4 posts tagged “books”

So the little Boy Wizard will soon be six feet under and the book shop will empty again. good and bad I say, because people were reading, and with Harry Potter seemingly more adults were reading them than the dammed kids they were meant for. That aside along with Harry Potter comes the worldwide empire of publishing. Making a mint from these adventures we will see Children's books become the same wasteland that the adult literature section has become. Potential movies, movie novelizations, classics, and pretentious English major reading. This is where the idea of punk lit comes in. While punk writers have been a staple for awhile of le punk rock. Their writing has always been tied into the musical part of the culture, or the fashion. As with most things "punk" it ends up being more about the fashion.

Anyway punk came out of a period in music where everything was one of two extremes, diposable pop music, or overly complex porgressive rock. Early punks sought to make music anyone could make. I want to do this with words. Books that people can feel in the gut. Poetry for the masses. I think I might be getting ahead of myself here...

I Wish There Was Something That I Could Quit

Aaron Cometbus

Cometbus was the zine that showed me what I was missing. I spent a summer going through xeroxed tales of punk rock, long trips through the middle of nowhere, and general musing, but nobody had the chops that Aaron had in his zine. His voice was genuine, and his stories honest. He didn't seem to beat his chest about everywhere he had gone. More often than not his travels left him lonely and alienated, ready to return to Berkley, CA.

The first thing that long time fans will notice is that this is typeset. It really showed how much the handwritten script was integral to the zine's design. I also believe that this is a work of fiction. Although it is not stated in the book, everywhere I went looking for it on the web seems to list it as so. It's a little troubling considering that the main character/narrator is named Aaron, but we'll move on from that.

The book open with Laura throwing bricks at a passing military train. Smashing the windows on humvees, and scuffing the paint on the tanks. She ends up thinking she was caught, and runs back into her house. A dilapitated leaky shack covered in old punk fliers. Her friend Aaron lives in his van parked in her back yard. They have become bitter old punkers sipping coffee, and nursing broken hearts. They also share a secret, they both are doing what they can to impact the war effort. Aaron paints and wheatpastes protest fliers all over government buildings. Their shared secret plans include one day actually stopping the train, but they haven't quite cemented their plan. Aaron also seems to be in the middle of a love trangle with a bitchy bartender named Susan. To bring Laura in to the fold the third point on the triangle is her friend, and jogging buddy.

Everyone in this book that merits more than a passing mention is neurotic if not completely crazy. It is the only thing that bugs me about this book. Cometbus was about real people so their problems rang true. Everyone in this book is broken hearted but seems to be losing their minds. It may just be that Aaron is lamenting the passing of time that is not in his favor. The image of the war train that moves on whatever they do, is perfect. Punk has become fashion, and politics seems pointless, and Cometbus doesn't seems to have a place in this world. So he seems to pen a novel here that expresses this frustration.

Fans should rush out and get this, but newer converts should check out the short story collection/memoir Double Duce. It's a funnier read, and you get much more of the Cometbus feel.

Player Piano

Kurt Vonnegut

I started reading this book about 2 days before I heard the news. I have been a huge Vonnegut fan since I was a wee lad. Player Piano was one of the last books in his catalog I haven't read. Well after I heard that the great Mr. Vonnegut has passed away, after graciously leaving us with one last book, I am giving myself a challenege to read all of his books before the year is out.

Since this was the first novel that was published, it was fitting that I start here. Player Piano is a glimpse at the formative years of a writing style. This doesn't haev the poetic, and coversational feel of his other novels. This reads like a straight novel, and sci-fi bead aside, it is one.

A world of machines has arisen that has nullified half the populations need to do much of anything. The only people who are still in the game, are the managers and engineers. They supply the world with new machines, some even to replace themselves. A meritocracy where everyone is provided for, but few are happy. Even among the elite there is a feeling of malaise and guilt. Like any of Vonnegut's books the huge events that reanspire still feel small and personal. Not one character is lost in the shuffle, and chaos of the climax. 

I cannot reccomend this to new initiates to Vonnegut. It doesn't do his solid prose justice. He seems to be trying to keep himself in line here. Any fan will tell Vonnegut's frequent insitance to insert himself into his novels as a third party is what made him a great writer.

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

Haruki Murakami

Modern tragedy is framed by distance, and the limited attention span of the mass media. Haruki Murakami, one of Japan's most well-known author's was disturbed to find how quickly the attack on the Tokyo Subway in 1995 was forgotten.

Armed with patience, and keen insight Murakami collected the experiences of every victim that he could track down and get to go on record. For those who don't remember, in 1995 a Japanese cult, Aum Shinrikyo released Sarin gas on several trains of the Tokyo subway during rush hour. Tokyo at the time, was considered to be one of the safest cities in the world.

What makes this such a great read, is that it is the most human journalism I have every seen. Each story is complete with gaps in memory. The first three interviews have the same incident remembered three different ways. However, as Murakami says in his introduction, this isn't about a document of what happened, this about a document of the victims. This is a document of their stories, and how this attack has changed their lives.

It can be heartbreaking at one point, and lighthearted at another, either by choice or luck, there is an excellent cross section of people here: students, tourists, professionals, and of course Subway workers. After the victims have all had their say, Murakami wasn't satisfied. He wanted to understand Aum, and how they thought. The last hundred pages or so are interviews with former cult members. While they were not involved directly, they paint a picture that is all too familiar. Madness, hubris, and obsession with control colored this Buddhist cult, and has left many of the former followers alienated.

This is a wonderful document, and I wish that someone had the heart to do this for any number of American disasters. You remember that there is more than just sound-bites, and clip shows. There are real victims, and they shouldn't be forgotten. What is really sad is that it took a novelist to do what journalists should be.