Really, the title of this entry is all I need. Imperfections do make for interesting characters. Nobody wants to read about a perfect human (unless the story deals with the human’s perfection as a weakness in contrast to the rest of the human race). Even Superman needed Kryptonite to be interesting. I re-learned, during a recent trip to New Orleans, that a writer should embrace the imperfections.
Though we’re just past Banned Books Week, I don’t think it’s ever too late to celebrate the majesty of systematically stripping away a person’s right to choose literature. But I don’t just want to stand on the sidelines and praise those beautiful nutjobs. I want to help. Banning books can only do so much. To really make a point, you have to burn books. Here I present a few examples which I hope you will copy so that we may all live in a better world.
I don’t agree with the avoid-them-like-the-plague concept of spoiler alerts. To me, if a book can be spoiled by a simple plot revelation, then it’s not a book worth reading. I read for the journey, for imagery, vivid description, the language, concept, and on the list goes, but what remains interestingly absent from this list is plot. I don’t care much about the plot of a book. But that’s me. I know I’m in the minority. So don’t be surprised when I continue to write *SPOILER ALERT* every time I tell you that Tyler Durden and the narrator of Fight Club are the same person.
I only recently heard about Vyou.com. I like the concept, so I'm trying it out. For those uninitiated, Vyou.com is like a cross between video chat and YouTube given the veneer of an amateur interview portal. Basically, ask any member anything, and they respond via video. I know, you could do this on YouTube, so why go to Vyou.com to do it? Well, the Vyou.com interface is built specifically to handle the asking and responding of quick questions via video. I'm not celebrity enough for anyone to care about my personal opinions on things (though, I'm not promising not to spew a visual diary every once-in-a-while), so what kinds of questions should you ask me? Anything, really. Do you want to know about publishing? Ask. About writing? Ask. About cartoons? Ask. Do you have questions regarding any of my many blog posts on this site (537 to date)? Ask. Who knows how long…
It takes a lot for me to abandon a book once I've started reading it, and that struggle becomes more and more serious the further I progress through said book. So, perhaps this is why I was able to drop Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detective after reading just over 1/3 of the book (though, 1/3 is often too far for me to abandon a book; I suppose this speaks to what a true waste of time I felt The Savage Detectives to be). First, to address any of the friends who suggested I read this book: my faith in your taste is not diminished in the least. I believe my grip is mostly a matter of personal disinterest in the subject matter. I mean, no matter how good a book about baseball is written, I wouldn't be excited to read it. The Savage Detectives is about teenagers without responsibility who worship poetry, yet refuse…
No book review from me this time. Judging by my recent history, it’d be a wise guess to say I do little more than read and review books. But such a guess would also be wrong. I also lounge in hotel chairs and talk about the problem of not writing as I—get this—don’t write. Are you a writer who sometimes has trouble…performing? Then this pill…uh, video… is for you. Don’t kick yourself for letting your partner down. Lack of writing happens to everyone. Really. It does. Even me. I hope my courage can be your courage. Also, did you know Jim Lehrer writes fiction? Yep. A lot of it.
At times William Gay, at times Carlton Mellick III, but always, I’d say, he dodges what would traditionally be called Bizarro fiction by way of empathy for his characters. He’s Bizarro with heart…so, magical realist, I suppose. He’d fit in more with Amy Bender and Gabriel Garcia Marquez than with Carlton Mellick III or even Bradley Sands, but is strong enough in the world of any to be welcomed by them. Wallwork isn’t afraid to take a strange, even repulsive concept, and build a touching story around it. A story of a man shitting out his own nerves? Sounds ridiculous, but Wallwork makes it work. A sexual sideshow couple famous for inserting increasingly large objects into the woman’s vagina? Yep, but it gets even weirder, yet Wallwork knows how approach these images with honesty and heart.