You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2007.
so i get it now.
all the hype about Tao Lin.
i just finished #28 – You Are A Little Bit Happier Than I Am. Tao Lin. Poetry Collection. 3.5 stars
this poetry is powerful and unique stuff. he writes in a very distinctive voice (much like his novel Eeeee Eeee Eee) but it worked powerfully for me here, where in his novel i had trouble connecting, here the beautiful language was enough and i didn’t feel let down for not being able to connect, that didn’t seem to be the point. perhaps that isn’t the point for Lin in his novel either, but unfortunately it is something i do look for. i’ll have to try a short fiction collection of Lin’s next and see if that works for me as his poetry did.
other than reading (or hearing) my friend Anis Mojgani’s work i don’t think i’ve been as satisfied with a poetic voice as i was with Lin’s since i first discovered Bukowski. not that i am comparing them, they couldn’t be more different except for in their power. a few favorites from You Are A Little Bit Happier Than I Am: Some of My Happiest Moments In Life Occur On AOL Instant Messenger; Things I Wanted To Do Today; I Want To Start A Band; Pessimism? Or Robotics?; It’ll Get Different; I Honestly Do Not Know Who This Poem Is Directed At But I Still Somehow Wrote It With Conviction; and Things You Have Emailed Me.
if you like poetry, or feel like trying some out, i would highly recommend Lin’s book. interesting stuff.
#27. Follies. Ann Beattie. Short Fiction Collection. 3.5 stars
i’m not quite sure what to say about this book, i enjoyed it, but it ultimately left me wanting. i think her stories were beautiful, and unlike many collections i read, they were all very even in that none stood out more than others as better or worse (which i think i like, although i seem to also be complaining about it, so who the hell knows what i like). there was a certain level of quality to all of the pieces and it was nice to know walking into a new story that it was going to deliver as the others had.
i also enjoyed the realism in her stories. i completely believed her characters, i suppose in part that is because she writes somewhat melancholy and bittersweet stories that move slowly and deliberately, as life tends to. her characters make the choices her characters would make, they never step out of line and do the unexpected, and while that may sound boring, i think grabbing on and translating that kind of realism is actually quite difficult, especially in short fiction where you have a short amount of time to nail those things down. unfortunately, because of her realisitc sparse way of writing and the somewhat non-dramatic real life circumstances her characters find themselves in i didn’t find myself too attached to any of the characters. but her writing was beautiful, and i enjoyed it consistently throughout and the stories flowed flawlessly into one another, though there is no obvious link.
i guess my biggest problem with the book overall is that the endings didn’t do it for me. i do so love it when my short fiction (or poetry…maybe even novels) have a snap to them. not a twist ending or anything out of nowhere, but the idea that they kind of come around to something. some kind of resolution or something…anything. it’s funny because my mother loves her entertainment (movies, books, television shows) to be very tied up in a neat little bow, whether sad or happy, she likes to at least KNOW. i have always complained to her that this is not an interesting way to look at things and that often the answers are given, just less obviously, and that you just have to look. so it is ironic that i am now crying out for more closure. strange. perhaps i got lazy during her book and didn’t pay enough attention, or am just not smart enough to get it in the first place, but none of the stories had a ’snap’…that thing i love that in the last few pages makes reading a story all the more fulfilling.
still good though. i’ll have to read more of Beattie’s work, she’s been quite prolific and except for a few stories in collections here and there this is the first of her work that i’ve read.
ps – LOVE the cover. so cute, and relevant to what is within…
so i was watching whatever the hell that show that used to be called Ebert & Roeper (which was first called Siskel & Ebert) is now called this weekend to see what they had to say about this weeks films. not that i generally trust Roeper and whoever his accomplice for the week is (although this week the accomplice was pretty good – i think it was the guy from The Village Voice), but if it’s on and i’m around, i’ll watch. notably missing this week was an actual mention of whether the films in question actually got a thumbs up or down. i mean it was pretty obvious from the review, but i kept waiting for that official thumb ruling. i thought first that they must have changed the format and that they were going to recap with the thumb rankings at the end, perhaps to get viewers to hang in until the end credits. no such luck. no mention of thumbs anywhere. my experience seemed a bit empty.
