More Thoughts About Books In Response to a Statement by Greil Marcus

Music journalist and cultural critic Greil Marcus has an eNewsletter called Ask Greil. Readers ask Marcus questions and he responds publicly. This seemed like an interesting way to get to know this writer and cultural observer as other people publicly pick his brain. In addition to being well-read, there's no question he's been around and seen a lot.

Here's a excerpt from his January 3 reply to someone who asked if he planned to review The Last Chairlift by John Irving. (Irving is author of The World According to Garp and more than a dozen other novels.)

"I’m unsure about The Last Chairlift." Marcus replied. "First, I distrust any book that says it’s about the last anything. Second, it’s so long I’m afraid I won’t finish it, or worse, look at it on my nightstand for a year before I realize I’m never going to start it."

I'M USING THAT STATEMENT as a stepping off point into a few thoughts about books. I, too, have a few internal red flags that cause me to distrust certain kinds of marketing lingo. Here are three.

First, I will revise his comment about "the last anything" to encompass "the last word" on anything. Is there really a last word on toppling statues or climate change? We can have convictions, but are we going to close the door on all discussion, even when new evidence comes in? Apart from the either/or manner in which most discussion takes place, there are countless nuances to most issues. 

Second, I distrust endorsements by Kirkus Review. Silly me, I used to believe that it actually meant something if a book review cited comments by Kirkus review. It wasn't till I got into self-publishing on Amazon that I discovered I can purchase a Kirkus Review and quote it in my marketing copy on the back of the book, or wherever else. This was a moment of disillusionment for me. 

Third, I distrust NYTimes Bestseller status as anything meaningful. Popular does not correspond to quality. Many important books have limited sales for a variety of reasons. Other books never make the Times' bestseller list because the Times only measures bookstore sales. 

Marcus also states his reluctance to start a massive tome that will sit unread on his nightstand for a year. Yes, I have a few of those massive volumes and I understand his hesitancy. This doesn't stop me from selecting long books when the urge is present. I usually have several books going at the same time, and the "long one" will be at my end of the dining room table which I'll plod through during my lunch periods. I'm not what it will be this year but last year it was Halberstam's The Fifties, and two or three years ago Solzhenitsyn's August 1014. As much as I love David Foster Wallace's writing, I've thus far managed to dodge Infinite Jest.

Another rule that guides my reading decisions is this: what do other readers think? The critics often praise something they've never read but feel they must weigh in on. Also, like movie critics they embrace what's trendy, which on occasion can be appallingly bad. Jodie Foster's Home for the Holidays was her first film as a director. High praise ensued. "Women crossing over into the director's chairs," the said. We walked out after 20 minutes. 

A quick peek at the Amazon reviews by readers pretty much tells you that Marcus was probably wise to avoid The Last Chairlift. Here are comments from one reader who has been a big John Irving fan:  

I may someday forgive John Irving for this book, but not yet. I gave up about 35% of the way in when I realized that everything in this book that was not a repetition of a theme in his earlier work was badly described sex (and "badly" may be generous). I figured that, if I went any further, I might even lose the will to live.... If I were John Irving, I would probably complain that at 80, he may have used up all his novelist skills. Instead, I will try to pretend this book never happened and continue to list Irving among my top 20 favorite modern authors."

This review feels honest and very likely accurately reflects the contents. Sometimes, when books are political, you might get hostile reactions not because of the quality of the content but because the "other side" simply does not want the book read. That can go either way, if you know what I mean. 

Whether writing about them, talking about them or reading them, books are a great gift to all of us. May we never stop supporting our libraries and our authors.

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There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. ~ Joseph Brodsky

For what it's worth, the QR code at the top right will bring you to a page describing my books. If you don't have a "Smartphone" you can just click on it with your cursor and reach the same destination.

A Comparison of Sequels: MIB I & II vs. Terminator I & II

I just finished watching MIB and MIB II this past week. Afterwards, I tried to figure out why the first was so engaging and entertaining, and why the latter left me flat. Both feature Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, doing the usual things they do with deadpan wit. Both had innovative aliens and SFX. Both have given our heroes a task to accomplish or else life on earth as we know it will end. In other words, there is something at stake.

And yet, only the first seemed to really grab me. Why was this? 

It honestly seemed like the actors were bored with their roles in the second story, and if they're not into it why should I be? Could that possibly be?

I'm curious what the producers thought as they screened this when it first came out of the can. Many of the imdb.com reviewers were not kind at all. One called it, "The most forced, joyless comedy ever." Another called it, "Recycled garbage." A third wrote, "At Best, it's just a Lame Sequel to an Awesome Summer Movie."

This review perhaps does the best job of capturing what may have been the film's weakness:

`Originality,' is, almost by definition, a one-time thing. In 1997, the original `Men in Black' struck a nerve with movie audiences by showing that even a big budget blockbuster, heavily loaded down with state-of-the-art, computer-generated special effects, could still manage to seem light on its feet. The makers of that film pulled off this feat of gravitational legerdemain by coming up with a concept and a script overflowing with creativity, wit, imagination and a cachet of `hipness' to go along with its tone of anarchic playfulness.

Well, five years have passed and we now have `Men in Black II' to confirm what most of us suspected all along: that works that rely on `uniqueness' as their prime selling point are rarely ever able to duplicate their success a second time around. 

Nevertheless, with that last thought in mind, what was it that made Terminator 2: Judgment Day so successful then? MIB II got a 6.6 audience rating, whereas Terminator 2, directed by James Cameron (Titanic) received accolades and an 8.5 rating, even higher than the first. 

The Terminator films feature cyborgs who come from the future to kill John Connor, who will be a leader of the resistance in that future era. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the "star power" here in these films, much like Jones and Smith. But this sequel shuffles the deck and deals a different hand. 

