawrence Coates is an alumnus of the high school where I work and he came back last spring to visit some classes. Then he was good enough to stick around during lunch and let me pick his brain re MFAs (he runs Bowling Green's). And basically he talked me out of it. Which is good because I've been waffling. I feel better having made my decision. For now at least. And hey! Buy Byuck! Coming out later this year! From nonMFA Theric!

Anyway, he sent me a pdf of the Garden's first chapter and my AP class discussed it with him. The chapter is rich and compelling, and I'm happy to say you can read it on Amazon (but nowhere else, best I can tell).

The story is taps many archetypal wells. It's a Prodigal Son story! It's a vaguely Oedipal story! With strong Antigonal undertones! It's a number of things.

Perhaps my favorite element of the story is its pastoralism. I loved the look it offers at vineyards and winemaking.

As a kid, I worked at a welfare vineyard outside Fresno a couple times a year---once to prune, once to harvest. Obviously, these weren't wine grapes (we are Mormon and they were raisins), and it was only a handful of days total, but I thus have an appreciation for grapes that perhaps most people don't. But I think reading this novel will provide an excellent approximation. Any vineyard with a tasting room and a gift shop that does not stock this book is missing a prime opportunity to get their fans even more excited about all that goes into winemaking. Srsly, vineyards. Stock this book.

Back to my Shakespeare comment above (and no, this post does not have any firm structure, thank you for noticing), when I made that comment I was specifically thinking of the man of the vineyard and his wife. Both are complex characters, but both block off their complexity from themselves, thus becoming unable to prevent the novel's final tragic sequence. At first, I thought the wife's brightness and positivity would be innocent, even if it failed. But in the end, I see that her panglossiness is as guilty as the father's bullheadedness in damning the brothers to limited lives.

Nothing in this novel is throwaway, even if left less developed than might be expected of a novel twice its length. Consider:

The town journalist reports only the good, overlooks the bad. This novel could be seen as a restorative with its elements of darkness, but the novel is also filled with moments of joy. And so the question left at the end is: Who is at fault if joy dies? Are all equally to blame? Is there a hierarchy of blame? Is there an ultimate blame?

But I ramble.

Good book.

Let's just leave it at that.

four months or so




Previously in 2012 . . . . :

Read the reviews of 52-55.
055) The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake, finished September 27
054) Lote That Dog by Sharon Creech, finished September 25
053) Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech, finished September 24
052) Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse: It Only Hurts When I Pee by Ben Templesmith, finished September 24

Read the reviews of 49-51.
051) The Zabîme Sisters by Aristophane, finished September 20
050) Little Death by Thomas Kriebaum, finished September 16
049) God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut, finished September 11

Read the reviews of 44-48.
048) American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent, finished September 7
047) Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, finished September 6
046) Simply Science by a number of authors and illustrators for All Aboard Reading, finished September 5
045) Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach, finished September 3
044) The Strange Case of the Walking Corpse: A Chronicle of Medical Mysteries, Curious Remedies, and Bizarre but True Healing Folklore by Nancy Butcher, finished August 27

Read the reviews of 40-43.
043) How to Analyze the Works of Stephenie Meyer by Marcela Kostihova, finished August 13
042) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, finished August 10
041) Captain America: Man Out of Time by Mark Waid and Jorge Molina, finished August 1
040) If You Believe in Mermaids . . . Don't Tell by A.A. Philips, finished July 28

Read the reviews of 37-39.
039) The Smartest Man in Ireland by Mollie Hunter, finished July 27
038) Blockade Billy / Morality by Stephen King, finished July 12
037) Dispirited by Luisa M. Perkins, finished July 9

Read the reviews of 34-36.
036) Hyperion by Dan Simmons, finished July 2
035) A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck, finished June 27
034) Kampung Boy by Lat, finished June 22

Read the reviews of 29-33.
034) The Giant Joshua by Maurine Whipple, finished June 20
033) Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl, finished June 18
032) Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart, "finished" June 18
031) Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese, "finished" June 15
030) The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, finished June 9
029) Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick, finished early June

Read the reviews of 25-28.
028) Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, finished May 24
027) The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan, finished May 16
026) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, finished May 10
025) Dominant Traits by Eric Freeze, finished April 10

Read the reviews of 21-24.
024) The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White, finished April 2
023) UNTITLED MS by Kyle Jepson, finished March 12, 2012
022) The Complete Peanuts 1981-1982 by Charles M. Schulz, finished March 4
021) The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, finished March 3

Read the reviews of 14-20.
020) Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire, finished February 25
019) Good-bye, Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson, finished February 26
018) Madman 20th Anniversary Monster HC by [everybody], finished February 25
017) Billy Hazelnuts and Crazy Bird by Tony Millionaire, finished February 25
016) Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire, finished February 25
015) Habibi by Craig Thompson, finished February 20
014) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1910 by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, finished February 15

Read the reviews of 12-13.
013) Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, finished February 12
012) Black Hole by Charles Burns, finished February 11

Read the reviews of 6-11.
011) The Complete Peanuts: 1979-1980 by Charles M. Schulz, finished February 4
010) Blankets by Craig Thompson, finished February 4
009) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, finished February 2
008) The Millstone Necklace (forthcoming) by S.P. Bailey, finished January 31
007) American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, finished January 27
006) Across a Harvested Field by Robert Goble, finished January 23

Read the reviews of 1-5.
005) Hark! a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton, finished January 21
004) The Death of a Disco Dancer by David Clark, finished January 12
003) Bucketfoot Al: The Baseball Life of Al Simmons by Clifton Blue Parker, finished January 9
002) Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestly, finished January 9
001) What of the Night? by Stephen Carter, finished January 5

First Observe, Then Serve mini-svithetacular

.

