I mentioned a week or two ago how Jonathan Carroll is one of my favorite writers and that he also has the best Facebook posts of anyone I know. He'll post strange images and quotes and ideas that just strike his fancy. It is like a constant stream of brilliance. You never know what he is going to discuss but you can almost guarantee that it will be staying with you for a while.
One of the things he posted recently was how he was thinking about the question he is often asked "Where I should I get started in reading your work." He's written novels and short stories over decades and it is sometimes daunting to wonder just where to begin. Do you start with his first novel, do you read what people consider to be his best, do you grab his most recent and relevant work or is it somewhere in between.
He didn't answer that question but instead asked the following: "If you were to introduce someone to yourself when would you have them meet you?" Meaning at what age, at what moment in your life were you the truest version of yourself. When you look back at your life at what point do you say, "If you met me then you would know all my dreams and fears, all of my hopes and desires, you would know exactly who I am."
What an amazing question. I've spent weeks going back and forth with myself as to what my answer would be. It is tempting to say the end of high school or the beginning of college because that is when you are optimistic and energetic and feel like you are the most important being in the world. Except that looking back at myself I am embarassed by who I was, how uncool I was and how I was stumbling trying to figure out who I was. I had a vision and I had good intentions but I'm not sure if it would represent who I would become, for better or for worse.
Likewise I'm not sure if I would want someone to meet the current version of me and state that this is who I am, even though I am doing everything I possibly can to continue to improve whatever it is that I am. Life knocks you down as the years go by and even though you continue to get back up your skin grows more and more calloused. I'm more cynical than I was when I was younger and not in the hipster sense. It's a negative, depressing type of cynicism that I am trying to change. I don't think you can know who I am without understanding those hopes and dreams that I had that now lie much farther underneath the surface.
Maybe there isn't one moment when you are truly you. The act of observing effects the observed. We are continually changing and evolving and unless you have been along for the entire journey you can't understand the full story. Maybe it is just that we should strive every day to be who we truly are. To express what it is to be us. It is a challenge, though.
Sunday Night Music Club: I'm trying to get back into music and posting videos. Mainly this will mean lots of Drive By Truckers songs. Not a bad way to start.
Showing posts with label Jonathan Carroll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jonathan Carroll. Show all posts
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
What I've Read (Since 1998....)
If there is anything that I am well known for it is having an incredibly well-documented life. For no apparent reason, other than a strange belief that one day a group of biographers will be forever grateful for my initiative, I've basically kept track of everything in my life. As in I have kept track of every book that I have read since 1998. There is no real reason behind it, especially why I noted when I started and finished each book, but it did make it much easier when I joined Goodreads.com and was asked to upload the books that I have read.
(Admittedly I did this so I would have the largest number of books read of anyone I knew on the site. Kim found out and then trounced me to a degree that is frightening. We have a literal library room as in we had to implement the Dewey Decimal System for tracking purposes.)
So, since Goodreads allowed me to finally track and quantify all of this I can say that since January 1, 1998 I have read 467 books. Effectively 30 books a year or so, which I think is pretty good. It also told me which authors I read the most over this time frame and I've decided to use the blog to review my top twelve. Some notes to start.
1) Reading a book means that I read every page. No, I started the book, got halfway through and realized it was crap and gave up. Reading means finishing.
2) A book is a book is a book. Meaning that David Foster Wallace's "This is Water", which is just a reprinting of his commencement address at Kenyon College and has for some reason become a viral video today counts the same as his "Infinite Jest", which is 900 pages long and has 100 pages of footnotes that must be read in order to understand the book. But hey, they both have bindings and an ISBN number so they are books.
3) Plays count as books. My list, my rules.
4) Graphic novels are books if written by Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman or if I decide there to be literary merit to them. Pure super hero comic compilations don't make the cut.
Ok, the top 12...
7 Books Read:
J. K. Rowling: The only female author to break the top twelve and proof that I have read the entire Harry Potter series. One of the interesting thing about Goodreads is that you can compare what you have read with other people and see what you have in common. Everyone has the Harry Potter books in common. It is fascinating just how many people have read these books.
Julian Barnes: I am kind of surprised that I have read so many of his books. He is an award winning British author who wrote one of my favorite books of all time in "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters", which is one of those books that has the ability to change your life if you let it. Some of his other work is great, others are kind of slogged through but still worth checking out.
