Mov[i]ember 2019

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HOME

Modern Times (1936)

The baby and I came home from the park (the nut thinks she can do the climbing wall---and she darn near can^*) and the two younger boys were watching an excellent print of Modern Times they'd found on YouTube. We'd missed the first twenty minutes, but who cares? It's Chaplin! (I imagine the impetus for this viewing decision was the elder of the two dressing as Chaplin for Halloween [the younger went as Harpo] and thus developing a Jones to revisit his work.)

The movie's terrific. Although some parts I had forgotten so thoroughly as to doubt I had seen the movie before, other parts were as familiar as any film I'd watched twice yesterday. I will admit that sometimes it's hard to focus on the story because Paulette Goddard is just so stunningly beautiful. This is not something that happens to me often in film and movies are chockfulla beautiful women, but Paulette Goddard in Modern Times is just astonishing. It's like being in love.

A side comment: watching Modern Times so close upon finishing Player Piano emphasized to me just how awful Vonnegut's world would be and exactly why it would be so tempting.

HOME

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

I haven't seen Singin' in the Rain for over a decade which is a shame because I love it (I discovered it in high school and made all my friends watch it for my birthday either just before or after senior year). My mother gave me this deluxe dvd also over a decade ago and it only tonight came out of the plastic so I could show it to the boys. I'm glad to report they enjoyed it. Of course, they loved Cosmo the most.

After my second-ever viewing, the the sunset and modern dance numbers grew tiresome and it wasn't until my most recent viewing that I began to appreciate them. Tonight was the largest screen I've ever seen the film on and it (well, the screen and maybe age?) gave me a much greater appreciation for the modern number.

On the special features (which I've been drooling over for over a decade but, well, you know), I've just paused the series of film clips showing where the songs originated after Broadway Rhythm. It's weird, but I had always thought of the songs being from long before Singin' in the Rain, but Broadway Rhythm was released only eight years earlier---that's the distance we stand today from Scott Pilgrim! So, for all I know, that might still have been the freshest looking thing around.

I'm hardly musical educated. But I know what I like.

And I like this jukebox musical. Somehow, this film that should not have been good, was. And just like Casablanca, a movie that had no right being better than mediocre became one of the greatest of all time.

Sing it.

HOME

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

It's been a long time since I've seen this movie. And the only part I really remember finding funny the first couple times is Keenan Wynn shooting the vending machine. I found it much funnier this time around, but it's still not a film of hilarity for me. I can see how, at a time of ultimate tension, this would have been just the right film. I think had I been around in 1964, yes, funniest film ever.

One thing I find interesting about the film is how the structure of it. The stuff on the plane, for instance, is set up as a traditional will-our-boys-pull-it-off war film. Yet simultaneously, we want them to fail. We want them to both win and die. That's an additional tension to keep things tight and let the jokes ricochet off.

ELSEWHERE

Okja (2017)

The first half of this movie I absolutely loved. The actors are great, the direction is energetic, the film is dripping with fun and just enough style. A corporation has bred superpigs and ten are being raised by farmers around the world. The pig on top of a remote Korean mountain grows up with a little girl and they spend their days together. Okja (the pig) is clearly intelligent---far more than even a regular pig---and their relationship is sweet and strong.

Then the film gets into satire. It's satire of corporate greed seems pretty spot-on. Its satire in science is embarrassingly simpleminded and, frankly, kind of ruins the movie for me. I still like it, but before recommending it I would have to apologize in advance for the dumb way it gets into GMOs and suchlike. It's ... sad.

But it's probably worth it for the sheer joy of those moments unsullied by hamhanded attempts at satire.

HOME

The Dark Knight (2008)

It's been a long time since I've seen this film. The Joker and Two-Face interpretations remain excellent. I find though, hearing my kids watch Christian Bale parodies for literally years, has made, at times, Batman himself unintentionally kinda silly. Frankly, this pisses me off.

One thing I love about this film is the ferries scene. It's one of the most optimistic and beautiful things said about people in movies in many a film---and certainly in superhero film. And by people, I don't so much mean individuals, but people.

I did think Ramirez was Renee Montoya, so the turn of her character was a bit of a shock....

Anyway, I miss this movie being new. I miss it filling the air and making us think and feel and fear in new ways.

It's a shame the finale can't compare. I wonder if, with Heath Ledger's survival, that might have been the case.

