The Logic of Porcology

So the sox won the series for the first time in forever. Perhaps I should be really excited about this but I am not! In fact, I barely noticed it in the news. Sports don't thrill me the way that last year's playoff run with the flames did. Maybe I'm just too busy to care, but maybe it's that the series wasn't anything special, or maybe my mind is on other things.....

I leave for New Orleans and a vacation in less than 5.5 days. I am so excited that I can barely contain my joy. But somehow, somehow I will manage to make it through the week. Work is boring, interminably so. The weekends aren't as long as I'd like them to be. The weeks are much too long. The vacation will refresh me.

It's been fifteen million years since my last post. I have read two novels in the meantime. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington and All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. The Ambersons was pretty good but so much of the material has been recycled in subsequent books that it seemed unoriginal. I'm sure in 1919 it was original but now it's tending to be old. A worthwhile book, certainly, but nothing that I would add to my shortlist for novel of my life... All the King's Men was very good. Excellent writing, excellent pace, and excellent storytelling. This is said to be the seminal novel about American politics. It's also said that the story came in part from the life of Huey Long, a long-dead Governor of Louisiana. In short though, if you have ever studied power, politics, or both you should read this book. It is my hope that you will enjoy it as I did. This book hasn't seemed to date at all, written in 1948 it is as current today as ever.

The civic election is over. Does anyone care? I voted for the steely underdog, just to show Mayor Dave that I wasn't entirely happy with his performance. When you only receive campaign literature from two people (and one of them is your acclaimed alderman) then you know the politicians just don't give a shit. I voted for the person who gave me campaign literature. He sold me on the ideas in a way that none of the others could have.

This election is enough to make a democracy lover vomit. And I fear that the other elections to come will be more of the same.

Damn it if Oprah hasn't latched onto another book from the Pulitzer lists. I was at Superstore on Sunday, innocently purchasing some groceries and condoms when I happenend upon the book aisle. Well what did I see there? The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck (for 13$, about 7$ cheaper than what I paid). "Oprah's selection!," tattoed on every cover!

That woman should talk to me before she recommends one more book. Yes, she got East of Eden right on but just about everything else has been shit. Anna Karenina? Who the fuck liked that book? (it was last months' Oprah selection.)

But I vent and I vent and I do nothing about it.

So i've been a bad little blogger, not posting in almost two weeks. But I've been busy, and tired, and there are surely other excuses that i could dig up.

But there is some good news to all this. I have been reading prodigiously in the past two weeks (along with sleep it's my biggest activity.) I read an excellent book by Saul Bellow called Humboldt's Gift. This is an excellent story of a man and his mentor. Two great men who are both geniuses and humans, exhibiting this in the most inventive ways. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in the late 70's, it is obvious why the novel was selected. I would definitely recommend it to others, and other others. Read it if you have dreamed of genius, or aspired to the artists' existence.

The second novel that I sped through this past week is by Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth. It is a great story of Imperial China through a great many generations. A story of land, farming, prosperity, poverty. So many contrasts in a book of such simple things. It is a good book, not great, but very good. I would like to read more of Pearl's novels, but I have a few ahead of that on the list.

I'm off to see a movie. Garden State, at the Plaza. I think I should have seen this before now but since it's here now and I'm ready to see it there is no hesitation. Good night, Auf Wiedersehen

So, I did revisit American Pastoral, and the verdict is that I loved the book. Really, it's easy to get over the non-ending once you look back on the book as a whole. Very good plot which seemed to ravel and unravel at staggered points. What leaves me wondering is who exactly is the narrator for the last half of the book? Is it the Swede? Very intriguing question is it not?

I also finished reading another Pulitzer prize-winner. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. This was a very succinct novel about middle america. The great plains, and all that. I read the whole thing, and I understood most of the themes but i thought it was a bit trashy. I could definitely see why it achieved popular acclaim, and there is plenty for certain people to like, but I thought it was very average. Of course, as an intellectual, I must pre-concede that this is only my opinion (one which has less weight than a sack of feathers at that).

I am looking forward to doing some reading this weekend but I may not have the opportunity since work is beckoning for tomorrow morning. We shall see.