cultural consumption update
Cultural artifacts consumed/given up on, ca. 6/24/06:
- Truman Capote's Music for Chameleons, finished in its entirety. This was the first thing in quite a while that I really enjoyed reading, to the point where I didn't want to put it down. Highlights included "Handcarved Coffins," the veracity of which is apparently still totally in question, and the final dialogue of the last section, between Capote and Capote. The way he characterizes himself in his stories makes me portray him in my mind as Dennis Roddy.
- Gertrude Stein's Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, begun, given up on after a few pages. Not exciting me right now. Sorry, Gert.
- Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman's film Derrida watched. It has some good moments, but for the most part comes across as Derrida fanboys/girls trying to be "cool like Jacques" while at the same time making a film about him. It's nice that he goes out of his way many times to point out the artificial nature of the film, and that they include it, but beyond that they don't seem to have a whole lot of focus on what they want to say or show about him. Best moment: after a lecture, a sort of dorky grad-student-looking woman approaches Derrida and says "Hearing you speak just elucidates your texts SO MUCH!" Derrida says "Thank you, thank you" and the woman comes up blank for a moment or two, then says, "I just wanted to meet you . . . I'm really excited right now . . ." and he turns to talk to someone else and she looks at the woman next to her and does the "OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST DID THAT!" thing.
- Philip Roth's Operation Shylock, begun. I'm only a few pages in, but I intend to stay with this one.
- Brown Angel last night hit the spot; I think it for better or worse that it takes a week of going in and out of distressing sullenness and panic attacks to fully appreciate Adam's art. I snatched the last demo tape, just in case I need it sometime.
- Truman Capote's Music for Chameleons, finished in its entirety. This was the first thing in quite a while that I really enjoyed reading, to the point where I didn't want to put it down. Highlights included "Handcarved Coffins," the veracity of which is apparently still totally in question, and the final dialogue of the last section, between Capote and Capote. The way he characterizes himself in his stories makes me portray him in my mind as Dennis Roddy.
- Gertrude Stein's Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, begun, given up on after a few pages. Not exciting me right now. Sorry, Gert.
- Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman's film Derrida watched. It has some good moments, but for the most part comes across as Derrida fanboys/girls trying to be "cool like Jacques" while at the same time making a film about him. It's nice that he goes out of his way many times to point out the artificial nature of the film, and that they include it, but beyond that they don't seem to have a whole lot of focus on what they want to say or show about him. Best moment: after a lecture, a sort of dorky grad-student-looking woman approaches Derrida and says "Hearing you speak just elucidates your texts SO MUCH!" Derrida says "Thank you, thank you" and the woman comes up blank for a moment or two, then says, "I just wanted to meet you . . . I'm really excited right now . . ." and he turns to talk to someone else and she looks at the woman next to her and does the "OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST DID THAT!" thing.
- Philip Roth's Operation Shylock, begun. I'm only a few pages in, but I intend to stay with this one.
- Brown Angel last night hit the spot; I think it for better or worse that it takes a week of going in and out of distressing sullenness and panic attacks to fully appreciate Adam's art. I snatched the last demo tape, just in case I need it sometime.
posted by andybot at 3:00 PM
2 Comments:
Are you copying my Philip Roth bent? Do you really buy into "punk/rock cred"? Is listing everything you've read and watched a form of collecting? Do you want to catch butterflies later?
1. I was consciously avoiding the book you have/had recently but consciously seeking out something by the same author. I aspire to be like you, but not TOO MUCH like you.
2. A little over a quarter of the way into this book, dude has little more than intense Jew cred in my mind. And some Dostoevsky reference cred. I actually feel like we could have easily, and maybe should have, gotten this far in like half the pages. But I'm not very good at reading fiction, to be sure.
3. Yes. But I left some things out intentionally, as to avoid being completist.
4. Yes, but it's getting dark so they'll actually be moths.
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