so yesterday, my boyfriend sends me this link to explain away our confusion:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070825/ap_en_tv/tv_ebert_thumb_ban
basically Ebert, on death’s door as he is wont to be over the last few years, has apparently “exercised his right to withold the ‘thumbs’ until a new contract is signed”. geez man. c’mon. the show has been pretty respectful about putting in guest hosts, but never settling on even a “temporary replacement”. he is often mentioned on the show and anyone over the age of, i don’t know 25 maybe? knows about his existence and his part in the ”creation of the brilliance that is the thumbs up” (read: sarcasm). how can you even copyright a thumbs up, weren’t people doing that shit casually forever before he put his name to it? in fact, i feel like blaming him for actually starting this whole copyrighting nightmare (i.e. Trump wanting to copyright “you’re fired” and the myriad of idiocies before and after that). stop holding on so damn tight Ebert. let Roeper take it over already. nobody is trying to push you out except the universe man. just let it go.
perhaps this is why being a critic instead of a creator is bad. it eventually makes you be like this…makes you hold on to something you believe you invented because you slapped your name and logo on it, and you believe this because you never did anything creative and good in your whole life.
now onto my next book review! joke.
this show just keeps getting better and better.
and let me just say thank you to the tv gods that it followed the season finale of big love last night, because it took me at least that long to calm down anxiety wise and i was able to do that in large part thanks to the lighthearted hilarious-ness that is Conchords. no thanks to Entourage though, that show is so in love with itself at this point that it just makes me want to throw up, while it is being so in love with itself, it doesn’t even bother to be funny. i don’t think i’ve laughed once in the last handful of episodes i’ve watched.
on the other hand, i thought i was going to pee my pants last night watching Bret and Jemaine dressed as Frodo and Sam from Lord of The Rings for their music video.
funniest. episode. ever.
this is not from last night’s episode, but is so hilarious, i had to post it when i couldn’t find one of them dressed as Frodo and Sam…
big love is the best drama on tv. except now i have to wait like nine more months for another episode. *sigh*
the season finale was as awesome as the whole season was. we’re finally starting to get our old and lovable margene back, the manipulative little bitch that she turned into for the last handful of episodes just had to go. i am so invested in these characters. my friend Brooke would say that i think they’re real (i don’t…but just barely).
i’ve been thinking, ever since my last post, about my feminist issues and why i’m so in love with this show and i think that the reason is threefold.
1> it is just a really great high quality show. good writing, good acting, music, direction, it is all there (although they are dropping the ball on that horrible FBI agent or whatever she is, with the terrible accent that drops in and out – what’s happening here guys?).
2> the show actually challenges my thinking, which i love. i am forced in literally every episode to rethink preconceived ideas that i have been living with.
3> despite these women being first, second, and third wives, this show has the most powerful and fully developed female characters on television. whether you love them or hate them (or the situation they are in) you spend more time dealing with who they are and what they are dealing with than on any other normal show, where even when a show is well done, women often play second fiddle. not the case on this show. and in addition to Barb, Nicki, and Margene who obviously get the most screen time and are thus the most fully developed at this time, the female supporting roles are incredibly strong as well – Lois, Adaleen, Wanda, and Sarah most of all lately are all surprisingly interesting and three dimensional and just amazing, despite limited screen time. in fact, let’s take a minute to look at the paths the women of big love have been put on, as of our season finale…
[spoilers possibly abound]
Barb. oh how i love thee. i guess because i identify most with her since she is most unconvincingly on the path of polygamy (which is likely how i would feel on that path). we know that she came to this “arrangment” under duress. i suspect, though it has not been said outright, that she never would have agreed to this situation unless she was genuinely concerned that she was not going survive her battle with cancer, and wanted to insure that her family was in good hands. in this case Nicki’s. in the finale she makes moves to finally accept the life she is living, by outing herself to the neighbors, it is like finally admitting it to herself, and the pain was palpable. if you think about Barb’s arc since we met her, it has been one form of denial after another that this was the life she was living. last season she had an affair with her own husband that lit her up like a child. you could see her fantasies as clear as day that he was going to run away with her and their “original family” back to their old/normal life. given the opportunity i don’t think she would hesitate for a second, despite her genuine love and affection for the rest of the family. and then this year, she did everything to separate herself and make something of her own by going back to school. she loves her family, but it is not the family she wanted and dreamed of, and watching her next year to really come to terms with that and deal with the reality of her situation and possibly the acceptance of it, will be a sight to behold.
