Reading Log--book 1.1--The Book of Dust

I finished reading the first volume of Philip Pullman's new trilogy, the Book of Dust, last night. The second half of the book is concerned with what we learn to call "the Secret Commonwealth." I can only speculate how Pullman will develop this concept, but from what we are given I can sense that it is more than enough to justify a new series. In the same way that Lynch was able to recreate Twin Peaks Pullman is now recreating His Dark Materials. If the theme and structuring motif of the last series was Paradise Lost then the new series' is The Faerie Queene. Personally, I am very excited with this turn of direction since I've always preferred Spenser to Milton. The change of theme also begins to justify Pullman's decision to mesh this story through the old (it occurs before, during, and after the original books).  I'd like to say something about what I think Pullman is up to.

Pullman, in titling the series "The Book of Dust" suggested to me, years ago when he still in the earliest phases of conceiving this new material, that he was creating a kind of ur-text. Dust is the grounding metaphor as it were for the whole series. What could the book look like? I almost expected a kind of Bible or Encyclopedia. What we are given instead is "the Secret Commonwealth," another reality that seems separate from the alternate worlds of the previous series. This is a world of magic and seems to embody imagination and creativity as well as being a metaphor for spirit and consciousness. By separating the book over three different time periods he will make the whole of the trilogy more about this theme than any individual character, or so I think, although Lyra too is a kind of spirit that is present in all of them. In short order, I loved it.

Next on the bookshelf, the Businessman by Thomas M. Disch.

Year in Review--2017

2017 was an exhausting year. Of course it was exhausting. Exhausting for me, exhausting for the majority of Americans. The political and personal blurred together despite my desire to maintain perspective on both. There is little I can do to change the political situation, but I have made significant strides in several key personal areas, many of which I can't share here. I do want to talk about some of them though as well as share my goals for 2018.

For starters, I've been feeling somewhat disappointed with the amount of reading I'd accomplished this year. I don't feel as bad about the number of movies I've consumed, there being so few worth watching. One of the only movies I really wanted to see, Katheryn Bigelow's Detroit,  I finally got around to watching today. It more than lived up to its promise and was for me the best movie of the year. I also watched the latest Alien and the latest Star Wars movies, but I don't feel the need to say anything about them now having already discussed them here and on Facebook earlier. I still need to see the new Blade Runner and Get Out looks good. Are there others?

My goals had been modest to begin with. I started the year intending to buy less books and read more of those I already have. My book list was therefore composed mostly of books that had been lying on the shelves for awhile. I decided to focus on genre works, but I also agreed to participate in a book club my brother-in-law wanted to start (we never got past the first book though). 

For the first quarter of the year I started off relatively strong. I read Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea, George Eliot's Middlemarch, Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, the first volume of Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania quartet, and Ivan Morris's The World of the Shining Prince.  

Things slowed down a bit for the second and third quarters. I started reading Frank Trentmann's Empire of Things (a book I continued to read through the summer and still haven't finished) as well as David Rothkopf's Power Inc. I also read most of Angus Fletcher's final book on topology, The Topological Imagination. Fletcher died last November. The book is very rich and is a fitting culminating work in the career of one of our greatest literary critics. Harold Bloom had a book out this year, a short character study of Shakespeare's Falstaff. I had started reading Lewis Trondheim's Donjon comics at the end of 2016 and continued reading them through this summer. As for novels, I read Paul Auster's 4,3,2,1 and the second volume of Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota trilogy. I also started exploring the rich body of work of Hunanese author, Can Xue.  It is weird to talk about her, never have I been so taken with a writer that I have read so little of.  

At the end of the third quarter I began training for the United States Post Office. My official start date was September 25. That means that I have passed my 90 day probation period and am official USPS employee. I enjoy the job tremendously and hope to continue working there for the foreseeable future. 

If the third quarter was a relatively quiet period for reading, I made up for it with a rededication to drawing and painting. I started an art page last October (October 5, 2016) on Facebook and have been posting on it regularly ever since. This was a significant move for me. I have always been extremely introverted and it felt like a violation at first to open myself up in this way. That said, the shock quickly wore off and I post on it regularly now without any of that initial sense of exposure. I had to double check when I actually began my art page. I had thought it was this past summer and was surprised to learn that it had already been over a year. 

Starting the page put me in the mindset of making regular strides to advance my art. Making these strides public has been helpful in keeping myself accountable. My next step was to have an art show. This I did at the Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy, Mass this past November. Going forward I plan to join an art group, network with other artists, and collaborate on projects with other artists. I've already made some steps in this area. I submitted a cover design for a critical edition of The Chemycal Wedding being put together by my former classmate, Michael Martin. I've also been brainstorming ideas for a short graphic novelization of my dear friend Ron Drummond's 9/11 memorial, "The Garden Steps." 

Speaking of Ron Drummond, I spent a good deal of the third quarter working with Ron to put together a reading copy of his collected works, The Frequency of Liberation. This has been a very exciting project that I'm honored to have been a part of. Ron's collection is the culmination of a life's work. The book comprises essays, fictions, memoirs, letters, and diary entries. It is a tribute to Ron that he has brought together such diverse materials into a single unified work. In truth, I did little more than help him find a printer and help negotiate the printing arrangements. We ended up selecting the Harvard Bookstore's print on demand operation, "Paige." We are all very happy with the selection, not only was it the cheapest option, but also produced a very good looking book. The man overseeing Paige, Ben, said that Ron's book was the best looking project he had ever worked on. Working with Ron on this project is by far the most satisfying accomplishment I've had this year.

The fourth quarter was spent, alas, with mostly work, long long hours of work delivering mail. I did manage to read Ron's book nearly twice as well as John Crowley's latest (perhaps final) novel, Ka. I started the first book of Philip Pullman's new trilogy, The Book of Dust. I also just read the latest Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoet collaboration, Satania. This last book was a particular thrill. Their previous book, Beautiful Darkness, was a sublime epic that I still have not come to grips with. Satania has confirmed Kerascoet, the husband and wife duo, as my favorite artist storytellers. 

And that just about sums up my year. Oh, I can't forget Twin Peaks. There is a lot I want to say about Twin Peaks, but I will hold off for now. I plan to write an extended appreciation in the weeks to come. Let it only be said, that I've spent the past few months watching and rewatching both the new and original series as well as some of Lynch's other films. Of course there are the books, interviews, and online commentaries, all of which I've been going over, as well as the brilliant podcast Diane, but that will have to wait for another day. 

So with that, I will set out my plan for 2018. I don't make these plans as rigid laws over what I can or cannot read, but rather as motivators and general guides. 

1. Finish some of the books off my list from 2017.

2. Work on my utopia book list.

3. Dig deeper into Hans Blumenberg.

4. Read some of the modern American and World history books I've accumulated. 

5. Finish off some of the books on economics and politics I'd started last year.

Lastly, I have a stack of Shakespeare books I've been meaning to get to. I hope to write a monthly blog post reflecting on my readings. I am not sure how much time I will have, but if possible, I will try to write focused essays rather than mere generalizations on my readings. We will see how that turns out. So, this is a rough plan for next year. I think I will flesh it out more in a week or so. For now, I think I will start 2018 by finishing off the latest Philip Pullman.