Silly Season Flotsam

319 words written by dylan
Posted August 25, 2005 @ 11:12 AM
2 comments

Back from Bama. I am now addicted to sweet tea. Took me seven years, but now I'm wondering why you can't buy it by the gallon here in Seattle.

Until this unscheduled trip I'd read two books in 2005, both of which were non-fiction and web-related, and another three books or so I've started and not finished (including the revised On Food And Cooking).

On this unscheduled trip, I read two books. The first, The Time Traveller's Wife, was interesting and tragically romantic, but it seemed unfulfilling, in a way. And the pretentiousness annoyed me -- I'm not spewing Rilke at the drop of a hat -- though Niffenegger really has a good ear for dialogue. And there was a deeper theological question buried in there of pre-destination vs. free will that she never really unpacks; free will appeared to be causing pre-destination and creating all sorts of causality problems in my head. But, it was an OK book nonetheless, and an interesting cross of the 19th century romance and the 20th century sci-fi novel.

The other book was Blue Like Jazz, which, unfortunately, I can't discuss here. Theology, even in a post-modern milieu, always seems to set my readership off. So, you'll have to ask me privately.

The current high-rotation song on the iPod is "Cold Wind" by the Arcade Fire, a band I once famously called "twee chamber pop" at a meetup. This song, though, isn't twee but spare and foreboding -- the singer knows he's never going be seen alive again. Oddly, I kept thinking that this song would fit really well with the doomedness of Time Traveller's Wife, not even considering that this song was used in the final season of Six Feet Under.

I'll be upgrading to Movable Type 3.2 at some point today. I like the beta so far, though the lack of spam protection in the betas is annoying.

Comments

  1. I always wanted to live in a world that pretentious, I think, which was part of the appeal. ;) And it was ultimately the unresolvedness that felt most philosophically true to me. YMMV, and all that.

    Oh, and I'm relentlessly irreligious, but you should email me about the other book anyway. I'm always curious about what other people think, spiritually, even if I just cock my head the side and frown quizzically.

    Posted by: Elaine | August 25, 2005 02:42 PM

  2. Hey, the redesign looks great!

    Posted by: samantha | August 28, 2005 01:45 PM