Chuck Klosterman: I have said this on many occassions but he has the career I dreamed of but didn't pursue because I never imagined that it could be an actual career. He writes about music and sports and pop culture in general with no real purpose behind it. Just commenting and considering and pondering pop culture, making some observations but without no real driving thesis other than, "Isn't it weird that a guy from South Dakota can somehow make a living by making an analogy comparing Real World casts to varios incarnations of KISS?" That so could have been me.
Mike Gayle: You don't know who Mike Gayle is. No one knows who Mike Gayle is. I don't even think he has had seven books published in the US. First time I was in Kim's house I looked at her bookshelves and saw that she also had a copy of Mike Gayle's "My Legendary Girlfriend". That sealed it in my mind that we were meant for each other. Oh, and he is basically Nick Hornby lite or Bridget Jones for guys, depending on how you feel at the time. Still a good read.
8 Books Read:
David Foster Wallace: My choice for the greatest writer of my generation. His essay on Roger Federer is at a minimum the best piece of sports writing if not the best short piece written in the last twenty years. He is also one of the few people who I would ever consider to be better than me at both writing and math. Lots of people are better than me at one; he was at many levels beyond me at both. I understand how many people consider him to be overrated and I still have two books to make my way through before I can complete his works but from a pure literary standpoint I am a believer.
9 Books Read:
Douglas Coupland: I have a love / hate relationship with Douglas. When he is at his best (Microserfs, jPod, Generation X) he can capture precisely what is going on in the culture around me. At his worst (Polaroids of the Dead) he makes me think that if I have to read one more word about Deadheads I am going to head up to Canada and tell him that no one cares. I think that that might be my least favorite book of all time. But when he is on he is a genius.
P. J. O'Rourke: My personal choice for political criticism. Funny, doesn't play favorites, and is at his best when he is pointing out just how stupid politicians can be. His view of the political world is probably the closest to mine that I have been able to find.
11 Books Read:
Nick Hornby: The winner for most variation in books written. I have read his novels, his young adult novel, his nonfiction books on soccer and music as well as four separate collection of magazine essays where all he does is write about what books he read that month. Someone after my own heart in that respect. I mean, he wrote High Fidelity. I really shouldn't have to say more.
Jonathan Carroll: The best writer you haven't discovered yet. Quite possibly the reason Kim and I are married is because of his book "The Ghost in Love", a story I will tell in detail one of these days. He has the best Facebook feed of anyone I know and I don't even technically know him. His stories can be described as dark fantasies or speculative fiction or however you would want to describe a world exactly like ours outside of the occasional talking dog. I have yet to find a writer who can turn phrases and set scenes in such a way that it legitimately makes you stop reading. I've literally been stunned by his work. Some of his stories have made their way into my dreams. Seriously, please read any of his books. The fact that he isn't considered one of the best writers on the planet is a travesty. (He's also the highest ranking American on my list if you discount the fact that he has lived in Vienna for the past few decades).
12 Books Read:
Neil Gaiman: Few writers can create whole worlds out of thin air the way that Neil can. Some authors have to struggle with getting one or two characters to be realistic. Neil invents entire mythologies out of whole cloth and the result is spectacular. I don't know if anything can touch Sandman in terms of graphic novels and his more traditional writing can be jaw dropping as well. Can't wait for his new book this month.
15 Books Read:
William Shakespeare: I read one play a year. I've made my way through all of the great plays, most of the good plays and now I am at the stuff he wrote just to pay the bills. At some point I have to go back and reread some of the stuff that I read when I was younger and didn't understand in the slightest. There is a reason to this yearly tradition. Over time I've learned how to read his plays without needing notes and definitions. Things make more sense now. While I appreciate being introduced to Shakespeare as a teenager I don't think you can really understand him until you have a few years under your belt.
23 Books Read:
Terry Pratchett: Ah, good old Sir Terry. The creator of Discworld, my favorite fantasy world where dwarves fight trolls, one of the cops is a werewolf and the witches are not to be messed with. His books work as fantasy, comedy and social commentary all at the same time. When I was first reading his stuff (and it was tough to find his earlier work in the US) I would come back from a trip to England with four or five of his books in my bags. Definitely an all-time favorite.
