Raging Red

I wish I could tell you that the only reason the same book has been stagnating in the sidebar is that I simply haven’t bothered to update it, but the real reason is that I just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle tonight. Yes, it’s January 24th, the fourth week of 52 Books in 52 Weeks, and I have read exactly one book. It doesn’t take a mathematician to conclude that I’ve got to pick up the pace. I swear I’m not that slow of a reader (I’m actually a fairly quick reader), I’ve just been distracted. Some of it was productive (lawyer stuff) and some of it was decidedly not (Rock of Love 2).

I could also use the excuse that it’s a 600-page book with rather small print. But that would sound totally lame, so I won’t say that.

A review will be forthcoming. I’m incapable of writing one right now, since I quite literally just put the book down and I need a little time to think about it. It’s one of those books that you have to let marinate in your brain for a little while before you can say anything worthwhile about it. At the moment, it’s a head scratcher.

I haven’t decided for sure what’s up next. Maybe Heat. Maybe not.

I’m doing it. I’m determined. My first book is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I’m cheating right off the bat, since I actually started the book in 2007. I’m about 100 pages in. It’s a 600 page book, though, so it’s just a small head start.

At the suggestion of Jim, I created a bookshelf at Shelfari. They have a neat little widget so you can put your bookshelf on your blog, but it’s not compatible with WordPress, so I’ve created my own thing over there in the sidebar. I’ll display what I’m currently reading, plus there are links to what’s up next and to books I want to buy. I know I can read for free courtesy of the public library, but I have to admit that books are one thing that I’m materialistic about. I like having the book. I like the book to be mine. I like filling my shelves with books. I like that I currently need to buy yet another bookshelf to accommodate my books (and HK’s). Yes, it makes moving a pain in the ass, but I don’t care.

I would love it if other people would participate. (I’m talking to you, lurkers!) And keep those recommendations coming!

I’ve been sorely neglecting the blog. (What else is new, right?) I have to admit I’ve lost a bit of my enthusiasm for it. There’s been plenty to write about — my dad’s wedding, my mom’s wedding, my trip to Chicago and Northfield, Minnesota, my 31st birthday, the basement water leak that left us waterless for two days due to a slow-moving property manager (what a joy that was), the DVD release of Flight of the Conchords (seriously, check out this show if you’ve never seen it) — I just haven’t felt like blogging.

I’m trying to read more. I used to be a fairly voracious reader, but I’ve really slipped over the past few years. It’s early to be thinking about new year’s resolutions, but I’ve decided that next year I’m going to try to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Google “52 books in 52 weeks” and you’ll see that this is sort of an internet meme. I realize that for avid readers this isn’t much of a challenge, but for me it will be.

So I’m working on creating a reading list. Anything goes — fiction, nonfiction, anthologies, short stories, essays, graphic novels — as long as it’s a book. There are far too many books on my shelves that I haven’t read. Book shopping is so fun and I tend to buy things as I see them (even though I know I’ve got stacks of unread books at home) so I won’t forget that I want to read them. Honestly, I have purchased more books (or received them as gifts) in the past few years than I have actually read. That’s just sad.

Anyone else who’s up to the challenge is welcome to join in. The more the merrier. I’m going to try to post at least short reviews of each book I read. Any suggestions for my book list are definitely encouraged. So, read any good books lately?

Just got back last night from an out-of-town reunion with my bestest buds from college that was planned at the last minute. It’s not often that I can be so spontaneous. Bonus points if you can figure out where I was (from this low quality cell phone photo).

Here’s another local school related update. Pat Conroy wrote a letter to the Gazette castigating the Kanawha County School Board for suspending two of his books, Beach Music and The Prince of Tides.

I heard rumors of this controversy as I was completing my latest filthy, vomit-inducing work. These controversies are so commonplace in my life that I no longer get involved. But my knowledge of mountain lore is strong enough to know the dangers of refusing to help a Hatfield of West Virginia. I also do not mess with McCoys.

The Gazette reports that Conroy sent the letter, addressed to the Gazette, to George Washington High School senior Makenzie Hatfield, who emailed him about the controversy surrounding his books. Here’s what he had to say about the violence his books.

They contain scenes of violence, but I was the son of a Marine Corps fighter pilot who killed hundreds of men in Korea, beat my mother and his seven kids whenever he felt like it, and fought in three wars. My youngest brother, Tom, committed suicide by jumping off a fourteen-story building; my French teacher ended her life with a pistol; my aunt was brutally raped in Atlanta; eight of my classmates at The Citadel were killed in Vietnam; and my best friend was killed in a car wreck in Mississippi last summer. Violence has always been a part of my world. I write about it in my books and make no apology to anyone. In “Beach Music,” I wrote about the Holocaust and lack the literary powers to make that historical event anything other than grotesque.

(Read the whole thing. It’s entertaining, if a bit over-the-top.)

The school board has suspended the books temporarily, while a “committee of professionals and Nitro-area residents” review the books and determine whether they are suitable for high school seniors. Perhaps I’m overly optimistic, but I bet when they finally finish reading the books (it’s been over a month — slow readers, I guess), they’ll conclude that they aren’t inappropriate. I would think that once they read the books in their entirety and see the controversial scenes in context, they will have a better understanding of the value in students reading them. Like I said, maybe I’m overly optimistic.

Not all of the complaining parents want the books banned outright. Some want alternative books to be provided, disclaimers to be given (the teachers have said they already do this), and a book rating system to be implemented. I guess it’s the teachers who are supposed to spend extra time creating a whole rating system and rating all of the books they assign — without additional pay, of course.

School board member Bill Raglin is in favor of these remedies and says:

“I don’t object to anything Conroy says,” Raglin said. “I just want to give the parents who don’t want to be bothered with him the right to not be bothered with him.”

They already have that right. The parents are entirely free not to be bothered with Pat Conroy and his books. I’m sorry, but I thought it was the students who are in class reading these books, discussing them, writing papers about them, and taking pop quizzes about them. I thought it was the students who are in an AP English class, preparing for college, where they’ll all be next year. Oh, bother.

Today’s serendipitously appropriate Cat and Girl comic

Okay, that’s not really what she said. However, that would indeed be the end result of one local parent’s ludicrous notion that a school’s zero-tolerance policy for violence should not just apply to actual people in the real world, but should be extended to characters in the novels high school students read in English class. Her particular objection is to Pat Conroy’s novel Beach Music. At a school board meeting last night, the parent who objects to the novel did what all parents who object to books do — she read selected passages of the book, which contained descriptions of child rape, suicide, and killing.

This woman’s brilliant logic is:

Zero tolerance for violence should mean just that. When the school condones it, that’s telling the kids a lot.

Why she thinks the school is condoning child rape, suicide, or killing by allowing high school students to read books that contain those subjects is beyond me. I haven’t read any Pat Conroy novels, but I do know that many of his books deal with child abuse — physical, sexual, emotional — and family violence and that they’re based on his own childhood growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father. I’m going to take a wild guess that Pat Conroy doesn’t condone child rape or think that suicide is a neat idea. I’m going to take another wild guess that Beach Music does the exact opposite of condoning those things by telling a story that illustrates how harmful and painful those things are.

I do have to laugh at what the end result of her proposed policy would be — no Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, or really any Shakespeare (at least not the tragedies). Let’s see, what else would be out? To Kill a Mockingbird (yikes! it has “kill” right there in the title!), The Grapes of Wrath, Catch-22, Things Fall Apart. Hell, probably most (if not all) of the novels that people generally consider to be the best of all time would have to be banned.

And why stop with English class? Shouldn’t this zero-tolerance policy apply to the books students read in all of their classes? I guess schools will have to start teaching history without mentioning any wars, the founding of the United States, slavery, the Holocaust. Better not tell them about the deaths of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy — wouldn’t want to condone assassination.

How far should we extend this logic? Do the characters in novels have to comply with ALL of the school’s policies? Can they smoke? Chew gum? Talk on their cell phones? Do they have to meet the dress code?

The extent to which some parents want to limit their children’s education is sad to me.

Has anyone else discovered this awesome time-waster yet? A friend alerted me to it (thanks, D!), and I can’t stop Simpsonizing everyone. (The site’s a little slow and sometimes doesn’t work at all due to heavy traffic, so be forewarned.)

I saw The Simpsons Movie last weekend, and it was pretty funny. I do have to agree with a friend of mine who pointed out that there wasn’t enough time devoted to the supporting characters. The movie was mainly focused on the family, and they’re funny, but I do think most of the humor in the show comes from the vast array of quirky Springfieldians. Each of them gets a little screen time, but they kind of feel like cameos, with some exceptions. Personally, I would’ve liked to see more Ralph Wiggum. Of course, it’s got to be hard to fit all of those characters into one movie. It’s easier to do when you’ve got hundreds of episodes to work with. But if you’re a Simpsons fan (even if, like me, you don’t really watch it anymore), I think you’ll enjoy it.

UPDATE: By request, here’s a Simpsonized Don Surber. He looks like he belongs on the show, doesn’t he? The Springfield Shopper totally needs a doofus conservative columnist.

I can’t stop watching this.

P.S. Oh, and I love the cover of his new album.

I scanned the list of Josh Ritter’s newly announced fall tour dates to see if he’ll be playing anywhere near me and, lo and behold, he’ll be in little ol’ Charleston in October at Mountain Stage. Maybe he’ll want to have a beer with a fellow Obie. (We’ll always have freshman year biology lab.)

His new album’s out on August 21st.

So I’ve been completely ignoring the ol’ blog. Well, except for that unpleasant couple of days when I unwisely chose to engage an ignorant commenter who was comically bad at comprehending simple logic and not-so-comically bad at showing even a hint of compassion for other people. (Reading too much Ayn Rand will fuck with your head like that.)

I’ve got this long post in my head about Kenzi Snider and overzealous, overly confident, inexperienced investigators who elicit false confessions from innocent people. I just need to, you know, write it. Until then, I figured I should at least check in to make an announcement:

I’M EXPECTING . . .

Continue reading ‘False Confessor Brings the Flood’