pickOne of the best this year. Has its finger on the pulse, like Tom Wolfe used to. Satirizes, but informs and philosophizes, on consumer culture, computer gaming, politics, and more. Deals in human relationships; how diminishment of ego makes us more lovable. Also, multiple engrossing plotlines to enjoy.
Although I'm very, very unhappy with the election outcome, the major, crippling despair, dread, and angst have passed somehow.
And I possess the concentration required to read once again.
pickA lot of people criticize books for being too long these days. This one seemed too short. Unduly edited. Why the chapter on the resurrectionist? It didn't seem to fit, unless it came from a plot thread that didn't make the editor's cut. The book would have been more enthralling if it had had more room to breathe.
pickMagnificent. I'm not allowed enough words here to express everything I feel about this book. It's an Everest experience to read it. And I'm sure it has permanently affected how I think about life and death.
"Sooner or later all the people and the places that we loved are finished, and the only way to keep them safe is art. That's what art's for. It rescues everything from time."
About 25 years ago, in his Cerebus comic, Dave Sim parodied the monstrous joints Alan Moore would roll for himself. Jerusalem, in the Alma Warren sections, makes clear that Sim wasn't far off.
Page 1156. Not to be coarse, but I've wondered for almost 1000 pages who stepped in it, and I find out..in a poem.
But what is the significance of this misstep?
Little John Ghavam. Also a real person. I couldn't verify via the Internet if he was in fact the grandson of the Shah of Iran, as was his self-perpetuated legend. Was he illegitimate issue of one of the Shah's children? Who knows.
Today, the William Blake connection. And "Bela Lugosi's Dead" gets added to the Jerusalem Spotify playlist.
Okay, apparently Robert "Studs" Goodman is a real guy. An actor crony of Moore's from Northampton. Another Moore connection: he played a valet in "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."
"He likes to think he's got a lived-in look, albeit lived in by three generations of chaotic Lithuanian alcoholics who are finally evicted in an armed siege after which the premises remain unused for decades, save as a urinal for the homeless. Then it all burns down in an insurance fire."
I didn't know until reading this book that the credit card I use originated in Northampton.
http://open.spotify.com/user/the1truevelvis/playlist/1GzKmXcYu9lLR5aEEhcuXq.
My Jerusalem playlist
"Seperal grovestaines down frame you the utterway theur lys a giantolman whose name is Funnygain. I hope you denkensider that a piss off uslyess infernation."
I've gotten so good at reading this. So proud of myself.
"...hymming washy thinks white mince have been a Bleatles camposition, jester keep her spillits up. She fictures hersylph in a beat on a raver with dangerin tease and murmurlate spies."
Lucia Joyce encounters "Herbie the Fat Fury" artist Ogden Whitney in "Round the Bend". A great tribute to a neglected storyteller.
RIP Steve Dillon. One of the best storytellers in comics.
"...shea is high as eye is shy as day is may ond'way are altargiddy."
"...declareyon-crowll o' Jonty Cleer, definest cockerdee powittric wolkin' procress."
I might have gone with "poultric", given the Chaucer reference.
Continuing to crack the code of "Round the Bend", which is a literary delight. In addition to parsing out the syllables, one must pay attention to the themed puns of each paragraph. Maybe some day I will finish Finnegan's Wake after all.
Here it is: the Lucia Joyce chapter. My reading tip is to slow down and to read it out loud if necessary. It's not nonsense. The meaning will sink in. Moore, unlike Joyce in FInnegan's Wake, wants to be understood.
In the chapter called "A Cold and Frosty Morning", we are treated to a description of what a day in the life of Alan Moore (Alma Warren) must be like.
pickA long and lovable cock and bull story. And I say that with a nudge and a wink. But I digress. And so does this book. Boy, does it digress.
"Samuel thought how his father married to his mother was like a spoon married to a garbage disposal."
so-soThe first book in the series about wizard/private eye Harry Dresden.
Meh. It was okay. The beginning was too slow and the ending was too abrupt, not delivering the promised encounter with the White Council.
I may read more.
Time traveling ghosts visit Cromwell's Civil War battle in Northampton:
"Bill began to sing what sounded like a fragment of a catchy song, although it wasn't one that John had ever heard before.
'...and I would rather be anywhere else than here today.'"
This book has been compared to David Foster Wallace and Thomas Pynchon, but it's not like them at all. Instead, it reads exactly like a book that Tom Wolfe would have written in 2016 if he were still on top of cultural trends.
Yes, this is the new, good Tom Wolfe book we've been waiting for.
There are Easter Eggs for people who've read Voice of the Fire. I'm looking at you, page 570!
"Each day and every deed's eternal, little boy. Live them in such a way that you can bear to live with them eternally."
Engaging from page one.
Those who are enjoying Jerusalem may also want to read Moore's earlier book, Voice of the Fire, which is, like much of Jerusalem, composed of stories taking place at key moments in the history of Northampton. Some folks, like John Clare, appear in both books. VotF is more historical horror though.
Occasionally a bit of research is required for us Americans. This is the Elizabeth Fry Qd note referred to in the "Atlantis" chapter.
Some days I don't have the luxury of reading books. Today it's a 900-page trial transcript.
How "appealing", right?
Damn but I'm loving this book! Now reading the chapter starring this fellow.
Over 20 years ago, I read the first four or five books of this series. I stopped because it seemed endless and samey. Maybe I was right, but I've decided to give it another chance, this time on audio.
panI bailed six hours before the end. I just don't care what happens to these people.
100 pages in. If you like David Foster Wallace, Martin Amis, and David Mitchell, you'll love it.
Yeeeaah, baby!!! Diving into this thick puppy today!
Puzzlement of the day: one of my favorite book podcasts does a show on books released on 9-13-16, name checks Alan Moore (regarding a blurb he wrote for another book), and neglects to mention Jerusalem! WHAAAAAAT?!
pickThis is Lovecraft's version of The Wizard of Oz.
Randolph Carter = Dorothy
Boston = Kansas
Oz = Dreamland
Scarecrow/Tin Man/Lion = Ghouls/Nightgaunts/Cats
Flying Monkeys = Hippocephalic bird abominations
Witch/Wizard = Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos
pick****
Dizzying in its structure and multiplicity of p.o.v. characters. Not easy to categorize. Entertaining throughout and sometimes fraught with suspense. It may warrant another reading to see how all the puzzle pieces fit.
pickGreat story! BTW, I've been working on my own "Cthulhu call". Wanna hear it? Okay. Here goes:
CTHOOOIE! CTHOOOOIE! PIG-PIG-PIG-PIG!
"...when I was in high school we had a teacher who claimed to know exactly what he would do if World War III broke out: go back to his hometown, because nothing ever happened there...but in a way he was right, when the whole civilized world disappears Mexico will keep existing..."
