Reality Hunger

 
 

Reality Hunger
A Manifesto

by David Shields

Knopf

2010

 

 

Reality Hunger made a bit of splash when it was published because Shields assembled it as much as he wrote it. Most of the text consists of hundreds of quotations from other authors, often modified by Shields, without indicating which parts are quotes, without attributing the original authors, and without indicating whether or how they've been modified.

 
The manifesto Shields assembles argues in favor of an aesthetic where artists mix reality with their own creativity. He cites collage, sampling within rap, various metafictional devices, and hoax-authors like (in their own, opposite ways) James Frey and JT LeRoy as examples of the aesthetic he wants to promote and encourage others to make more of. 

 
Shields defends this style of art against the usual criticisms of plagiarism and deception by arguing that all art builds on what came before, and all art mixes truth and lies - he claims that what he is promoting is sort of one extreme end of a spectrum that every artwork and every artists falls somewhere along.

Ice

 
 

Ice

by Anna Kavan

Peter Owen Publishers

1967, reprinted 2006

 

 

I'm usually reading more than one book at once, usually 3-5 at any one time, so when I finish two in short order, it's not because I started and finished a whole new book after finishing the one before, it's just because I finished two around the same time.

 

Ice is a first person narrative of a man repeatedly trying to find and save a woman he loves as the world ends. The world is ending because it is freezing, glaciers are advancing from both poles and will eventually meet and cover the equator. In the mean time, governments are collapsing, refugees are fleeing, warlords are making war.

 
The narrator is supremely unreliable. At times he is obviously hallucinating, at others the reality of anything he says is unclear. What is clear is that he does not love this woman but wants to control her, he hurts her, and she flees him. The most obvious true thing is the thing he lies most fervently to himself about.

 
The writing is in short, staccato sentences, the atmosphere is dreamlike or hallucinatory, and it's a good book to read in the cold of winter. The book reminds me of The Third Policeman or Travels in Nihilon, the narrator specifically reminds me of Humbert Humbert from Lolita. I liked this one, and it was very fast moving.

The Pursuit of Attention

 

The Pursuit of Attention
Power and Individualism in Everyday Life
by Charles Derber

Oxford University Press

1979

 

 

The Pursuit of Attention is a book I've had borrowed from a friend seemingly forever, and for whatever reason it's taken me a long time to read, despite its relatively short length. Derber is a micro-sociologist who uses close observation of conversations to study how people give and receive attention in everyday life.

He finds that higher status people (men, White Americans, and by education and occupation) generally receive more attention than they give, and lower status people (women, racial minorities, and again by education and job) generally give more attention than they receive. Low status jobs often require workers to give attention, allowing higher status customers to essentially buy attention.

Understanding Comics

 
 
Understanding Comics
The Invisible Art

by Scott McCloud

William Morrow
1994

 

Understanding Comics is a comic that acts as an introduction to the medium of comics, or 'sequential art.' McCloud looks at the secret history of proto-comic storytelling, including things like the Bayeux Tapestry, the relationship between images and text, the uses of simplicity, and the different kinds of sequences that can be used to tell stories. A nice starting point for learning about comics as an art form, I think.

Cetaganda

 
 

Cetaganda

by Lois McMaster Bujold
Baen

1995

Cetaganda is some middle chapter in Bujold's Vorkosogian Saga about the spy adventures of a Byronic hero type - a super smart, wise-ass jerk with a physical disability. I couldn't remember how this ended up on my to-read list until the third-gender servants showed up ... but these servants have such a small role that it's not worth reading the book to see them. The story combines a murder mystery and spy intrigue and isn't bad, although the other characters mind the hero being a wise-ass jerk much less than you'd expect them to.

An Editor's Burial

 

 
An Editor's Burial
Journals and Journalism from The New Yorker and Other Magazines
edited by David Brendel

Pushkin Press

2021

 

 

An Editor's Burial is a selection of New Yorker articles Wes Anderson used as inspiration for his new movie The French Dispatch. The most interesting articles are a history of the walls around Paris, a profile of an art dealer, James Baldwin's account of being arrested in France, and two reminisces of a food critic looking back on his career.

The Art of Cuphead

 
The Art of Cuphead

by Studio MDHR

Dark Horse Comics

2020
 

 

The Art of Cuphead is an art book showcasing pencil drafts and final art designs for the characters and backgrounds of the video game Cuphead. The accompanying text is excellent about pointing out allusions to the classic cartoons and 8-bit video games that are referenced in Cuphead's visuals and design.

The Tourist

 

The Tourist
by Robert Dickinson 

Redhook

2016

 

 

The Tourist is a science fiction thriller about time-traveling vacationers. Come for the missing person conspiracy case and humorous critique of 21st century society from the perspective of the 23rd, stay for the surprisingly thoughtful worldbuilding and  well-plotted predestination paradox.