HOME

Paddington 2 ()

I've seen bits (sometimes most) of several movies this month that I haven't recorded---Infinity War, Back to the Future III, Dr Strangelove again), but even if I had seen less of Paddington 2 I might have included it, because it is beauty and joy and it makes me cry. These films are among the best "family" films there are. I rank them with Babe and Pixar's top-enders. They're just dang good. And such terrific casts. And such fine use of CG. You can't say that about every movie, you know. You really can't.

ELSEWHERE/HOME

Metropolis (1927)

In its newly-restored-with-lost-footage edition, this is still a long movie. Over two and a half hours. But riveting throughout. Brilliant. I wish the still-missing pieces were intact!

I didn't know it as well as I thought. (Like many old movies, it's one I'd thought I had seen before but clearly had not.) And what I love most is the poetry of the imagery. Fritz Lang is an artist. And while I imagine that silent film, perhaps by its inherent visualness and irreality, is more able to showcase "art," it may actually be that this is the time Modern Art was at its peak. Frankly, although abstraction is shorthand for art today, we're not that bought into it. You can't make this movie today. Even directors with a strong visual style from Wes Anderson to Zach Snyder can't do what Lang is doing.

One interesting thing: the mad inventor has a prosthetic hand. I don't know a tradition from, for instance, Greek myth, for the robot-handed person, but it's huge in film. Did it start here? Both Luke and Anakin Skywalker have a false hand. The burgermeister in both Son of and Young Frankenstein. Dr Strangelove. The villains of both Inspector Gadget and Pound Puppies. It's everywhere!

(Oh! One more! The bands over the lady in the lab are reminiscent of both the monster and the bride of Frankenstein and Leeloo of Fifth Element!)

My favorite actor is Brigitte Helm. Playing both Maria and the robot lets her inhabit completely opposite characters in identical dress and near identical makeup. She's amazing.

Anyway. Nice to have a masterpiece live up to the name!

THEATER

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

We had to rush out to see this before Netflix pulls it into their prison forever. And I'm so glad we did. Each story is wonderful, and although they are tied together by violence and death and are set in the Old West, otherwise they are startlingly different. Although I probably enjoyed the title story best, I think my favorite tale was that of Alice Longabaugh. And (indirect spoiler alert) I thought for certain we were finally getting a happy ending.

About halfway through, the ending of each story felt like the right way to end the film. But the final story, when it finally arrives, ties them all together quite nicely. It'll unsettle you. You'll want a firm answer as to whether these people are even alive. Are they even alive? You'll want to know.

If Netflix ever lets it out of prison, I'll hope to see it again.

HOME

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

I've only seen this once, maybe twice, nearly twenty years ago. It's good. I still don't enjoy it as much as I once enjoyed Flying Circus, but that's okay. I don't have to enjoy all things equally. It is time for me to watch some of the other movies, however.

One great thing about the Holy Grail, however, is that it is the one Python event practically everyone can swap quotes from. There are plenty of good ones and sharing is fun and thus they are reason enough to priority this movie over all other Python stuff.

HOME

Baby Mama (2008)

Lynsey and I were pumped for this movie ten years ago. Then the reviews were not so shiny and we passed. Until today.

The film's fascinating from a character-development angle. The moments characters' relationships are static moment are excellent---well rounded and believable. But the moments of transition from one type of relationship to another are terrible. Just: really, really bad. Not good.

But most of the movie is pretty great. It helps that Tina Fey and Amy Pohler and Steve Martin and Greg Kinnear are four of my favorite actors, of course. And Sigourney Weaver is great. But if we're counting percentages, most of this movie is good. Only the most pivotal moments tend to fall flat. And really, it's just lazy screenwriting. Although not an example of what I'm talking about, the twist in the last ten minutes works as a twist only because it was so, so, so much lazier than I ever imagined this film would be, even after all the sloppy relationship transitions.

From a writerly perspective, I highly recommend this film just to watch the great and the terrible sit side by side. Entertainmentwise, you could do worse.

HOME

The 'Burbs (1989)

I finally got around to watching this movie because two avid movie watchers a decade-plus younger than me love it. Love it! A movie from my childhood which I have no clear memories of people talking about! So, clearly, it was time to watch it.

I started firing it up on Prime and watching it in twenty-minute increments. When Lynsey caught me, she couldn't believe it was watching it without her! She'd always intended to see it. So tonight we started back at the beginning and watched it together.

