“…she would never marry a man who was so simple that he had wasted almost an hour and even went without lunch just to see a woman taking a bath.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, ‘100 Years of Solitude’
Happy Friday! Did you know Gabriel Garcia Marquez profiled Shakira in The Guardian in 2002? And that they were homies? The world is wonderful. Reminder to submit to ‘Cryptids and Climate Change,’ the issue of Cotton Xenomorph I’m guest-editing. Subs cap at 100 or on September 3!
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
Got some heavy hitters this week. A pendant would say I’ve been reading one of these book over the course of the last three weeks, but that’s just blog prep, baby. One of these will get a lengthier treatment later, one of these is THE lengthy treatment, and man let’s just get to it now:
Blue Horses by Mary Oliver: I am talking more about this on next week’s The Line Break podcast (spoiler) so two sentences here: This is my first time reading a full collection of Mary Oliver, and I feel as one who has never heard of The Beatles but is starting my journey with a Wings album. I am going to go buy another Mary Oliver book or two, read those, then re-read this one.
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: I am happy to report that the book I read once senior year of college and immediately declared “this is my favorite book” before not re-reading it for 13 years is still my favorite book. Good night, this novel. As Gabo’s river-like sentences washed over me, I could feel myself remembering things from this novel, but on a deeper level than “oh yeah, I forgot Rebeca ate dirt.” More like the way the novel processes time was also working on my memory, like I’d known about these characters and their lives for longer than I even knew this book existed, as though I had seen Aureliano Segundo try to out-eat The Elephant just last week, and that the book had always been part of my memory, before I’d even read it the first time, 13 years ago.
Or it’s possible that Brendan told me about big chunks of this book, then I read it for the first time in a really intensive undergrad class, then I spent a ton of time thinking about it and trying to imitate it, then I watched the Crash Course videos a bunch for fun, then read it a second time, and it’s affecting my thinking.
There’s always a ‘plausible’ explanation in magical realism.
I will say I am grateful to know more about Colombia and its history this time around—the first time I read this book, it was the first time I learned anything about Colombia, including the whole history of United Fruit. I will also say I still needed my finger on the family tree page the whole time, but I feel like I had a firmer handle on what was going on this time around. I can’t wait to re-read it again in a couple years. This is the kind of book that makes me excited to grow old, because the older I am, the more I will have read this book.
LINKS!
RIP to a Chicago legend gone too soon. DJ Casper changed the way the world moves. And as a white man who married into a Black family, I sincerely appreciate the low difficulty level of the cha cha slide. DJ Casper is seated at the right hand of God, eating rib tips and links with Jesus.
Great piece from Atavia Reed in Block Club on how kids on the south side are using art to agitate for climate action. The Octavia E. Butler tie-in warms my heart, too.
Baltimore—the only other city in the United States besides Chicago I would consider living in—has a great literary scene. Shoutout not just to the writers I know in Baltimore, but the librarians, the teachers, the book nerds of all stripes. Baltimore Beat, a Black-led/independent/nonprofit/generally kickass newspaper, is adding to that by publishing young poets every issue. Here’s “Reality TV Love” by Kayla Lemessy, from their latest issue.
Out There Screaming, a forthcoming short story anthology edited by Jordan Peele, is rightfully getting a lot of attention. Some great names in there. But don’t sleep on Never Whistle At Night, an anthology of Indigenous dark fiction, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., forthcoming from Tor. I for one plan on getting both anthologies and worrying about my bank account later. [Small correction, 10:05 AM 8/11/2023: Never Whistle At Night is forthcoming from Penguin Random House, here’s an link to buy, I just saw the excerpt on Tor and didn’t use good reading comprehension skills. Thanks for the correction, Shane!]
Really, really loved this piece in Chicago Reader on The Gathering of the Juggalos by Micco Caporale. God, I love a DIY scene, especially one that includes radical acceptance as a core value. Some choice quotes: “…this subculture was built in the 90s by rust-belt freaks, heads, and hillbillies, so it combines the midwestern spirit of generosity, the ask-a-punk DIY mentality, and a welcoming embrace of the outcast or marginalized, whether poor, disabled, queer, or just too strange for straight society” and “Without corporate sponsorship, supported entirely by its audience, the Gathering endures in its raucous, joyful spirit of unkillable self-sufficiency…” Hell yeah, man. I’m not an ICP fan, but I grew up in a punk scene and now live in a literary scene, and it sounds like I share a lot of values with the Juggalos.
That’s it this week. We’ll cast off to “She’s Nubs.”
Service workers: may your tips this weekend be as multitudinous as livestock when Petra Cotes is near.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris