Thursday, April 26, 2007

You Don't Love Me Yet


but I DO LOVE Jonathan Lethem.

I loved Motherless Brooklyn.... and I LOVED The Fortress of Solitude. In fact, I push the Fortress of Solitude on anyone who will listen. I believe it's "The voice of my generation."

His newest book ... You Don't Love Me Yet... I was worried I wouldn't like it. It sounds flufflier in content then his previous books. On it's surface it's about a struggling indi rock band in LA. But Like he does, halfway through the book, I'm already in love the characters and in love with his words. He waxes lyric prose in such a breathtaking and seemily easy way.

The novel is also, under the surface, an argument about intellectual property. I'm not sure how I feel about the stance I'm sure he's taking ... and has taken (in his essay for harpers) But I'm smitten ...I have a writers crush that knows no bounds.

I've read a couple reviews of the novel and they seemed to be a bit mixed ...and while it's not as emotional (at least for me) as Fortress of Solitude ... it's Lethem all way ... And I love it. Go read it...go read it now.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Goodbye to a legend...

Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.
- Kurt Vonnegut

November 11 1922 - April 11 2007

Word of the Day for Friday, April 13, 2007

spoonerism \SPOO-nuh-riz-uhm\, noun:

The transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of words.

Some examples:

  • We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish ["half-formed wish"] inside us.

· The Lord is a shoving leopard ["loving shepherd"].

· It is kisstomary to cuss ["customary to kiss"] the bride.

· Is the bean dizzy ["dean busy"]?

· When the boys come back from France, we'll have the hags flung out ["flags hung out"]!

· Let me sew you to your sheet ["show you to your seat"].

Spoonerism comes from the name of the Rev. William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), a kindly but nervous Anglican clergyman and educationalist. All the above examples were committed by (or attributed to) him.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Happy Passover

To our Jewish brethren out there... happy passover and a tasty seder