It's a great movie. The use of sound (effect, music) and the camera are brilliant, hilarious. I need to watch more Joe Dante movies.

(I mean, this shouldn't be a surprise. He is the director of Gremlins 2.)

HOME

WarGames (1983)

Believe it or not, I've never seen this movie before. But unlike Cloak & Dagger (which was a bigger deal to my friends at the time), people still talk about WarGames. In fact, the reason I'm seeing it now is because Son #2 is in love with Ready Player One. So why not?

Lady Steed and I missed the first little bit as we were at a high-school play, but I feel like the kids caught me up pretty well. (And I wonder if I have seen the beginning before---that grade-altering scene sounded very familiar. But I suspect that's so because I'm pretty sure the same thing happened in Sneakers ... and maybe Ferris Bueller too?

Anyway, the one thing I knew for sure coming in to WarGames is probably the same thing you know about WarGames: The computer's famous line at the climax of the film. But you know what? Even missing the first half hour, even knowing that line was coming and roughly how it would get there and what would come next---even knowing all these things? It was still a terrific moment of movie magic.

I didn't expect much from WarGames even though it's a well loved film. Lots of films from people's childhoods are well loved. But this was a pretty good movie. And my kids dug it. I finally made them go to bed, but they're planning to get up early tomorrow to finish the special features. That's not something they often do.

So. Does this mean I watch Cloak & Dagger next?

(Aside: Dr Strangelove has been sitting around all month and my kids have expressed some interest in seeing it. WarGames owes a lot [a lot] to Dr Strangelove so maybe I should stoke that interest again and show it to them. I doubt they'll like it as much, but maybe it'll be a nice thing for them to have seen.)



LATEST POST

Previous films watched

2018

jan feb mar apr may jun jul&aug sep oct nov dec

2017

qu1 qu2 qu3 qu4

2016

qu1 qu2 qu3 qu4

2015

qu1 qu2 qu3 qu4

2014

qu1 qu2 qu3 qu4

2013

th1 th2 th3

Nod then laugh/nod then laugh then really laugh then stroke thy chin

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094) The Möbius Strip Club of Grief by Bianca Stone, finished November 2

The collection's split into two parts. I is entirely about the titular club save the final poem. II is not about said club until a couple near the end.

The Möbius Strip Club of Grief itself is a nice conceit. It's a play on another poem's title, the author of whom's foundation Stone now runs. In the Möbius Strip Club of Grief, the dead do the entertaining. Most of the poems that explore this place are quite good, though a couple approach fillery.

It was also a surprise to have a Mormon poem:

Back during our brief Mormon days
Mom wouldn't let us go to temple
out in Utah and baptize the dead.

"But I can baptize your father," I insisted,
who'd hanged himself all those years ago.
"He was a Jew," Mom said. "He doesn't want
to be baptized into the three Mormon heavens."

And that was that.

Soon after, we stopped attending, and really
I was glad. I didn't want to baptize the dead so much
as get into a swimming pool and be held down
by a gentle hand of the priesthood.

"Your brother got too serious," Mom said, smoking
in the car in her wool jacket with the elastic loops for
      shotgun shells
and the flannel insert and loose M&M's in the pockets
(I loved her coat). "He said I was sinning for
      drinking coffee." (59)

This is a bit of the third part of "Blue Jays," a paean to Stone's mother. Some of the collection's best lines are in this poem, but, like all of the longer poems, it also has patches that reveal Stone's distinct need for a limiting (and thus liberating) form. By the end of the book, her poetic techniques at times feel like poetic crutches. And the longer poems, in general, come off more as lazy prose than poetry. The reason I quoted only a bit of III from "Blue Jays" is because the rest of it didn't feel that connected. Not lazy prose, in this case, but disconnected. And that might be the same problem---an unwillingness to trim. Use of form would help.

That said, back to the Mormon bit, pretty good, right? Clearly she wasn't an attending Saint for more than a few months, but it's a good poem.

weekish


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095) Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters by Ted Cohen, finished November 7

I'm fascinated by the science and philosophy behind humor. I love this Wired article, I love Asimov's musings, I love what the Whites have to say. And now I'm charmed by Ted Cohen, philosopher.

Like Asimov (relevant fact: a fellow Jew), Cohen muses at length at the traits and uniquenesses of Jewish humor. On the one hand, is this just because it is their native waters? Or is there really something different? I'm coming to believe there is. I'm a bit unsold by all the reasons proposed, though that soup of reasons is probably more or less accurate. With a book only sniffing a hundred pages to dedicate more than twenty to this question is fine as a case study, but I'm ... I don't know. It's hard, in American culture, in which we are simultaneously aware of these things and attempting not to be to know how to juggle the two demands.

Cohen's arguments regarding jokes (that they signify community, create intimacy, etc) and compelling and he is a jolly host. I'm not interested in reading his book on metaphor and, at least, the essays on baseball and Hitchcock here. Off the library!

probably two years


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096) Sunday Funnies by Gahan Wilson, finished November 9

Gary Groth wrote a brief afterword and from it we learn that Wilson doesn't really remember how he started drawing this newspaper strip, which newspaper took it, how many papers carried it, or why he quit. How about that?

The strip is a collection of gags. Some are better than others, a couple are repeated. The strip works best later on as he started matching the gags thematically---sign painters, optometrists, hats. Sentient furniture. Often the final gag is either Future Funnies (a space-themed strip that tells us more about the '70s, naturally) or The Creep (a spy/vampire/weirdo being over-the-top macabre). This strip makes Wilson's role as missing link between Charles Addams and Gary Larson is clear.

Another thing revealed by this collection: that tired gag style of shoulda-been-retired strips still appearing in papers? Either Wilson is satirizing that gag style or it was popular then even when it's grotesque rather than cute.

maybe a week


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097) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, finished November 15

At BYU, I started hearing about the movie. Which I finally saw circa 2001 but barely remember. Mostly Stephen Fry talking about whether or not women have souls.

Some years later I started hearing about the book. With at least the enthusiasm with which the movie had once been discussed. And I developed an interest and a must-someday-read opinion. Well, that day has come. The Relief Society's ancient but unofficial book club selected it and read along with them. And I'm so glad I did.

As a comic writer myself, I don't laugh at books often. Instead, I appreciate them. I see the joke, I nod with professional respect, I mumble things like "Well done" or "What a clever way of doing that" or "Yes, quite funny" and then I move on. I rarely actually laugh. I envy people who laugh at books.

I laughed frequently at Cold Comfort Farm.

One unexpected blow hit me at the end of chapter three as I was walking home. I immediately stopped walking beause it is unsafe to laugh as I was laughing and walk simultaneously. I cried out to the empty air around me such things as "What the---" and "How did she---" and "I can't even didn't---" and other such unprofessional nonsense.

For those who are familiar with the book, I am referring to a certain bovine ailment.

It is a brilliant piece of comedy. So brilliant I, like most readers of comic art, am barely aware after first read of the art. I can smell it under the surface, but I barely noticed it, to be frank. I was too busy trying to marshall all the funny. Which is no easy task, believe me.

The aspect of Cold Comfort I was most looking forward to is that it takes place in the near future. I'm quite fond of near-future fiction. That's largely why the final season of Parks & Recreation might be my most believed final season of a television show. The weird thing was, everytime I mentioned this aspect of the book to its fans, they all told me I was wrong. But then I started reading and a clear announcement that the novel is near-future was in large letters right below the epigraph! What the heck!

The near-future aspect is not glaring, as it ends up. Rich people own personal aeroplanes and you can go in town to use the television-enhanced telephone, and you get details of future history like an annual Spanish Plague and the Anglo-Nicaraguan wars, but it's not much. And the details of life feel, from here, honestly, pre-1932 if anything.

Still. One more thing I like about it.

I reread so rarely I don't want to make a promise, but Cold Comfort is a book I hope I'll reread someday.

maybe two weeks


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098) Green Monk: Blood of the Martyrs by Brandon Dayton, finished November 15

I preordered this book shortly after I learned Image was publishing it. I had been trying to follow it online, but it wasn't getting updated regularly and I kept forgetting to seek it out. I was also stoked that Image picked it up. I love Brandon's work and I want it to find a larger audience.

This volume picks up long before the original independently published version---it's an origin story, really. (Upon finishing Blood of the Martyrs, the first thing I wanted to do was reread that first book, but ... I can't find it. Dang it, Theric.) How the orphaned child was raised by monks. How, when he came of age, he first joined the monastery, then had to leave in order to redeem his sins. I loved the in media res-ness of the original, but this is a lovely and moving origin story. I hope it sells well and we get to hear many more tales of the Green Monk in years to come.

