“If one side is vengeance / than the other side must be / to forgive, to be // excellent to one another.” – Chloe N. Clark, “John Wick Meets Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan”
But first, your weekly Vine! Thursday was Chapter 55, “Gentleman Jim’s.” Today is Chapter 56, “Jonah.” For the second week in a row, we have a guest reader on the podcast! Adam Hinkle joins us once again as Jonah. Things are better when you do them with friends, and Brendan and I are grateful to Adam and Katie Lago for lending their talents to this project. Chapter 56 means we only have 10 more chapters—the next two weeks will be delightfully nuts. Thanks to anyone who’s come on this journey with us.
Dashiell Hammett was a committed antifascist and Marxist who nevertheless was critical of the Soviet Union. He was also a Pinkerton who claimed to have left the agency after becoming disillusioned with strikebreaking assignments. Aren’t people fascinating.
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
Two books this week, because I’m trying to be less neglectful of poetry. Both involve a man who is super not thrilled with the world he inhabits. Both involve a man who would probably do well to live in a country besides the United States. I’m talking, of course, about The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and Every Song A Vengeance by Chloe N. Clark.
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett: So I actually enjoy this movie a great deal more than the The Big Sleep movie. It’s under Casablanca but in the same area as To Have And Have Not in terms of Bogart movies I enjoy. I also want to put this book in context—writing this way was still relatively new in 1929, and credit to Hammett (and Hemingway) for popularizing this lean-but-descriptive style. That said, I found Hammett—or at least this book, so let’s say Sam Spade—a bit harder to ignore with the contemptuous homophobia, misogyny, and Old Man Who Wouldn’t Have Done That That Way, But Okay energy. You can’t “okay boomer” Bogart, but only because these people were Lost Generation. Also, Sam Spade’s kind of a bitch, like in a dishonorable way, how he treats Iva Archer. A precursor to Philip Marlowe, but less iconic than Marlowe for a reason.
Oh, and we can’t forget the cartoonishly terrible description of a fat man, whom Hammett literally names Mr. Gutman.
There is a lot to like in this book. The opening throws your right in with no warning in an exciting way. The “stuff that dreams are made of” theme is foundational to 1) anyone trying to escape the hamster wheel of capitalism and 2) everything the Coen Bros have ever done. It’s a tight mystery, and honestly probably truer to the spirit of noir than Chandler’s knight-cosplaying-Romantic hero. Still, I think Chandler does a better detective, and Cain does more interesting social commentary—for anyone out there curious about the Big Three.
Every Song A Vengeance by Chloe N. Clark: an extended series of meditations on John Wick, Chloe is absolutely the poet with the right amount of heart to write this book. If, for instance, I had been tasked with writing this book, there would’ve been a hell of a lot more references to Ted “Theodore” Logan and introspection about my love of violent movies vs. my disdain for real-life violence. As it is, though, Chloe thoughtfully explores the hitman in mundane situations, the assassin learning to live with his every day. It’s a delightful book, Chloe has a way with long sentences and interesting line breaks that make reading her poems feel like being guided through some garden path with treacherous yet non-lethal obstacles that she helpfully warns you about.
LINKS!
Something to listen to? Tim Henson covered “Are You That Somebody,” so. That’s what we’re doing this week, longtime Knowers Of Me get it. Shoutout to Beth Ditto, RIP Aaliyah.
New The Line Break podcast! We are thrilled to welcome Isaac Pickell to the show. Really fun string of guests we’ve had this year! We had a blast with Isaac, whose book It’s not over once you figure it out just came out on Black Ocean. He reads Basie Allen, and you’re not gonna believe this—I say positive things about the Detroit Pistons.
I want to try to start linking to a poet’s poems here when The Line Break comes out. Would’ve been cool to come up with the idea like four months ago, but hey. I’m trying my goddamned best, okay? Hopefully I’ll remember this next time we have a guest. Anyway, I especially enjoy “Grandmother’s farm and other good investments,” published in Prolit, but you can also buy Isaac’s book, or check him out here at , where he’ll post poems.
Since Isaac invoked Brendan Joyce in the podcast, let’s link a Brendan poem! I really enjoy “Necromance,” published in Lit Hub. Your best bet for Brendan poems is buying his book, Personal Problem, or signing up for Bluesky and following him there. I have invite codes, get off Twitter.
Andrés Alvarez on Scott Williams as the ultimate Immaculate Grids play. The basketball group chat Bob and I reference on The Line Break all the time is obsessed with Grids (me included), and I can’t believe I haven’t thought to play Scott Williams before. It is kinda wild, playing grids—you think you know so much as an NBA nerd, then you run up against the limits of what or who you can think of while playing an internet game on your computerized cell phone while in the doctor’s waiting room. Shoutout to Dré for the next time I play Scott Williams.
Cameron Oglesby and Earth in Color over at The Grist on how food justice advocates are helping with climate change, accidentally. I love this type of stuff. There is so very much profoundly broken with our society, from systemic inequality to the existence of leaf blowers. Lots of things need to change, and initiatives for things like urban gardening and re-imagined food practices are ways we can improve both our communities and the planet.
Gavin Michaelson over at Block Club with the story of Ben Kinsinger, the “river king,” who has turned a concrete pillar in the Chicago River into a music venue. Ben, I mean this admirably: this should’ve been me. Jesus Christ, what a kickass idea. The last time someone illegally declared themselves a power over a Chicago waterway, we named our richest neighborhood after him. A music venue is way cool, way less imperialist, way less empire-oriented. So fun, I am bummed I missed this year’s shows, and hope they do more next year.
That’s it for this week! What’re you still doing here? Go read Vine!
If you’re in the service industry, may you clean up on tips this weekend. Don’t let any wannabe Sam Spades push you around. They’re grumpy old men for whom nothing will ever be good enough, and they’re not as cool as Bogart. You, on the other hand, noble service industry professional—you are cool.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris