Never work with children or animals

Jonathan Lethem started strong. Has he continued strong? Definitely in some cases, maybe not in others. Well, that's most of us.

There are some books I'm looking forward to getting into in the coming weeks, but Gun, with Occasional Music was sitting on my shelf so I figured I'd revisit it. It's a mixture of hardboiled detective writing with science fiction of both the gosh-gee and dystopian variety. So in some ways following in the footsteps of Philip K. Dick, although the two authors are quite distinct.

I won't detail the case that lead character Conrad Metcalf works on in this book, because that would take all night and there'd be no point. But elements of the setting include "babyheads" who age into cynicism while keeping their infant bodies, evolved talking animals of numerous stripes, the legal abolition of the printed word, and deep freezing those who fall afoul of the law. "The law." Actually the last is connected to the eeriest aspect of this future, "karma", an artificial goodwill that can dip dangerously low if you step out of line in any amorphous way. Eerie because it resembles the idea of "social credit" that's taken hold in China and perhaps elsewhere.

Anyway, the book hangs together well, so I feel pretty good about liking it the first time.

NC

 

The above quote is indeed genuinely from Keats, which is not always the case with popular quotes. The idea of  negative capability is one that I first came across in college. It's stuck with me since. Fact and reason have their place, of course, and we do well to remember that. But in living a creative life, "uncertainties, mysteries, doubts" are the stuff of life. Best to learn to live with them, even appreciate them.

Dulcet tones

 

I was just reading about the celesta, a keyboard instrument that strikes plates rather than strings, as in the case of a piano. Okay, just go with it. I think I've heard something of the instrument before but felt like sampling it again. This is a piece by Debussy, a very affecting composer. I think it's more often played on the piano. But this woman's playing definitely works for me.

Jockeying

Tonight being Christmas Eve I spent the night watching a randomly selected movie that had nothing to do with Christmas. It's a 1952 sports/gambling movie called Boots Malone. William Holden plays a manager at a racetrack who takes a teenage runaway under his wing and trains him to be a jockey. Despite having Holden and some other interesting actors (Ed Begley, Harry Morgan) it didn't really work for me. But there are a couple of interesting aspects.

For one, give director William Dieterle credit. The jockeys in the movie look pretty much the way jockeys in real life do. Which means that Holden spends a good amount of time talking to guys who barely come up to his chest.

The kid is played by Johnny Stewart, who was only an actor for a few years. He is, not to put too fine a point on it, irritating. But the way he's irritating is revealing. At this point teenagers could be depicted as large children whose emotional tumult was pretty innocuous from an adult point of view. But it was 1952. That conceit wouldn't last much longer.

Vicious circle

There's a series of short ads that play before videos on YouTube. They're targeted to Rhode Island, and I assume there are equivalents for other states. They always end with an admonition to get vaccinated, get your kids vaccinated, mask up, and social distance. These steps are supposed to be meaningful in the aggregate, although it's self-evident that even proponents find them individually useless.

In related news we have an indoor mask mandate again. Which is especially fun because it's doubly removed from any kind of public input. Governor McKee gave the order yesterday without going through the legislature, and he was only elected to be Lieutenant Governor. Why should New York have all the fun? I guess.

Don't blow your top

I bought a new winter hat today. It's gotten to that part of the year where if your hat doesn't cover your ears, you'll be in for a fair amount of discomfort at minimum. The place where I got it sells stuff that the factories may have overproduced, so their prices are a lot lower than you'd expect. This hat is from a relative luxury brand, but only cost a few bucks. It also had a label on it, which I cut off when I got home. Just looked wrong.

What the Dickens?

I recently opted to fill in a hole in my reading history by taking on Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. He is one of the great voices of English-language literature, and I've enjoyed his books more than not. 

The library system has plenty of copies in various editions. And the "various" editions part is what tripped me up. The book I ordered turns out to be the "Great Illustrated Classics" version, greatly abridged and simplified in order to be read by grade schoolers.

But, well, when life gives you lemons (because you mistakenly asked for lemons) make lemonade. I'll read this version and go back for the real thing later on. The differences might be educational in themselves.