Foundation and Empire

"There's probably no one so easily bribed, but he lacks even the fundamental honesty of honorable corruption. He doesn't stay bribed; not for any sum."

Foundation and Empire, Isaac Asimov

Ever since I started re-reading Asimov's original Foundation Trilogy two and a half-months ago, I've been struck by the times that it has evoked the deranged spirit of the Trump administration. I guess it only goes to show that as bad as our current situation seems to be, it's really nothing new. Bad presidents are not that much different from bad kings or bad tyrants of other genera. And there's no abuse of power that's new under the sun.

So I've written about it here (-ish) before and Tweeted about it...though I usually take my Tweets down after awhile, in large part because of my tepid-like / distinct hate relationship with Twitter. But this line struck me as even more significant. Not because it's shocking in any way to suggest that Trump is corrupt. I mean, seriously...doesn't that go without saying? If polls mean anything, then they show that even Trump's supporters think that he is corrupt.

The thing is...well, two things spring to mind, actually.

Thing One: The fact that he is corrupt makes no difference to the people who support him. It reminds me of WWE wrestlers who play the part of villains. They cheat in way over-the-top fashion...taking out weapons, interfering in the matches of others, etc. But the crowd cheers wildly for them, and there is usually at least one announcer who comments on the action in laudatory fashion. 

Thing Two: There really is such a thing as honor among thieves. Although it's a bit trite and more than a bit less than completely true, still there's something to Dylan's quip, "to live outside the law, you must be honest." Drug dealers who fail to follow through on the agreed terms of a deal are not going to live very long. Etcetera. And isn't it painful to think than a drug dealer might have more honor than your average drug dealer? Maybe not. Maybe it's just my naiveté showing.

America. Not my mother, but my child.

Haymarket Books: Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?

Haymarket Books has a timely offering which offers some context for the shit going down in Minnesota, Kentucky, and Georgia right now. It's 

It's available HERE.

And it's free.

The World Is White

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. (He's one of the two men in the picture above. I'm the other one. Neither of us gave permission for our faces to be shown.) As we were talking, he said that most Black men don't have very close relationships with their sons.

"Why not?" I asked. I can't imagine not being close to my sons (or my daughter),  and I tend to dismiss or at least seriously question cultural generalizations / stereotypes when they manifest themselves...even in the words of people I love.

His answer was terrifying.

"I think it goes back to slavery," he said. "You knew that your children could be taken away from you and sold, and you'd never see them again, so you didn't allow yourself to get attached to them. And that was especially true of sons."

It's just another reminder of the hateful legacy of these United States of America. And when I turn on the television today and see stories about a Black man being choked to death by a White cop in Minnesota...and a Black woman being shot to death by three White cops in her own apartment in Kentucky...and a Black man being threatened with police action by a White woman in New York...and a Black man being shot by a White man in the streets in Georgia...well, what are we telling Black men? 

It seems pretty clear to me. We're telling them that their lives are worth nothing, that they have no power, and that if they don't like it, that's just tough shit, isn't it.

You know what happens to me when people treat me like shit? I get mad. Sometimes I strike out. Under the right conditions, I'm absolutely sure that I could set some things on fire. Not because it's right...but because They're wrong. As wrong as wrong can be.




One of my Facebook friends's friends had a link to a post by a Kentucky business owner who was expressing his delight in the fact that a cop had murdered a Black man in the streets. He actually said that it meant there was "one less piece of shit on the streets." The friend's friend was suggesting that people should boycott that business owner. I'm thinking that we should be doing more than that...but I don't know what.

Trump v. NASA?

Question for Isaac Asimov Fans

I was reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Empire this morning, and I came across this line--

"...there is a difference between boldness and blindness. There is a place for a decisive gamble when you know your enemy and can calculate the risks at least roughly; but to move at all against an unknown enemy is boldness in itself. You might as well ask why the same man sprints safely across an obstacle course in the day, and falls over the furniture in his room at night."

--which I thought was pretty perfect in

the context of our current Coronavirus Pandemic: Obviously Opening Things Up Too Soon And / Or Without Sufficient Safeguards In Place. But it seems to me that the second (underlined) "boldness" should actually be the word "blindness." I am loathe to correct the Good Doctor...but, of course, this could just be a proofreader's error. (I find them in just about every book I read.)

Any thoughts?

Memorial Day 2020

We have a president who golfs while the Coronavirus Pandemic death toll approaches 100,000. 

We have a president who attacks people via Tweet a few hours after his token visit to the Arlington National Cemetery. 

Shameful.

To mask or not to mask--it's not really a question. Unless you're stupid and don't give a shit about your fellow human being.

