The Rangers, some rumors, Stan the Man, Joakim, lawyer GMs, Portnoy, Republican extremists, Tsundoku, a real life coffin flop, and What We Pretend To Be
Spotsylvania County is 60-90 minutes away from me, depending on traffic, but I hadn't heard about their school board silliness till yesterday. (Living in Loudoun County, which was in the news all day every day until last Wednesday, will do that I guess.)
One thing that struck me is that the school board is fussing about books available through a digital library, and including those books in the ones they want to burn.
I don't know how that works, exactly, but I can't picture kids willingly tossing their laptops or phones onto a fire.
I lived in Spotsyvania from 2002-2017, before moving to Richmond. We didn't call it Spotslytuckia for nothing. Probably 75% of the working age residents of Spotsy commute 90-120 minutes each way every day to the DC area. It's no mystery why they are such a large group of miserable pricks. Entitle white people with bad commutes make shitty neighbors.
When we moved to Richmond I filtered rent.com to average school systems or worse, thereby ensuring we would not end up in a neighborhood of rich white assholes. We are much, much happier 55 miles south in Richmond. It's a different world.
I don't understand it. If you are thinking of doing something that the *bad* people do, maybe take a beat?
I'd like to think that if I were are billionaire and proposed moving to a volcano for a kind of "hidden" getaway place to do research...I might pause for a second. Start asking yourself:
-Do I have a phrase or arm motion that I and my friends say/do over and over as a sign of loyalty or fealty?
-Are there animals trapped in my basement?
-Do I have a nemesis?
-Is the phrase, "but it is for their own good!" part of my daily conversation?
-Does my aquarium only have sharks with a single automated trap door in my living room to access feeding them?
-Am I about to suggest burning books?
If any of these are you...you ask an impartial 3rd party if you might be the villain.
I'm sure that the number of kids reading things like "Beloved" has gone up a fucktonne now that it's forbidden knowledge. The GOP doesn't actually care about that--they only care about riling up bigoted voters. This is purely performative.
If you think books in school are bad, wait until you find out what kids are able to see on their phones. Oh sure, not YOUR precious, you’ve got parental controls. But the kids at lunch, the kids at recess, on the bus…. These kids have seen a lot of stuff younger than parents realize. But sure, go after pornography… that is in the library.
At the beginning of this year - after I felt like my brain had lost the ability to read actual books - I started enforcing "quiet reading time" of at least 15 minutes a day. It doesn't seem like much but it did correct the problem to some extent. I also made a point of reading more long form journalism to - again - force that reading comprehension portion of my brain to stay active.
Do the idiots wanting to burn books know there are other copies or do they think they're getting them all?
I read for 15-60 minutes in bed every night before falling asleep. Works great except when I'm 120 pages from the end of a really great book and I decide to screw it I'm going to read until 2 AM to finish it.
My kids are in 2nd grade (virtual) and part of that is 20 minutes of independent reading. It hadn't struck me until I read your comment that there is no reason that I don't impose a similar regimen on myself. Thanks!
I've read two books by Dan Jones. He's pretty good. (No relation, I think, to Giants QB Daniel Jones, but who knows?)
If three months of pain is what it takes to get the owners to give in, I am all for it.
And it's extreme crap like the above that actually harms the Dems, since we all find ourselves thinking "oh, come on, who is going to vote for THAT?" It's really hard to imagine that somehow the GOP appeals to people despite their fascism. It's impossible for me to understand how any people of color can be Republicans. But it's not enough just to be the party that isn't fascist. That said, you would think that book burning would offend more people.
I hate typing this line "I didn’t used to be this way"
I in fact avoid it just because I don't like that it is isn't "I didn't use to be this way" And then I say it in my head and then out loud. And I change it. And then google it. Then just delete it and use new words.
I used to read ALL THE TIME and now my brain is a wad of kludge that keeps my skull from deflating.
