I (team Justin) join the action

Books.  I know what you’re thinking.  “We’ve got TV, we’ve got videogames, why books?”  I know what else you’re thinking:  “Why should I be reading fiction, at this day and age, when I could be writing fiction and selling my book to make megaprofits?”  Maybe that last part is only me.

For the sake of picking a side, I’m picking practice.  You hear this about writing constantly; any authentic writing comes from experience, people like to be shown rather than told.  Being able to visualize the experience is theoretical, but you miss those nuances if you haven’t lived it.  Could I write a western?  Sure!  Yeah, fine, I’ll write a western.  But I’m not going to understand how the sand between your toes, the wind in your hair, the sand in your hair or the wind between your toes feels.  I’ve never been shot before, and I’m not going to go get shot just to be able to write more authentically.

This guy, Sheygar Iyengar, explains a process implicit in media consumption (mostly in experimental settings), called “framing”.  Sure, you’ll frame the book you’re reading differently when you’re 28 than when you were 16.  But you can’t account for your subjectivity, either, which adds to the can’t-step-in-the-same-river-twice argument.  So I’m helping your argument.  For now.

What I am to prove as we read these books is:  however unique your reading is, however nuanced your interpretation, inspired your interpretation; I can see it from your perspective.  As a meta/postmodern/decontructionist, I know each story can be broken down to a sum of its parts, that stories all follow similar trajectories (including shaggy dog stories), and that while an idea can be analyzed in many different ways it’s still the same idea.  You have your mother, your trickster, your bildungsroman, mystery story, red herring, numerous symbols, etc.  As we reference other books we’ve read, or I do particularly, the allusions should take us to the opposing conclusion:  all work is derivitative.

However, I won’t be reading like a detective.  I won’t be looking for arguments to support my own side in a straw dog argument, lighting all kinds of small fires for you to put out.  I’m just going to have fun, and try to entertain whoever it is that will stumble upon our blog (most likely people who get paid to click on advertisements in East Germany or China).  Hello!  (in case they speak English).

So now just to wait for things to come in the mail.  And then we're going to cook with gas.