Return Voyage

Current Tunes: Audioslave – Out of Exile

Sorry for the long absence, but I have at last returned from the shores of Northern Florida and am again home in Atlanta. Lots of thoughts and ideas and things I want to talk about in this post, so it’ll likely be long. We’ll see if I can’t reserve some comments for another time, but here goes…

First quick thing was I want to give a quick thank you to J&M for reminding me a couple weeks ago (before my trip to FL) how great Audioslave could be. I’m kind of undergoing a renaissance with this band (see current tunes), and I’m enjoying every minute of it. I would also partially give credit to the new Street Sweeper Social Club, which has all come together to remind me how truly god-like Tom Morello is.

So, Florida! What a beautiful condo we stayed in. Had a fantastic view of both the bay and the ocean, due to the enormous balcony/porch that accompanied our fine resting quarters. I didn’t get sunburned in any truly meaningful or painful sense, so three cheers for that. Enjoyed lots of hot tub and pool time, only got in the ocean once. It was far, far too yucky for me at the shore. Give me deeper waters any day, where its cleaner and there’s far prettier wildlife around.

But most of my time in the sun was really spent in a beach chair, reading. I read two astonishing, affecting books in just one week, and I had a lot of thoughts I wanted to share.

I) Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” – I hate to say it, but I think this book is terribly overrated. It won a Pulitzer Prize?! Really?!?! Terribly repetitive, slow-paced structure. No divisive, structured chapters drove me slightly bonkers. I would look up from the page for a second, say to look at the rolling waves or some chick in a bikini, then look back down at the page and have no idea where I was just at because all the sections looked the same. “We slept in the woods, we looked for food, we slept some more. Crazy people tried to kill us.” That’s the entire story of “The Road,” really. Well, of course not really, but you could break it down to just that.

That’s not to say I didn’t like the story, I loved it, I just thought it could have been told in a better way. Nevertheless, overrated. I don’t care what anyone says. “No Country for Old Men” was far, far better. The movie version looks even worse really; I was looking forward to the movie but I think it looks over-dramatized and its got Hollywood’s dirty finger prints all over it.

II) Richard Yates’s “Revolutionary Road” – Now this is a novel. Odd coincidence both of these books had road in the title; wasn’t planned I swear. I didn’t know anything about this book when I read it; definitely had no idea it was published in 1960. That’s quite crazy considering how insanely modern and 21st century it is.

Best part about the book was how it only had one ending, only one possible final outcome, but I still was on the edge of my seat and wholly believed and hoped that perhaps something different could or would happen. That’s the kind of power that book had over me, it blatantly told me how it would end (figuratively) but I still held out hope for something else.

This book didn't have characters, it had people. You know the difference; I don't have to explain.

I’ve been long convinced that the desire for marriage should be considered a mental disorder, and this book only further convinced me I’m right. If you think you’re in love, if you think marriage and monogamy is such a fantastic idea, I double dare you to read this book and come to me, stare me in the eye, and tell me that it still works. Best non-scifi book I’ve read in years.

So now I’m wanting to move onto something else, but I’m unsure what to read next. “Revolutionary Road” is still shaking me, and making me lean into staying with something more ‘literary,’ but I can’t deny my craving for a wholly engrossing piece of science fiction, maybe some more Arthur C. Clarke or someone I’ve got no familiarity with. That might be a better plan, something I can fall head-first into without over-thinking. Of course, the happy balance is to find something that’s both literary and science fiction, and I totally know what book that is: “Atlas Shrugged.”

Might post pictures from trip in a later post, stay tuned for that.