“I mean / when I see something dull and uneven, / barnacled and ruined, / I know how to get to its iridescent everything.” – Eve L. Ewing, “what I mean when I say I’m sharpening my oyster knife”
CW: police shooting. I’m not very descriptive, no videos or photos or anything, but it’s brought up here. If that’s going mess up your vibe this Friday, feel free to skip the LINKS! section. Well, after the first link. The first link is restaurants.
Not to link before the LINKS! but this Mental Floss article on Toni Morrison mentions that Toni Morrison believed in always improving. She didn’t publish The Bluest Eye until she was 39. In the spirit of always improving, I learned a song on guitar I thought was out of my reach this week. You’re never too old, dear friends.
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
Driving West Ridge—>Humboldt Park to visit my brother last week, I was overcome with a desire to consume anything Chicago I could get my hands on. History, poetry, politics, fiction, whatever—so naturally, when I got home, I opened up some Eve L. Ewing.
I was already reading Beloved, a pretty dense novel. Often when I read dense novels, I get like 100 pages in and then go read a book of poetry. I think I need to be reminded that I can finish things. Anyway, it was just supposed to be a day with Electric Arches. Of course I couldn’t stop and moved on to 1919. These are truly magical books. They demand turned pages, even though they are hard to hold with one hand. They fall into that class of poetry that is good and interesting, but also, I would recommend it to my parents’ book club. Then back to Morrison.
Full disclosure: I hadn’t read Beloved before making fun of that fascist baby who had nightmares because of it. I’m still gonna bully that loser and his loser mom for their whinging, because even though it is a nightmare-inducing novel, so is the history of the United States. Complaining about this book being taught in schools is coward behavior.
Maybe it’s me, but I don’t hear Beloved talked about in the pointless “Great American Novel” conversation losers seem so intent on having every so often. It should be. This is a dense, difficult read. It’s full of horror. It’s also lyrically written, absolutely read-out-loud-able, and features masterfully drawn characters. When Sethe is lamenting that life is long periods of suffering briefly interrupted by short periods of intense joy? I felt that. The scene of Sethe, Denver, and Beloved ice skating? Wonderful. The shifting perspectives in the chapters leading up to the end of Part I, when the thing everyone’s been talking around drops? Perfect novel writing.
LINKS!
A very cool thing the NBA is doing: spotlighting Black-owned restaurants in every NBA city. They’re doing one city a day all month, check it out and eat well.
Paul Vallas is a Chicago mayoral candidate who I deeply do not like. He is the Cop Candidate. I like him even less than Lightfoot, which is saying something. Fitting for the Cop Candidate, The Triibe broke the story that his son, Gus, was one of three San Antonio police officers who shot Kevin Johnson to death after calling him “boy.” Gus Vallas still has a job as a cop. Paul Vallas seems totally cool with the situation. Vote Brandon Johnson for mayor.
Parker Molloy, here on Substack, on the hypocrisy of Free Speech Warriors downplaying book bans but acting like the apocalypse is coming when a college kid is mean to them on Twitter. Do not let these dweebs turn book banning into “identity politics for librarians.”
Speaking of book bans, you’d think the former NYT book editor would know better than to carry water for a fascist like Ron DeSantis. But you would be wrong. I don’t love linking to Twitter threads, but this breakdown from John Warner is worth the look.
WAIT WE’RE NOT DONE HATING PAUL VALLAS. He’s getting massive campaign donations from Richard E. Hagen, an ex-cop named in two cases regarding the killing of Laquan McDonald. You might remember Laquan McDonald as the child who was shot by police 16 times. Former mayor Rahm Emanuel (great friend of Joe Biden) covered it up so that he could win re-election. Once again, vote Brandon Johnson for mayor.
Damn. Next week’s links will be cheerier, I promise. Go out and have a great weekend. If you’re in the service industry, I hope you get lots of tips. I hope that those people eyeing your door five minutes before closing time suddenly get an urgent phone call. I hope you’re on shift with the cool manager and that the bad manager gets Typhoid. Have a great weekend.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris