In which you foolishly keep up with contemporary books you don't like; Carnegie Medal Edition

I've got this bad habit of paying attention to year-end lists and award long lists and short lists. Even though I'm doggedly grumpy about it all, I keep intermittently paying attention. Now that I'm spending many hours a day standing with a view of a "new releases" shelf, I find myself a bit more engaged than usual. I watched the Booker awards live-stream. I could name several Colleen Hoover titles and, shamefully, I can even almost quote the first sentences of some of them from memory. It's a weird time. Meanwhile, I'm reading Moby-Dick, slowly, savoring every sentence, still finding it delightfully funny. I'd even go so far as to describe it as "a joyous romp". Maybe Ahab's obsession is going to put a damper on the fun, maybe. I'm excited to find out.

Anyhow, contemporary lit. Lists.

I saw that the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction long list (and short list) had been posted. I decided that I would read at least the first sentence of each of these. If I could get through the first sentence, I'd read the second sentence. If I could get through the second sentence, I'd read an entire paragraph. If I could get through that paragraph, maybe I'd read the entire first chapter. If I loved that first chapter, I'd keep going.

Now, of course, I'm betting on giving up on almost all of these sooner rather than later. It's a foolish thing that I'm doing. I know that. And yet... it still ought to give me a better sense of contemporary lit than I have right now. Worst case scenario is that I can point to sentences in a first chapter to show why I dislike a book instead of having to admit that I'm unfairly dismissing it based on its cover and publisher description. Best case scenario is that I find new books that I love. As pessimistic as I am about contemporary publishing and awards trends, I do still hold out hope that this is possible.

What is this award? https://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/carnegie-medals/about
"The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, established in 2012, recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year and serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by the American Library Association and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals who work closely with adult readers."

My take? It's a bunch of self-appointed arbiters of taste who have risen through the ranks of library and publishing politics, well-known enough by each other to be chosen by each other for important judging roles. The list is heavily weighted towards "important" LitFic over and above "genre" fiction. So it goes. 

Here's the list of Fiction books from the long list:
* = on the short list

Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield

Seeking Fortune Elsewhere.. Sindya Bhanoo

The School for Good Mothers - Jessamine Chan

Trust - Hernan Diaz

*Greenland - David Santos Donaldson

The Candy House - Jennifer Egan

If I Survive You - Jonathan Escoffery

Calling for a Blanket Dance - Oscar Hokeah

The Kingdom of Sand - Andrew Holleran 

Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver

What We Fed to the Manticore - Talia Lakshmi Kolluri

The Book of Goose - Yiyun Li

Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel

The Passenger - Cormac McCarthy

How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu

The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O'Farrell

*The Swimmers - Julie Otsuka

Young Mungo - Douglas Stuart

*Night of the Living Rez - Morgan Talty

Joan is Okay - Weike Wang

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm - Laura Warrell

Four Treasures of the Sky - Jenny Tinghui Zhang

---

I know very little about any of those. My project right now is to give them each a try, going in as blind as possible, giving each the benefit of the doubt, hoping to love, always ready to get my grump on.

I'm committing to writing at least one sentence about each of these. "Meh." counts as a sentence for these purposes.

Reader Advisory: Explicit Curmudgery.

I created a new blog. I created two new blogs.

But really I just wanted a space to write about recent book reading.

What was I doing? I already have that space here.

So, it's time to return to this blog. 

Write stuff. Post stuff. 

Even when it sucks. Especially when it sucks. 

Even when no one is reading. Especially when no one is reading. 

Just put it out there. 

Just blogging. No "sharing" through social media. 

I'm tempted to put together a 90s-style webpage, but using Blogger is admittedly so much easier for blogging. 

Weblogging. Creating a "log" and putting it on the "web". That's what this is. 

Again. 

Just like the 39 other blogs I've created. I counted. There are seriously 39 other blogspot blogs that I have created. That doesn't count brief blogs and websites and deleted social media accounts that I've made elsewhere.

2020 in Review

2020 

+ = re-read 

* = favorite 

x = hated 

Fiction 

*Anthropocene Rag 

+*Bartleby the Scrivener 

+*Beowulf 

*The Broken Sword 

xConsider Phlebas 

+*Franny and Zooey 

The Judas Tree 

The Last Day of a Condemned Man 

+The Postman Always Rings Twice 

Ride, Sally, Ride 

xRunning Dog 

The Wheel of Time 

+1. The Eye of the World 

+2. The Great Hunt 

+3. The Dragon Reborn 

+4. The Shadow Rising 

+5. The Fires of Heaven 

+6. Lord of Chaos 

Non-Fiction 

Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind 

+*Crisis, Opportunity, and The Christian Future 

Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck 

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World 

+*The Freedom of a Christian 

How to Be a Friend: An Ancient Guide to True Friendship 

It’s Not A Small World, After All: A Defense of the Christian Imagination 

Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education 

The Romance of Protestantism: Tales of Trials and Victory 

*The Ten Commandments: A Guide to the Perfect Law of Liberty 

+*The Three Forms of Unity 

*Utopia of Usurers 

Drama & Poetry 

Greybeards at Play 

*Richard II 

+*Song of Myself 

Comics 

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) v.5: Behind the Scenes 

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) v.6: Absolute Carnage 

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) v.7: 2099 

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) v.8: Threats & Menaces 

Amazing Spider-Man: Full Circle

Daredevil (1998) v.1: Guardian Devil 

Daredevil (1998) v.2: Parts of a Hole 

Daredevil (1998) v.3: Wake Up 

Daredevil (1998) v.4: Underboss 

Daredevil (1998) v.5: Out 

Daredevil (1998) v.6: Lowlife 

Daredevil (1998) v.8: Echo 

Daredevil (1998) v.9: King of Hell’s Kitchen 

Daredevil (1998) v.10: The Widow 

Daredevil (1998) v.11: Golden Age 

Daredevil (1998) v.12: Decalogue 

Daredevil (1998) v.13: The Murdock Papers 

Daredevil (1998) v.14: The Devil, Inside and Out 

Daredevil (1998) v.15: The Devil, Inside and Out pt.2 

Daredevil (1998) Marvel Knights 

Daredevil: Unusual Suspects 

Daredevil (2019) v.1: Know Fear 

Daredevil (2019) v.2: No Devils, Only God 

Daredevil (2019) v. 3: Through Hell 

xDaredevil: Ninja 

Doctor Strange (2018), v.3: Herald

The Incredible Hulk and the Thing: The Big Change 

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection v.3: The Leader Lives 

Immortal Hulk v.6: We Believe in Bruce Banner 

Immortal Hulk v.7: Hulk is Hulk 

Snow, Glass, Apples

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW) v.1: Change is Constant 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW) v.2: Enemies Old, Enemies New 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW) v.3: Shadows of the Past

Accounting Books

Two recent posts about books for the Close Reads FB group:

1)

In lieu of a bio, here's a list of ten books that have stayed with me, that have shaped my life. I'm 38-years-old now. I read all of these for the first time between the ages of 10 and 18.

Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Brief Lives - Neil Gaiman, Various
The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Macbeth - William Shakespeare
Paradise Lost - John Milton
The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame - Robert Silverberg, ed.
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
The Stranger - Albert Camus

I'm not at all saying that these texts should be prescribed to anyone else. My own life might have been better had ten other texts wormed their way into my heart. But I was who I was and these are the books that were available to me, that insisted themselves upon me. They are still the books that reveal who I am now, a late 20th Century hot mess! This list is not identical to an all-time Top Ten list, though there is some overlap.


2)

The last list was the ten books that shaped me, that I cannot shake, the ones that got inside deep before I knew any better. They are the Top Ten by default.

This list is the list of my CHOSEN TOP TEN BOOKS OF ALL TIME, the books that I have fallen for and added to the previous ten. This is my first time making this list. I intend to cheat.

1. Par Lagerkvist

Lagerkvist could have been on my other list. I read The Dwarf when I was 15 or so. But it wasn't The Dwarf that made a huge impression on me. It was a series of books that I read when I was 19 or 20:
Barabbas
The Sybil
The Death of Ahasuerus
Pilgrim at Sea
The Holy Land
Herod and Mariamne
(These were translated in the 60s and available in paperbacks. The last four have been out-of-print ever since.)
(IF I had to pick only one, it would be Barabbas)

Lagerkvist described himself as a "religious atheist." His aesthetic and his philosophy resonated deeply with my own internal struggles. I rebelliously ran from God, cursed God, denied God, until I realized that my posture was ALWAYS *in relation* to God. I could not escape.

I return to these books every few years.

2. Sigrid Undset

I've seen a few people mention Kristin Lavransdatter. I still haven't read it.

What I did read at about the same time I was reading Lagerkvist was Undset's The Master of Hestviken. To be honest, I only read the first two books of the four. And of those, it's only the first one that stuck with me. The Axe. It's a favorite. I re-read it until it fell apart. I need to buy a new copy and I need to read all four books.

The Axe took Lagerkvist's Swedish despair and shot it in the head with Norwegian faith. Both are painful. No easy comforts.

3. The essays of G.K. Chesterton

I enjoy Chesterton's novels and his stories. I love the essays. I don't love any collection more than any other. With all of the work in the public domain, I've been thinking about publishing my own personal "best of" collection.

A list of ten favorite Chesterton essays, not in any particular order:

From Alarms and Discursions:
"Cheese"
"The Nightmare"

From All Things Considered
"On Running After One's Hat"
"Wine When It Is Red"
"Fairy Tales"

From Tremendous Trifles
"The Dragon's Grandmother"
"The Red Angel"

From The Well and the Shallows
"Babies and Distributism"

From What's Wrong With the World
"The Free Family"
"The Wildness of Domesticity"

4. James B. Jordan
5. Peter J. Leithart

Everything they've written. :-)
Fav books are probably Through New Eyes and Against Christianity.

I was raised Methodist with a strange liturgical-Pentecostal flair. I am as grateful for this as I am still confused by it. In college (a small Wesleyan school), I started reading Judges based on an Our Daily Bread bible reading plan. The story of Ehud saying "I have a message from God for you" as he stabbed Eglon in the belly started me on a fun journey toward Reformedville. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the moment I pinpoint as a transitional one. Reading Jonathan Edwards in a lit class was a step. There were lots of other steps. I had a degree in lit and education (I apologize that there are no education titles on either of these lists. They haven't been all that important to me!). I was disgusted by the public schools but did not know of any alternatives. I discovered Sayers' "Lost Tools of Learning" hosted on Wes Callihan's site (in 2001? 2002?). I slowly learned that all of the education people I was enjoying reading were Reformed. I discovered Biblical Horizons and never looked back. I'm committed to the BH Mission Statement as much as I am to the Heidelberg Catechism or Westminster Confession.
http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/about/biblicalhorizons/

6. James Blaylock
7. Tim Powers

Favs are probably--
Blaylock: The Paper Grail, The Last Coin, The Knights of the Cornerstone (my #1 comfort book)
Powers: Last Call (also Expiration Date, Earthquake Weather), The Drawing of the Dark

I've been a science fiction and fantasy fan for as long as I can remember. These two guys are among the best working today (for forty+ years now), with Christian themes shot through their work.

I have to confess that I don't really like Blaylock's steampunk stuff, but I do love all of his California books.

Possibly of interest to those here, George Grant wrote an essay on Powers, but I can't remember where it was published. It's probably floating around in the Wayback Machine somewhere.

8. Soren Kierkegaard, A Sickness Unto Death

This is a very recent read, about two years ago. I don't think I can write about it without getting too personal.

9. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Fruit of Lips, The Christian Future

ERH stretches my brain, hurts my brain. I've made some stumbling steps towards connecting theology and science fiction. ERH is a bridge on that journey.

10. The Complete Works of R.A. Lafferty

“It seemed, until I thought of it a bit, that I had written quite a few novels, and many shorter works, and also verses and scraps. Now I understood by some sort of intuition that what I had been writing was a never-ending story and that the name of it was ‘A Ghost Story’. The name comes from the only thing that I have learned about all people, that they are ghostly and that they are sometimes split-off. But no one can ever know for sure which part of the split is himself.” -R.A. Lafferty

R.A. Lafferty is my chosen lifetime companion, a master whom I have yoked myself to.

The journey from Lagerkvist to Lafferty has been a long process of submitting to joy.

I've known of him and read some of his work since the mid-90s. It wasn't until a few years ago that I really discovered him and relaized that his work had been what I was looking for all along.

I will gladly spend the rest of my life reading and learning from him.

(I won't write any more about Lafferty since I'm going to start sounding like a Lafferty commercial. Here's an Alan Jacobs blog post in which he interacts with a Lafferty story that all classical educators and slow readers should love: http://text-patterns.thenewatlantis.com/…/learning-from-cam… )

That's it. Ten. ish.