Courtesy of Jennifer Koch, MD via Facebook.

Hoax

On the one ✋, this came to me ✋✋✋.

On the other ✋, it has a good provenance. 

A nurse practitioner was ✋.  

She told a doctor. ✋✋

The doctor told her mother. ✋✋✋

And her mother told me. 

Which makes you the ✋✋✋✋, right?

Okay. 

The nurse practitioner was working in a hospital, and she had to tell a family that their grandfather had died of Covid-19. The family members reacted by saying, "No, he didn't. Coronavirus is government hoax. YOU killed him."

I'm a pretty cynical guy when it comes to assessing the intellectual prowess of my fellow human beings. I feel bad about that, but in my defense, I have (1) served three years in the U.S. Military, (2) taught in the public school system for twenty-three years, and (3) been involved in various parent groups for the past thirty years.

I also have neighbors.

And I have to say, that even with all of that in mind, it's hard for me to believe that there are people who are so stunningly stupid that they don't believe that Covid-19 is real. I mean, for fuck's sake, there are 100,000 Americans dead now. I'd think that pretty much EVERYbody knows SOMEbody who has either suffered or died from the virus. I don't get out much, and I still know six victims. 

To me, this is like someone saying, "Your kids aren't autistic. Autism is a government hoax. You just don't know how to keep your kids in line!"

Fuuuuuuck. 

I'm going to go on record as saying that in less than two weeks if you take a look at Wisconsin you'll get a pretty good idea of how real this shit it.

Actually, after watching the news today, I'm thinking you're probably going to be able to look at just about any state two weeks from now and see how real this shit is.

Library Love

I don't know about you, but despite the thousands of books in my  the house, my literary balls are still bright blue, and the Louisville Free Public Library can't open up soon enough for me. If you're in the same banana hammock, then I just happened across something which might ease your pain and satisfy your bibliophilia:

And get this: Amazon has the Kindle version of this book on sale RIGHT NOW for a mere $2.99. That's 336 pages of book love and  glory for less than the price of two Redbox rentals.

And Susan Orlean is a superb writer. If you've read The Orchid Thief, then you already know that. If you haven't read The Orchid Thief, then you might want to look that up, too. (But watch Charlie Kaufman's 2002 film Adaptation first, just to get you in the mood.) 

If you like to try it before you buy it, you can check out a preview of The Library Book here: https://www.amazon.com/Library-Book-Susan-Orlean-ebook/dp/B07CL5ZLHX/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=the+orchid+thief&qid=1590089344&s=books&sr=1-3

...but I'm betting this sale won't be up for long, so you might want to go ahead and have a look right now.

Love

Love is a new-born deer we find in a water-filled ditch

hoofs still white

a scar on the decline down which it slid

and horrified, we pick it up

gently carry it into the woods

and leave it to rest in a clearing

where its mother can find it.

But when we check on it later in the day

it is cold and still

and the only thing we carry out of those woods

is remorse.

The Book I'm Reading: John Barth's The End of the Road

So...a funny thing happened on the way to reading John Barth's Chimera. My #1 son told me that he had read a YA novel about an autistic (Asperger's, really, but, you know, close enough for government work) kid, which he really liked, and he suggested that I read it. And I do try to be a full service company when it comes to my kids, so I went online to see what I could see. And there I found Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork. Amazon had it on Kindle for a mere $5.99, which is pretty sweet...but you know, money is always tight here at Brother K Headquarters, so I checked to see if I could find it at the library. And they had it...but only in real book form, no e-book option, and since the library is closed down right now, that wouldn't do me any good, would it? So I thought maybe I'd have a look at Scribd, as I've been flirting with the idea of going back to them for a month or two now (in fact, primarily in terms of looking for John Barth books). They didn't have it, but something else popped up in my search. Something called the Internet Archive. And lo and behold, they not only had Marcelo at the End of the World, but also John Barth's The End of the Road...and also The Sot-Weed Factor, Giles, Goat-Boy, and Lost in the Funhouse, which would take me all the way up to Chimera in the Barth chronological bibliography. 

It sounded too good to be true. So I looked into its background. Turns out it is a digital library which was first established on May 12, 1996, and it has ties to Google, MSN, a bunch of universities, some government, and even the Library of Congress. It sounded legit. So I thought I'd give it a go. I set up an account and checked out Marcelo in the Real World. I didn't download it...I'm not a trusting kind of guy...but the whole book was there for me, I didn't have any trouble keeping my place as long as I kept the tab open on my Kindle, and I knocked the book out in less than two days. #1Son was right, by the way...I really liked this book.

Meanwhile, back at The Barth...

I was still reading Chimera. But I was getting a little bogged down in the second novella, and I thought, "Maybe I'll just have a little peak at The End of the Road. So I went back to the Internet Archive and checked it out. Started reading.

There were some obvious parallels to The Floating Opera. The narrator in this one was less likable than Todd Andrews in the first book. But things were going along well enough, I abandoned Chimera and got down to it, and I was chewing through the pages until I ran into a reference to one of the main characters punching his wife in the jaw. Twice in succession. Needless to say, I was appalled. I thought about ditching the book...but ended up deciding to go on.

And then, this:

From page 97 of 198.

And this was not only a repeat of the incident which had bothered me so much, but this time it was the narrator, Jake Horner, doing the punching. That made it worse. And on top of that, the woman (Peggy) then has sex with Jake immediately after he punches her. (Well, not immediately immediately. They get out of the car and go inside first.)

That really made me feel ill. (It's also a prevalent trope in movies and tv shows; what the fuck is up with that? If somebody hits me, I am definitely not going to be in the mood for some sex. Are there that many people out there who are?)

I staggered on. The same character, Jake Horner, was in a heated discussion with Rennie, his wife's friend, with whom he had sex. (Because that's what friends do, right?) And...

From page 127. 

I have to admit, if I weren't so close to the end of this book (71 pages--about 35%--to go), I would put it away at this point and never go back. But I am going to try to push myself to finish for one reason: to see if this is where Mr. Barth and I part ways. To tell the truth, I was really jazzed about re-reading The Sot-Weed Factor, which would be my next book, and from what I've read, Giles, Goat Boy sounds very interesting as well (and that would come after TS-WF). I was even interested in finishing Chimera. I think. So...I'm going to try to grind this one out. 

Just thought I'd send up a flare.

New as it happens, so watch this space.
                                                  ⬇️

Nevertheless, I persisted. And...it got worse. This is probably going to be the end of the road for me with respect to Mr. Barth. Or maybe I'll finish Chimera, since I'm halfway through that one, and then decide. But as for The End of the World, this was just an awful book. Near the end I became convinced that this was actually Barth's first novel, and even he realized how bad it was, so he rewrote it (pretty successfully) as The Floating Opera. And then when The Floating Opera was published (1956), he had just enough cachet to get The End of the Road published in 1958. If you like or love Barth and haven't read this one, then do yourself a favor and skip it. Unless you really need to read a scene portraying a woman enduring a botched abortion. And I'm pretty sure that no one needs that. If you don't know Barth, then do not read this book. If you hate Barth, then this is the book for you: it shows him at his worst.

I feel like I need to take a shower. 

Fake News

I just saw a news clip on CNN in which a Trump supporter who was protesting against the stay at home orders shouted at a CNN reporter, "You stopped airing the Trump coronavirus briefings and started airing Cuomo's! You're fake news!"

Apparently she doesn't understand that the Trump administration stopped giving briefings after Trump suggested that people ingest bleach to combat the virus.

And that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

I really don't like thinking that people who support Trump are either (1) wealthy folks who have profited enormously from Trump's policies, and who couldn't give one gram of shit less about anything else or (2) people who are so fucking stupid that they couldn't find their ass with a gps tracker...but it's starting to look like that might be pretty much the whole shebang. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States of America...

...on the shooting of an unarmed black man: 

“Well, I saw the tape and when they moved left, I don’t believe that when they moved left outside of the tape nobody saw what was going on. Nobody saw — it’s an empty spot on the tape, I guess,” Trump said. “Now, do they have additional tapes, I hope, but I will say that it’s something that based on what I saw, doesn’t look good.”

So it's quite possible that there were good people on both sides of that shotgun, says our KKKommander in Chief.

Braden Urevick Has a New 3 Song EP on /bandcamp, & You Should Go Listen To It Right Now! (It's Free, BTW.)

https://bradenurevick.bandcamp.com/album/keep-it-together

The Book I Read: Isaac Asimov's Foundation

This book and I go back aways. I first bought and read it back in high school...maybe even middle school...when I was started to get more than a little obsessed with Isaac Asimov. He's a bad writer to get obsessed with, too--in that he wrote or edited more than 500 books. I loved this book then, read the rest of the trilogy, loved it, and then didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it until my #1son was old enough to start reading Big Books. By then, my copy of Foundation and its sequels was gone...probably sold off during those hard times in Germantown in the early 90s...so I bought him a compendium of the trilogy. And I guess that started my nostalgia going, as venisoon after I purchased a new copy for myself.

