This is a long critical piece--over 150 pages' worth!--about Tyra Banks' not-very-well-received first novel, Modelland. I listened to the "372 Pages WThis is a long critical piece--over 150 pages' worth!--about Tyra Banks' not-very-well-received first novel, Modelland. I listened to the "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" podcast episodes while I was reading Banks' book, and the basic approach is similar. Derk briefly summarizes the events in the novel, then makes humorous commentary about what he read. In Derk's case, he sometimes goes into long asides about literary technique, such as the dreaded "show, don't tell" mantra*.
* dreaded by me, anyhow.
I don't hate Tyra as a person--in so far as I know much about her at all, even on a parasocial level--but didn't think she tried hard enough to make her messages come across effectively. I had a sense of squandered potential while reading Modelland, and that sense was corroborated in this essay.
In the end, I like 372 Pages' approach to books better than Derk's. In many cases, the podcast, Derk's and my responses to Modelland are in line with each other's. My preference mostly comes down to sense of humor, and I'm not as fond of the edgy, cynical kind of humor I associate with young online white men from the 10s (which I'm almost 100% sure Derk was, at the time he wrote this*), as I am of the more good-naturedly comedic and extrapolative approach that Conor and Mike take. Tastes differ, and all that.
* I'm not saying his race might have changed in the meantime, though that would be funny.
I made a good number of highlights and notes for this piece, and you can check those out if you like. Derk did have a number of insightful things to say about Modelland, though how he missed the idea of "third-person limited point of view" is rather baffling to me....more
I've gotten interested in playing riichi mahjong recently, and this book did a good job setting me along the path toward winning my first match againsI've gotten interested in playing riichi mahjong recently, and this book did a good job setting me along the path toward winning my first match against AI players in "Mahjong Takomi" (Steam version). A lot of it was impenetrable and confusing at first: unsurprising, since the game's playing pieces and terminology are predominantly in Japanese, or use Japanese characters. (It didn't take long for me recognize the kanji for numerals one through nine by sight, since that is absolutely necessary to get anywhere with the game.)
As a complete beginner, I had an easier time with YouTube tutorials than with this book. The flow of the game, the various tile patterns, and so on, were much clearer with real tiles in motion in someone's hands. Here, concepts were often presented in plain text with no accompanying illustration. That difference may have to do with what teaching methods work best for me. Going forward, this book will be much more useful to me, though, its glossary and scoring tables in particular.
While I don't have easy access to other people who play riichi mahjong "in real life," I'll give "Mahjong Soul" or some other platform a try once I overcome my newbie jitters....more
Wishful Drinking is a modified version of an autobiographical stage production that Carrie Fisher performed in the mid-to-late aughts. Her attitude toWishful Drinking is a modified version of an autobiographical stage production that Carrie Fisher performed in the mid-to-late aughts. Her attitude toward the various parts of her past, and her exposing it to readers, felt much like it did in The Princess Diarist: wry, self-aware, and also aware of needing to keep a performer's distance from her audience, even while talking about personal, and sometimes painful things.
The book starts with Fisher telling us that she had recently been through electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as a treatment for her bipolar disorder. To be honest, I had no idea that this still existed, and as Fisher talked about the memory loss associated with the treatment, it brought on the same kind of existential horror for me that comes from discussions of dementia. This is mostly my gut response from ignorance, admittedly. She must have believed that the treatment would alleviate the symptoms of her mental illness.
From there, she talks about various parts of her life, more or less in chronological order, from her childhood and youth as a Hollywood kid; to her relationships with Paul Simon and Bryan Lourd (the father of her only child, who also ended up being at least bisexual, if not gay); and to a striking--to say the least--incident when a friend died in his sleep in her home. She expresses her love and admiration for her mother (which included some rather strange motherly interventions), and for her daughter, Billie.
There were other relationships along the way, too: with drugs, and with her mental illness. She has good humor about both, but I also sense a struggle. She attended AA for years, and tells us she had four slips back into drug use during that time. These parts of the book are especially poignant knowing that drug side effects, such as wear on the body, could have been a contributing factor to her death about a decade later.
Another relationship, of sorts, that Fisher talks about is the one with the most famous character she played. You know the one: the one you're expected to recognize from the cover. She knows she's been a sex symbol for a couple of generations of horny young people, because they--men in particular--keep telling her about it. As much of her memory that she might or might not have lost, she can recite the SOS message from that 1977 film by heart, decades later. And isn't entirely happy about that.
Fisher's narration of her book got shout-y at times, which is unusual for an audiobook. I actually kind of liked that. I got a decent sense of how the stage show was performed, and many of the comedic beats landed even though there wasn't an audience to enjoy Fisher's monologue along with me. Her voice is rough, slightly gravelly. Hearing that voice from the past, with its hints of too-early aging, gave the performance more pathos than it might have if I'd heard it closer to its release.
After a couple of her nonfiction books, I am curious to read one of Fisher's novels....more
Stephen Colbert (and staff's) humor comes and goes with me, and this short book is no different. The twisty knotted sentences with their cascades of iStephen Colbert (and staff's) humor comes and goes with me, and this short book is no different. The twisty knotted sentences with their cascades of internal contradictions were cool, there were plenty of winces of recognition at the flaws of my country that haven't changed even slightly (or have worsened) in the years since America Again was published... and there were the "My Turn" caricatures at the end of each chapter that I might as well have skipped for as much as I got out of them....more
I read this book for a buddy read, and as often happens with those, when it's time to write a review I'm all "thought out" about the book. The most stI read this book for a buddy read, and as often happens with those, when it's time to write a review I'm all "thought out" about the book. The most striking idea or theme throughout The Fire Next Time was the idea that whites and Blacks (and other people of color) must be fellow travelers in America, that oppression must cease, before America can grow out its childhood. 60 years later, we persist in our systematic oppression of anybody who isn't cishet, white and male, like a child who continues to insist that Santa Claus exists, despite ample evidence to the contrary....more
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