Nicki. oh Nicki, how conflicted i feel about you. i love Nicki, but man does she throw me for a loop. unlike the other characters, whose motivations i feel are quite clear, Nicki is a complicated mess, and it is so enjoyable to watch the writers (and Sevigny) put the pieces of her together. Nicki is constantly surprising me. despite her extended family ties and obligations and her minor machinations, she does, in the end, tend to honor her family. and despite her claim that she is in the family because she believes in the testament, and not because of romantic love, it is obvious that her romantic love for Bill is powerful. and her love for the others is pretty evident as well. you would think with all Nicki’s desires for power and the constant frustration of being the second wife, that she would want Barb out of the picture, in fact the opposite is true, and when that reality raises its head she is the first to try to fix things, to make sure that her family remains intact. she is always surprising me, and never more so than in the finale when she defied her father to his face, and with nobody watching her thus able to give her approval. i’ve never been more proud of her. she’s a badass.
Margene. oh Margene, how i’ve wanted to strangle you for the last four or five episodes (ever since your mother showed up actually) and never more so than in this episode, until you re-emerged as your true self in the last few minutes. i understand Margene’s frustration this season, but it was one i have empathized with the least. she knew what she was getting into when she signed on for this multiple marriage situation, and so stamping her feet and throwing little tantrums and putting the family in jeopardy over her manipulations has been endlessly frustrating, especially because for the first half of the season i was more in love with her and her innocence and enthusiasm than ever. so it’s good to have her back, but i’m still mad at her. especially with this whole fourth wife/Ana nonsense. it would serve her right if they got a fourth and she suddenly found her newness and thus power stripped away. that said, i don’t want a fourth (especially after that scene in the closet with Bill & Ana) . the whole situation quite frankly upsets me, as does Nicki’s comment to Margene in the finale that “Bill’s dating life is none of our business.” WHAT?!?!?!?!? my head almost exploded.
okay, lastly i’m going to talk about Sarah, arguably the most interesting character on the show. she is developing into an amazing woman. and while this comparison will possibly draw fire, i think she is infinitely more interesting and complicated a character than Claire from Six Feet Under. a lot of people loved Claire, and i didn’t dislike her, but i found her more interesting early on, more and more as i watched that show she turned into a bratty annoying character, and the one i was least interested in watching. Sarah however, is fascinating and so not the selfish self absorbed teen that Claire was (although perhaps, like Claire, she is headed in that direction, time will tell). i am saddened that Sarah gave up her virginity to a guy that obviously isn’t going to be “the guy” and it will inevitably cause her a lot of heartache, however, what she is going to go through next season, having let sex and more complicated adult relationships into her life is going to be fascinating, and i hope, it will give her some perspective and aid in her transition into the empowered woman that she is already on the road toward becoming. on that note, poor, poor Benny. how lost is that little one? reeling after losing a teenage love/lust relationship and just grasping at anything around him to hold him up. and congratulations Bren for dodging THAT bullet.
so basically what i’m saying is that a show about polygamy is actually the most female centered and feminist show on television. there. i said it.
if you haven’t been watching the show, pick it up on DVD as soon as it is released. i can’t recommend it enough.
…is not on this blog, but i’m going to link to it…
let me first preface this link by saying that Brett Ratner is the definition of a hack. seriously, if you go to my dictionary, under the word hack it says Brett Ratner and there is a little picture. yes, i wrote it in and drew a cartoon of him in sharpie on the page, but still, i’d trust it. someday all your dictionaries will be as advanced as mine. in the meantime, you can read this absolutely hilarious bit from McSweeney’s Internet Tendency:
http://mcsweeneys.net/2007/8/24molyneux.html
ps: McCarthy’s The Road was the best book i’ve read so far this year. if you haven’t read it yet, read it now, even though if you a buy a copy now it has that tell tale Oprah sticker on it, which annoys the hell out of me. it’s still worth it.
