Friday, September 1, 2023

Aug 23 Reading

 The challenge is over, but this seems a more convenient way of tracking my reading. 

  1. Murder at the Savoy. Another Martin Beck. Though I complained about the bland characterizations last time, I'm starting to differentiate among the various cops. Some, like the two incompetent beat cops, are types, but others are more subtle (Larson and Kroll for instance.) This one was sharply anti-capitalist. 
  2. NYer 9/5/22. I'll get through the stack yet!
  3. NYer 7/24/23
  4. Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything (Or, Old Bob Exposes His Ignorance). Given the rise of conspiracy thinking, his final reckoning awaits. His diagnosis of Internet (which he uses without the definite article) as a counter-agent was typical of the early 21st century but way wrong. Still, he can speak fluidly on everything from general semantics to James Joyce (which is not as broad as it once seemed, perhaps).
  5. NYer 9/26/22
  6. NYer 7/31/23
  7. Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight vol 2.
  8. Red Mars. Less hip Neal Stephenson
  9. Human Target. Palette, structure. Ending?
  10. Blacksad: The Complete Stories Remarkable facial expressions on animals. Embarrassingly sexy animals. 
  11. Manhattan Projects. Color palette. Multiple Oppenheimers. Boy Feynman. 
  12. New Teen Titans v. 4. George Perez, people. There's a bottom role in the Runaways story where a kid is hit by a car. Everyone is facing the reader, except for the middle panel where the runaway is silhouetted by headlights. 
  13. NYer 8/21/23. Five out, four in. I'll get through the pile somehow. 
  14. We Have Always Lived In the Castle. Jackson's sheer command of storyteller: The awkward ballet of Helen Clarke in the living room, plotting Charle's progress against the last normal morning, the flow of time. 
  15. Invincible v. 8: My Favorite Martian. It's actually Allen the Alien, not a Martian.
  16. Invincible v. 9: Out of this World: I kind of think the relationship with Eve is handled well. The Dad stuff, I'm not so sure. 
  17. Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: Beautifully rendered, but really intended as a work of Duck scholarship, apparently collecting and accounting for previous Barksian references. 
  18. Sodom and Gomorrah. Moving deeper into Proust. This is the one where Marcel notices everyone is gay. 
  19. Green Mars. Green represents life, indigenous to Mars. Ends with a bunch of refugees walking out of Burroughs with simple rebreathers, the atmosphere almost breathable. 
Not a particularly impress month, but 3 really long ones (Proust and two Robinsons). Plus I travelled and started back at school, so actually pretty good. 

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