I hated that stupid fucking cover--Asimov suffers from bad cover art more than any other writer I know of--but I gave it some company with the other books in the series...which had now grown to seven books. But I didn't read them, they just sat on my shelf.

At some point I saw this lovely little item--

--on the spinner rack at Half-Price Books

(back in those days of yore when we could go somewhere other than the food store or the pharmacy), and of course I had to buy that. (It's 4/5ths of the Foundation. And it took its place on the shelf, also unread.

But then awhile back I got a hankering to revisit the Foundation series (as detailed elsewhere). And I decided that to do it properly, I would read not only Asimov's two prequel books, but also the second Foundation Trilogy (written by three other boys) before getting to Foundation Proper. And then I'd read the two Asimov postquels, of course. And then Foundation's Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov, of course. 

So I was on my way. And I happened to write (via email, that is) to my older sister about it, remembering that she had had some fondness for Asimov back in the day...in fact, it may well have been her who got me started on him...and she wrote back and said that she had never read the Foundation Series, but that she might give it a shot someday.

And her birthday was coming up, and she's not the easiest person to buy a present for, so I went to Amazon and found this lovely Everyman's Library omnibus--

--and sent it her way.

I love Everyman's Library, but it wasn't my first choice. What I really wanted was to find copies of those lovely paperbacks from the days of my youth. And lo and behold, I found them on the racks at Half-Price Books...but they were not in good shape. So I passed on them. Then I found them again at Half-Price Books...at the other storie, in the drawer thingie...but they were not in good shape, either. So I passed. (If you're surprised at this coincidence of finding a set of books published over 50 years ago...twice...just at the time that I happened to be looking for them, then I can only say (1) thank you--I've pretty much given up on remarking on amazing coincidences as most of the time when I tell about them I get a shrug in reply, and (2) this shit happens to me all the time. No, really, all the time.) So I went online. And that's when I found this:

Before that moment, I had no idea that this existed. And I have an inordinate love for box sets. I would have bought it for my sister, but I really wanted it for myself. Alas, though, as you can't see in this picture (because it's a stunt double), it was in wretched shape and it cost a lot of money...like $50 or so. Which is why I defaulted to the Everyman's Library version for sister.

However...

A month or so later, back at Half-Price Books, I found...

And (1) yep, hell of a coincidence, (2) it was in good shape, and (3) it only cost ten bucks. So even though I already had all three books, I went for it. 

For the record, that means I have now bought Foundation, Second Foundation, and Foundation and Empire six times. And also for the record, I have zero regrets about that. 

So today I finished reading Foundation. It was quite a fun read, too.  I'm looking forward to starting Second Foundation later today. [Well, about that. I opened Second Foundation a minute ago and saw that I managed to invert the order...which should go Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation. So I stand corrected.]

I am reading quite a few books right now, so I took the slow and steady approach with Foundation...literally only reading a few pages a day on most days. Some days it was hard not to just settle in for a longer haul, because it is a pretty thrilling read, really. I read somewhere that Asimov said of this work--in a rare moment of self-criticism, as he was usually a bit full of himself--that it was really just a series of conversations with very little action. And I guess that's somewhat true--there are no on stage space battles or robot revolts (hell, there aren't even any robots! which is funny, since Asimov is probably best known for his robot stories, and since later on he merged his Robot and Foundation worlds) or even much confrontation...but hell, to some extent all works of fiction (in print or on screen) are just a series of conversations, aren't they? And beyond that, Asimov knew how to write good dialogue. Sometimes when you read old science fiction it's more than a bit embarrassing...not just because of the now outdated future stuff, but because the dialogue now seems so stilted and awkward. Not the case here.

One interesting thing about the cover art for this edition: I love it dearly, but it's funny that the prominent KSP wrist tattoo only comes up one time...and I think on only one page...of the 200 page novel. It's kind of like remembering Don Quixote for the windmill battle...which occupies a few paragraphs of a very long novel.

Seen Whilst Walking This Morning

Betcha there's an interesting story there.

The Book I'm Reading: John Barth's Chimera - Part One, "Dunyazadiad"

"...no matter how total, exclusive, and permanent the commitment between two lovers might turn out to be, it lacked the dimensions of spiritual seriousness and public responsibility which only marriage, with its ancient vows and symbols, rights and risks, provided."

That's from page 35 of Jon Barth's Chimera. I've been taking my time with this book, sinking into the narrative, and I have to say that I'm surprised at my younger self for not finishing it. I'm not sure when I first tried to read this book...but I'd guess I was in my teens...maybe even when the book first came out. (For one thing, I remember that ↑ cover...and as previously mentioned, the book did win the National Book Award in 1973, so it was probably generating some publicity which could have caught my eye.) But I know I didn't finish the book, and I can only conclude that I didn't get it. 