by far one of my favorite artists/cartoonists/comic book gods working today is Jeffrey Brown. he’s my pick today for comic of the week. i do actually plan to have my comic out sometime this week (i know, i’m shocked too), but i’d like to get in the habit of posting comics on Mondays, so here is some work from Mr. Brown, since i’m not quite ready yet (and since his work is far superior to mine anyway, you’re actually getting a great deal).
while Jeffrey Brown does not have a “journal comic” to speak of and is much more established and well known than Les and Drew (see previous comic of the week posts) he does work in a journal style. his comics are very autobiographical and the truth of them is sometimes heartbreakingly honest. my favorite of his works is Unlikely, but Clumsy and AEIOU are almost as good and are the companion pieces to Unlikely in his “relationship trilogy”. he also is prolific in his mini-comics and pieces that can be found in collections and anthologies. if you like what you see here in these two simple panels please check him out at the link below:
http://www.margomitchell.com/thc/jb.htm
#26. The Subway Chronicles. Edited by Jacquelin Cangro. Essay Collection. 3.0 stars
i picked this collection up mostly as an acknowledgment of how much i owe to New York City in its effort to help me become a better writer. i doubt New York City cares (or tried) to make me (and probably many others) become a better writer, but it happens nonetheless.* the inspiration and incident factor alone can make you a better writer without even trying. i often fear if i return to Los Angeles (or anywhere else for that matter) that i will suddenly have nothing to write about. that my actual experiences (overheard, seen, or otherwise) will plummet and i will have literally nothing but my imagination to guide me (never good).
this was a decent collection, solid and enjoyable. some really nice pieces and very few “losers” in the bunch. but there was nothing that really blew me away. i didn’t really come away from it with anything more than a pleasant feeling of having enjoyed myself and being ready to move on. i guess i generally want and expect more from my essays and short fiction than that, which is why it doesn’t rate a higher score. if you’re a new yorker born and raised, you can probably add at least half a star to my rating.
*it is still up for debate whether i have actually become a better writer since living here, and basically i have no actual proof of such a statement. requests for proof of any improvement will be casually ignored.
oh yeah, and this marks the halfway point of my goal of 52 books and 52 reviews this year. yippee! i figure i’m about 8 books behind. yeesh.
this is starting to look like a bad idea.
i know i have to track my rejections regardless, but seeing my percentage of acceptance go from a happy 50% to a sad and quickly falling 25% within a week is a bit depressing. and posting the depressing news for mass (or mini-mass) consumption is equally frustrating. but i’m going to stick to it (i think).
so officially, i got a rejection today from The Paris Review (a tough nut to crack). the piece was I Wanna Be A Flower. i thought it might be a bit freshman for them, i’ll try sending them something more seasoned later this year. in the meantime i need to revise both Flower and Adele and see if i can find other homes for them.
official count: 1 for 4.
a solid episode last night. blissfully absent of the annoying whiny Katie character (sans about 10 minutes – which was all that was tolerable). nice little chunks of information are immerging and i’m interested. we got some much needed relationship stuff between Ellen and David and some great development for both Tom and the Tom and Patty relationship. i could have done without the ridiculous scene at the restaurant with Tom and his wife and his friend and friend’s girlfriend. in my experience real adults rarely behave that way in an upscale restaurant, regardless of how much they’ve had to drink or what they are celebrating. it was a bit absurd. otherwise a strong episode.
if you are trying to catch up or have decided to start watching the show (surely based on my brilliant coverage), they are showing a marathon on Labor Day weekend – September 3rd, starting @ 3pm on FX, the marathon will be followed by a new episode the following night at the regular time – Tuesday, September 4th @ 10pm (there is no new episode next week).
i’ve decided to track my short fiction rejections (and acceptances – should i be so lucky). i just got a rejection today :( so i guess it’s time to start tracking.
i had previously submitted two pieces total in my life. last year i submitted two and got one rejection (from Swink) and one acceptance, from Pearl. my piece “I Hate The French” will be published in Pearl #38 (winter 2008).
this year i submitted 4 more and i just got my rejection today for The Threepenny Review. the piece is titled, “Adele, The Unremarkable”. it is a bit of a departure piece for me, so it is disappointing (rejections always are i suppose) but i still have several pieces (3?) out there, so i can’t be too sad yet. besides, my novel is out there in the world as well, and i’m sending all my energy to that one right now, no energy left to worry about the poor short fiction bits…
so here’s the official rejection count: 1 for 3
here’s a link to Pearl Magazine: http://pearlmag.com/
this is the hardest book review i’ve had to write yet.
