“My least favorite part of the day is from 2:34 to 4:56 in the afternoon.” – Percival Everett, ‘Dr. No’
If you were able to, I hope you took some time to be with loved ones this week. I read two of my favorite books. Next week’s books look promising, too.
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
Two books I’ve read before! Suppose I said that up there. Give yourself a little present every day, Agent Cooper says, so I read two of my favorite authors this week. Two books that, let’s be honest, probably aren’t noir, but get at some dark hopelessness. Something bad is always in the air in these books, a world not so much gone mad as letting you know things are even wilder than you could possibly imagine. “Do not speak to me of the moon,” Samuel Beckett implores us in an epigraph in a book titled moon-study. “In my night, there is no moon, and it happens that I speak of the stars, it is by mistake.” Now imagine Humphrey Bogart saying that. Now imagine Lakeith Stanfield. I kept imagining him as the narrator of one of this week’s books, with Daniel Kaluuya getting to ham it up as the villain. That’s the adaptation I want, anyway, with Boots Riley directing. I’m talking, of course, about Dr. No by Percival Everett and Selenography by Joshua Marie Wilkinson (with Polaroids by Tim Rutili).
Dr. No by Percival Everett: how glad I am to re-read this, knowing what happens! The ending is wonderful—Everett writes the best endings—but it was nice this time to read with some expectation. This time around, I tried to read with an eye toward “nothing” as a metaphor for nukes. People going looking for something they shouldn’t be looking for. What results from the search. Would love for someone to syllabus this book, Dr. Strangelove, the “Got A Light” episode of Twin Peaks, and Oppenheimer. Maybe read The Bomb by Theodore Taylor in week one of that class, though.
In a sense, this is the ultimate dad book. If, like one of my good friends, your dad would punish you by making you read pages from Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman, that is. Or if your dad is an amateur violinist and clock enthusiast, like mine. The novel spends a lot of time on clever wordplay and Bond villain stuff. It’s one of the funniest books ever written, but only if you have a certain sense of humor. Honesty, this is kind of what I wish campus novels were. It reads like Everett has a couple of mathematician friends he wanted to rib by putting in a spy novel. Elaborate jokes like that are what I like to picture university profs sitting around thinking up.
One last thought: Brendan and I like to think of No Country For Old Men and Burn After Reading as the same movie, just one’s a tragedy and one’s a comedy. Obviously, that’s a simplification, but fun to consider. I sort of think The Trees and Dr. No have a similar relationship.
Selenography by Joshua Marie Wilkinson (with Polaroids by Tim Rutili): some long poems that read as though you are Tom Waits drunk while leading a guided tour through some forests you’ve only seen in dreams, accompanied by some fucked up polaroids by Tim Rutili, aka one of the Califone guys. That should be enough to get you to read this book, yeah? I like to read Josh in November, because I really do feel like vague dread and alienation hangs over his work (complimentary). This might be my favorite poetry book of his, although Swamp Isthmus and The Book Of Whispering In The Projection Booth might have something to say, and Meadow Slasher is an absolute force of nature. Damn, I might need to stop typing and go read Josh books. You should, too.
LINKS!
Something to listen to while you browse? Is it Christmas music season already?
- I’m not sure if this means UBI? That’s what it sounds like but I’m not celebrating just yet? Cook County becomes the first county in the US to establish permanent funding for guaranteed income by Corli Jay in The Triibe. Hey, if you’re reading this, I bet you’re struggling. I’m struggling this year. But I also bet you can give something. If you’re in Chicago, here’s Give Local 2025: Mutual Aid Groups And Nonprofits Where You Can Give — Or Receive — Help Over The Holidays by Kelly Bauer in Block Club.
- ‘It Is My Responsibility’: Chicago Educators Try to Allay Students’ Immigration Enforcement Fears by Aydali Campa in Borderless, republished in Block Club. Appeals Court Pauses Release Of Hundreds Arrested By ICE During Operation Midway Blitz by Madison Savedra, Chicagoans Are Posting Signs To Mark Where Their Neighbors Were Taken By ICE by Alex V. Hernandez, Illinois Congresswoman Says Tour Of Broadview ICE Facility Reinforced Her Concerns, by Melody Mercado, in Block Club.
- Identified: federal agents who pointed gun, punched detainee in Evanston by Raven Geary in Unraveled, Meet the Veteran Who Chases ICE on a Scooter by Isabela Dias in Mother Jones, and Chicago is a model of resistance for cities battling federal immigration enforcement operations by Tonia Hill in The Triibe
- Anatomy of a Border Patrol Arrest by José Abonce and South Shore Raid Tenants Launch Union by Caeli Kean, in South Side Weekly. Building raided by ICE now ‘falling apart from the inside out,’ South Shore residents say by Tonia Hill in The Triibe. Immigration Committee Launches Portal To Collect Reports Of ICE, Border Patrol Violating City Laws by Mack Liederman in Block Club and Child Care Workers Are Building A Network Of Resistance Against ICE by Chabeli Carrazana in The 19th, reprinted in Block Club
- For our art break this week, I really enjoyed The H Word: The Profane Illumination of the Weird by Zachary Gillan in Nightmare. And of course, I must shoutout my dear friend Chloe N. Clark, interviewed by Bryan Harvey for his Airport Beers interview series. Y’all watch for Every Galaxy A Circle, now. Also, Chloe has some writing workshops she’s teaching in the new year. I am doing at least the Flash Royale in January. The prices are so unbelievable I might also do the horror one.
What’re you still doing here? Don’t you know that Micah and Brendan have a show?
If you work in the service industry, may you clean up in tips this weekend. Hey, if you’re working this weekend? I see you. I remember that life. Hell, I’m still in that life—got a deadline on Sunday, and another article to write next week. There’s not really such a thing as a vacation for some of us, and that’s why you have to take joy when you can in life. I hope you find some this weekend.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris