War and Peace and Fun

"Hear the voices in my head/

I swear to god it sounds like they're snoring/

but if you're bored than you're boring"

Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger 

So, I'm through the assigned reading of War and Peace for The Club's meeting on saturday.  Strange book.  The first section was all dinner parties for Russian nobles, and it was very good.  The second section was the first battle between the Russians and the French, and it was boring as shit. Yakov Smirnoff was right, those Soviets are ass-backwards. Also, I had some trouble in parts, because, due to Tolstoy's writing style or some barrier in the translation, I couldn't at times tell if I was reading a satire or earnestness.  That's one of the problems with my generation.  We drink in irony like water, but we're not too great with sincerity.

The Corner

I simply must comment on The Corner, by David Simon and Edward Burns. It was a very powerful read.

The book, which was made into an HBO miniseries, chronicles a year in the lives of DeAndre McCullough (age 15/16), Fran Boyd (D's mother)and Gary McCullough (D's father).

That normal year of their lives would be the worst year in the lives of anyone I have ever known. And it was their normal. But what makes the book so great is the author's insistence that these people not be judged unfairly. First it is illustrated, and then said... powerfully said.

Catch-up

About this.

Imagine you watch two movies.  The first movie is a porno. There's nothing particularly special about this porn, it is just a satisfactory example of pornographic film-making.  The performers are what you sense they should be, the plot line and dialogue are, as usual, largely excuses to get people naked, everything lives up to your expectations, but nothing in particular exceeds them. Then there's the second movie.  The second movie is billed as a porno, but as you watch it, you realize that the filmmakers have put time and money into the production.  The script is actually written by a professional, the actors do more than worry about when to take their clothes off, it looks like a real movie, only....it's still a porno.  Most scenes still end with a prolonged sexual act. And this throws off any enjoyment of the movie, because you don't know if you should invest time in the plot and the characters, or just treat it like you normally might i.e. fast forward until you see skin.