But I picked up a bunch of books that I really want to read and I'm determined to read them for real even if I need to take a vacation day from work and run off somewhere with sketchy cell service to force myself to do so.
Eliminate the device from your immediate vicinity. I can't even watch a documentary or movie with my phone within reach - some random actor or fact will prompt an immediate "hey I gotta look that up". Same with books. If I'm going to read, I need my phone off, or on airplane, or out of reach.
Pre-mid-March 2020, I did my reading on my commute. The el ride from the Loop to my stop is about 35-40 minutes. I usually alternated a novel and a non-fiction book, and I polish off 2 to 4 books a month. While I ostensibly have more free time, for a large portion of the pandemic, I was the prime parent on duty when my daughter had remote school, and when and where my free time came changed. And it's changed a few more times, so I've really fallen off on reading narrative fiction. I've got to find a way back to it.
When I lived in D.C. I had a 22 minute Metro ride twice a day, plus waiting time, every day and, because it was pre-cell phone days, I did nothing but read on the train. I got through sooooo many books that way.
Back when I worked offshore I was 12h on 12h off and the TV was a shared room that almost never had anything on that I wanted to watch. I think back to all the books I used to get through with some shame and some wonder.
Regarding reading, having the sabbath and Jewish holidays for reading means that I am always in the middle of something. You can't use electronics, can't watch TV, can't surf the web. But you can read.
But without a commute, my weekday reading is done a lot. Not that it wasn't before the pandemic, since I was dividing my commute between reading, watching stuff, surfing the net, and podcasts. Plus e-books just don't feel as urgent. Plus "reading" includes a lot of comics and graphic novels, which engage a different part of my brain that just words. So I definitely am not as voracious a reader as I was.
Nonetheless, my love of books remains undimmed, and I usually have one book on my nightstand and one book for sabbath reading.
After hearing all about "classics" and being bored to death of the books they gave us in school I abandoned reading. Until someone I respected made some comment about Vonnegut. For my flight home at Christmas my freshman year, I said--"Here's your chance 'Literature," and bought the first Vonnegut I saw at a used bookstore. Breakfast of Champions. I don't remember much about it except that it was weird, there were drawings, and I laughed my ass off.
"Wait. THIS can be literature???"
Credit him with me giving all books a chance and diving in 100%.
I have a first edition of Mother Night that I adore because it is one of those pulp paperbacks--before he really had the clout to get hardback releases. I think it cost me $100 a while back, but it is a reminder of significance initially discarded as junk. A Van Gogh for Gen X--discovered and valued later than he should have been (I realize KVJ was not Gen X, but he belongs to us).
I read the Brothers Karamazov in 16 hours to pass a test in college. I honestly enjoyed it. In fact, I think that this is how these types of books should be read--speed-read to get the gist, and cram it in so you have a real holistic view of the text. Or, maybe I just described a limited miniseries on HBO?
Being a lawyer has slowed my reading down, because I try to read everything like it's brief or a deposition transcript. I can be reading the latest paperback thriller, but I have to fight the urge to go back 20 pages to confirm the exact quote from a particular character or some minor detail.
Spotsylvania County is 60-90 minutes away from me, depending on traffic, but I hadn't heard about their school board silliness till yesterday. (Living in Loudoun County, which was in the news all day every day until last Wednesday, will do that I guess.)
One thing that struck me is that the school board is fussing about books available through a digital library, and including those books in the ones they want to burn.
I don't know how that works, exactly, but I can't picture kids willingly tossing their laptops or phones onto a fire.
You have to grab the cloud and throw THAT into the fire. Duh.
I lived in Spotsyvania from 2002-2017, before moving to Richmond. We didn't call it Spotslytuckia for nothing. Probably 75% of the working age residents of Spotsy commute 90-120 minutes each way every day to the DC area. It's no mystery why they are such a large group of miserable pricks. Entitle white people with bad commutes make shitty neighbors.
