I don't book so often these days, even less often when it's fiction, but I've been dipping into the short stories in Leonard Cohen's A Ballet Of Lepers (and short stories).

The boy could write, no doubt.

Anthony Flack wrote: Wed May 10, 2023 4:33 pm I don't book so often these days, even less often when it's fiction, but I've been dipping into the short stories in Leonard Cohen's A Ballet Of Lepers (and short stories).

The boy could write, no doubt.

One of my favorite lyricists. I have always been meaning to read his books. I love this song from Songs in a Room, transposing the story of Isaac and Abraham to the Vietnam war:

The door it opened slowly
My father he came in
I was nine years old
And he stood so tall above me
Blue eyes they were shining
And his voice was very cold
Said I've had a vision
And you know I'm strong and holy
I must do what I've been told
So we started up the mountain
I was running he was walking
And his axe was made of gold
Well the trees they got much smaller
The lake a lady's mirror
We stopped to drink some wine
Then he threw the bottle over
Broke a minute later
And he put his hand on mine
Thought I saw an eagle
But it might have been a vulture
I never could decide
Then my father built an altar
He looked once behind his shoulder
He knew I would not hide
You who build the altars now
To sacrifice these children
You must not do it anymore
A scheme is not a vision
You never have been tempted
By a demon or a god
You who stand above them now
Your hatchets blunt and bloody
You were not there before
When I lay upon a mountain
And my father's hand was trembling
With the beauty of the word
And if you call me brother now
Forgive me if I inquire
Just according to whose plan
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must
I will help you if I can
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must
I will kill you if I can
Have mercy on our uniform
Man of peace or man of war
The peacock spreads his fan

Cohen volunteered for the Israeli army during the Yom Kippur war in 1973.

I feel like excessive resistance to inevitable change is the fundamental engine that drives right-wing conservatism. I remember seeing a Tucker Carlson clip where he said "I just want to live in the same America I grew up in" and I do believe him. The desperate futility of trying to turn back the tide of time, wishing for the impossible.

You grew up partway through a century of rapid change, dingus. It was never going to reach the 1980s and then abruptly stop. "Ok boys, we've reached the point of history where we got the Sony Walkman, let's pull up the handbrake and park it here". You can't be seven years old playing in your back yard forever. But I get it; I do. He's been imprinted with transitory things; we all have. We all carry around a bit of the past inside us like a time capsule. And change is coming faster and faster; it is psychologically difficult.

I think that being able to accept that All Things Must Pass is necessary in order to avoid becoming right-wing. But it's not easy. We have to both treasure things and accept that we can't hold onto them forever.

Quoting a couple of lines from one of these Leonard Cohen stories, written when he was young and unpublished in his lifetime:

The buildings, grey, solid and religious, the buildings talk it into them with stone logic. Montreal is like a promise, an old Victorian promise that nobody dares to break. Or wants to break [...] all the stone you could want to fool yourself that life is substantial.

And also The Stranger (L'Étranger) - not in French. What a book! It's a little stick of dynamite.

Carlson posted in his high school yearbook that he admired the killer of Harvey Milk. He's a dangerous man because, while evil, he's charismatic and articulate. I don't expect him to go away anytime soon.

Just finished a couple of the "Amsterdam Cops" series by Janwillem Van De Wetering. Been over 20 years since I read any.

Now reading "The Perfect Scent" by Chandler Burr. This one follows, for a year, both Jean-Claude Ellena and Sarah Jessica Parker in the perfume industry. The former is a highly regarded perfumer within the industry, a "nose" as they are called, and this chronicles his beginnings at Hermes. The latter is of course the star of Sex and the City, who had a perfume made for her. Fascinating book, if a bit long-winded in places.

The Big Nowhere was a trip. The plotting of his books has been described as “labyrinthine” and that would apply here. Almost felt a bit “crime bordering on horror” at points. An odd duck and meal of a read. Not really what I was expecting. But mostly engaging.

Am now reading Elmore Leonard’s Killshot.

Promise to read a book by a woman/person of color next, and something outside the crime genre, as I don’t want the consumption of hardboiled old white-guy shit to make me start behaving like too much of a tough guy/wannabe tough guy.

trey wrote:

eephus wrote: Mon May 08, 2023 12:08 am You Can't Win, which for some dumb reason I hadn't read yet, despite Burroughs speaking so glowingly of it.

It's great. It's hard to believe it was written in 1926.

It's been over 25 years since I read it, and my memory is shit. I remember enjoying it but being upset with the ending. It was like he was expressing regret for everything he had done in his life, right? I recall feeling like he should have owned all that shit, good and bad. Maybe I am mis-remembering?

I think the lovingly detailed recounting of all of the exploits undermines the short mea culpa section at the end. It's not surprising to me that they had to end the book that way in 1926. And probably he was really relieved to be out of The Life by that point anyway.

Allen Ginsberg's collected poems. One of my favorites. In a different era stuff like this would have gotten him kicked out of the country like Emma Goldman:

http://www.naseeb.com/journals/industrial-waves-94329

Tracing Time by Craig Childs. He spent the pandemic visiting Southwestern rock art sites and interviewing experts in the field. His pandemic was clearly more productive than mine.

InMySoul77 wrote: Tue May 16, 2023 5:13 am Allen Ginsberg's collected poems. One of my favorites. In a different era stuff like this would have gotten him kicked out of the country like Emma Goldman:

http://www.naseeb.com/journals/industrial-waves-94329

Freedom to put pederasts in Prison

nambla alert