Sister Burton's instructions on how to serve---to observe first---is, I think, vital if we are to do Christ's work. Take home and visiting teaching.

Remember Sister Beck's story of the visiting teachers who showed up to interrupt their teachee's day with a lesson while a husband lay immobilized and toddlers threw cereal and dishes remained unwashed? We can't plan out service years in advance and have it be sufficient. We need to observe and then serve.

We are all called to serve. But are we paying attention to see where and when and how?

So wake up and do something more.



previous svithe

Another thought on the effects of the missionary age changeminisvithetacular

.

[thought one on this subject]

.

(I do not think my comments here are examples of chicken patriarchy for reasons I'll allude to, but Mormon feminists are welcome to call fowl in the comments.)

.

I saw a tweet during Saturday's afternoon session of, I deduce, a mother of a male BYU freshman. He (the son) and his friends were predicting that girls will soon outnumber boys in the MTC (and, I suppose, by extrapolation, the mission field). I'm doubtful, but also recognize the reasonableness of the argument as I will explain below.

I also saw a certain flunked Saint complain about the inherent inequality of (continuing) disparate ages for the different sexes. But I would like to propose, in the spirit of my previous paragraph, that the inequality we are seeing here may be a form of affirmative action. For men.

I don't know how true this may be internationally, but here in the States, our young men are in trouble. I'm not making one of those chickeny women-are-inherently-more-righteous-than-men arguments. I'm simply observing that, in general, American girls are preparing better for adulthood than American boys.

An example: Traditionally, girls have been told they're inferior to boys in, say, math and science. This problem is still real for women in the field. But do you know a girl who believes this? I just spoke with a graduating senior girl planning a career in science who had never even heard of this stereotype when I enthused about her choice. Where would she have? Most of the kids in higher-level high-school courses are female!

And she's not alone in her ignorance of an alleged girl inferiority. Nationwide, girls are outexcelling boys in pretty much everything academic. Some universities are even quietly instituting policies to let in underqualified boys just to keep the numbers closer to even. More girls are graduating high school, entering college, graduating college. The generation now in kindergarten will enter a workforce that women dominate. I don't see any other possibility.

Now let's return to the age gap in missions. I suspect that a generation of boys---used to girls being better than them---are becoming more and more willing not to take responsibility. When boys and girls are provided identical opportunities, it appears that, on average, boys step aside. I'm not saying this makes any sense, but it seems to be true. (Speaking of youth collectively and not individually.)

At this point of my on-paper drafting process, Elder Christofferson is discussing this very point: Men are falling behind. (At least in America---again, I don't know how true this is internationally.) And after I finish my draft, President Monson also speaks to this concern. (Follow the Christofferson link to watch Priesthood Session.)

No matter your feelings on men/women/priesthood, we as Latter-day Saints cannot be happy about any segment of our populace atrophying.

We can certainly disagree on whether differences in mission (starting age, length, expectation to serve) will help future Mormon men equal future Mormon women, but I think we can agree that future Mormon men had better equal future Mormon women, one way or another.

[Please complain about my arguments in the comments section to help me clarify or abandon them.]



previous svithe

preSvithetacular on those first few minutes of General Conference

.

I intended to leave my laptop closed this year for a change and see what it's like to, you know, just pay undivided attention. But then the choir didn't move straight into its second number---weird---and President Monson stood up and dropped a bomb.

So I opened up the laptop and missed all of the first session tweeting with folks about the changes.

The initial change (lowering the mission age for young men to 18*) I'm happy about, getting young men in nations with military or other obligations more able to serve a mission. Hopefully this will, for instance, help Korean youth make it through the entire two years.

[*Also of vital importance: President Monson told young men not that 18 was the new expectation but that 18 was a new option and they should struggle and pray and work with their priesthood leaders and search for a spiritual confirmation re when they should leave. I fear this will be turned into social pressure to leave at 18 but hope it will become a spiritual quest experience for young Mormon men. We'll see.]

The second change however, lowering the age for young women to 19, is enormous. Earth-shaking. In thirty years we'll look back at today as enormously important. This will result in many many more young women going on missions, and more elders learning to appreciate and work with sisters. It will change adult-Mormon dating norms. It will change the way men and women leaders work together in the church.

It may result in other changes as well. District Leader and Zone Leader aren't actual priesthood callings. Imagine if those were opened up to sisters. That would change sex culture in the church, for sure. It should help with the retention problems we have with just-out-of-high-school kids.

But the main thing should be the change in how young women view themselves. Missions are no longer for unlucky old maids. They really are an option for everyone. Even though it's not a "priesthood obligation" for young women, this is a clear sign that all young women are invited to seriously consider a mission.

And based on what I saw on Twitter today, they are already making appointments with their bishops.

I can't wait to see what this new world will look like.

another thought on this topic

previous svithe

Sing We Now of Christmas

.

Sing We Now of Christmas (website) (AMZ) is a clever idea for a Christmas anthology. It's an advent calendar in book form.

I was charmed by the idea when Michael Young put out a call for submissions, but I decided to participate because all proceeds were being donated to the National Down Syndrome Society. That seemed worthy, so I got to work.

"Stars Were Gleaming" is based on the carol of the same name (all stories in the anthology are based on a carol) and I tried to push as close as I could to the sentimental without making a reader like me cry foul. Which was a delightful change from the frozen Irishmen and piranha lovers and murdered mayors and crazed seagulls I've been publishing lately.

Hoorah for goodness!

It's an inexpensive book for a good cause. Buy it in time to start reading December 1.

(And, writers, he's planning a second volume next year to benefit autism. Submit now.)