First, whereas Schwarzenegger is a deadly, terrifying adversary in the first--and a truly original concept--he comes back in the second with the mission of being John Connor's bodyguard against a new, even more resilient and terrifying cyborg adversary. It's the psychological confusion (for Connor and his mother) that adds a level of intrigue in this story, and the fact that the new enemy is also so seemingly invincible and unique.

It you go back to the beginning of this Terminator series, though, you can't help but notice that The Terminator, also directed by James Cameron, was actually a very low budget film, barely over six million bucks. (Roughly the same as Iron Will, the Disney film shot here in Duluth that many here were extras in.) Worldwide gross for that first Terminator flick was 78 million. Clearly, by the time the sequel was produced, Cameron had established his cred and could be trusted with the 100 million dollar budget to turn this inventive sequel into something even more substantial. Worldwide gross: over a half billion. 

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The Point Is This: The word "Sequel" has unfortunately become a byword meaning "Inferior" when it comes to Hollywood pictures. James Cameron did not succeed here simply by having a bigger budget. MIB II had an ample budget as well. Rather, it was the manner in which he took the original story to a new level, something the MIB team failed to do. 

What do you think?

Dylan at the Beacon--Philip Hale Shares Why Fans Keep Coming Back for More

At the Beacon Theater, 2018. Courtesy Nelson French

Bob Dylan is just past the midpoint of his ten shows at the Beacon Theater in New York, winding up the latest leg of his Never Ending Tour with an exclamation point in Washington, DC next weekend on the 8th. The reviews throughout have been stellar, especially the fan reviews at BobLinks.com where you can also see his ongoing schedule. (His April tour in Japan is now on the calendar.)

As most longtime fans know there are a number of fan forums and sites to follow Dylan, and as you've no doubt surmised, some are on Facebook. Though I had something else on the docket to post today, I so enjoyed Philip Hale's summary of the recent show he saw at the Beacon that it pre-empted everything else.

Hale hails from Brooklyn, a famous hometown for many writers. (Noteworthy: Literary Brooklyn: The Writers of Brooklyn and the Story of American City Life by Nathan Hale) It's also a nesting place for many Dylan fans, some who are themselves noteworthy writers.

This was Philip Hale's review which I read at The Bob Dylan Fan Club on FB this morning, shared with permission.

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“Bring down my fiddle
Tune up my strings
I'm gonna break it wide open
Like the early Roman kings”

This time last year I was halfway through Dylan’s residency at the Beacon. I was a guest on an episode of Rob Kelly’s Poddylan. (You should check the podcast out and I thoroughly recommend Tara-Jane Hulligan Zuk ‘s appearance where she discussed Highlands if you want a good starting point--mine not so much unless you are studying the stupefying effects of obsession!).

Rob asked what I got out of seeing multiple shows and I totally punted the answer, rambling about walking on tightropes (Dylan not me) or some similar cliched nonsense. Anyway, I find myself again at the mid-point of eight Beacon shows.

Last night Dylan reached out into that beautiful theater and provided the definitive answer. I go again and again because as an artist Dylan sometimes accesses a place in himself that pours out an other-worldly energy through the conduit of a distinctly human form.

There are shows where he is a musician, a clearly exceptionally talented performer going about his job. Then there are nights like last night. There were many stunning moments but Early Roman Kings is illustrative of the point I am trying to convey. It’s a minor song in the context of Dylan’s canon but it’s a song that he has played the most from Tempest, clearly a song he is still chasing. Last night he vamped, he twisted his body, he snarled and pointed, singing from center stage delivering the defiance and the menace of the lyrics with body language that was lining up behind a vocal of such intensity that it rattled the brain. The band pushed the song to places Dylan’s commitment demanded. He knew it too.

The song has been a highlight of the other three nights but here it was stripped down to some essential nature and then rebuilt into a towering edifice. He seems to have revisited this song searching for exactly this moment, forcing the audience to meet him where, as a friend put it, he is in his ongoing conversation with himself through his music. Having delivered all of that he walked to the piano to emote quietly on Girl from the North Country.

Last night that juxtaposition was at once devastating in its power and ethereal in its impact. I could have gone to one night, but if it didn’t happen to be this one then I would have missed a moment where being entertained is replaced by being transported by a piece of art. The whole show was sublime but that two-song combo was mesmerizing. If you are open to it, Dylan tugs at your heart and rips at your soul. I am grateful to have the opportunity to give him multiple goes at it.

Philip Hale, 30 November 2019


Early Roman Kings is just such a great song, even if not his most important. And like so many songs this guy writes, I mean, who else writes songs like this? It's amazing the way Bob re-invents himself. It begins...

All the early Roman Kings in their sharkskin suits
Bowties and buttons, high top boots
Driving the spikes in, blazing the rails
Nailed in their coffins in top hats and tails
Fly away little bird, fly away, flap your wings
Fly by night like the early Roman Kings

For me it's the presentation, as much as anything, that carries you, conveying something menacing yet deceptively something else. In my mind, I see and hear Bob strutting.

You can tell Dylan likes the song because by the end of this round of his NET he'll have played it more than 500 times since released in 2012.

For a totally different take on the song, if you want a deep dive, visit Tony Attwood's Untold Dylan where he addresses the song from a couple other angles. I disagree with some of his speculation, but always like the links to other sources.

For some reason an image from Slow Train Coming comes to mind for me where he describes "Sheiks walkin' around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings." It's maybe an echo and not a rhyme.

If you want do dig further, here's where you'll find the rest of the lyrics for Early Roman Kings.

Meantime, life goes on... and so does the Never Ending Tour.