books

Thursday

Not to worry, there’s been no more snow, that’s a photo from a couple of weeks ago.

This evening, I finished reading Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones, a beautiful, tragic, frightening, touching book. I really love what the New York Times said about it, not least of all because it’s so true:

And Jesmyn Ward makes beautiful music, plays deftly with her reader’s expectations: where we expect violence, she gives us sweetness. When we brace for beauty, she gives us blood.

I wish I could say the end of Rubicon was as satisfying. It comes to something like a conclusion, but it seems pretty evident they thought they were coming back for another season — or at least thought so for so long they didn’t have much time to course-correct. It’s a really good show, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Anyway, that was Thursday.

Friday

A busy day at work, but luckily it’s the start of a three-day weekend. The office is closed on Monday, and I’m working from home on Tuesday, and honestly I’m looking forward to it mainly for an extra hour or two of sleep in the morning. I am indeed that dull.

I do plan to do some more writing over the weekend, as I’m fast approaching the deadline this short story was meant for. It’s not the end of the world if I miss that deadline, and I can easily rework the story. I just worry that, with that deadline gone, I’ll have an excuse to avoid the work. And I don’t want that. I want to finish this story.

Meanwhile, the stories in the most recent issue of Kaleidotrope — that quarterly online zine I edit and publish — were reviewed at Locus Magazine’s website. Reviewer Lois Tilton, who’s had mixed things to say about the zine in the past, calls these stories “almost all dark, to a greater or lesser degree. Several quite depressing.” But I think she means that in a good way.

And I finished reading John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, which may have made me tear up just a little. But I am a big softy like that. It’s not a perfect book, occasionally a little too clever for its own good, but it’s very touching, and it does that thing that all good books should do: make you miss the characters when they’re gone. I recently discovered Green through his YouTube channel, which I think I discovered mostly because I wanted to subscribe to a YouTube channel that didn’t then immediately vanish.

Anyway, it’s a good book, sweet without being maudlin, and I quite enjoyed it. That, as they say, is all.

Oh, and I (re-)finished playing Portal. On to Portal 2. (You think I’m kidding. I am not.)

Friday

I had my yearly performance review today, which I think went well. It was over and done with first thing this morning.

After that, it was pretty much just an ordinary day. I can’t tell you how glad I am that it’s a Friday, though.

This evening, on the train home, I finished reading Stephen King’s Carrie. Having only just watched the movie, and generally being a fan of King’s work, I was curious about the book. It definitely feels like a first novel; some of the themes and techniques that would later seep into King’s other books are on display here, but they’re handled less gracefully. You can see how the book would have struck a chord in 1974, when it was first published, how it could feel like the emergence of a new literary voice (which is what it turned out to be). But I also think you’d have a tough time arguing that it’s King’s best novel, or even one of his best.

I was also curious about it because there’s a new film adaption of it coming this year. And this, I should warn you, is where I venture deep into spoiler territory. The new movie purports to be “a more faithful adaption” of King’s book, but the thing is, Brian De Palma’s version isn’t unfaithful at all. Most of the differences between it and the book are negligible, and mainly slight differences in tone. Carrie, I found, was actually a much less sympathetic character in the book. She doesn’t deserve what happens to her there either, but she does learn to take a certain amount of joy in it, if only because it’s the only joy her troubled life allows. There are moments when she’s quite mean, and while it is the meanness of a wild animal backed into a corner, it doesn’t make her more likable. Sissy Spacek is very likable in the movie, on the other hand, and so what happens to Carrie at the prom seems all the more tragic — and not just inevitable — because of it.

The main difference, as I see it — and maybe the only significant one — between King’s book and De Palma’s movie is the number of people that Carrie White kills. In the movie, it’s practically everyone at the prom. In the book, it’s practically the entire town. And it’s that thought, that all we’re going to get out of a “more faithful adaption” is a higher body count, that worries me.

Oh sure, there’s also a lot more about telekinesis in the book, and about the town itself — the novel is framed as a patchwork of newspaper clippings, book citations, and interviews more than a decade after the fact — but none of that feels particularly vital to the heart of the story. (It is, in fact, where King’s book starts to feel a little creaky.) De Palma’s movie tells Carrie’s story mostly through her eyes; I don’t know that anything is gained by re-framing it through the eyes of her victims and survivors. Even if that is the author originally intended it.

And yet, the new movie was directed by Kimberly Peirce, the director of Boys Don’t Cry, which suggests it could at least be interesting. Carrie is the sort of character that might benefit from a female perspective. And the trailer doesn’t look awful… I just question how necessary it is.

In media rest

Okay, then. I read a few books this year, 136 at the current (and unlikely to change) count. Personal favorites included:

  • Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
  • The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
  • The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
  • Taft by Ann Patchett
  • The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
  • The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

But it was a pretty ordinary year, actually. There were a few disappointments, Embassytown by China Miéville and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger chief among them, and in any year when I read such a weird mix of comics, there were bound to be a few there as well. (I’m looking at you particularly hard, end of run on Exiles.)

I didn’t re-read as much as I’d hoped to, only two books instead of the hoped-for five or six. And one of those, Stephen King’s It, was via audio book. But that’s two more than last year, and I found a lot of value in revisiting those two books. (Particularly It, although Watership Down was also quite lovely.) I’m not yet sure what I’m going to re-read in 2013, but I think it’s an experiment worth continuing.

