237 Reasons to Have Sex

Instead of reading a book. Or the NY Times article.

I think this is a silly survey. Underlying most of the answers is the basic one, because it feels good. So, instead of, Because I was attracted to the person, you have, Because it feels good and I was attracted.

Here's an idea -- Could we use some of the funding for these silly surveys for grants to writers and artists?

"The World is Awash in Books"

But that's a good thing, right? Is it (another) sign of the impending doom of civilization that not that many people or institutions are interested in used books? Maybe they prefer new books. Maybe it's hard enough to get kids into reading with a new book, why try with a musty, yellowed classic? Some folks may not realize the books they treasure have acquired that distinctly unpleasant eau de mildew. So, maybe it's not a problem -- I'm glad there are lots of inexpensive, used books for bibliophiles with limited budgets. In fact, I'm glad there are too many, because it spurs acts of generosity like the one described in this article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer (at Cleveland.com).

'The human race has been playing at children's games from the beginning

and will probably do so till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up.'

Guardian article raises the interesting question of why previous readers were interested in thinking heroes, like Sherlock Holmes, while many of today's readers are agog over Harry Potter's magic. Do we lose faith in reason when the world seems a dangerous place? Although I'm not sure how the article's author justifies saying that "Harry Potter is for the short-of-attention generation." It's a hefty book, as we know.

I was going to post a picture of the cover, but, you all know what it looks like. My local pharmacy, which carries approximately half a dozen fiction titles, had them at the checkout counter, presumably in case you had forgotten to pick one up while you were waiting for your prescription.

The Ultimate 747, or, Why We Believe What We Are Told

At The Chronicle:

Social scientists...have long considered religion as sui generis, not as a behavioral predisposition that arose because in some way it contributed to the survival and reproduction of its participants. ...Or it could be a nonadaptive byproduct of something adaptive in its own right. For example, children seem hard-wired to accept parental teaching, since such advice is likely to be fitness-enhancing ("This is good to eat," "Don't pet the saber-tooth"). In turn, this makes children vulnerable to whatever else they are taught ("Respect the Sabbath," "Cover your hair") as well as downright needy when it comes to parentlike beings, leading especially to the patriarchal sky god of the Abrahamic faiths.

So, did you eat your vegetables today? Or were you busy praying? Read further to see why God is "the ultimate 747." I find it troubling that some self-described religious people use religion for self-aggrandizement, while insisting that that is in fact what secular types are trying to do. As much as I like that 747 phrase, I'm going to stick with the Zen point of view, which I think is, that no matter whether there is a God or not, it is most important to be ethical, a good person, aware of and concerned for others and the natural world.

Here is the Zen story: An old man asks a Zen master for the secret of life. The master says, "You have to be good." The man says, "That's it? Even a child of four knows that." "But even a man of eighty doesn't do it," the master replies.

"There are ships sailing to many ports

But not one goes where life is not painful." Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet.

Interesting to see how many people like this book, on Goodreads.com-- I like it as well. It's closely observed and poetic, if depressive.

Goodreads is either an interesting place to see what people are reading, or, yet another way to waste time at work, or, yet another way to waste time not writing or reading. Depends on your point of view.

I am nothing.
I will always be nothing.
I cannot wish to be anything.
Apart from that, I hold inside myself all the dreams of the world.
Álvaro de Campos*: "The Tobacco Shop" (Tabacaria)

This is a pseudonym of Pessoa, who used quite a few of them.

Psychological Journeys

That is, books about them. Now we're talking. This is what I read for, although I'd add spiritual journeys as well.

Top Ten Books for Psychological Journeys, from the Guardian.
Among them:

Children of Violence Quintet by Doris Lessing
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut Jnr
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

I found the fifth book in Lessing's quintet, The Four-Gated City, to be moving and intense.

And Speaking of the Devil

Nixon, I mean, Putin's government has taken a couple of pages from his book -- using tax audits to harass the opposition, and "managed democracy." See article at The New York Review of Books. If Nixon, however, killed thirteen reporters (Putin's tally so far), it hasn't come to light.

"I Am Not a Crook"

Oh, but he was. Nixon, it turns out, had his claws in the original fat HMO pie, along with Ed Kaiser, whose company, Kaiser Permanente, is one of the largest Health Mangling Organizations today. How do we know this? Well, His Crookedness thought so highly of himself, that he recorded discussions that took place in the Oval Office. We know where that got him, and it's still leading to interesting information, as we see.

For this, and other eye-opening revelations: See Sicko. And check out Michael Moore's website for enough controversy and secret memos to keep Nixon purring.

But enough. Look at the photos. Which of these men would you buy a used car from?