I could add dozens more. But I'm satisfied. These ten coupled with the past ten do give a broad outline of my soul. Talking about books is dangerous business.


-----

Forcing myself to condense that second list, here it is:

Lagerkvist - Barabbas
Undset - The Axe
Chesterton - Personal "Best of" Essays
Jordan - Through New Eyes
Leithart - Against Christianity
Blaylock - The Knights of the Cornerstone
Powers - Last Call
Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death
Rosenstock-Huessy - The Fruit of Lips
Lafferty - A Ghost Story

GOOD BEYOND HOPE

Franz Kafka:

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. That is my belief.

C.S. Lewis:

 Such a book has of course its predestined readers, even now more numerous and more critical than is always realised. To them a review need say little, except that here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron; here is a book that will break your heart. They will know that this is good news, good beyond hope.

Saccharine Symphony

The new Disney cartoon "Bambi" is interesting because it's the first one that's been entirely unpleasant. The robust irrationality of the mouse comedies has been squelched completely by the syrup that has been gradually flowing over the Disney way. In an attempt to ape the trumped-up realism of flesh and blood movies, he has given up fantasy, which was pretty much the magic element. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck lived in a beautiful escape land, where they flew through the air, swam under water, died a thousand deaths and lived to see the end of each picture. These comedies were perfectly suited to a moving camera; held down by nothing human, they had terrific pace and action. It was a wonderful movie shambles.

But not "Bambi." The animals here behave just as Hollywood thinks we do, and behaving that way it's old stuff and boring because of it. Everything is straight-faced, with feet flat on the ground. The animals give birth, grow up, fall in love, get shot at and killed. Besides, it is moral, starched heavy. The hero is a deer named Bambi, whose mother is killed by the villain, Mr. Man, whose sweetheart is attacked by Mr. Man's dogs, whose terrestrial paradise is destroyed by Mr. Man's fire. There's no harm in Disney's being righteous, unless, as in this picture, the accent is on the cute and pretty rather than on the comedy invention which produced the righteous Donald. Only so much amusement can come from fairylike naivete, after that it's just one long squirm. Along the way "Bambi" has all the stereotyped mechanisms of the formula movie--the heavy side to the love triangle, the fight for the doe's ("Faline") affections, the wise old king deer whose place Bambi wins over in the closing shots.

In keeping with this new spirit, "Bambi" talks itself dizzy to the exclusion of movement and action. The animals are horribly equipped with human voices, not the neuter piping of Mickey or the incoherent gabbling of Donald, which were so perfectly right, but the cuddly or waspish voices of ladies and gentlemen. Like their counterparts in the regular movies, the animals here gather round and trade chitchat, very sweet, and it is grotesque. And there are songs everywhere, coming out of the mountains, from under the trees, flooding you with the most maudlin sounds a director ever let happen. Example: "Drip, Drip, Drop, Little April Shower."

The bogus art which has been creeping into the Disney pictures is really hammered at you in this one. Again, it is an affectation of reality, like a Maxfield Parrish painting. No more the flat house-paint colors of the early comedies, in which there were no half-tones or dull intensities, with every red the same hot, pure scarlet, every black like coal, and nothing flimsily grayed. The films are now doused in sweet sugary tints, flowery violets, fancy-pants pinks, and he'll waste ten minutes if he can end up with a gold-splashed sunset. Whereas the early color was fresh, simple and in the comedy spirit, this new development is a synthetic reveling in vulgarity. The worst effect of all this artiness is the preference now for cheap painting, the Vanishing American kind you buy in Kress's, in place of the movement which was the main thing before. No longer do the trees and flowers carry on like mad: they are there for pretty; and as the camera moves slowly over them and you drink up all this tinseled loveliness, there is the lone deer on the distant hilltop, a gold aura around him.

Mickey wouldn't be caught dead in this.

-Manny Farber
June 29, 1942

Fantasy & Science Fiction

Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 2014 Top 5

1) "A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide" by Sarah Pinsker
2) "In Her Eyes" by Seth Chambers
3) "The Museum of Error" by Oliver Buckram
4) "A Struggle Between Rivals Ends Surprisingly" by Oliver Buckram
5) "Feral Frolics" by Scott Baker