(In the meantime, you can read a related story I commissioned for Sunstone 160.)

afternoon


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The Films of October 2018(as seen by theric)

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ELSEWHERE

Frailty (2001)

This is the second film^* of the Elder Quorum's unofficial new film group, modeled after the Relief Society's decades-old unofficial book club. I'm not quite sure what I think of it yet....

I have a couple complaints, but many of those complaints were resolved in the conclusion. But that doesn't mean the conclusion is satisfying. It's more ... unsettling. It warps easy definitions of right and wrong, good and evil. But it's shaped like a clean conclusion. And so I need to let it settle. Luckily, I'll have some blokes to discuss it with tomorrow. That may help.

(Incidentally, it also made me want to rewatch Unbreakable and finally watch Take Shelter.)

ELSEWHERE

The Truman Show (1998)

I believe I've seen this twice, once in theaters and once when it arrived on VHS.^* I liked it okay. Aspects of it really stuck with me. Moments.

Seeing it now, into my adulthood, my opinion is higher. I think it's terrific. Moving and intelligent. Strong.

Truman's not trapped so much by his choices as by outside forces---and that's not entirely unlike the world. His heroism in asserting the right to choose over the machinations of an entire world built to prevent his greatest desires. And, in place, what do they provide? Peace. Happiness. Safety.

Reminds me of George Orwell (i) . . . and the Devil.

HOME

Batman Begins (2005)

I still love this movie, but after a decade of constantly watching superhero movies (thank you, Marvel), I'm better able to see its flaws. They're not serious flaws. The constant reexplaining of the water-main issue, for instance, is handled well even though it's rather a lot. And years of superhero films has also made me consider more deeply, mid-action sequence, the fate of innocents during, for instance, a massive citywide carchase. "It's a miracle no one was killed," says Alfred. But people were certainly hurt.

The question of risking others to save Rachel (or whoever) will be more seriously addressed in the next movie, but here it's just a couple words of dialogue and on we move.

The watching of this film was to finally introduce the kids to these films. I gave them the choice between this or Lord of the Rings. You tell me if they picked the right one to watch first.

ELSEWHERE

When Marnie Was There (2014)

This movie is beautiful and lovely and fun and perplexing. I never quite felt like I was sure what was going on, but that was okay. I was happy in the world and willing to follow the plot wherever it led.

For quite some time, I was thinking it was a ghost story (and maybe it was?), but it was never a tale of horror. Even when it did get a bit scary. It's important you believe that, because movies it reminded me of include The Shining, The Haunting, and Sixth Sense, but Marnie IS NOT a horror film. Not even close. But that same sense of confusion and bewilderment is key to what Marnie IS doing. And doing well.

I also thought it was a prepubescent lesbian love story, but given the explanations that flow out at the end, this must not be true. Better not be true, anyway.

The Explanation Portion of the movie is its weakest spot. I'm satisfied with the explanation, but it's a bit ... well, you know how it is. Explaining things too much can kill them. And while the payoffs that are possible after the explanation are moving, the explanation is still a bit much.

(Disclaimer: I watched the movie over two days, so that might have messed up the storytellers' ability to win me over.)

One last comparison:

Early on, I assumed this would be Spirited Away without supernatural elements. Not so. But after one viewing, I feel it's likely Marnie holds its own against that masterpiece and they would make an interesting pairing if you're putting together a doublefeature.

ELSEWHERE

Children of the Corn (1984)

I can't believe I've been living in fear of this movie my whole life.

I mean, to be fair, it probably would have terrified me at age eight---I still haven't worked up the courage to rewatch Gremlins---but now, it's pretty hokey. And the final act is just stupid.

That said, props on its jump scares. It had me popping like corn, for sure.

HOME

Justice League (2017)

Wow is this a stupid movie. I mean---the reviews were not exactly glowing but it comes up in conversation enough I thought maybe there might be something to it. But not really. It's bad. Zack Snyder's overdramatic impulses are largely unchecked, most of the jokes aren't funny, the writing is terrible, the actors---many of whom I know to be good---can barely work through the material, the editing is awkward, and, after a decade of Marvel movies, the fight scenes and cosmic elements feel derivative.