Of course, things like this bit from page 35 wouldn't have meant much to me before I'd had my heart broken, recovered, been married, divorced, recovered, married, divorced, recovered, and then spent five years with a woman who committed acts of emotional abuse on me on a regular basis. (And it appalls me now to think that I was so spiritually exhausted and filled with self-loathing in the aftermath of that second divorce that I put up with that shit for five years.) But now when I look at those lines from Chimera...it fills me with longing. I wanted...hell, part of me still wants...a marriage that has that level of commitment, that level of truth. All I can say now is that I gave it my best shot both times, and that the worst thing you can say about me in that respect is that I do not have great acumen in my choosing of partners.

Sigh.

5/9/2020: Just finished Part One of this book, which was entitled "Dunyazadiad." It's a version of the story of Scheherazade, and it was both riveting and appalling. Reading this...thinking about this story...makes it hard to believe that anybody would ever want to have sex with anyone other than themselves. The only solace I could hold (like a raw steak to my bruised face) was the fact that in my 40+ year history of sexual relationships, I never once committed or threatened an act of violence against anyone, never pressured anyone into having sex with me, never even tried to convince anyone to have sex with me. In fact, I rarely even made the first move...and the few times I did, it was only because very clear signals were being given to me. That undoubtedly means that I could have had more sex than I did if I had been a little bolder, but I'm okay with that. More than okay, actually. 

But at heart, this is a story about the abuse women suffer at the hands of men...and how men use their power to abuse women. And about how the only way for a woman to survive is to submit herself to the whims of the man. And that just makes me sick.

Now...I need to take a little break before I proceed to the second novella. Stories about rape just overwhelm me with sadness and anger.

- B - R - E - A - K -

Started Part Two, "Perseid," today. It's written in a more convoluted style than Part One, and I have to admit that I'm struggling not to be put off by that. I did run across a couple of lines which I found worth remembering:

"No man's a mythic hero to his wife...."

"That permanent relationship was fatal to passion was perhaps inevitable...."


...both of which are on page 95. The first is particularly meaningful to me, in that I think it has a lot to do with the failure of my second marriage. I could be wrong, of course. The fact that I'm still wondering about it eleven years after it ended probably tells you all you need to know about my perspicacity in this matter. But I think that it's possible that she saw me as something more than a person, and that while she was able to maintain that illusion for the three years we lived together (I was trying to be careful) before we were married, and then for most of the five years that we were married, eventually the reality of me caught up with her. Which is not to say that I'm a bad guy, because I'm not...and as much as she despises me now, I doubt that even she would say that I'm a bad guy. But I'm a guy. I don't shit marble. I don't lead the downtrodden into battle against the Overlords. I don't even sail to Easter Island on a rickety raft.

The second one is probably where I am nowadays. I find it very hard to believe that there is such a thing as true love...or even real love. There's What Can You Do For Me and there's What Have You Done For Me Lately. That's true of every woman I've had a romantic relationship with. With one possible exception, but I broke up with her when she did something which I regarded as unforgivable. (Details are not available upon request. Suffice it to say that it was not illegal, but that it was unnecessary, directed at one of my family members, and caused harm.) Part of me thinks that she would have gotten around to being a bitch sooner or later, though, but I guess that's an inside thought, so never mind.

5/22/2020: Have only a toe-hold in Part Two. Did take a break to read The End of the Road, which took most of the wind out of my Barth sails, but when I gamely tried to re-start Chimera part the second I could only think, "No wonder I never finished this fucking book all those years ago." I think that this "Perseid" may just be bullshit. The style is so willfully and meaninglessly obtuse...just for the sake of ornament and needless obfuscation so far as I can see. Part of me wants to plow through and finish this book...because I have invested some time here, and I'm 100 pages down...but the other part of me just says, "Hey, you're old...you don't have that many more books left to you, so why waste your time here?" I'd probably feel a bit differently if The End of the Road hadn't affected me so negatively. So I am going to make my Big Decision today. I'll try to read "Perseid," but if it doesn't catch my fancy today, I'm done with it. And done with Barth. Probably done with Barth either way, but there's an outside chance that Chimera will redeem itself for me and I'll find some renewed interest in him and sally forth once more. Meanwhile, though, I've cancelled my request for The Sot-Weed Factor from the library.

#AMJOY & Ahmaud Arbery

I'm sorry to say that I missed the name of the speaker and her exact words, but one of the guests on MSNBC's AM Joy was talking about the lynching / murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and she said something like, "Imagine if this had been a group of black men chasing down a white jogger and then fatally shooting him."

And it is unimaginable, isn't it? Racism is so deeply rooted in this nation that the imagination is incapable of such a thing.

And we have a president whose comments on this included, "You know, it could be something that we didn't see on tape.... There could be a lot of, if you saw things went off tape, and then back on tape...."

So I guess there might be good people on both sides of that shotgun, huh?

This nation is in the grip of a much more deadly pandemic than Covid-19, that's for sure.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow #1

I miss Superman. I've followed him on and off for at least 52 years. In fact, the oldest Superman title I currently possess--having sold off a batch of my earlier comics, alas--is Action Comics #363, which was published in May of 1968. And a true classic it is, by the way--what with a cover by Neal Adams, interior art by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, and a rockin' story by Leo Dorfman in which Superman contracts the incurable Virus X which turns him into a leper...kind of. His skin turns green and goopy. This was the first story in a trilogy of issues which fascinated me back in the day. 

And while I haven't followed him faithfully over the years, I have regularly come back for a look-see, and have often ended up staying for fairly long stretches of time: when Action Comics went weekly, I was there every week. And I was there for The Death of Superman story and the follow-up Reign of the Supermen. So when I saw that Action Comics had returned to its original numbering in August of 2016 with issue #957 (after a brief The New 52 re-numbering), I stopped by for a look. And it caught my attention. So much so that I followed it all the way through to issue # 1,000. But that's when my problems began. Because it was at that point that 

Brian Michael Bendis took over the writing. Now, I know that Mr. Bendis is a popular writer, and I have enjoyed some of his work in the past...but his take on Superman left me cold. I thought it would be unfair not to give him more than one issue to prove himself, though...and, to be honest, after buying Action Comics for over two years...and every two weeks for that time period...I was loathe to give it up. So I came back for #1,001. And 1,002. But that was it. I just couldn't take it anymore. (Same thing happened over in the Superman title, too...except in that case what drove me away was more than just Bendis--I thought that John Romita, Jr.'s art was just awful. And I usually really like him a lot--have even bought books I didn't care about just because he was the artist.

But Bendis...I haven't read anything from him that I've liked in some time now. And the things about his writing that irritate me are magnified by the character of Superman. I mean...you really have to know your shit to write the Man of Steel...because it's so easy to switch to glide when you've got a character who is essentially a god.

So I've been missing him.

And today as I was thumbing through ComiXology I saw that DC has put up a series of cheap digital comics for its big hitters: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash. 99¢ a pop. (Minus 15% if you sign up for ComiXology Unlimited, btw.) I took a look at the Superman book (Superman: Man of Tomorrow). Hmmm. 25 pages. And they were real pages, not those one panel pages that you got from Injustice. (Which, I hasten to add, I loved, and I do not regret any of the many dollars I threw down for that title.) The preview looked okay. The art, by Paul Pelletier, was not flashy, but it seemed serviceable and professional. I was not overly familiar with the writer, Robert Venditti, but reading the preview didn't make me feel nauseous--as any single page of Bendis's Superman did. 

So I threw down my 84¢ + tax and, even though there were a few other things that I thought I should probably get to first, I read that first issue.

At first it just seemed like a, "Yeah, okay," kind of story. The Parasite is sucking all of the energy out of Metropolis! Superman tries to stop him, gets the shit kicked out of him! He pulls himself up by his bootstraps and goes back fo s'more. 

But then it took a turn. Superman stops to encourage a group of the citizens of Metropolis to help each other out during the blackout. Then he takes Parasite to the dark side of the moon because he has actually thought out how to take him down...and not by beating the hell out of him. 

It was a satisfying little turn, for sure. I want to read some more. And oh, look...there are two more issues available Right Now. (It comes out every week.) So you know what I'm going to be doing.

One thing, though, in the interests of full disclosure. For the most part, the Paul Pelletier art stayed at that serviceable and professional level. It sometimes even veered into what I would call Good, with a hint of Jim Lee. But every little once in awhile there was just a bit of sloppy awfulness that came in. Check out this panel (page 15, panel 3), for instance:

Now, that is some shit, ennit? And by shit, I mean shit, not The Shit. It looks more like The Microcephalist of Notre Metropolis. But hey...the guy is pumping out a full size comic book every week, so I'm going to cut him some slack.

Okay. Time for issue #2 for me.

The Book I Read: John Barth's The Floating Opera

I read some John Barth a long time ago. I have a vague memory of enjoying The Sot-Weed Factor...although the only specific I can recall from it is one character saying to another, "Thou hast beshit thyself!" (Or at least I think I remember that. The older I get, the more I realize that I have inadvertently managed to invent at least a few of my "memories.") And I remember starting Chimera--I think.  (Only specific "memory" there: some character who had braided his pubic hair...maybe into pigtails?) I'm pretty sure that I have purchased several other Barth books, but not at all sure that I could find them now, reasonably sure that I never started them, and almost absolutely sure that I didn't finish them. 

Nevertheless, I retained a great deal of affection for John Barth. In fact, lately I have been thinking about re-reading The Sot-Weed Factor. Unfortunately, it's not easy to find a copy at a reasonable price, and my copy of that one is for sure long, long gone.

Somewhere along the way (before The Covid-19 Clampdown), though, I picked up an old copy of The Floating Opera (Barth's first book, originally published in 1956, when Barth was a mere slip of a lad--26 years old; and btw, my copy is the 4th Avon printing from February 1968, in case you're keeping track)--for a few bucks and a copy of Chimera (first published November 1, 1972 (my copy the 16th Ballantine Books Edition, published in December, 1993) for a dollar. I have a vague memory of some other Barth books that I either bought or thought about buying, but (1) none of them was The Sot-Weed Factor and (2) I am not able to verify the existence of any of these books at this time. It is possible that they went out in one of my Great Book Purges (when I was trying to straighten things up in this place by selling books I didn't think I'd ever want again to Half-Price; I sold quite a few (for very little money), but you really can't see any difference vis-a-vis the state of things on my homefront).

And hey, pretty impressive that Chimera went through 16 editions by 1993, isn't it? Of course, it was a National Book Award winner in 1973, so that didn't hurt sales, I'd suppose. 

A few days ago I picked up The Floating Opera and started reading. I liked it pretty much from the get-go. It was meta-fiction-y, which almost always rubs me the right way. It was funny in a cynical and self-abnegating way, which is right up my alley. (For instance: "...I could never be content with anything even remotely within my power to achieve.") And it was clever and allusive (I have always been a sucker for a good allusion) in unexpected ways, such as when Todd, the narrator, refers to his diseased heart as

There were also some bits which I found quite self-revelatory, such as this

(which, by the way, was marked by a previous owner of the book--not me--who (1) seems quite simpatico with me and (2) occasionally seems a bit on the dull side, as his / her annotations are sometimes more than a bit insipid...as, for instance, when s/he writes "excitement" above the word "titillation" in the text. I mean...really?  ANYway, s/he also liked the follow-up quote to the one pictured above--

--as did I...though not as much as the first one. 

Barth also invoked a quote which he attributed to Cicero at one point. I liked the quote, too, but when I looked it up, I found a bit more context which indicated that it was actually Cicero quoting another fellow:

"True, therefore, is that celebrated saying of Archytas of Tarentum, I think it was—a saying which I have heard repeated by our old men who in their turn heard it from their elders. It is to this effect: 

'If a man should ascend alone into heaven and behold clearly the structure of the universe and the beauty of the stars, there would be no pleasure for him in the awe-inspiring sight, which would have filled him with delight if he had had someone to whom he could describe what he had seen.' 

Thus nature, loving nothing solitary, always strives for some sort of support, and man’s best support is a very dear friend."

Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Amicitia

So I think JB loses a point for that one.

But before I shuffle off of this literary coil, I'd also like to point out that Barth's line

"...there is no will-o'-the-wisp so elusive as is the cause of any human act."

was also meaningful to me. It's not exactly a deep thought, but of late I've been pondering my divorces...especially the second one...in part because I've been corresponding with a friend who was recently bereft of his spouse, and though he hasn't told me much about that situation, I wouldn't be surprised if he, like me, was taken completely by surprise. I actually thought that (1) when you swore before God and your friends and family that you were going to be married for life that you meant it and (2) that if there was a problem in a marriage that it would be brought up and discussed before deciding to end the marriage. Turns out I was wrong on both counts there...both times. 

But enough about me. I enjoyed this Barth book enough to want to start reading his second novel right away. Unfortunately, I don't have it, the library is closed (and doesn't have it on e- or audio-book), and it costs $13.34 for the Kindle version. (Which seems exorbitant; I mean, the thing is only 188 pages long.) I have found some cheap versions at various online bookstores, but I don't really feel like waiting for it. I want it all, and I want it now.

