it's way more fun to talk about what you are into than what you aren't into. the pseudonymonous dean simon has a great post about anal sex right now. the raspberry is into that. (caveat - when done right. when it's wrong, it's oh-so-wrong). heck, i wrote the ass post in honour of all those extra nerve endings...the raspberry is also into these books by some guy named john connolly. i have a total crackhead's weakness for mystery novels, but i'm a connoisseur of mystery novels - a gourmand, even. i like 'em well written. i like books in series 'cause i love to watch characters develop. i like the american style of mystery novel, rather than the british. but more than all that i like mystery novels, pulp fiction, cotton candy floss fiction, which refute the idea that a 'paperback novel' is a lower form of literature than something vintage books puts out in trade paperback and charges 21.99 for. don't get me wrong. my master's level education is in english literature. i know that there's a difference between most novels you pick up off the rack at shoppers drug mart, and the kind that get studied in that first year guppy course you laboured through in a lecture hall full of three hundred other people who only read the coles notes to romeo and juliet, and figured that even that was a stretch of their patience. i know that there's a difference. i just agree with umberto eco.
when he wrote the name of the rose he set out to create a mystery novel that was not just a mystery novel. he wanted to create an 'open text' - a book that has multiple layers of meaning,and is open to a multiplicty of interpretations. he took pop culture seriously way before the tao of homer.
he understands that you bring your intelligence to any reading, and that i can read jane austen and think of nothing more than how fucking boring it is, but you there, ya you, can watch wwf wrestling or go see the strippers at the number five and come away with a deeper understanding of human nature.this john connolly guy writes smart thrillers. like - i LOVE him as a writer. he's my new fave. i love his writing style. i love the fact that, in his first book, his villain quoted and drew inspiration from john donne. i love the fact that, aside from mentioning some gray hair sneaking in, you don't know what charlie parker (the hero in the series) looks like. i love how he defines evil as a void - as an absence of empathy, making reference to the nuremberg trials. i like that he uses words and ideas that, if you are so inclined, you can stop reading, look up and stare off into the distance, and think about for a while. it makes me happy.
so now i just need to get the new one. it just came out, though, so won't be in paper for a while, which sucks 'cause i read them so fucking fast that it hurts me to pay forty dollars for a book (and don't say go to the library 'cause when i love an author i put his or her books in rotation and go back to them again and again. libraries frown at you when you refuse to relinquish their possessions, and they just don't understand your need to hold them touch them carry them in your bag not even put it on the floor at night when you finally shut the light off eyes burning from reading so long arms sore from holding the book aloft).
anyway, i have to wait. i've read the series (all four) over again in the last two weeks. actually, it wasn't until last saturday when i popped into a used book store on my way home from tnb's place that i found book two. it took me just over 24hours to finish. see why hardcover's not really an option? well, maybe for christmas, i guess. (see! this is why i need a sugardaddy!)
|