I don't think I can put this nearly as eloquently as the Abbot, but snot, drippy poo and lung grease seem to sum up our Christmas nicely -- not to mention a somewhat unhinged middle child who gets a bit freaked out by illness.I'm beginning to think that between the surreal and germ-infused 2008 Vancouver winter landscape, the crippling wood panelling of the burbs, and my own psycho Christmas, Abbot, Vivant and Pinot have crossed into some sort of twilight zone.
In such circumstances, The Plague is probably a great choice in reading. I find this to be a very mentally dark time of year to begin with, so, rather than fight it, perhaps it's best to wallow in it. Well wallowed Abbot. I'd rather face the darkness (or listen to the chorus of coughs) than drown it out with faux-happy thoughts.
I think I'll dust off my copy of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Short and accessible, unlike some of his other works. At this time of year, I can really only trust alcoholics to write the brilliant depressing novels I need.
Pinot
Pinot/boys, I'll openly put all of my cards on the table here and admit that I have never read Faulker.
ReplyDelete(Yes, it's true - I am a philistine. (Is that how you spell philistine?(Answers.com: Philistine: A smug, ignorant, especially middle-class person who is regarded as being indifferent or antagonistic to artistic and cultural values.)) So maybe I am not a philistine, then? I like art and culture. What can we say then apart from the fact that I have never read Faulkner?)
The question now is, should I read As I Laying Dying? For Wikipedia tells me: "the shortest chapter in the book consists of just five words; "My mother is a fish.""
I'm finding it hard enough to take care of my mother these day and figure out if she has had a stroke or has suddenly developed dimentia (having to do this mostly in the dreary suburbs or while driving a van on dreary highways.) - without trying to solve such riddles.
My mother is a fish?
That book may just put me over the edge.
BTW Pinot - Your entry puts Faulkner into a three way tie for the lead in the Drink Standings - and I've never read him. I am a fish.
ReplyDeleteOK. I've read Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury), but never As I Lay Dying. Does this make me, too, a philistine? Or, worse, a fish? I like fish...I like to fish, too. I fish, therefore I am...a fish? Efficient. Efficiency. A-fish-in-sea.
ReplyDeleteThe question, Vivant, is not "should you read As I Lay Dying," but "should you read As I Lay Dying AFTER you finish Infinite Jest?" For if you successfully navigate IJ's 1100-odd pages, you'll have just as successfully put off the first question until the daffodils break through and we're playing the first few chilly nights of the early WPBHL outdoor league.
Pinot, my sympathies go out to you, from one germ-ridden cesspit to another. "Lung grease?" Yecch. And someone's got the shits, too. Double yecch. It's times like these that were made for bleak 20-C writing and full-bodied red wines and craft brews. Merciful god.
Flynn - you are suprisingly articulate for a nine-year-old. I suppose The Abbot has already had you read IJ. But you're right - I'm not a disciplined novel reader these days. My mind and my life seems to be flowing away in a stream of blogging, drinking and fu*cking. And yet - I love novels. What a dilemna. What has happened to me? What can I change? Or should I change? It seems to me that I am a relatively happy lad. I would say that the only thing missing in my life just now is that I haven't written The Great Novel my self. But what would be the point of that - as the world seems to be filled with more and more people like me - people lost in the flow of immediately pleasure, if not outright debauchery?
ReplyDeleteWell lookee what we have here. Three old men talking about drinking and books.
ReplyDeleteA suggestion, if Faulkner is too heavy, and Jest is too long, and Carver too short. Try Denis Johnson. Start with "Jesus' Son", move to "Angels" and if you're really into it, finish with "Tree of Smoke".
Good drinky reading from a modern master.
Another author/drinker for you. Doing his best to carry the torch today.
ReplyDeleteThat mug-shot of Shepard is fabulous. He looks like the quintessential hardman. Write hard, live hard - as long as long as nobody else gets killed on the roadways.
ReplyDelete