Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Rick Warren Affair

A quick note:

I agree with Richard Cohen's column in today's Washington Post (12/23/08) that Obama's failure to cancel his invitation to Rick Warren to deliver the benediction at the Inauguration constitutes a moral failure. The reason people don't think it's such a big deal and want gays to "get over it" is that they think anti-gay slurs are more acceptable than anti-Jewish slurs or anti-black slurs or anti-almost anything slurs. Just to be clear, Rick Warren has repeated the age-old canard of comparing gays to pedophiles. If our future president wants to thank Warren for having him at his church, Obama could invite the portly evangelical to visit him for tea and sumptuous spread of doughnuts in the White House or he could visit Warren's church once more as president or better yet send him a note on pretty stationary. But he should not and must not defile the Inauguration ceremony, which as Rachel Maddow noted belongs to all Americans and not Obama personally, by honoring the unchristian pastor in this way.

I'm particularly disturbed by this choice because I am one of many gay Americans who voted with their money, time, voices, and feet for this man we so passionately believed was the correct choice in November (and in my case also during the primary season), only to see that in December Obama has displayed a striking and unfortunate tendency to reward his enemies better than his friends. (To those keeping score, number of Republicans in his cabinet: 2, number of gays: 0). Now I'm starting to wonder, maybe Hillary Clinton was the best choice after all.

To be continued...

Monday, December 22, 2008

Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Other Writers' Books

Given the current state of publishing, the unofficial writer's commandment of only saying nice things about other people's books would seem more important than ever. Yet it's also a bit false to the truth of one's reading experience. For every book I read with excitement (which this year includes Someday This Pain May be Useful to You by Peter Cameron, several novels by Margaret Atwood, The Slave by isaac Bashevis Singer) there are at least ten more that were just so-so, or even dreadful.

My private benchmark for fiction is my limited bookshelf space. After moving from one cramped New York apartment to another several times, I realized quickly there was no point in keeping books that for whatever reason didn't mean something to me. So now as I read, I keep a pile of books to give away. Some of the books that make that pile aren't necessarily bad. In fact, a few might be fairly good, like Being Dead by Jim Crace, which I found well-written, sort of interesting, just a little glib, a bit too facile for my taste. I can't justify a place for it on my shelf between two gay writers named Cooper (Dennis and Bernard), each with dazzlingly original styles, and John Dalton's novel Heaven Lake, a fascinating trip to China.

Other books that weren't awful, but didn't make the cut: two Narnia books by C. S. Lewis, which I bought at a used bookstore after seeing the film version of Prince Caspian motivated me to reread the entire series. Lewis is a terrific writer and a lot of fun, though a bit creepy to read when you realize the religious propaganda going on in the background. All in all, good, but not necessary rereading like L. Frank Baum's Oz series or Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Prairie books.

I'm also shedding Le Divorce by Diane Johnson, a book with some scattered wit and a completely preposterous plot that was inexplicably nominated for a National Book Award. Speaking of award-winners, Johnson's in good company with the turgid Pulitzer-prize-honored Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I'm not quite sure what it is that people like about this book. It's flat, lifeless, written in the clean prose of a high school English textbook on composition. "But that's just the point!" exclaim the book's defenders. "It's a masterpiece of tone!" That's right, it's supposed to be boring. (Not that I'm against flat, dry affect, which works so well in the novels Stoner by John Williams, or Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell)

On the flipside, there's My Holocaust by Tova Reich, which suffers from the opposite problem. It's got too much going on. The book's characters are so cartoonish they might as well speak in balloons, kind of like the illustrations in Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, which also made my pile for being a one-note joke that got old after the first hundred pages.

Why take the time to speak ill of one's fellow writers, especially when so few people are buying books? First of all, it should not be bad form to say you didn't like or love another person's book. It's a necessary part of our cultural dialogue. Secondly, if we want to resuscitate the book business, encouraging people to buy any book that gets a good review or wins a prize is not the way to do it. Just as we passionately recommend the books we love, occasionally it's worth a little of our time to steer readers away from books we don't think can do them much good. Generally, I try to avoid negative critique (except when it comes to Republican politicians or so-called holy men like Rick Warren who espouse noxious opinions more worthy of Pontius Pilate than Christ). But every once in a while, a little venting helps to keep us honest.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

How to Survive the Economic Crisis

While we're all worried about our 401k's (if we have them) and the future of our jobs (if we have them), there's little we can do to affect the economic downturn. However, we can take steps to protect ourselves, specifically, by spending less on frivolous expenses, such as entertainment. Now's a good time to stop shelling out ten bucks a pop to go to movies, to cancel our netflix memberships, to stop downloading music from iTunes, to play the video games we already have instead of buying new ones, etc., etc., etc.

However, just as it's a mistake to stop investing for retirement when the stock market is low, it's also a mistake to stop reading and buying books to save money when times are tight. Now more than ever, we ought to turn to literature for inspiration and salvation. Watching a dumb action movie only leaves you worn out and numb. Listening to some pop song by the likes of Beyonce only reminds you of the difference between her lifestyle and yours. Reading a great work of literature, however, can make you smarter and entertain you at the same time. Supporting the publishing industry at this time can also help to ensure the continuity of our national culture and intellectual life.

Below, I've made a list of book recommendations that seem appropriate for our current recessionary conditions:

1. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. You think you've got it bad because you can only afford one new manicure a month instead of two? Read this guy's story and you'll never feel bad about yourself again!

2. Babbit by Sinclair Lewis. Money's not everything, you know, as this razor-sharp satire of the American bourgeoisie makes loud and clear.

3. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. In this novel, Atwood imagines the following nightmare scenario: America run by an oligarchy of right-wing religious whack-jobs. A bit like the Bush administration, only permanent and with no checks on its power. Thankfully, in real life, we had the good sense this time around to elect Barack Obama to fix what ails our country.

4. The Assistant by Bernard Malamud. This story of a hard luck grocer struggling to get by reminds us that as human beings, we can't escape suffering in our lives, but that suffering has the potential to enlarge and ennoble our spirits.

5. Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill. You know things are pretty tough when all you've got left to sell is yourself. These are fierce, sometimes brutal stories of sex and desperation.

6. Waiting by Ha Jin. As we wait for this economic downturn to pass, read this story about a guy who waits decades to marry, or even to have sex with the woman he loves. Now there's patience for you.

Other ideas? Let's hear them!