#25. The Apocalypse Reader. Edited by Justin Taylor. Short Fiction Collection.
i desperately wanted to like this book, both because it is a collection of great writers both seasoned and relatively new, giving their original takes on the apocalypse, which is interesting in and of itself, and just because i adore good short fiction. there are 34 stories in total by 35 different authors, all dealing in their own ways with “the apocalypse” and if i have complained before about an uneven collection, then boy was i complaining before i even knew what to complain about it. this is the most uneven collection i have ever read, some of it just awesome and mind blowing and hilarious and some of it so dull and underwhelming that a few times i gave up and didn’t complete a story (unheard of for me – i always trudge through!). however, i want more collections, i want to support both the short story form and the vision of what this collection is about. so i’m torn about this review.
i suppose the real truth of it is: 2 stars for the half of it i didn’t like and 4 stars for the half of it i did like? hmm…split the difference and give it 3 stars? jeez. i hate this. 3 seems too high. maybe i have to admit that my expectations were too high? is that part of the problem here?
pieces by the following artists were awesome: Jared Hohl, Matthew Derby, Shelley Jackson, Adam Nemett, Brian Evenson, Robert Bradley, Josip Novakovich, Allison Whittenberg, Justin Taylor, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Tao Lin, Elliot David, Colette Phair, Michael Moorcock, Jeff Goldberg, Jocye Carole Oates. I desperately want to add Dennis Cooper to this list with The Ash Gray Proclamation, and he had me for the first 15 pages, but i couldn’t hold on for the last 10 or so, it just got too ridiculous, which was perhaps the point, but somewhere my enjoyment was lost.
the piece by Jeff Goldberg, These Zombies Are Not A Metaphor, was my favorite as it was hilarious and inventive and just utterly enjoyable. second runners up include An Accounting by Brian Evenson, The Last Man by Adam Nemett, and Fraise, Menthe. Et Poivre 1978 by Jared Hohl.
the ones i didn’t mention were either passable or borderline unreadable and i’m sad to say that this included several VERY famous writers and even some that whether famous or not, i’ve been a fan of, for quite some time. very disappointing.
the problem i suppose with any review, be it movie, book, or album, is that so much of it is based on personal tastes. i’ve always tried to make it known that my reviews are very personal, which means that it is just one girl’s silly opinion and it may not work for everyone. but at the same time, with this book, i couldn’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone, which is the mark of a genuinely good book, right? jeez. a simple book review shouldn’t be so difficult…
Okay, 3.0 stars – with the stipulation that there are many 4 star pieces in there, but that for me, there are also a lot of 1 and 2 star pieces, so read at your own risk. if anyone has read this book, i would welcome comments about which stories worked for them, particularly if you have an argument as to why a story i didn’t list was a favorite of yours.
okay, this is not quite robots, and is maybe the opposite of “sexbots” it is a promo for the Bionic Woman airing in September. i do not recommend clicking on this link to take the test at work, unless you are all alone or work only with deaf people. there is a really really really loud mini-movie of a car crash (which you can skip) when you first click on the link (which caused all my co-workers to immediately perk up and in some cases even run over to my desk – yes – it’s that loud) but even the test itself, which is kind of fun, needs volume.
also, if you want a high score i suggest an environment unlike work, where you can focus, not that it is overtly difficult, but with the volume low and phones ringing, maybe not the best environment. also, you should be working anyway, not taking fake tests online, right?
i also don’t recommend watching the actual show when it airs whether you participate in this fun little interactive test or not. i’ve decided to watch one episode, because i so desperately would like the show to be good (like Heroes) but judging from the promo commercial i saw recently, i will want to gouge out my own eyes with the closest possible implement after watching five minutes of it (and that is even if there is no technology to give me bionic eyes).
enjoy!
