The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, last word

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh features many examples of that classic coming-of-age novel character: the wild, unpredictable friend. I have always enjoyed this sort of person, at least for a period of time, and also enjoy a related character (in life and in fiction), the life-of-the-party charismatic friend. People who do things I wouldn't make life exciting.

Michael Chabon was interviewed on Fresh Air today. He was not talking about Mysteries of Pittsburgh when he said this, but it applies to the central relationships in both it and Wonder Boys:

"I guess I'm a more orderly person -- and, therefore, chaos has its appeal."

Me too, Mr. Chabon. Me too.

Sometime this past summer, I stopped trying to make myself read the books that are lying around my house, and allowed myself to just read whatever I felt like. I also now have permission to put things down if I don't like them. And so I read about 1/4 of Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, raced through Running With Scissors in less than a week despite the Cornell West tome and last 1/3 of The Shock Doctrine lying around my house, and caught up on just about everything Laurie Notaro has ever written. Reading is entertainment. Reading is an alternative to Netflix. And there is more than one kind of good book. I love me a good one-step-above-trash memoir.

After The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, I zipped through Wonder Boys as well -- it goes fast, probably because most of the book takes place over the span of a couple of days. I'm going to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay next -- it's twice as long and probably more complicated, so I wanted to save it until the weather went bad. Before I know it, darkness will fall before cocktail hour and it will be time for 700-page books.

I also want to read Dreams From My Father, and, I think, Dry, by Augusten Burroughs.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

I love everything about this book.

When I started reading it, I didn't know that a movie version had recently come out. In it, they remove a gay character who is central to pretty much everything about the story and, apparently, make the main character's girlfriend some sort of misogynist cartoon. Can't speak to the second bit, as I haven't seen it. A straight male character is made bisexual, I guess to make up for getting rid of the gay guy? If so, that's a mess.

I may have to see it, just to see for myself.

IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas

Not so long ago, my significant other started reading a New York Times collection called Class Matters with the thought of assigning it to future students. Bored during one sporting event or another, I picked it up and started reading. It turned out that I had already read 50% of the book's content, if not more. Articles I remembered included one about an attorney who grew up dirt poor in Appalachia, got out, and ended up returning to help family members in need; one about a marriage between a wealthy woman and a working-class man; and one about a family who moves from faceless exurb to faceless exurb every few years for the father's job.

A few days ago, while the Yankees were on TV, I demanded something to read and picked Chuck Klosterman's IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas off the shelf. Here, too, a few pieces rang oddly familiar. In my mind, I haven't read SPIN (where many of these articles first appeared) since the late 90s, but I guess I pick up a copy from time to time. I know I already read the article about Bats Day (when goths take over Disneyland) and the one about Morrisey's LA-area Latino fans.

Beginning a piece about a classic rock cruise (members of Styx, REO Speedwagon and Journey were on board), I thought, "another one of these"? I had recently read a Laurie Notaro collection in which the final story details an Alaskan cruise, as well as, as chronicled below, David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. Oh well, what to do about it? Turn my attention to Major League Baseball? I pressed on. About four pages in, Klosterman writes,

"There are three main hurdles involved with the writing and reporting of this story. The first is that the definitive cruise story has already been written by David Foster Wallace, who published the essay 'A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again' in 1995; this is evidently the most popular essay ever produced, as roughly six thousand people have mentioned it to me during the fourty-eight hours prior to this trip."

IV, Split

I have something to say about Chuck Klosterman, as soon as I can get his book that I'm reading from my significant other. In the meantime, I wandered into the library after work today and walked out with, among other things, Split by Suzanne Finnamore.

This memoir of the author's divorce is nothing I would seek out. But, the branch library up the street from my work is so small that I was able to browse the Biography section in a few minutes, and this was the most interesting-looking thing in it. So I'm reading it. For the first 100 pages, it was a pretty easy though not uncommon read. The author's life is mildly interesting, but her prose is really good -- I always appreciate someone who can say a lot with a few words. She is self aware about her status and privilege, yet not overly, constantly self effacing.

A hundred pages in, a childhood friend shows up to keep her company. Then, so does his Airstream trailer named Bambi. And its driver, a sometime transvestite called The Betty Lady. Now things are getting good. The Betty Lady has determined they will ransack the soon-to-be ex's office.

Backlash, epilogue

"For what has been largely forgotten in the backlash era -- where women are encouraged to please men by their demeanor or appearance rather than persuade them by the force of their argument -- is that men don't hold all the emotional cards. Men need women as much as women need men. The bonds between the sexes can chafe, and they can be, and have been, used to constrain women. But they can also promote mutually beneficial growth and change."

Backlash, by Susan Faludi

At first, this book gave me a bit of a headache. It's a barrage of facts and proper names, each segueing quickly into a conclusion, some undeniable based on whatever the fact is, some quite debatable. But now, nearly 200 pages in, I just started giggling, then really laughing out loud, as Faludi's take on the women's underwear industry.

It appears that in the late 80s (I was around then, but not casting such an exacting eye on politics and trends, being more into Anne of Green Gables at the time.) there was a big marketing blitz about 'the new femininity,' trying to get women to spend money on a lot of poofy dresses and whatnot instead of economizing on pantsuits and jeans. This crossed over into lingerie -- it was around the same time that Victoria's Secret went national, and women were told that teddies and garter belts were back. But, perhaps the Victoria's Secret trend more than met the eye.

***
From the book:
>>> On a late afternoon in the summer of 1988, row after row of silk teddies hang, untouched, at the original Victoria's Secret shop in Palo Alto's Stanford Shopping Center. The shelves are stuffed with floral-scented teddy bears in tiny wedding gowns. At $18 to $34 each, these cuddly brides aren't exactly big sellers; dust has collected on their veils. But over at the bargains table, where basic cotton underwear is on sale, "four for $16," it looks like a cyclone has touched down.

"Oh God, the panty table is a mess," groans head "proprietress" Becky Johnson. As she straightens up for what she says must be the tenth time that day, two women walk in the door and charge the bargain panty table. "The prices on these panties are wonderful," Bonnie Pearlman says, holding up a basic brief to her friend. "But will they shrink?" she wonders, pulling the elastic back and forth. Asked if the are here for the Victorian lingerie, they both shake their heads. Pearlman says, "I look for what fits well." Suzanne Ellis, another customer, surveys the racks of gossamer teddies and rolls her eyes. "I've had a few of these things given to me," she says. "It was like, 'Uh, gee, thanks.' I mean, I really don't need to sit on snaps all day."<<<

Faludi finds out that while men account for 30-40 percent of Victoria's Secret shoppers, they also account for about half the chain's revenues, no doubt with good intentions of buying a romantic gift. If anyone's been brainwashed into thinking that women "want" to be more feminine, it may not be women. I love the image of all that pink crap and lace and perfume everywhere and women huddled around the panty table snapping elastic grunting, "D'ya think this one'll hold up?"