(Admittedly I did this so I would have the largest number of books read of anyone I knew on the site. Kim found out and then trounced me to a degree that is frightening. We have a literal library room as in we had to implement the Dewey Decimal System for tracking purposes.)
So, since Goodreads allowed me to finally track and quantify all of this I can say that since January 1, 1998 I have read 467 books. Effectively 30 books a year or so, which I think is pretty good. It also told me which authors I read the most over this time frame and I've decided to use the blog to review my top twelve. Some notes to start.
1) Reading a book means that I read every page. No, I started the book, got halfway through and realized it was crap and gave up. Reading means finishing.
2) A book is a book is a book. Meaning that David Foster Wallace's "This is Water", which is just a reprinting of his commencement address at Kenyon College and has for some reason become a viral video today counts the same as his "Infinite Jest", which is 900 pages long and has 100 pages of footnotes that must be read in order to understand the book. But hey, they both have bindings and an ISBN number so they are books.
3) Plays count as books. My list, my rules.
4) Graphic novels are books if written by Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman or if I decide there to be literary merit to them. Pure super hero comic compilations don't make the cut.
Ok, the top 12...
7 Books Read:
J. K. Rowling: The only female author to break the top twelve and proof that I have read the entire Harry Potter series. One of the interesting thing about Goodreads is that you can compare what you have read with other people and see what you have in common. Everyone has the Harry Potter books in common. It is fascinating just how many people have read these books.
Julian Barnes: I am kind of surprised that I have read so many of his books. He is an award winning British author who wrote one of my favorite books of all time in "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters", which is one of those books that has the ability to change your life if you let it. Some of his other work is great, others are kind of slogged through but still worth checking out.
Chuck Klosterman: I have said this on many occassions but he has the career I dreamed of but didn't pursue because I never imagined that it could be an actual career. He writes about music and sports and pop culture in general with no real purpose behind it. Just commenting and considering and pondering pop culture, making some observations but without no real driving thesis other than, "Isn't it weird that a guy from South Dakota can somehow make a living by making an analogy comparing Real World casts to varios incarnations of KISS?" That so could have been me.
Mike Gayle: You don't know who Mike Gayle is. No one knows who Mike Gayle is. I don't even think he has had seven books published in the US. First time I was in Kim's house I looked at her bookshelves and saw that she also had a copy of Mike Gayle's "My Legendary Girlfriend". That sealed it in my mind that we were meant for each other. Oh, and he is basically Nick Hornby lite or Bridget Jones for guys, depending on how you feel at the time. Still a good read.
8 Books Read:
David Foster Wallace: My choice for the greatest writer of my generation. His essay on Roger Federer is at a minimum the best piece of sports writing if not the best short piece written in the last twenty years. He is also one of the few people who I would ever consider to be better than me at both writing and math. Lots of people are better than me at one; he was at many levels beyond me at both. I understand how many people consider him to be overrated and I still have two books to make my way through before I can complete his works but from a pure literary standpoint I am a believer.
9 Books Read:
Douglas Coupland: I have a love / hate relationship with Douglas. When he is at his best (Microserfs, jPod, Generation X) he can capture precisely what is going on in the culture around me. At his worst (Polaroids of the Dead) he makes me think that if I have to read one more word about Deadheads I am going to head up to Canada and tell him that no one cares. I think that that might be my least favorite book of all time. But when he is on he is a genius.
P. J. O'Rourke: My personal choice for political criticism. Funny, doesn't play favorites, and is at his best when he is pointing out just how stupid politicians can be. His view of the political world is probably the closest to mine that I have been able to find.
11 Books Read:
Nick Hornby: The winner for most variation in books written. I have read his novels, his young adult novel, his nonfiction books on soccer and music as well as four separate collection of magazine essays where all he does is write about what books he read that month. Someone after my own heart in that respect. I mean, he wrote High Fidelity. I really shouldn't have to say more.
Jonathan Carroll: The best writer you haven't discovered yet. Quite possibly the reason Kim and I are married is because of his book "The Ghost in Love", a story I will tell in detail one of these days. He has the best Facebook feed of anyone I know and I don't even technically know him. His stories can be described as dark fantasies or speculative fiction or however you would want to describe a world exactly like ours outside of the occasional talking dog. I have yet to find a writer who can turn phrases and set scenes in such a way that it legitimately makes you stop reading. I've literally been stunned by his work. Some of his stories have made their way into my dreams. Seriously, please read any of his books. The fact that he isn't considered one of the best writers on the planet is a travesty. (He's also the highest ranking American on my list if you discount the fact that he has lived in Vienna for the past few decades).