Fortunately for me, I just discovered that it can be had on Scribd. And even though I have belonged to Scribd before, I think it's been long enough that I can get a 30-day free trial out of them. Of course, if I want to continue chronologically from there--which I seem to want to do, which is why I didn't start reading Chimera today--I am going to have to shell out for The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) and Giles Goat-Boy, or, The Revised New Syllabus (1966). because they're not to be found on Scribd. Although the former is available in book form at the library...if it ever opens up again. Time will tell.

P.S. It's been a few days, and I still haven't hit the Publish button for this one. I've been suffering from a serious case of Who The Fuck Cares? of late. 

And as for Mr. Barth...I've been poking around. Almost hit the reactivate my account for Scribd (looks like no more free trials for me), but couldn't quite bring myself to do it for some reason. Now if they had The Sot-Weed Factor and / or Giles, Goat Boy on there I would most definitely have done the deed. But since I've hemmed and hawed for a few days now, I think I might just forget about the chronological shit and go ahead and read Chimera. For one thing, I know myself, so I know there's a good chance that I will poop out on Barth at some point in the not-too distant future, so I'd really rather not waste money on books I won't get around to reading. For another thing, it looks like the public library might be opening up soon, and they have a few Barths in their bins. And I'll bet that U of L has everything.

Okay? Okay.

P.P.S. Started Chimera. On page 27...and the text started on page 11...there was this:

So it ain't pigtails, I suppose...sounds more like cornrows, but it is definitely a braided variation, and hey, maybe the pigtail variation comes up later on (no pun intended). But my faith in my memory is at least partially restored after a brief refractory period (pun intended).

P.P.P.S. Whilst searching for something else, I came upon this:

...which I have to admit that I had completely forgotten about. Funny, too, in that yesterday I spent a bit of time looking through piles of books to see if there was any Barth and came up with nothing, but today when I was looking for something else entirely I found Barth. So maybe there's hope for some more Barth around here, too.

Also funny, this book was inscribed thusly:

That was 2010. After 5 more years of that kind of thing, that relationship flamed out, so I guess that poor Trish now lives in dry darkness. Alas. She deserved better. 

ANYway...I now have enough Barth to fuel me for a little while, and have since ascertained that the U of L Library does, indeed, have pretty much everything else, so with a little luck I may be able to do this thing at No Additional Cost to Myself.


More news as it happens, Barth Fans.

Jacqueline Says...

I resisted the temptation to tell her, "I don't know, honey, we do live in KenTUCky." 

Jack Kirby's The New Gods

Y'know, I love ComiXology. And as I currently have 1,021 books from them, I think I've backed up that love with some action. I've also been a ComiXology Unlimited subscriber for some time, and would definitely recommend that you put your money down for that if you are into comic books. (Or if you just want to explore, since they give you a very nice free trial period.) It gives you access to tons of books...and gives you a discount on many of your purchases--up to 15%. So yes, I love ComiXology.

But sometimes....

Well, you just have to be careful.

For instance, if you're interested in having a look at Jack Kirby's The New Gods series, you have several choices to make. You can go for the e-versions of the original series...

...which gives you 11 issues for $21.89 + tax, which is quite reasonable. And it's well worth the price, for sure. I mean, 11 new comics would cost you $43.89 + tax, would give you fewer pages, and would give you zero Jack Kirby.

However....

DC did a reprint of the original series, and each issue of that in e-version on ComiXology will cost you...

...yep. So that's about half the price--$11.94 + tax...for the same stuff, right? Not quite. Because that 6th issue includes the original issue #11 plus a brand new issue's worth of story, so you actually get more story for half of the money.

But wait...

Because there's also a collected edition:

And if you're thinking, "The cover art colorist should be fired immediately," then I am totally with you. (If anybody had to turn pink, it certainly should have been Forager rather than Orion. Sheesh.)  But ignore that and check this out. First off, note that this is on sale, and that sale might end at any moment, but for the nonce, this collection gives you the best price yet. (And speaking of ComiXology Unlimited, if you happen to have signed up for that, you get 15% off of all of the prices I've so far mentioned...which takes this collected edition down to $8.49 + tax.) And get this: this collection contains the original eleven issues, the new story from the final issue of the reprint edition, AND the graphic novel The Hunger Dogs, which more or less * completes Jack Kirby's The New Gods storyline. It weighs in at an impressive 424 pages. 

So there you have it. 

P.S. It often pays to compare the prices between ComiXology and Amazon Kindle. Even though Amazon owns both of them, there are sometimes big price differences. As for The New Gods, though, the price remains the same on both platforms.

* "More or less" in the sense that Jack Kirby's story never really felt complete, but this is all that he did New Gods-wise, so....