The Rings of Saturn

The Rings of Saturn (1995)

W.G. Sebald

            It’s rare to read a novel that is unlike any other book one has read before. Few things are completely new, and most novels have the elements one would consider essential to fiction: story, plot, voice, characters, plot, plot, plot. Such an ugly word, ‘plot’. Onomatopoetic: a turd dropping into an empty toilet bowl. The Rings of Saturn has none of those things, especially not a plot. It’s part travelogue, part memoir, part (global) history, part fiction and while it is all of those things it is also none of them. Rather, it’s something new, but whether it’s a new form of fiction or a new form of history, I can’t decide. I do know, however, that it is one of the most stunningly beautiful books I’ve ever read. Completely unique and singular. Sebald is a masterful writer, and if history textbooks were this moving and this poetically beautiful maybe the masses would not be so ignorant of their past and fearful regarding their future. At the very least I don't think it would hurt.

The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1974)

Heinrich Böll

            There are two kinds of news media on this planet: the kind that soberly reports the news, unbiased, with a nose for the truth, and the vicious, sensationalist kind, that cares only for ratings and money and will sacrifice and mutilate anyone just to stir up trouble. Here in America if the former ever existed then it is a dinosaur, on his way out, but the latter is alive and well, the most well known manifestation being FOX News. I think every one in America has had the misfortune of knowing someone writhing in the grip of FOX: a bigoted relative, a rabidly anti-union boss, someone who really hates “Socialism” or immigrants, a guy who wants to get a business degree, a cop, etc. This kind of “journalism” is like an agent provocateur in the service of the the new robber baron aristocracy, an agent who utilizes the sensationalist and confrontational language designed to appeal to a generally uneducated proletariat (a proletariat that has been hobbled from birth and views the world in simple us-versus-them terms), an agent who comes to the working class bar in the middle of the night and incites stupidity so the pigs can burst in, make some arrests and flex their muscle. Now, FOX did not invent this sort of reporting, it has been around as long as there have been people and their reptile brains, and, of course, a cowed and obedient media is one of the cornerstones of fascism.

Neuromancer

 

Neuromancer, 1984

William Gibson

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

           

            One of the most important aspects of science fiction as an art form is the genre’s interest in extrapolating our self-knowledge into the possible worlds of the future; that is, to hypothesize on our inevitable encounters with new technologies, social structures, and paradigms. We know how we act and we expand on it; and in the way that I, as an individual, might fret over an upcoming party and the potential embarrassments I might find when mingling, the science fiction writer frets over how we, as a species, might embarrass ourselves when we encounter new ideas and new things. While I stumble with a girl, we stumble with the atom bomb. Part of this extrapolation is prediction, and of all the genres of science fiction the one I believe most likely to come true is the cyberpunk genre. There’s an improbably remote chance that we’ll ever meet alien life, invent time travel, or build space stations around the gas giants, but I guarantee you that in the future the plutocrats that rule our planet will use newer and more efficient technologies to suppress and pacify the masses. Seems like so obviously a given that it hardly qualifies as a prediction; like prognosticating that the sun will rise.

Woes of the True Policeman

Woes of the True Policeman (2012)

Roberto Bolaño

            There was an exceptionally pathetic period in my life, which I now recall with great regret, when I, for painfully unsound teenaged reasons, fancied myself some sort of record collector. Somehow, beyond all reason, I was convinced music was really interesting and that I was really into it. Yawn. I’d rather have the money and the time back. Being really into music is a waste of both. Basically what I’m trying to say is that I had a notion that I was a teenaged punk and rock and roller and now I’m kind of embarrassed by it. The effort I put into finding old hardcore records would have been better spent on college. I haven’t purchased a record in years (thank god) but I remember that the riskiest wager was the B-Sides album, the B-Sides and Outtakes album. You could end up with a bunch of hidden gems or a bunch of garbage that went unreleased for a reason. I guess I’ve sold a lot of my records now, but I still have a decent collection of 80s/90s punk, hardcore, screamo, and indie records. They’re in my closet. I’ll probably unload them eventually.

The Piano Teacher

The Piano Teacher (1983)

Elfriede Jelinek

A child has no secrets from her mother.

           

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a better and more effective horror movie than something like Paranormal Activity 17 for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is completely plausible: somewhere out in the darkest corners of the world someone is locking shut a freezer door in their basement charnel house. It’s certainly happened in the past. It’s probably happening right now. The Piano Teacher is also a horror story, but of a different sort. It’s not a gory slasher flick; instead it is a twisted, uncomfortable sort of psychological abuse porn. Unlike The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, however, The Piano Teacher is not very good. But it’s plausible! To be honest comparing the two is insulting to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The Suitcase

  
 

The Suitcase (1986)

Sergei Dovlatov

            What a strange, capricious animal memory is. It comes to you unbidden and unexpected: when your nostrils fill with a half-forgotten scent, when your fingers touch an old fabric, when you stub your toe in the middle of the night. Memory is like a distant relative who occasionally drops by your apartment, without phoning beforehand, and sits on your couch like he owns the place, tells you conflicting and confusing things, and drinks up the beer you were saving for yourself. Sergei Dovlatov’s The Suitcase is all about the power of memory: a brief second of autohypnosis while neurons firing at the speed of sound drag us into the crystallized world that exists in the throne of our unconsciousness. Perhaps a smarter man than myself (an actual expert: a neuroscientist or a philosopher, say) could answer this question but are we much more than our memories? Excluding the influences of purely material components that vary wildly between individuals (brain damage, mental retardation, alcoholism, depression, psychopathy) but our personalities are built on our experiences, right?  Have you ever seen a baby? They haven’t had much experience at anything and they’re all the fucking same, but an adult is a nuanced accretion of memory, a mental stalactite. Like your brain is the hardware and your mind is the operating system, that’s the analogy, right? I obviously don’t know anything about how the brain or the mind or our personalities work but, like most things that are probably wrong, that seems like a reasonable assumption. I don’t even know why I brought this up. It has little to do with the topic at hand. Ah, a question for people who have been to college!

Why I Write / Books v. Cigarettes

Why I Write

Books v. Cigarettes

George Orwell    

        

         I thought I might do something a little different for the new year so instead of a work of fiction the first two books I’m going to review are both collections of essays by George Orwell, the absolute, unchallenged master of the political novel. So this entry is both a change of pace and a double whammy. Two shocking surprise blows to the gut. I never really plan these things out in advance so I don’t know if this is going to work very well but I’m down for a ride if you are.