12 Books Read:
Neil Gaiman: Few writers can create whole worlds out of thin air the way that Neil can. Some authors have to struggle with getting one or two characters to be realistic. Neil invents entire mythologies out of whole cloth and the result is spectacular. I don't know if anything can touch Sandman in terms of graphic novels and his more traditional writing can be jaw dropping as well. Can't wait for his new book this month.
15 Books Read:
William Shakespeare: I read one play a year. I've made my way through all of the great plays, most of the good plays and now I am at the stuff he wrote just to pay the bills. At some point I have to go back and reread some of the stuff that I read when I was younger and didn't understand in the slightest. There is a reason to this yearly tradition. Over time I've learned how to read his plays without needing notes and definitions. Things make more sense now. While I appreciate being introduced to Shakespeare as a teenager I don't think you can really understand him until you have a few years under your belt.
23 Books Read:
Terry Pratchett: Ah, good old Sir Terry. The creator of Discworld, my favorite fantasy world where dwarves fight trolls, one of the cops is a werewolf and the witches are not to be messed with. His books work as fantasy, comedy and social commentary all at the same time. When I was first reading his stuff (and it was tough to find his earlier work in the US) I would come back from a trip to England with four or five of his books in my bags. Definitely an all-time favorite.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
What hides in plain sight...
A quick politics note to start. Apologies that the live blog didn’t quite have the full wall to wall coverage that I originally expected but I was having more fun on the phone than writing and as we all know: fun rules. Plus, since there wasn’t much drama as the night progressed I have a feeling that I would simply have resorted to insulting various states for several hours just to make things interesting. Though I am upset that I missed the CNN hologram news reporter, a sign that even CNN realized that there was no way they could fill that many hours of television.
I expect to have one last soapbox post and final analysis on Sunday. Part of it is I need a little distance to grasp the importance of the event. I also want to give this topic the attention it deserves. Mainly, I just have a really cool idea which, if it works, will make it one of my favorite posts ever. But overall I am feeling not really jubilant but relieved. I wasn’t dancing in my apartment when victory was announced. It is much more of a feeling that “Alright, that was step one. Now the hard work begins.”
So until we get to that I would like to do a book review.
“Somewhere in everyone’s inner city is a cemetery of old loves.”
That line appears early on in Jonathan Carroll’s new book “The Ghost in Love.” Reading it stopped me in my tracks as for the first time I envisioned all of my past relationships as graves in a cemetery. Some beautifully memorialized and immaculately kept, Others weathered and forgotten. It is an image that stays with you for a very long time.
I’ve been reading Jonathan’s work for years now almost entirely for moments such as this. He is at times one of the most wonderful writers I have ever seen. He crafts phrases and images in ways that make you put the book down so you could fully understand them. This isn’t because they are challenging, that there is some incredibly subtle imagery that requires a master’s degree to understand. It is mainly a result of lines that are so simple and beautiful that you have to take a moment to reflect on their meaning.
He is, for lack of a better term, a cult writer. Meaning that there are people like me who will buy everything that he has ever written and that allows him to continually publish knowing that he has a set fanbase. As a result I really feel like he has stopped trying to write a best seller and is now focused on writing what he likes to write. Within the first two pages of this book you are introduced to a ghost and a talking dog. It’s not your typical book.
The story is another in a line of his work in the realm of magic realism. It centers on the ghost and the dog as well as a couple dealing with the end of a relationship that neither wanted to have end. It also dwells on life and death and what it means to be who we are. There is a philosophical tone to the entire book, sometimes to the detriment of the plot. At one point it feels as if the narrator has stopped talking and the author has and it is rather jarring. Even so, there is one idea that is brought up that I want to examine here.
It is as much a philosophical proposition as anything. Let’s say I gave you the ability to go back to any moment in your life and stay there. Find that one day, that one hour, when you had no concerns in the world. You were in love, your life was at peace, everything was precisely the way you wanted it to be. That will be your life, that perfect moment on repeat. Or, I will let you continue to live your life with a better understanding of who you are and all the different aspects of your personality. Which would you choose? Would you take the perfect moment from your past or the unknown future?
It is such a tough question to answer. A few months back I had what I can only describe as a perfect day. Even now I don’t know what I would sacrifice to have that feeling again that everything is exactly the way I had dreamed it would be. But I also know that it was a fleeting feeling and that I truly feel that my best days are ahead of me. That is the real crux of the question. Have you given up on the dream of ever being as happy as you once were or do you still hope for a better future? I struggle with this a lot as I sit alone in my apartment in the dark wondering just where my life is headed.
This is what Jonathan’s books make you do. You spend days thinking about images and ideas. In the past I actually dreamt that I was a character in his book and lived out the first few chapters (with the other characters being populated by people from my life). I really consider him to be the best writer you have never heard of. Give one of his books a try. Without a doubt they will make you think.
And besides, you can never go wrong with a talking dog.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Been trying to think of a song that fits with this. Not sure why I came down to “So Alive” by Ryan Adams. Maybe it is just because I really like the song. Works for me.
I expect to have one last soapbox post and final analysis on Sunday. Part of it is I need a little distance to grasp the importance of the event. I also want to give this topic the attention it deserves. Mainly, I just have a really cool idea which, if it works, will make it one of my favorite posts ever. But overall I am feeling not really jubilant but relieved. I wasn’t dancing in my apartment when victory was announced. It is much more of a feeling that “Alright, that was step one. Now the hard work begins.”
So until we get to that I would like to do a book review.
“Somewhere in everyone’s inner city is a cemetery of old loves.”
That line appears early on in Jonathan Carroll’s new book “The Ghost in Love.” Reading it stopped me in my tracks as for the first time I envisioned all of my past relationships as graves in a cemetery. Some beautifully memorialized and immaculately kept, Others weathered and forgotten. It is an image that stays with you for a very long time.
I’ve been reading Jonathan’s work for years now almost entirely for moments such as this. He is at times one of the most wonderful writers I have ever seen. He crafts phrases and images in ways that make you put the book down so you could fully understand them. This isn’t because they are challenging, that there is some incredibly subtle imagery that requires a master’s degree to understand. It is mainly a result of lines that are so simple and beautiful that you have to take a moment to reflect on their meaning.
He is, for lack of a better term, a cult writer. Meaning that there are people like me who will buy everything that he has ever written and that allows him to continually publish knowing that he has a set fanbase. As a result I really feel like he has stopped trying to write a best seller and is now focused on writing what he likes to write. Within the first two pages of this book you are introduced to a ghost and a talking dog. It’s not your typical book.
The story is another in a line of his work in the realm of magic realism. It centers on the ghost and the dog as well as a couple dealing with the end of a relationship that neither wanted to have end. It also dwells on life and death and what it means to be who we are. There is a philosophical tone to the entire book, sometimes to the detriment of the plot. At one point it feels as if the narrator has stopped talking and the author has and it is rather jarring. Even so, there is one idea that is brought up that I want to examine here.
It is as much a philosophical proposition as anything. Let’s say I gave you the ability to go back to any moment in your life and stay there. Find that one day, that one hour, when you had no concerns in the world. You were in love, your life was at peace, everything was precisely the way you wanted it to be. That will be your life, that perfect moment on repeat. Or, I will let you continue to live your life with a better understanding of who you are and all the different aspects of your personality. Which would you choose? Would you take the perfect moment from your past or the unknown future?
It is such a tough question to answer. A few months back I had what I can only describe as a perfect day. Even now I don’t know what I would sacrifice to have that feeling again that everything is exactly the way I had dreamed it would be. But I also know that it was a fleeting feeling and that I truly feel that my best days are ahead of me. That is the real crux of the question. Have you given up on the dream of ever being as happy as you once were or do you still hope for a better future? I struggle with this a lot as I sit alone in my apartment in the dark wondering just where my life is headed.
This is what Jonathan’s books make you do. You spend days thinking about images and ideas. In the past I actually dreamt that I was a character in his book and lived out the first few chapters (with the other characters being populated by people from my life). I really consider him to be the best writer you have never heard of. Give one of his books a try. Without a doubt they will make you think.
And besides, you can never go wrong with a talking dog.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Been trying to think of a song that fits with this. Not sure why I came down to “So Alive” by Ryan Adams. Maybe it is just because I really like the song. Works for me.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)