Even with a free hour of rest today, I’m lazy and foggy and should save my energy for (finally!) some real posting this week (promise!). So, a bulleted Sunday Salon:
- Go read Sympathetic Character Week (the whole series).
- As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been watching a ton of “All Creatures Great and Small” and reading the books as well. Everyone involved is portrayed sympathetically, except for a few bad apples, but I was thinking of something a bit funny about it. A lot of the stories that, in the books, happen to James Herriot (because naturally it’s mostly about his own stories) get assigned in the show to Siegfried or Tristan Farnon, because we follow them all around in their veterinary practice. So the Farnons also get this whole measure of sympathy due to Herriot. And in the show, at least when I watch it, James comes off almost as the least sympathetic, because he’s not as funny-crazy as they are, and is often the sort of skeptical, aloof bystander. Which normally you’d sympathize with, right? There’s something about him, though, I don’t quite know what.
- Tomorrow I’ll have up a post on Shoplifting from American Apparel, which raises the issue of sympathizing with hipsters.
- I read “The Babysitter,” so that should be coming up for Friday.
- Yesterday I wanted to go to Powell’s so bad it almost killed me, but I feel like I am drowning in unread books. Right now I’m telling myself I will read 10 for each one I’m allowed to buy. Note that I already got two last week before making that little decision. Plus, I’m feeling desperate for more Raymond Chandler after finishing The Long Goodbye and remembering how super good he is.
- “Guess what season it is—fucking fall.”
Thanks a lot for the plug. I would amend “read” to “read or skim.” A time or too I was over-ambitious.
Sympathizing with hipsters is obviously impossible, so that will be a useful post tomorrow.
My great problem living near the Hyde Park Powell’s was that it does not close until 11 PM, every single day. The temptation, at 10, or even 10:30, to just pop in was often so, so powerful.
I’m impressed you resisted Powell’s! :)
Sympathizing with… hipsters. Hmm. This will certainly be interesting!
I taught Chandler’s “Red Wind” a week ago. Less than a quarter of my group actually finished it (!), and none of them seemed impressed. When I first read Chandler it was like crack; I probably read his entire collected works in three weeks. Not just addicting, but immediately so. Best, nv