It's just a bad movie. Which is a shame. Because I still think DC has a leg up on Marvel, at least for me personally, in terms of quality of universe. It would be nice to see them figure it out.

(Which is not to say I think a Marvelesque incorporated movie universe is the way for DC to go. I would rather see them turn the DC universe into a playground laboratory where good filmmakers can try out different ways of using the characters. Some of the recent announcements make that sound possible.)

ELSEWHERE

My Friend Dahmer (2017)

The book has stuck with me lo these five years and so I've been looking forward to seeing the film. It captures much of what I liked about the book---Dahmer is a sympathetic character, filled with confusion and self-loathing as he begins to understand himself. He's an exaggerated and distorted version of any kid that's struggled to understand his sexuality.

Watching the movie, it's not easy to tell how accurate this movie might be. So supplementing with the book ain't a bad idea. Unless you're happier believing there's nothing to see here, ha ha, what a charming entertainment. (But good luck with that.)




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Previous films watched

2018

jan feb mar apr may jun jul&aug sep oct nov dec

2017

qu1 qu2 qu3 qu4

2016

qu1 qu2 qu3 qu4

2015

qu1 qu2 qu3 qu4

2014

qu1 qu2 qu3 qu4

2013

th1 th2 th3

I gotta coupla fine Halloween books, either of which you could still manage to read before trickertreaters arrive

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091) Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow, finished October 22

I was pretty pissed off the first time I opened this book. Nick Hornby had promised me blank verse and this was blanketyblankin free verse. Is there no fact-checking at The Believer???

Anyway. Everything else Hornby promised ended up being true. This was a great read---propulsive and lovely and jawdroppingly violent. It also had a few weird typos I suspect would have been caught in prose.

Here's the gist: FREE-verse novel about rival gangs of werewolves in L.A. Explicit sex and cannibalism. Mostly awesome. A few narrative cheats are taken but this is Poetry so somehow it's closer to okay. Some true things said about personal relationships and community. Makes you both want a dog and fear dogs. The cover's awesome---consider going for the hardback.

I won't claim it will still be here in a hundred years, but you can't do much better if you're looking for a Halloween book. And, ahem, free verse reads fast.

under three weeks


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092) Homespun and Angel Feathers by Darlene Young, finished October 29

MS policy. (But it's really good.)

three noncontiguous days


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093) A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny, finished October 29

This is a marvelous Halloween read. And if you're still looking for a book to enjoy this Halloween, it's not too late. You could read it in a couple cozy afternoons.

First, the dedication:

To—
Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury,
Robert Block, Albert Payson Terhune,
and the makers of a lot of old movies—
Thanks.

This novel is a scrapbook of one author's beloved references. He's woven Larry Talbot and Sherlock Holmes and Shub-Niggurath into a single coherent tale. And done it so well.

Perhaps the purest stroke of genius here is to have it all narrated by a world-weary, good-natured, honest, diligent, intelligent, ancient dog.

I know. That doesn't sound like a great idea. But then you have not met Snuff.

Here's the gist: Every time the full moon and Halloween coincide, somewhere in the world a group of ... people, let's call them, come together to play the Game, in which openers and closers jockey for position and fight to open (or prevent the full opening) or a door which would allow the Elder Gods to conquer our world. So far, we've been lucky.

Each "human" participant works with an animal familiar, and A Night in the Lonesome October largely follows these animals as they investigate small mysteries and try to discover who is on which side as they prepare for Halloween. Each night marks one chapter in the book and they vary in length.

The novel is immediately compelling, but early in the month things are slow to get going. Which is sensible of course. Snuff makes his rounds and does his chores, etc etc, but slowly things come together and we pass through moments of insanity and violence and clashing climax. It's a dandy book, it really is.

Sadly, because of the cover by James Warhola, the interior illustrations by Gahan Wilson felt incorrect for maybe a third of the novel. Which was a shame because they are vastly more appropriate companions for the actual words. This is Zelazny's October:

Anyway, I don't want to say much more as much of the pleasure of the novel is recognizing old friends in new guises. That's something you'll want for yourself.

three or four months


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The title image of one is both comforting and haunting. Can you guess which? I'll bet you can.

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086) Murder in Manhattan, finished October 7

This authorless giftbook is 89 pages of interviews and facts uncovered by the lead detective. And then---can you solve the case???

