{"id":135917998,"date":"2023-08-25T12:30:04","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T12:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=135917998"},"modified":"2023-08-25T12:30:04","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T12:30:04","slug":"friday-links-catching-up-on-podcasts-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=135917998","title":{"rendered":"Friday Links: Catching Up On Podcasts Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

“A bad fairy tale has some simple goddamn moral. A great fairy tale tells the truth.” – Victor LaValle, ‘The Changeling’<\/h2>

Back when I worked a warehouse job, podcasts were a lifeline. I could have my headphones on for a whole shift and feel like I was learning<\/em> something while lifting heavy boxes and judging the quality of used books. At first, parenting was like that\u2014babies sleep a lot, mine strapped to my chest\u2014and now parenting has forced me to be judicious about podcast time. As such, with school starting, I\u2019m catching up!<\/p>

What I\u2019ve Been Reading Lately: <\/strong><\/p>

But first, a detour into books. Still my favorite way to learn. You that reference to my brief stint in a used bookstore? You catch how I mentioned parenting a new baby? As Richard Blais would say, we\u2019re stacking themes<\/a> here. This week\u2019s book is about parenting (and used books), but comes with a big ol\u2019 trigger warning to any potential parent reading. If you know anything about changeling myths, you can probably guess why. If you can read the back of the book and read the words \u201ccommits a horrific act\u201d said about a mother, you can probably guess why. Knuckle through it, parents, because the novel is well goddamn worth it. I\u2019m talking, of course, about The Changeling<\/em> by Victor LaValle. <\/p>

\"book:<\/figure>

The biggest thing that sings to me about this book is: LaValle has succeeded in writing a novel-length contemporary fairy tale. There is a dreamlike tone maintained even as we see contemporary language like \u201cdancers on the A train\u201d or \u201cRikers Island\u201d or \u201cdog shit,\u201d there are children\u2019s story hallmarks (such as section being titled \u201cthen comes marriage\u201d and \u201cthen comes baby in a baby carriage\u201d), there is the third-person narrator gently nudging exposition and the occasional adverb at you. But I mean fairy tale as discussed on page 244-245, when Apollo first meets Cal. <\/p>

\u201cFairy tales are not for children\u2026These were the stories peasants toldd to each other around the fire after a long day, not to their kids. This was how adults talked with each other. Fairy tales became stories for kids in the seventeen-hundreds. Around that time this weird new group started appearing in parts of Europe. The merchant class. <\/p>

\u201cMerchants were making money, and they wanted to live better than the lower classes did. This meant there were new rules about how to behave\u2026Fairy tales changed accordingly. Now they had to have a moral, something to train those children\u2026A bad fairy tale has some simple goddamn moral. A great fairy tale tells the truth.<\/p>

\u201c\u2026How do we protect our children?\u2026That\u2019s what Rapunzel is about. That\u2019s the question it\u2019s asking.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>

Forgive the long block quote, which is all dialogue from Cal. The heart of this story is this question. Monsters, witches, author-signed books, the East River\u2014all of these are in service of that question. Sometimes it\u2019s cool when a book gives you a key like this. With this key in mind, I\u2019d recommend it unequivocally to any parent. <\/p>

If you can handle that one horrific act<\/em>, that is. <\/p>

LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>

But first, some music? Sure, Brendan turned me onto the Chicago-based Options, so let\u2019s check out \u201cHold Out\u201d:<\/p>

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