ps – i stole the link to the bionics test from Pop Candy, a great little site that does a fantastic job of keeping me informed on all things pop, with very little effort on my part. although Whitney did not warn me about the volume issues – for shame!
last week i posted a tiny little bit about sexbots in my semi-feminist rage about the surgical bra. and that very same week i was confronted by this super stupid Heineken commerical in which a sexbot (okay, technically we can only be sure she’s a fembot, but she sure as hell looks and acts like a sexbot to me) which actually becomes a mini-keg of Heineken.
here is the problem in a nutshell. i have a sense of humor. a good one even. and Heineken has some really great, really funny, sometimes a bit insulting commercials out there, but COME ON! are you kidding me? really?! we’ve come so far that we don’t need women to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, hell, we don’t even need women, we just need a sexbot that can turn into a keg! or maybe the idea is that the woman is barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen making your dinner (sight unseen – as she should be), while the sexbot comes out to do a little dance and turn into a keg to satisfy your urges, and then, get this, then she turns into THREE sexbots, to satisfy your other urges. what a fucking piece of shit commericial.
i know i’m taking this too seriously, but some days (like days that you spend reading about a surgical bra that can be painfully implanted in women’s chests so that we will look more like men fantasize we should look, instead of the way the universe intended) i just can’t take one more ridiculous misogynistic piece of bullshit. an extra benefit to this stupid commericial? i like to drink Heineken and i’m going to have to not do that for a bit 
here’s the link to the commerical:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y_ro3-V_HdM
and to offset that commercial i’m going to send you to a good site, called Feministe, which has been inspring of late and which generally deals with much more important and interesting feminist issues that what i’ve been grumbling about over here. check it out:
http://feministe.powweb.com/blog/
this post below in particular is great – for any blogger (okay a leaning to the left blogger) to read, but if you’re not leaning to the left a bit then i’m not really sure what you’re doing here anyway…
http://feministe.powweb.com/blog/archives/2007/08/19/dear-michael-skube/
so this weekend Manhattan was insanely beautiful, which meant that i spent less time than usual indoors being the hermit that i am (and also less time being productive), it is hard to regret how i spent my weekend, but i have to admit i’m having a hell of a time getting my cartooning gears going. everything i have sketched thus far is much less suited to a weekly comic strip and more to a graphic novel or comic book (well, bad ones). i have also remembered that as terrible an artist as i am, i am an even worse inker. so yea! anyway, i am sticking to my guns about doing this, but it will likely not show up until sometime in September. the good news is i’ve been thinking about my life in terms of a strip and a surprising amount of slightly interesting stuff has happened, certainly enough to fill a couple panels a week (it’s also become obvious that my boyfriend will play a huge role, perhaps because he is a continued source of humor and occasional aggrivation in my daily life). anyway, until such time as i can get mine up and running i thought i’d feature a new artist and a strip or two of theirs (and a link to their sites) each week.
featured for this week is Drew Weing. a really talented artist i went to school with at the Savannah College of Art & Design, although we didn’t know each other, you can see he is supremely talented. please check out his site if you get the opportunity.
they were too large and were getting cut off by my blog format, so you need to click to view…
this show is just awesome. i was worried that breaking into songs/mini-music videos would get old, it is a bit gimmicky and even though it is great fun and the lyrics are laugh out loud funny i was concerned it would wear thin very quickly, what i didn’t count on was the fact that the show would get consistently better throughout the season, thus supporting the songs/videos. i just love these characters and their hilarious dry deliveries, bret and jemaine are loveable beyond reason, and to steal some thoughts from New York Magazine’s vulture blog (see below for a link to their original story on the show back in May 2007) ”the show is a welcome relief from the crippling smugness that has overtaken Entourage”. i couldn’t have said it better myself, which i guess is why i didn’t.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/05/hbos_flight_of_the_conchords_k.html
so i didn’t even have to come up with a creative title for this post, because the above is the title of the short fiction collection i just finished, and it’s pretty much creative enough to stand on it’s own.
