queerbychoice | Book Reviews

I've been reading even more than usual lately, because it's one of my most successful modes of escapism. This week I read:

Jonathan Ned Katz's The Invention of Heterosexuality (very good book - not half as dry as your average queer theory book either; he actually has a writing style and could be considered reasonably entertaining)
Douglas Coupland's Shampoo Planet (eh . . . it's not awful, but it doesn't live up to the fanatical Coupland-worship I've seen among his fans; this is my first Coupland book but I'm not inspired by it to want to read any others)
Yukio Mishima's Acts of Worship (I tried to read his novel Confessions of a Mask in college after hearing that it was a hugely important classic of Japanese queer literature, but as hard as I concentrated, I just couldn't follow it at all . . . but Acts of Worship is definitely much better, so maybe my problem with the earlier book can be blamed on a really atrociously awful translator)
Daniel Quinn's Ishmael (hmm . . . in a book that's supposed to be all about liberating us from harmful cultural paradigms, I find it very disturbing how the "universal" dialogue about the role of "Man" in the universe takes place between the two "universal" characters of a male human and a male gorilla and not once in the entire book does any female speak one single word; also, all the ranting about "overpopulation" completely fails to address the racism in how "letting people starve to death," as the book overtly recommends doing, conveniently means that only people in the "third world" will starve to death, and never anyone in the "first world")
Amy Bloom's Love Invents Us (everyone must read this book immediately!! it's easily the best novel I've read in the last six months.)

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Woo! I recommended the Amy Bloom book, right? I'm glad you liked it. (have you read her short stories? i like 'em even better than the novel, but I might be short-story oriented somehow.)

Yes you did (much thanks) and no I haven't yet, but I plan to now.

So, you are now certified an excellent writer-recommender. Any other recommendations you could make?

oh no. Now I'm all filled with anxiety... I forget, I know I've mentioned Aimee Bender before, but I forgot whether you said you'd read her or not. She's a little bit surreal, and again, I prefered her short stories (the girl in the flammable skirt), but her novel (an invisible sign of my own) was great too.

I'd say what I'm reading now, but it's just a book of essays about the catcher in the rye called 'with love and squalor,' and I haven't finished it yet. But the ones I've read have been good.

Hmm, so I've exhausted your entire supply of literary recommendations already. And you have a fetish for authors named Amy B.

For most of this year I've gotten most of my book recommendations from Frank, but I'm afraid I've nearly milked him dry now. I need to find new sources of enlightenment.

There's another Ishmael book, where his student is a young girl.

I don't see it as being as much of a problem. Maybe that's just me.

It is a problem, because the entire discussion is about the supposed role of "Man" in the world, and this patriarchal vocabulary is then reinforced by the total lack of any speaking female characters. It is annoying that whenever anyone wants to present a "universal" it's always a male presented as being the "universal" human being.

I did see the blurb in the back of the book about the sequel with Ishmael talking to a 12 year old girl. The sequel is probably less annoying; but then again, it's still written by an author for whom the 12 year old girl version of the plot was an afterthought that didn't come until years after the original.

Okay.

Daniel Quinn's ideas disturb me, partly because one of my friends was such a vehement supporter of them a few years ago.

i noticed the song to which you are listening. pretty, huh?

you're back! yay!

it's no accident you like the song i referenced. i purchased the cd via mail order specifically because long ago last spring you said that song made you cry. the cd finally arrived in the mail today and i played it and listed that song here thinking of you.

i suspected it might have had something to do with me. jeff buckley was good. would maybe have been great had he lived longer.

oh well.

good to see you've increased your internet presence again.

i am, sort of, but no thanks to The One Who Has Never Considered Me A Friend (and who, in the past when i worried about things like this happening, yelled at me to stop being paranoid that he'd ever "disappear" or lose interest in me, because of course he wouldn't ever do anything like that).

also, the fact that i'm online more is not necessarily a good thing. it's more just a frantic vacillation between withdrawing offline to try to process overwhelming experiences, and then going online to distract myself when thinking and trying to process it hurts too much.

every day i wake up with a horrible throbbing headache and i have to take two doses of ibuprofen and wait two hours before it goes away.

Whee. Stumbling across random journals.

Anyhow. Shampoo Planet is pretty non-good as Coupland's stuff goes. It's not as lame as Life After God though. Generation X and Microserfs are his best.

Might take a look at some of those others you mention, always interesting to get new ideas for stuff to read.

My suggestion? Try Bret Easton Ellis' Glamorama or The Informers. You may also like Poppy Z. Brite; her best is probably Drawing Blood.

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