Thursday, January 28, 2010

Monday, January 11, 2010

3

I've seen Jurassic Park like 15 times, so it's like "Why bother?" right? I've known how to build these guys since I was but a child of 6!
Regardless, this is this weeks undertaking.

I'll report back (probably with my new pet, the pygmy Brontosaurus I'm working on).

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Book 2!



What up, post-modernism! Do I love you? Do I hate you? WHO KNOWS!*

There's nothing I enjoy quite like a good ol' mid-Western backdrop to any story, though. I feel like it's always the perfect setting; it's just boring enough that something has to happen and nondescript enough that that something really could be anything. It's like the green screen of North American lit.

Unfortunately, things I really dislike include**:

* banal academic banter

* absurd family situations

*quirky professors

*people who are obsessed with the notions of death and/or loneliness

*excessive paranoia***

SO, we are really only off to a so-so start here. But everyone (well, everyone who writes for the NY Times review section and anyone who wrote a book which hasn't garnered the acclaim Delillo has) is always raving about ol' Don, so it's time he and I got down, even if only for research purposes.

Thus far, he's managed to write a bunch of characters that only I seem to find unlikeable and still make me want to read more (even if only to figure out which child belongs to which character and exactly how many ex-wives our esteemed Professor has) and despite the various narcissistic indulgences, the dialogue is whip-smart. I can go on that alone, really. And so I do! Further updates when I get to this "Airborne Toxic Event" people keep ranting about.

*not me, that's for sure.

**but are not limited to

***get that enough on my own, thank you, drugs.

Book 1


Done. Read out of order and with the least initial pop culture connection than with any other Klosterman book. Generational gap no longer applies, I just don't like sports quite the way he does*.
Still clever as sin and as a result I've been filled with little quips, left and right. Immediately after I typed this, here is a conversation excerpt from real life.
Boss: C-squad...do you own a hairbrush?

...


Are you on speaking terms with it?

Me: Hahaha! Suck it!



So, maybe Klosterman does not exactly foster instant-clever in his readers, but this book is still a solid way to pass a few evenings. Also, how good would Dinosaur BBQ be?** Brontosteaks for days.
*at all.
**dinosaur BBQ is in no way even implied in this book,
which, btdubs, is not a cookbook as it turns out