Please Welcome Der Furhrer Your New Pope
– April 19, 2005Posted in: Uncategorized
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (Bat Segundo interview with Bissell)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China Miéville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious.
Looks like Sinead has a new photo to tear up (my boss actually repeated this to me — thought it was funny so I decided to use it as an opener). Seriously, as a Christian (with a capital “C” but not with a scarlet “A”) I find the whole Catholic thing about as relevant as Islam. See, you shoul be stuck in 2,000 years ago, not 1,000 years ago.
I mused with my brother how by sheer inconography, the Pope is both demogogue and his own iconoclast all at once. As a powerful reminder of just how far we’ve ALL fallen and specifically egregious the Catholic Church during the Second World War, Pope John Paul II helped pave some reconciliation with Jews for the Church’s inaction in what could’ve been a pivoltal time for this horrendously out-of-date Bible bureaucracy. There were… shreds of light he facilitated in his tenure. Let very little be said badly about J.P. Deux.
This new guy I dunno. Everyone was hoping for a Pope from a Third World ( note the capitalization — strange, how “Third World” and “World War Three” are so close together in sounding out) country. Instead, we got one from a country providing some of the finest automobiles the earth has ever seen. Oh yes, and in part, Ed. He’s part sausage (sic), you know.