The short answer, for me, is no, because the berry cobbler is being served and I don't have time to think very long. But the solution seems reasonable and if I run into another of these (if there are others) I would trust that the mystery is solvable and, if in the mood, would plan to give it more of my time.

an evening


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087) The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, finished October 10

This violent play takes place in a police interrogation room in a totalitarian dictatorship. It does some fun things with metanarrative and the structure of the play is quite nice. I'm not 100% sure I like what it has to say about narrative, but hey. (A writer's stories are taken as evidence of his criminality. Ends up his stories actually cause criminality instead. So.)

My only real issue with the book is the "retarded" brother whose intelligence and lucidity and capacity for language seem to be unstable. A good actor can even out that weakness in the writing, but on the page it doesn't work so well.

That said, I liked it. I would kind of like to teach it when I'm talking metafiction but never would because of the language. Don't want to read that out loud.

two noncontiguous days


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088) Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, finished October 10

I've been putting this particular Vonnegut off---largely because I've heard it is not good. It came out seven (seven!) years before Sirens of Titan announced the arrival of a New Voice and it's not, this is true, peak Vonnegut. But it's a terrific look at what Vonnegut is because all the hallmarks of his style are evident. Onomatopoeia in quotation marks as if the fireworks were speaking. Classic Vonnegut move. And all the absurdity and irony etc etc are there, but not in the amounts you would expect based on his later work. The smell of Vonnegut is there, but if you don't know the aroma, you might not recognize it.

I was reading it because I'm putting it on a list of dystopian novels I'm handing out to students next month. This dystopia, like all dystopias, is a utopia. In this case, a utopia for engineers and managers. The rest of the world has nothing to do and a crisis of boredom has set across America. As you might imagine (or if you've read the opening chapters of Cat's Cradle or chunks of Breakfast of Champions, for instance) Vonnegut finds ample room for satire. But (excepting the time at the Meadows) it's just less. Vonnegut, but not Vonneguty enough.

That said, as a first novel it does take some chances. And with hindsight, no reason to be surprised this virgin would go on to write Slaughterhouse-Five.

ELAPSE


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089) Lumberjanes, vol. one by Noelle Stevenson and village, finished October 16

This is more or less exactly what I was expecting and, having finally begun it, I'm happy to say it delivers in spades. I'm not utterly in love with it, but there's at least, like, seven volumes out and at the library already, and I think that love is apt to come.

The skinny: strange things are afoot in the woods, and the Girl Scouts-esque organization Lumberjanes is there to investigate. Happily, by the end of this volume, their troop leader has discovered the girls are telling the truth about monsters in the woods, so that won't be snuffleupagusing up the works going forward.

The book is fun and that makes its agenda fun too. And what's its agenda? Girls are fun and messy and dangerous and it's okay for some people and not all people to be lesbians-in-embryo. I guess. Whatever. All that matters is that the girls are fun to be with.

evening


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090) SkyHeart Book I: The Star Seed by Jake Parker by Jake Parker, finished October 16

It's been almost three years since I provided Jake with notes on the working script he shared with me and now I finally have the book in my hands and get to see how it turned out.

The short: it's good.

I won't have a long, but here's a medium:

I love the characters as they were originally presented (as collected in Antler Boy) and it's still hard for me when the pig and the whale show up and everyone doesn't have the camaraderie that I loved from those original stories. But that aside, the story here in SkyHeart is stronger. This volume ends on a cliffhanger, but by the time that rolls round, we're already fully invested in the world and our leads.

For the Latter-day Saint reader, there are at least two nods to the endowment to watch for.

evening


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I finally finished Middlemarch! (also, some other books)

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082) Beyond the Light by Ryan Shoemaker, finished September 17

Ryan sent me his collection back in May and I've been reading it off and on. I have mixed feelings about his stuff. His funny stuff is hit/miss for me (the shorter the missier) and his serious stuff largely involves taking awful people and letting them be awful. I do prefer ones with a hint of redemption ("Great Heights") or that are willing to be surreal without succumbing to the silly ("Lost in Furniture Land"---which [absurdism aside] is almost an identical tale to "Great Heights" and follows it immediately in the book, which is a strange editing choice...). I appreciate the craft of his awful people behaving awfully stories, but sometimes the push credulity ("Our Students"---although this story might just push my buttons because it takes place at a high school; Ryan has it out for high school, both students and teachers).

