hi
i've been inspired by gene's post *hi gene. love ya, man* to make a catching up-type post of my own. so here goes. work is good and will hopefully get better. i'm almost done with school. i love my wife and living and being with her. all of that is extremely good, but about as boring as actual absolute peace of mind. so what i'll post about is something almost even boringer.
i've been reading a lot. this summer alone i read a ton of books:
where i'm calling from by raymond carver
russian dilettante's handbook by gary shteyngart
the flowers by dagoberto gilb
the corrections by jonathan franzen
already dead by denis johnson
resucitation of a hanged man by denis johnson
wonderboys by michael chabon
the amazing adventures of kavalier and klay by chabon
a model world by chabon
great big american baby by judy bunditz
i will say i was working at a gas station that gave 2 15 minute breaks and a thirty minute lunch and i every now and then rode the bus to work, so i had plenty of time on my hands. if you add that to what i read over christmas break, not including what i was supposed to have read for school, cause i never did. i've read something like 25 books this last year.
i love reading, always have. but now, it's connected to what i want to do and, as such, i don't do it with the same enjoyment i used to.
it's like after spending these couple of years tearing apart people's writing and cutting to the core of how we write, i've been robbed of being able to pick up a book and take joy in having finished it. i read with a skeptic's eyes, always looking for the magician's tricks, cause damn it i can see them and the show's not the same for me as it used to be. don't get me wrong, i still get the same kinda kick out of the good stuff, but even with it i'm hyper-critical. and i'm far from a perfect writer, so i know my shit'll get ripped to pieces by folk with this broadened perspective that afflicts me.
it's like, you know how guys are always boneheadedly going on about how awesome it would be to be a porn star? well, 13 year old guys... think of how much one's perspective would be thusly broadened by fucking for 10 hours a day with a crew of people standing over your shoulder telling you your stroke is off or that you need to shave your ass again cause it's getting its five o'clock shadow.
when i was in band, in high school, there was this guy, mr. ramirez, who would come down from san antonio a week before contest to critique us and give us pointers on our playing and marching and what have you. well, one day we were dicking around (this was a little before the time when 2 of our trombone players got arrested for drinking vodka at lunch [which was right before band], so i think this might explain things a bit) and sounding like shit and the guy snapped. he started shouting about how we were ungrateful shits and how if we knew how he heard, that he could no longer listen to popular music or even the music he listened to as a kid cause all he heard was mistakes. we laughed cause he called us little shits and cause we thought he was gay and cause we knew he was right and we were teenagers and we wanted to be good but what can you do but laugh? i get what he was saying. i'm not shouting it. i don't think i'm like totally fully ruined on all books. i can contextualize. i know what's literary and what's genre and how to enjoy each accordingly--just like i like a good flick but know what i'm in for with really bad horror movies but i watch cause i like camp. but still, i know what mr. ramirez was saying. i get it. oh, and can you believe how many books i read this summer?
i've been reading a lot. this summer alone i read a ton of books:
where i'm calling from by raymond carver
russian dilettante's handbook by gary shteyngart
the flowers by dagoberto gilb
the corrections by jonathan franzen
already dead by denis johnson
resucitation of a hanged man by denis johnson
wonderboys by michael chabon
the amazing adventures of kavalier and klay by chabon
a model world by chabon
great big american baby by judy bunditz
i will say i was working at a gas station that gave 2 15 minute breaks and a thirty minute lunch and i every now and then rode the bus to work, so i had plenty of time on my hands. if you add that to what i read over christmas break, not including what i was supposed to have read for school, cause i never did. i've read something like 25 books this last year.
i love reading, always have. but now, it's connected to what i want to do and, as such, i don't do it with the same enjoyment i used to.
it's like after spending these couple of years tearing apart people's writing and cutting to the core of how we write, i've been robbed of being able to pick up a book and take joy in having finished it. i read with a skeptic's eyes, always looking for the magician's tricks, cause damn it i can see them and the show's not the same for me as it used to be. don't get me wrong, i still get the same kinda kick out of the good stuff, but even with it i'm hyper-critical. and i'm far from a perfect writer, so i know my shit'll get ripped to pieces by folk with this broadened perspective that afflicts me.
it's like, you know how guys are always boneheadedly going on about how awesome it would be to be a porn star? well, 13 year old guys... think of how much one's perspective would be thusly broadened by fucking for 10 hours a day with a crew of people standing over your shoulder telling you your stroke is off or that you need to shave your ass again cause it's getting its five o'clock shadow.
when i was in band, in high school, there was this guy, mr. ramirez, who would come down from san antonio a week before contest to critique us and give us pointers on our playing and marching and what have you. well, one day we were dicking around (this was a little before the time when 2 of our trombone players got arrested for drinking vodka at lunch [which was right before band], so i think this might explain things a bit) and sounding like shit and the guy snapped. he started shouting about how we were ungrateful shits and how if we knew how he heard, that he could no longer listen to popular music or even the music he listened to as a kid cause all he heard was mistakes. we laughed cause he called us little shits and cause we thought he was gay and cause we knew he was right and we were teenagers and we wanted to be good but what can you do but laugh? i get what he was saying. i'm not shouting it. i don't think i'm like totally fully ruined on all books. i can contextualize. i know what's literary and what's genre and how to enjoy each accordingly--just like i like a good flick but know what i'm in for with really bad horror movies but i watch cause i like camp. but still, i know what mr. ramirez was saying. i get it. oh, and can you believe how many books i read this summer?