It's really time to move out of this hole. Came up to Sf for a two day break and am sad its almost over. [haight for cds. lower haight art walk. free drinks. madness bar hop. toasties breakfast. union street white collar shopping. vintage paper fair for a vargas pinup. park chows. now time for dinner and more drink for alaina's 'not' birthday.]
Amongst it all, I was able to finish a couple swell reads...
I picked this up randomly and on a limb. I think I did judge this book by its cover (despite the fact that he is super popular), which turned out to be really funny. It took me longer to finish then I expected. I really enjoyed the short stories, more than his final essay on trying to give up smoking when in Tokyo, although his insights about Japan were interesting, they were also at the same time a bit ignorant like... its obviously coming from a white, well off dude. I did like how open he was about his sexuality and it wasn't at all over done. I don't think I would read anything else, except I did pick up 'barrel fever' for a couple bucks and will probably get around to it soon enough.
To balance it out..
I got through the first chapter and thought..wtf is a moocow...then when Stephen Dadelus has been wronged by one of the heads of the school and has decided to report to the higher authority about this, it reminded me of my private school and the trivializations of the punishments they used to carry out. I then read on through the next three chapters and thought...why the hell is this thought of as such a great book. For about 10 pages, it was a lot of preaching about God and sins, etc. ouch. But! it soon enough begins to conclude with Stephen's dialogue with his peers about what is art, what is beauty, about his beliefs in himself and with religion and faith ..it becomes fresh and very enlightening. The fact that the character denies and questions the religious views he was brought up in and studied throughout his childhood is familiar and relative.
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