One thing I find interesting about Ryan's CV is how he ... I don't want to say recycles, although that's not unfair, but how he revisits works, like Magritte painting rocks in the air over and over and over. I don't just mean publishing the same story in two places---that's great and more outlets should be willing to do that. Nor do I mean really liking the name Hector.

The sort of recycling (I'm going for it) is "Brigham Kimball: Mormon Missionary Extraordinaire" also appearing as "Parley Young: One Mormon Life"---a longer (and, in my opinion, better) version of the same. (The two version appear to have been published just months apart.) Or taking "Bing," originally published in Irreantum, and giving it a new title ("Beyond the Lights"), sending it successfully through Santa Monica Review's slushpile and republishing it. (Full disclosure: Ryan told SMR that it had been previously published.) Again, I don't have problems with these reuses, but in neither case is the first-publisher-under-an-alternate-title cited in the Acknowledgments. Which seems a bit weird to me.

I'm intending to write a longer review exploring the good and the hmm about Beyond the Light for AML, but that largely depends on my health and catching up on all my other responsibilities that have slipped while I've been sick.

almost four months


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083) Space Cat Meets Mars by Ruthven Todd, finished September 22

This ... I dunno if I'm accurate here (and I returned the first two to the library), but this felt slighter. Perhaps it's just because there's less intentionality on the part of our heroes. They went to the Moon on purpose. They went to Venus on purpose. Then they're captured by an asteroid's gravity and have some mechanical problems and making an emergency stopover on Mars. That sounds good, but....
I like the faux pre-Apollo science of these books, but Mars is pretty far to walk for a gallon of gas. I dunno.

Anyway, Flyball meets the last Martian cat and she's coming back to Earth (via the moon) with them, after which they'll get busy, but the whole thing felt shorter and lesser. Charming, but insubstantial. In comparison, I mean. I'm not claiming the first couple are great literature or anything. But I liked them.

two days


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084) Invisible Gifts by Maw Shein Win, finished September 24

I intend to write a longer review of this (I hope for Whale Road Review) so I'll hold off for now.

perhaps fourth months but actually two separated bursts


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085) Middlemarch by George Eliot, finished September 29

I began Middlemarch long, long ago. And I loved it from the very beginning. But then the main character made a very upsetting decision at the end of book one and I ... just set it down.

I picked it up again when our ward Relief Society book group (ambitiously) picked it to read earlier this year, so I read along with Lady Steed.

No one finished it in the month. Well, like two people did. So book group discussed the first four books only. But Lady Steed and I kept reading and we both finished it this week.

After book one, the idea of a "main character" seems almost laughable. Its subtitle is "A Study of Provincial Life" and it truly does take us through and around an entire town. The characters we spend the most time with connect, but every spot and soul of Middlemarch is fair game.

However, with the last two paragraphs of the novel, we are thrown a reference that (with one exception) we haven't heard since the prelude. And it is the prelude and those final paragraphs that make Dorothea---that first-book main character---the heart of the entire novel. Her goodness drives hope and possibility; her strength is what makes us believe humanity should yet continue.

Dorothea is a complicated character but she's motivated by a pure goodness that makes her one of my favorite characters in fiction. I love her because I cannot be her.

Other characters I more clearly see myself in. For a few pages, I was certain Casaubon and I were the same person. (Happily, we are not.) And Bulstrode's justifications for his sins rang much, much too true.

My failures are much like Lydgate's, but I'm in a better marriage. (Fun fact: Occasionally I give my students an essay prompt originally part of the 2011 test that includes a passage from Middlemarch; all but two or three of the best readers always misinterpret it, and believe that Lydgate is abusive and cruel towards his wife. I don't know if this is a comment merely on my students' reading ability or if it somehow revealing of modern entitlement....)

In short, Eliot understands people. I loved Silas Marner and I love this too. It's a loving look at humanity while clawing its criticisms deep. If we're unhappy with Dorothea's fate, it's not because of any failure of hers. And she is happy. But in a better world, she, a woman, could have been everything we know she could have been.

I understand why people read and reread this book. It feels borderline irresponsible to not. But no doubt decades will pass before I return. And I will be different then and I will understand it in new ways.

I'll see you then.

[Final note: Although I'm generally skeptical of narrators waxing philosophic, I would never deny Eliot that freedom.]

possibly over five years


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