Might not have any time to write much of an email this week, because a lot spooky šā š»š»dEEeeeEAAAaaaDlllliiiIIIiiinesš»š»š»šā ā are coming up on me. Iām substituting all day at a school, and after that I have ~13~ student essays to edit last-minute, a very SCARY number for an October Friday. (It will probably be a lot more by the end of the day and I might be buUUUUuuuurrrrrriiiiiieeeDD allliiIiiiiiIIIIIiiiiiiIIIIIve in work).
AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
Iām a big fan of the fanfare of Halloween, where we make death and fears fun, and I am sad that it will soon pass just like our brrrrRRiiieefF mortal LiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIiives, but enjoy it while you got it, but Halloween parties themselves are a tough one. One the one hand, itās fun to see everybody in costume, and itās more fun to be in costume, but on the other hand itās a lot of work to put on and stay in a costume. Itās so deep in hassle territory:
HASSLE STAGES
Wearing clothes at all. It is easier to just stay in our apartments or beds or wherever without them.
Wearing the kind of clothes you can go outside with and people donāt bother you. They canāt be covered in stains or ripped and anything.
Wearing the kind of clothes you can wear at a nice party.
Getting a whole costume together.
Getting a good costume together.
But then again, itās not fun to be not participating, so if you want to see a bunch of ghouls and monsters walking around you need to go the horrible hassle of assembling multiple things and looking at them, so itās a šŗdevilās bargain.š¹
Anyway, hereās some recommends (I saw it used as a noun on a few menus and now I think ārecommendationā is overly formal and clunky):
THINGS I HAVE BEEN READING
Heavy by Kiese Laymon. I just bought this, the memoir of one of my favorite writers, and Iām going to try to see him in a fully-booked event at the Brooklyn Central Library by showing up on standby (October 30th). The book is great, what can I say? Iāve only just started. I think thereās a level of honesty in Kieseās work that I rarely read in non-fiction, and heās able to write first-person stuff that is packed with deep meaning without falling back on all these certain types of verbal constructions we fall back on that either dilute our meaning because they donāt mean much but sound good, or kind of echo these serious voices that are somebody elseās. I canāt exactly explain it but Iāll study it. Kiese teaches classes too, so somewhere out there are a lot of memoir writers being trained which is great for reading.
American Tantrum by Anthony Atamanuik. Itās not for everyone (I can see just wanting to avoid more reflections of Trump in general), but Iām a big fan of Atamanuikās interpretation of Trump, which is fully immersed in the manās psyche but at the same time very serious about the consequences (and about blaming the parts of America that led to his rise and will outlast them). Itās an extension of what he did in āThe Tony Showā at Upright Citizenās Brigade for a while, doing an over the top character but talking through the character about what was wrong with the audience and construction. The book is in that spirit. If youāre someone who hates Trump but would like, in isolation, Trumpās speaking rhythms and performance style if you could take it out of any context where he has power, youāll probably like Atamanuik-Trump, but if youāre just completely sick of him I can see passing. What I canāt see is liking Alex Baldwin.
No articles. I think I read no long articles this week, actually kind of relaxing, usually I read a bunch. Iāll be back on it a minute though.
COMING SOON
Next episode of the podcast on Monday, featuring Matt Klinman.
Kiese @ Central Library, October 30th
Halloween
The goddamn election, which is eating a lot of time and focus and is important.
New fiction writing by the end of the November.
end