I Read Books - August
Aug. 10th, 2013 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Doghouse Roses -written by Steve Earle- I suspect that the blame goes mostly on Bob Dylan and Tarantula, but there is a standard line in rock music that says songwriters can't cross over and become authors. Take away guitar, drums, and bass, and even though it shouldn't, things change. It goes for John Lennon and Jim Morrison's poetry (which undoubtedly find thousands of new fans every year), but lives on in recent years with Nick Cave, and even dogs those who have made a decent career of it (just nothing resembling their musical output) like Leonard Cohen and Pete Townshend.
So, it would seem that Steve Earle would be an obvious crossover choice, but like Springsteen and so many others, maybe he is better off sticking to the medium he knows.
The good news is that Earle is a good short story writer, and this collection of short stories delivers everything you would hope for. Though the narrators are obviously close to the author- musicians, Vietnam veterans, drug dealers (in the classic 1970s High Times era vein) and death row inmates; you can't fault Earle for sticking to the adage "write what you know."
So, the stories never quite surprise when it comes to plot, they do read true- either from Earle's life directly or from stories he likely heard. It creates a very readable and very interesting collection of stories. If you didn't know it was Earle, you would have probably been hailing a new talent. Not everything works- the final story "A Well Tempered heart" breaks from the straight narrative story, and ends up in doggerel poetry territory. "Taneytown" is one of Earle's best narrative songs, but drawn out into a short story, loses its impact, and with Earle writing from the point of view of a slightly-retarded black man was probably not the best decision.
Overall, Earle fan's will be pleased, and non-Earle fans would probably enjoy as well.
The Iron Dream- by Norman Spinrad- Having been a Spinrad fan for a few years now and reading a half-dozen books, i figured it was time to find his most controversial novel, in which he imagines Adolf Hitler as a sci-fi writer. The book is out of print as far as I know, so the copy I bought off of Barns & Noble was an e-book with tons of misspellings, but ultimately worth it.
There's plenty that has been written about this book, and it's an interesting concept Per wiki:The book's frame narrative and premise is that "after dabbling in radical politics," Adolf Hitler emigrated to the United States in 1919 and became a science fiction illustrator, editor and author. He wrote the science-fantasy novel Lord of the Swastika in six weeks in 1953, shortly before dying of cerebral hemorrhage[2] (possibly caused by tertiary syphilis); Lord of the Swastika subsequently wins the Hugo Award and the "colorful uniforms" described therein become a regular feature of cosplayers at science fiction conventions. Hitler's other science fiction novels include The Master Race, The Thousand Year Rule and The Triumph of the Will.
As an idea, Spinrad nails it, using Hitler's ideas and some of his historical actions to create a pulp novel that would likely have been similar to what Adolf would have wrote. Anybody could have done it, i suppose, but Spinrad quickly sets up a universe and makes an immensely readable and memorable story that is built on Hitler's history, ideas, and character study.
Which may make it a tough read for most, having known the punchline, I could never find myself cheering for the main character "Hister" despite leading to his obvious success. It, however, did make for an interesting read, and until the final few pages (the plot inevitably runs out of steam, though Spinrad surely does more with it than anyone else would have) was a real page turner.
The inevitable point Spinrad tries to make is that sci-fi and fantasy (at that time, though maybe still) was alpha male fantasy with lead characters (always white, always male) using phallic weapons and described (like Burroughs' Tarzan)i in near homoerotic terms with no women characters to be found. It is hard to say that the Hitler story really isn't that much different from what the genre had become, and although surely progress has been made, is still fairly accurate in some quarters (although, in the modern sci-fi /fantasy realm (cough*Liefeld*) the lack of female characters would have been replaced with female characters simply added for sexual value).
Certainly not for people who want a story where they can cheer for the hero, but many sci-fi fans will find this a worthwhile read.
So, it would seem that Steve Earle would be an obvious crossover choice, but like Springsteen and so many others, maybe he is better off sticking to the medium he knows.
The good news is that Earle is a good short story writer, and this collection of short stories delivers everything you would hope for. Though the narrators are obviously close to the author- musicians, Vietnam veterans, drug dealers (in the classic 1970s High Times era vein) and death row inmates; you can't fault Earle for sticking to the adage "write what you know."
So, the stories never quite surprise when it comes to plot, they do read true- either from Earle's life directly or from stories he likely heard. It creates a very readable and very interesting collection of stories. If you didn't know it was Earle, you would have probably been hailing a new talent. Not everything works- the final story "A Well Tempered heart" breaks from the straight narrative story, and ends up in doggerel poetry territory. "Taneytown" is one of Earle's best narrative songs, but drawn out into a short story, loses its impact, and with Earle writing from the point of view of a slightly-retarded black man was probably not the best decision.
Overall, Earle fan's will be pleased, and non-Earle fans would probably enjoy as well.
The Iron Dream- by Norman Spinrad- Having been a Spinrad fan for a few years now and reading a half-dozen books, i figured it was time to find his most controversial novel, in which he imagines Adolf Hitler as a sci-fi writer. The book is out of print as far as I know, so the copy I bought off of Barns & Noble was an e-book with tons of misspellings, but ultimately worth it.
There's plenty that has been written about this book, and it's an interesting concept Per wiki:The book's frame narrative and premise is that "after dabbling in radical politics," Adolf Hitler emigrated to the United States in 1919 and became a science fiction illustrator, editor and author. He wrote the science-fantasy novel Lord of the Swastika in six weeks in 1953, shortly before dying of cerebral hemorrhage[2] (possibly caused by tertiary syphilis); Lord of the Swastika subsequently wins the Hugo Award and the "colorful uniforms" described therein become a regular feature of cosplayers at science fiction conventions. Hitler's other science fiction novels include The Master Race, The Thousand Year Rule and The Triumph of the Will.
As an idea, Spinrad nails it, using Hitler's ideas and some of his historical actions to create a pulp novel that would likely have been similar to what Adolf would have wrote. Anybody could have done it, i suppose, but Spinrad quickly sets up a universe and makes an immensely readable and memorable story that is built on Hitler's history, ideas, and character study.
Which may make it a tough read for most, having known the punchline, I could never find myself cheering for the main character "Hister" despite leading to his obvious success. It, however, did make for an interesting read, and until the final few pages (the plot inevitably runs out of steam, though Spinrad surely does more with it than anyone else would have) was a real page turner.
The inevitable point Spinrad tries to make is that sci-fi and fantasy (at that time, though maybe still) was alpha male fantasy with lead characters (always white, always male) using phallic weapons and described (like Burroughs' Tarzan)i in near homoerotic terms with no women characters to be found. It is hard to say that the Hitler story really isn't that much different from what the genre had become, and although surely progress has been made, is still fairly accurate in some quarters (although, in the modern sci-fi /fantasy realm (cough*Liefeld*) the lack of female characters would have been replaced with female characters simply added for sexual value).
Certainly not for people who want a story where they can cheer for the hero, but many sci-fi fans will find this a worthwhile read.