Big Brother Wants to Know What You're Drinking

I often wonder if the many people who talk about Big Brother have read Orwell. Now I'm wondering what's the real point of the new legislation in Tennessee that requires carding everyone, no matter their age, and checking their drivers' license, whenever they buy beer. When news reports (at Yahoo) mention that they've already caught one criminal, it's hard not to think that tracking the public is really what it's all about, not just preventing underage drinking.

Remember that chilling line, "You are the dead."?

Besides 1984 and Animal Farm, Orwell wrote Down and Out in Paris and London, an oddly cheerful report on a variety of flophouses, and Keep the Aspidistra Flying, a funny satire on money and Englishness (and other books I've yet to read).

Flannery O'Connor on MFA programs

"In the last twenty years the colleges have been emphasizing creative writing to such an extent that you almost feel that any idiot with a nickel's worth of talent can emerge from a writing class able to write a competent story. In fact, so many people can now write competent stories that the short story as a medium is in danger of dying of competence. We want competence, but competence by itself is deadly. What is needed is the vision to go with it, and you do not get this from a writing class."

This is from her book of essays, Mystery and Manners. The essay is the The Nature and Aim of Fiction. The copyright dates are from 1957 onward, she died in 1964 -- so she is talking about fifty to sixty years ago. Imagine what she'd have to say now.

Another excerpt: "Now in every writing class you find people who care nothing about writing, because they think they are already writers by virtue of some experience they've had. It is a fact that if, either by nature or training, these people can learn to write badly enough, they can make a great deal of money, and in a way it seems a shame to deny them this opportunity; but then, unless the college is a trade school, it still has its responsibility to truth, and I believe myself that these people should be stifled with all deliberate speed."

This has always been a controversial stance -- I wonder if she was being tongue-in-cheek. It thrills me to hear her talk about a responsibility to truth. The good old, pre-ironic, still optimistic days. Who would she be directing this toward today? If she were still with us, would we see her as a persecutor of King and Crichton? Or perhaps there is enough artistry there, along with tradesman like qualities, to spare them her wrath. If wrath it was.

Who Reads Women Authors?

According to this article in the London Times, it's not men. I think we have to take into account that many books are written for female readers -- 77% of women vs. only 44% of men buy and read fiction. According to author Joanna Kavenna, men are unwilling to read books by women, while women tend to read books by either sex.

It may be that my preference for female authors -- slight though it turns out to be -- is mostly a matter of compatible points of view, but I must also confess that I do not find many male authors capable of writing interesting and convincing female characters. I yearn for fascinating females in my fiction reading, so I read fewer male authors. There's nothing quite as disappointing for me as starting a promising book, only to find that the main female character is a large-breasted cardboard cutout, or worse, some poorly drawn remnant of the author's childhood, perhaps, that should have been psychoanalyzed away.

On the Short Story - Form and Viability

A friend sent this link from the Independent Online.

I agree that people do like stories, maybe not as much as novels (speaking for myself), but the problem for publishers is how to promote a collection of them. There's no rollicking main story with sexy characters, threatening situations and satisfying conclusions. Rather, the whole situation changes every few pages, and big publicity machines are just gearing up. We need some innovative publicity (see Miranda July's website for her new book).

I do miss seeing stories in some of the magazines that used to carry them, but I seldom like the New Yorker's fiction selections, whereas the nonfiction rocks. I wonder if anyone does like New Yorker stories, in general. There is the occasional selction I love, but not every week. Is there anyone out there turning first to the stories and liking most of them? I'm afraid the NYer editors would sooner leave them out than change their selection criteria -- among which, first refusal contracts, which mean that they buy some stories to keep them out of competitor's hands -- but who are the competitors anyway, and, stories by authors with books about to come out. One gets the sense that the New Yorker sees itself as featuring literary news rather than merely good stories.

Mailer to Use Atwood's Long Pen

Now that his own reach is failing. Norman Mailer will sign books at the Edinburgh International Book Festival without leaving home, using the LongPen remote pen invented by Margaret Atwood.

American Novelists: Saving the Language?

Thought-provoking blog at the Guardian.

"American, as opposed to colonial English, prose is generally agreed to have really got going with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. ("You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.")...

"What Twain did was to stop policing the boundaries between book language and the kind used by regular folks in day-to-day life. It was a decision that opened the door to the vigorous life and invention of vernacular and oral English. It has given American novels a cocky swagger that survives still: the energy of Philip Roth's prose, the sweet spin that George Saunders gives to his tales of McWorld, the tragic passions of Toni Morrison."

I'm all in favor of the playful evolution of language -- I remember what it was like to try to read de Beauvoir in the original French, e.g., -- but let's, just to play devil's advocate, also celebrate English novelists for their correct grammar. Somehow, it's easier to lose track of things like that on this side of the pond. Everything that somebody says doesn't make sense ;)