I also watched several movies in 2012, not least of all nearly all of the “official” James Bond movies. Again, it was probably a pretty ordinary year, but a few personal favorites, in no order except the order seen:

  1. Drones
  2. Drive
  3. The Innkeepers
  4. The Cabin in the Woods
  5. The Avengers
  6. Moonrise Kingdom
  7. Sleepwalk With Me
  8. Skyfall
  9. Beasts of the Southern Wild
  10. The Descendants

Movies that turned out to be significantly better than I expected?

  • Underworld — though I can’t say the same for the sequel
  • John Carter — which I need to revisit, but which I think was sadly under-rated, this year’s Scott Pilgrim
  • Fast Five — so ridiculous, and some of it obviously just for fans of the series, but surprisingly fun
  • Predators — not, you know, great, but it has its moments
  • The Amazing Spider-Man — we hardly needed another reboot or origin story, much less one like this, but Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are good together
  • Knight and Day — so are Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. It’s not brilliant, but the chemistry works.
  • Moonrise Kingdom — I had reservations going into it, since I like Wes Anderson but am not a part of the cult. This is definitely the Wes-Anderson-iest of his movies, but for all that it’s rather delightful.
  • The Bourne Legacy — again, I’m not sure this is a series that really needed continuing, but I liked Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz here.
  • Ruby Sparks — it’s not a perfect movie, but it takes what could have been a tired premise and does some very interesting things with it.

And then there are the Bond movies, but there I feel like I’m grading on a curve. Some of them are pretty dreadful (The Man With the Golden Gun), and others are good mostly by comparison (Moonraker).

Biggest disappointments?

  • Them (Ils)
  • Tiny Furniture
  • Prometheus
  • Underworld: Evolution
  • Lockout
  • Dawn of the Dead (the remake)
  • Ghost Rider
  • Paranormal Activity 2 — although I’m almost weirdly glad this was disappointing
  • Tower Heist
  • V/H/S

A few of those I probably could have predicted going in. The biggest unexpected disappointment was Prometheus, which was easily one of my least favorite movies of the year. It’s simply gorgeous to look at it, and very reminiscent of the first two Alien movies — sometimes even in good ways — but it’s full of questions and plot holes. I just did not like it.

And then, finally, there was music. I’m actually surprised to see tht nine out the twenty-four songs on my “best of the year” mix are actually from this year, while another eight were released in 2011. (The rest are a jumble, going back from 2008 to 1989.)

  1. “Love Makes All the Other Worlds Go Round” by Dan Bern & Common Rotation
  2. “Little Black Submarines” by the Black Keys
  3. “Sugar” by the Horrible Crowes
  4. “Manchester” by Kishi Bashi
  5. “Houdini” by Foster the People
  6. “We Are Young” by Fun (feat. Janelle Monáe)
  7. “Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men
  8. “New Ceremony” by Dry the River
  9. “I Love It” by Icona Pop
  10. “Let’s Get the Show on the Road” by the Michael Stanley Band
  11. “When I Write the Book” by Nick Lowe
  12. “Pursuit of Happiness” by Lissie
  13. “Abide With Me” by Emeli Sandé
  14. “Now” by Mates of State
  15. “It’s Time” by Imagine Dragons
  16. “Keep Me in Your Heart” by Warren Zevon
  17. “American Tune” by Paul Simon
  18. “Wheel Inside the Wheel” by Mary Gauthier
  19. “Bleed Like Me” by Garbage
  20. “Mountains” by Radical Face
  21. “Avalanches (Culla’s Song)” by A Fine Frenzy
  22. “Emmylou” by First Aid Kit
  23. “Revolution” by Dr. John
  24. “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Wanz)

Some of those are a little NSFW, for those of you who received a copy of the mix from me. (If you’d like a copy and didn’t get one, just ask.)

And, of course, there’s my December mix, which is itself almost as many songs as the best of 2012:

  1. “What Makes a Good Man?” by the Heavy
  2. “Revolution” by Dr. John
  3. “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Wanz)
  4. “Hit Me” by Mystikal
  5. “Summer of ’93” by the Good Graces
  6. “Emmylou” by First Aid Kit
  7. “Myth” by Beach House
  8. “Weeping Pilgrim” by Elvis Perkins
  9. “Oh My My” by Jill Barber
  10. “Human of the Year” by Regina Spektor
  11. “Maybe Next Year (X-Mas Song)” by Meiko
  12. “White Knuckles” by OK Go
  13. “Ca plane pour moi” by Plastic Bertrand
  14. “Same Love” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Mary Lambert)
  15. “We Are the Art” by Nico Vega
  16. “Next to Me” by Emeli Sandé
  17. “The John Wayne” by Little Green Cars

And that was a year in media, minus of course TV shows, podcasts, the internet, and bits and bobs here and there.

Last night on Earth

I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t expecting the world to end today.

Of course, I spent the day (while watching over a steadily improving but still sick dog) watching The Last Man on Earth and finishing The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters. So it’s not like I didn’t have apocalypse on the brain at least a little bit.

The movie wasn’t great. I like Vincent Price, as well as the novel on which the movie is not too unfaithfully based. But it’s a little too slow and then drags near the end. (The more recent Will Smith version is even less faithful, but it turned out to be one of my favorite movies of 2007. I may have been alone in that.)

The book, on the other hand, was pretty great. My thanks to Heather for recommending it. I started out just kind of liking it — it’s gone a killer premise, but also a likable and engaging narrator — when the mystery at the heart of the novel really kicked into gear, I just couldn’t put it down. I read the last two thirds of it just today, just finishing a few minutes ago actually, and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Oh, and somewhere along the day, I finished decorating the tree. Well, except for a few ornaments we’ve left for my sister, when she and her husband visit for Christmas. But it was starting to look silly, this fake tree just sitting there, nothing on it.

I think the holiday season has officially begun.