What Are You Reading

[LizzieMaine]

Yeah, I paid about twenty for mine, and it was a deal. It's going to take a while to get the rest of them but time I've got.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've been reading "The Stories of John Cheever" a collection of his short stories from '30s - '60s. I've probably read about ten so far and, while most are pretty straightforward - think Fitzgerald-like but focused more on lower, middle or upper-middle class (mainly) New Yorkers than Fitzgerald's canvas of the super rich - a few, surprisingly to me, slip into Rod Serling "The Twilight Zone" world.

One that could have been a perfect thirty minute "The Twilight Zone" episode had a New York City apartment-dwelling couple buy a fancy new radio that the stay-at-home wife discovers receives "broadcasts" from their neighbors' apartments. As you can imagine, this quickly impacts her view of her neighbors, then, herself and, then, her own relationship. Throw in a surprise ending and "The Twilight Zone" script is all but written.

I had only read a few of his stories many years ago, which had left the impression that he was a sort of Fitzgerald for the normal people of the world, so his occasional trip (it's happened in two stories so far) into "The Twilight Zone" surprised me. I doubt I'll read all (guessing) seventy or so stories before I pick up something else, but I will read more now and all of them eventually. I find short stories the perfect solution to the "I don't know what I want to read next and am not willing to commit to something yet" conundrum.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Continuing my comics kick with "The MAD Archives: Volume 1."

I've always been a fan of the original four-color comic book "Mad" that preceded the black-and-white magazine format familiar to Boomers and their progeny, but I've never been overly impressed with the various attempt to collect these twenty three issues, attempts which have been too spotty, too shabby, or too expensive for my tastes. But I stumbled across the first volume of an officially-sanctioned hardcover reissue published in 2005, and after a quick glance snapped it right up.

DC Comics now owns the whole fershlugginer MAD operation, and that did give me pause -- their "Archives Edition" hardcover program has not particularly impressed me, with poor reproduction of the line art and oversaturated recoloring efforts having pretty much put me off the series. But this MAD reissue is done right -- the pages are reproduced at the full size of the original published issues and are shot from original negatives. I'd have preferred a less bright-white paper stock, but it's not that awful glossy stuff other DC Archives books have used, and the coloring isn't overly aggressive. So it's a nice book to look at, and it doesn't get in the way of appreciating the drawings.

And that's absolutely essential, because the comic-book MAD had extremely dense, detailed art. Will Elder and Wally Wood, in particular, crammed their panels with hidden gags, non-sequitirs, one-liners, and background weirdness that demand close examination for full impact. I've always loved Elder's MAD work, because it's art that could not possibly have been done by anyone else, anywhere, ever. He was a singular talent, and his MAD pieces are the very essence of nose-thumbing, up-yours aggressive satire directed straight at the overripe, slopped-over buttocks of Early 1950s America. Wood, too, is a genius in his own way, but while Elder is a loony madman on a rampage with a pencil, Wood is a craftsman, whose pages are as carefully and intricately designed as they are funny.

The thing I never knew about the comic-book MAD is that the entire run -- all twenty three issues -- were written by one person, the extraordinary Harvey Kurtzman. He was the odd man out at EC -- he hated the horror comics that gave the company its reputation, and preferred to work on the company's line of war comics, magazines that were explicitly *anti* war at a time when pacifism was not, as they say, politically correct. Publishing pacifist war comics at the height of the Korean conflict was not a growth field -- except among actual soldiers, who by all indications loved them -- and EC ended up cancelling the books and giving Kurtzman MAD to keep him busy. He more than carried the load, filling the issues with genre parodies, social commentary, and trenchant satire. This first volume contains full reproductions -- minus paid ads -- of MAD issues 1 thru 6, from late 1952 into 1953, and you see Kurtzman starting out unsure of quite what he wants to do with the platform he's been given. But by the time "Superduperman," a vicious swipe at you-know-who, appears in issue 4, the gloves are off and MAD is well and truly launched.

I'm not at a time where I can throw a lot of money around on books, but I'm going to be grabbing cheap copies of the remaining three volumes as soon as I can. We need to laugh right now, and it's a shame Harvey Kurtzman isn't around anymore to make it happen. But his work, as insane as ever, lives on in these volumes, and I'm looking forward to the rest of them.

I've always believed that, for me anyway, MAD was one of the more educational publications ever. Topical and historical references always had me running for a dictionary or encyclopedia, and I became a daily newspaper reader at ten. I had to stay up on world events just to appreciate MAD's satire.

 

[Harp]

Pegasus runs tomorrow. A stack of data to sift through tonite.

 

[Fading Fast]

Pegasus runs tomorrow. A stack of data to sift through tonite.

Whom do you like?

 

[Harp]

City of Light-a prior score over Accelerate whom had lost a step since; Seeking the Soul looked good.
The Pegasus is a favorite race now, GP's track configuration aside; however, I was tied down Saturday
and missed the track entirely. Since the season is now starting, and the Pegasus handle is tapped to compensate
collective ownership entry fees, its diminished take is somewhat less a draw. Still, I grimace having the batting
line on a chaotic day and the resultant busted flush hurts like hell.

 

[Klunk]

Just finished Dark Invasions by Howard Blum. The book is set in NYC in 1915. NYPD Captian Tunney is in charge of solving bombings to supply ships headed to England to support WWI. It follows a maze of German spies who conduct germ warfare, bombings, and the attempted assasination of J.P. Morgan Jr.

This non fiction book was hard to put down. I recommend this book to any history buff looking for a fast read.

 

[martinsantos]

After a long time I'm back.

Finished Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Interesting, sometimes brilliant. In 1961 for sure it was fat in the fire showing everyone in war as crazy/stupid. Today I can't say so.

 

[Harp]

After a long time I'm back.

Welcome back Martin. How is the Law ?



.

 

[martinsantos]

Thanks, Harp!

Going strong - ever with a persistent insight that this world (specially at courts) are getting mad. But that's our world, so let's go ahead.

Welcome back Martin. How is the Law ?



.

 

[JeanLo]

Jurassic Park, again. Thinking about listening to one of the Lincoln Lawyers...

 

[Harp]

Pulled Hamlet out this morning on the train. Shakespeare's inverted 16th C English replete with
metaphorical license, puns, and diverse spectre serve literary caffeine to commuting.

 

[Fading Fast]

About half way through the 600+ pages of "The Stories of John Cheever" and, while I'm enjoying them, I'm going to take a break, as they are all blending together in my head. They were not written and published to be read one after another, so it probably make sense to step away. I'll be back though as they are the perfect answer to the "I don't know that I want to read next and am not ready to make a big commitment" conundrum.

 

[martinsantos]

Tartarin of Tarascon, by Alphonse Daudet.

At least here these novels are long forgotten, but around 1900 they were a big hit! Daudet is probably the only naturalism author with sense of humor.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Didn't know what I wanted to read before bed last night so I did what I usually do -- took my glasses off and pulled a random book off the shelf. Turned out to be Wodehouse's "Brinkley Court," the Little,Brown 1934 edition of "Right Ho, Jeeves." If you're going to read a book chosen at random you could do a lot worse than select this one, the definitive tale of fish-faced newt-fancying orange-juice addict Gussie Fink-Nottle and his romance with the "weird what-you-may-call-it" Madeline Bassett. Spink-Bottle's speech before the assembled scholars of Market Snodsbury Grammar School remains a high point of English comic fiction.

 

[MisterCairo]

Away on temporary duty last week, I finished off Ian Rankin's latest Rebus mystery, In a House of Lies, as well as the latest Uhtred of Bebanburg novel from Bernard Cornwell, War of the Wolf.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Had never read it before.
And, in audio format, Fer-de-lance, the first Nero Wolfe book. Had read everything Wolfean a couple decades ago, and decided to enjoy it all over again.

 

[Bushman]

I've been hearing people are saying Disney's Aladdin is racist because it stereotypes the Middle East. Not sure how faithful the story is to the original fable, but the story originates from the 1001 Arabian Nights, a compilation of Middle Eastern folk stories. I picked up the original Aladdin tonight and plan to find out just how close to the original story the Disney movie is for myself.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Enjoying my annual reread of the sublime "A Confederacy of Dunces." If there is a more perfect romantic pairing in all of English-language literature than Myrna Minkoff and Ignatius J. Reilly, I couldn't tell you who it is.

 

[martinsantos]

Ambrose Bierce is just fantastic.