When we moved to Richmond I filtered rent.com to average school systems or worse, thereby ensuring we would not end up in a neighborhood of rich white assholes. We are much, much happier 55 miles south in Richmond. It's a different world.
I don't understand it. If you are thinking of doing something that the *bad* people do, maybe take a beat?
I'd like to think that if I were are billionaire and proposed moving to a volcano for a kind of "hidden" getaway place to do research...I might pause for a second. Start asking yourself:
-Do I have a phrase or arm motion that I and my friends say/do over and over as a sign of loyalty or fealty?
-Are there animals trapped in my basement?
-Do I have a nemesis?
-Is the phrase, "but it is for their own good!" part of my daily conversation?
-Does my aquarium only have sharks with a single automated trap door in my living room to access feeding them?
-Am I about to suggest burning books?
If any of these are you...you ask an impartial 3rd party if you might be the villain.
I'm sure that the number of kids reading things like "Beloved" has gone up a fucktonne now that it's forbidden knowledge. The GOP doesn't actually care about that--they only care about riling up bigoted voters. This is purely performative.
A great way to get teenagers to read something is to tell them they shouldn't....
I wish that Bloom County would bring back Portnoy. I liked him more than Rosebud.
If you think books in school are bad, wait until you find out what kids are able to see on their phones. Oh sure, not YOUR precious, you’ve got parental controls. But the kids at lunch, the kids at recess, on the bus…. These kids have seen a lot of stuff younger than parents realize. But sure, go after pornography… that is in the library.
At the beginning of this year - after I felt like my brain had lost the ability to read actual books - I started enforcing "quiet reading time" of at least 15 minutes a day. It doesn't seem like much but it did correct the problem to some extent. I also made a point of reading more long form journalism to - again - force that reading comprehension portion of my brain to stay active.
Do the idiots wanting to burn books know there are other copies or do they think they're getting them all?
I read for 15-60 minutes in bed every night before falling asleep. Works great except when I'm 120 pages from the end of a really great book and I decide to screw it I'm going to read until 2 AM to finish it.
Are you me? This is my biggest failing.
My kids are in 2nd grade (virtual) and part of that is 20 minutes of independent reading. It hadn't struck me until I read your comment that there is no reason that I don't impose a similar regimen on myself. Thanks!
Sptsylvania? I...I thought that was somewhere near Frostbite Falls. I think I need to go back to bed.
I think Spotsylvania is where Natasha and Boris lived.
I came here to make a similar comment. I salute both of you Fearless Leaders.
Ok, I'm out of bed. I think ...Pottsylvania?
The best song about burning books is by XTC: https://youtu.be/yo-JLRwPooI?t=36
"And you know where they burn books, people are next" - happy birthday to Andy Partridge.
Also, great marketing for Amazon or the non-local bookseller. "Buy these books they don't want you to read!"
I've read two books by Dan Jones. He's pretty good. (No relation, I think, to Giants QB Daniel Jones, but who knows?)
If three months of pain is what it takes to get the owners to give in, I am all for it.
And it's extreme crap like the above that actually harms the Dems, since we all find ourselves thinking "oh, come on, who is going to vote for THAT?" It's really hard to imagine that somehow the GOP appeals to people despite their fascism. It's impossible for me to understand how any people of color can be Republicans. But it's not enough just to be the party that isn't fascist. That said, you would think that book burning would offend more people.
I hate typing this line "I didn’t used to be this way"
I in fact avoid it just because I don't like that it is isn't "I didn't use to be this way" And then I say it in my head and then out loud. And I change it. And then google it. Then just delete it and use new words.
I had a writing teacher who liked to quote the old vaudeville routine:
"Doc, it hurts when I do this."
"Then don't do that."
I think of it every time I rework a line like that into "I wasn't always this way."
A lot of folks seem to have a negative Pavlovian response to words like "cancel culture," "woke," "books," "reading," and "critical thinking."
I used to read ALL THE TIME and now my brain is a wad of kludge that keeps my skull from deflating.
But I picked up a bunch of books that I really want to read and I'm determined to read them for real even if I need to take a vacation day from work and run off somewhere with sketchy cell service to force myself to do so.
Eliminate the device from your immediate vicinity. I can't even watch a documentary or movie with my phone within reach - some random actor or fact will prompt an immediate "hey I gotta look that up". Same with books. If I'm going to read, I need my phone off, or on airplane, or out of reach.
Pre-mid-March 2020, I did my reading on my commute. The el ride from the Loop to my stop is about 35-40 minutes. I usually alternated a novel and a non-fiction book, and I polish off 2 to 4 books a month. While I ostensibly have more free time, for a large portion of the pandemic, I was the prime parent on duty when my daughter had remote school, and when and where my free time came changed. And it's changed a few more times, so I've really fallen off on reading narrative fiction. I've got to find a way back to it.
When I lived in D.C. I had a 22 minute Metro ride twice a day, plus waiting time, every day and, because it was pre-cell phone days, I did nothing but read on the train. I got through sooooo many books that way.
NYC, train, reading, ditto.
Back when I worked offshore I was 12h on 12h off and the TV was a shared room that almost never had anything on that I wanted to watch. I think back to all the books I used to get through with some shame and some wonder.
Corncob TV is the video I didn't know that I needed this morning.
Regarding reading, having the sabbath and Jewish holidays for reading means that I am always in the middle of something. You can't use electronics, can't watch TV, can't surf the web. But you can read.
But without a commute, my weekday reading is done a lot. Not that it wasn't before the pandemic, since I was dividing my commute between reading, watching stuff, surfing the net, and podcasts. Plus e-books just don't feel as urgent. Plus "reading" includes a lot of comics and graphic novels, which engage a different part of my brain that just words. So I definitely am not as voracious a reader as I was.
Nonetheless, my love of books remains undimmed, and I usually have one book on my nightstand and one book for sabbath reading.
I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by Kurt Vonnegut when I was in grad school. He was about 80 and still profound and funny as hell.
I met his second wife on several occasions, sadly after he passed away.
After hearing all about "classics" and being bored to death of the books they gave us in school I abandoned reading. Until someone I respected made some comment about Vonnegut. For my flight home at Christmas my freshman year, I said--"Here's your chance 'Literature," and bought the first Vonnegut I saw at a used bookstore. Breakfast of Champions. I don't remember much about it except that it was weird, there were drawings, and I laughed my ass off.
"Wait. THIS can be literature???"
Credit him with me giving all books a chance and diving in 100%.
I have a first edition of Mother Night that I adore because it is one of those pulp paperbacks--before he really had the clout to get hardback releases. I think it cost me $100 a while back, but it is a reminder of significance initially discarded as junk. A Van Gogh for Gen X--discovered and valued later than he should have been (I realize KVJ was not Gen X, but he belongs to us).
Yup, many classics are giant slogs. Do we need an entire chapter on the depth of a whale's fucking blow hole?
I read the Brothers Karamazov in 16 hours to pass a test in college. I honestly enjoyed it. In fact, I think that this is how these types of books should be read--speed-read to get the gist, and cram it in so you have a real holistic view of the text. Or, maybe I just described a limited miniseries on HBO?
That one was a good read, though too long by half. True of most Russian literature.
Crime and Punishment. (Oh, get to the end, come on…)
Being a lawyer has slowed my reading down, because I try to read everything like it's brief or a deposition transcript. I can be reading the latest paperback thriller, but I have to fight the urge to go back 20 pages to confirm the exact quote from a particular character or some minor detail.
I still do this too and, yeah, it is not the right way to go about reading for pleasure.
I never did this. Might explain why I don't practice anymore.
the guest post is great today. I bought his book. Thanks for sharing and giving us his column.