You may have noticed that a certain Southern US university has been in the news lately for what can best be described as "the stupidest fucking thing I've personally ever seen privilaged white kids do with too much time on their hands, as well as a frankly offensive view that the African-American community in this country can be reduced to crude stereotypes and it's okay because it's a tradition to do so, and also let's face it these self-involved brats probably think it's hilarious and won't learn a goddam thing about how to be senstive to others because they're programmed from the outset to be jerks what with their 'fraternal' organization which codifies gay panic as 'hey, bros just gotta hang out, dude, who knows what could happen am I right?' and which cover their ass with 'service commitments' which in no way excuse their borderline asinine behavior." But I'm not going to talk about that, because it's Christmas. And Christmas is the season of ignoring idiots who will be running used-car dealerships in twenty years.
No, I'd like to take the time to exult in the fact that, after this week is over, I and my fellow grad students can go back to something I'm sure we've all missed (even those of us who snuck in an occasional George Saunders short-story collection or a critical look at Derrida through cartoons): reading for fun. I already have a few things picked out, but allow me to highlight some works that I think some of my peers should check out, assuming that they have similar reading tastes as I (or they just have time on their hands and nothing in particular picked out). At any rate:
Civilwarland In Bad Decline (George Saunders): Read this when I was supposed to be reading other things, it's absolutely batshit crazy and hilarious and moving all at once.
The Financial Lives of the Poets (Jess Walter): Just finished this one over the weekend, it's the story of a guy down on his luck who tries to become a drug dealer so that he can support his family. I've never seen Breaking Bad, so I don't know if this is "Breaking Bad as comedy" per se, but it's pretty good.
A Fan's Notes (Frederick Exley): Actually, this is one that I read way, way back, I mentioned it in a paper for one of my classes and thought "damn, I'd like to read that again." Hard to describe, really.
The Fortress of Solitude/Dissident Gardens/Motherless Brooklyn (Jonathan Lethem): This was "The Year of Reading Lethem" for me, and these three titles did not disappoint. I ran into the dreaded "wall of self-imposed indifference towards my original topic" when I tried to make a paper topic about the use of music in Fortress, but it's still worth the trip. The other two are similarly beautiful.
The Man in the High Castle (Philip K. Dick): Lethem's always talking about this guy, I found a copy with a hilariously misleading "old timey science-fiction" cover, but it's fantastic overall. Think Pynchon/Vonnegut, minus the sense of humor.
Vineland (Thomas Pynchon): This feels like a dry run for the much more awesome (and soon to be a major motion picture) Inherent Vice, but that's not a bad thing.
True Grit/The Dog of the South/Masters of Atlantis/Norwood/Gringoes (Charles Portis): Really, you can't go wrong (even his "not that great" books are good in parts).
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Haruki Murakami): Mind-bending as always, this is a fantastic treasure of a book.
I would list more, but I'm running low on what else I've read or re-read over the past year that could bear mention here. All as a way of talking about those certain idiots who did some stupid shit and put a certain university in the news. But really, these books are all fantastic ways to kill time during the Christmas break, if you're so inclined.
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