#24. St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised By Wolves. Short Fiction Collection by Karen Russel. 4 stars
this was a completely creative and enjoyable read. so off the charts creative, and experimental in its own way, but at the same time completely involving. a few of these pieces have been published elsewhere including a piece that i had already read in The New Yorker (Accident Brief, Occurrence #00/422).
this was a really even collection, so much so that i found it difficult to pick stories that were stronger than others, i’d say they were all about equally strong. perhaps the best was the title story of the collection, but all strong. the only fault i find with the collection at all is that the endings seemed a bit abrupt. not that there was anything overly wrong with them, but that they seemed kind of arbitrary. also while i felt that most of them started very strongly, i didn’t feel they came around quite as powerfully. otherwise a really strong collection, and since Ms. Russell is only like a ridiculous 25 yeas old, i suspect we’ll be hearing (reading?) a lot from her in the future.
as a sidenote: she’s yet another Columbia MFA grad, making me even more wistful that i too was attending…
if you came to this post, thinking it was going to be about the movie, sorry, but thanks for visiting!
this is a book review (#23 for the year) of Superbad by Ben Greenman, Short Fiction Collection.
i wasn’t sure about this book early on as it is pretty experimental, but i ended up really enjoying it, a few stories at the end in particular sold me, but i’ll admit that i did languish a bit in the middle.
before i read Superbad (and after reading Tao Lin’s Eeeee Eeee Eee) i had pretty much decided to stay away from experimental fiction and short fiction, but after reading Superbad i think i’m going to keep reading it (and i plan to pick up Tao Lin’s short fiction collection Bed, which i’ve heard a lot about, despite the fact that i didn’t fall in love with his novel the previously mentioned Eeeee Eeee Eee). i had felt kind of uninspired lately by experimental work because it seemed too, well maybe too intellectual, and with not enough soul. but i’ve changed my mind and i think it’s good to have them both out there doing their thing and it’s good for me to read both kinds.
i have to admit that the fiction i end up loving is a bit more traditional. even within Superbad, with a few exceptions, it was the more traditional pieces that i enjoyed. i think in short fiction (and probably in regular fiction too) i’m just looking for something to move me these days, something where i can connect with the characters and simply be moved to feel, and in experimental fiction i think that rarely happens if only because that is not necessarily the primary goal.
the standouts for me in Superbad were: Snapshot, In Shuvalolv’s Library, and most especially What 100 People, Real and Fake, Believe about Dolores. that last piece was quite frankly a brilliant piece of experimental short fiction and is probably the reason for my conversion to continue reading in this way. it was exactly as the title describes and i was shocked to see what an effective way it was of knitting together a story, i had such a clear picture of what Dolores and the circumstances in her life may have been, and it left most of it wildly open to the imagination, similar to the way a choose your own adventure allows you to participate (but much much better). i was really truly wowed by this piece, and it was the last piece in Superbad, which was a powerful way to end (note to self: end all short fiction collections on a super high note).
i also really enjoyed Notes On Revising Last Night’s Dream, which was laugh out loud hilarious and Stuck On Red: My Hopes And Dreams Detailed.
there are also these “musicals” or rather “fragments of musicals” which are all funny (5 in total) and are a running theme in the book, which is in itself quite funny, but for me they just weren’t strong enough to knit the overall book together. they seemed a bit gimmicky and as such, lost their charm after maybe the second one. it was not enough to derail the book though, there was enough beautiful strong writing, funny bits, and finely crafted stories to earn this 4 stars.
Superbad by Ben Greenman. Short Fiction Collection. 4 stars.
sidenotes: Ben Greenman has a pretty interesting blog (as well as a couple other books), check it out:
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/bloggers/ben-greenman/
also, i got Superbad from my beloved McSweeney’s, there is a link for them on the home page.
too busy at work today to do a legitimate post, but here’s something fun.
viceland is awesome, their do’s and don’ts most of all…and here are some great superhero related ones that i thought i’d pass on.
http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=1033&country=us
http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=237&country=us
http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=411&country=us
i love Stan Lee, actually that’s not true…it’s more i feel obligated to love Stan Lee regardless of his many crimes, but his show I Want To Be A Superhero is just an unforgivable crime against comics, and superheroes, and the whole ball of wax. having this show on the air is the kind of thing that encourages people to give me weirdo looks when i say i majored in sequential art (comic books) in college.
which gets really old really fast by the way.
