Here are my grades for the books, TV and movies I’ve consumed over the past five days:
* Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq C. This was the most disappointing book I read. It was a mess, like Iraq. The author, Linda Robinson, has no literary skills. This book drags. It was a constant struggle to get through. I had to endure all Shabbat and force myself to finish.
* Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides A
* The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio A
* Dating for Dummies by Dr. Joy Browne A
* Five Easy Pieces A
* High Plains Drifter A
* The Meaning of Life by Monty Python B
* Yes, Minister A
* Fawlty Towers A
I love this new book "All The Sad, Young Literary Men."
Much of it seemed like it is based on real life.
The Keith character seems like Keith Gessen. Lauren seems like Kristin Gore, the daughter of Al Gore. Prof. Lomaski is like Noam Chomski. Morris Binkel is like Lee Siegel. The New American is The New Republic. Debate magazine is Dissent. Cafe 1369 is 1369 Coffee House at Harvard. Judith Hestermann is Virginia Heffernan.
There’s a funny scene where Sam goes to bed with a sex columnist:
…Sam realized with a start he wasn’t hard. He was betrayed! Full of lustful thoughts, but lacking lustful deeds. Saint Augustine had written of this — impotence, rather than sinful passion, was the crowning argument in his proof that lust was evil, that it was not subject to the human will. And now behold poor Sam: It was one thing to go out with a woman and possibly sleep with her, knowing all the while that she would eventually tell her friends about Sam’s various idiosyncrasies — that is to say, this was already bad enough — but to not-sleep with a woman who had access to a Web-based media outlet? That was a terrible idea! And it wouldn’t even raise his Google, because obviously she’d use another name.
One such non-character is Al Gore. Another such non-character is his daughter Lauren. One of the first plot points in the novel involves "Keith Gessen" meeting and desiring Lauren Gore. But Lauren Gore sleeps with his roommate! Our heart goes out to Keith Gessen here: what a sad young literary man! A famous politician’s daughter does not immediately find him more desirable than his roommate despite no effort on his part! Truly the artist at the close of the twentieth century faces nightmares of persecution and Dostoyevskian suffering.
I’m feeling better, but not myself. Still, I have my friends via web cam:
Detroit: Now this is a very learned looking shot
Detroit: Much rides on whether he turns the page to the left (in the manner of gentiles) or to the right (in the manner of the rabbinate).
Detroit: The former.
Detroit: Not a sacred text
Detroit: What are you reading
Detroit: Are you reading "DOW 30,000?
YourMoralLeader: "all the sad, young literary men"
YourMoralLeader: great novel
Detroit: Novels are a waste of time for a man your age
YourMoralLeader: about sex with al gore’s daughter
Detroit: You need to make money
Detroit: how’s the web thing going?
YourMoralLeader: ok
Detroit: how much $/day?
YourMoralLeader: $25 about from blogging
YourMoralLeader: getting better all the time
Detroit: Yeah, at that rate…
Detroit: If you were energetic, you would be writing a book: "The White Man’s Guide on How to live well and get laid in LA on $25/day"
Detroit: "Hello, my name is Luke Ford, and although I haven’t a college degree or a nice car or skills of any sort, I manage to have sex with hot women, eat well and am feared by the leaders of my community. Here’s how I did it"
YourMoralLeader: just saw a great documentary, COCAINE COWBOYS
YourMoralLeader: about miami
Detroit: I had meant to see that
YourMoralLeader: streams free on netflix
Detroit: I don’t subscribe
YourMoralLeader: i bought a little box for $100 and with my high speed cable modem, i can watch thousands of flicks free via my netflix subscription
Detroit: legally?
YourMoralLeader: yes
YourMoralLeader: it is an amazing deal
Detroit: you got the flu?
YourMoralLeader: i’ve been sick for a week
YourMoralLeader: yeah
YourMoralLeader: and i just watch movies all day
YourMoralLeader: and some british tele
Detroit: that reminds me to get a vaccine
YourMoralLeader: fawlty towers, yes minister
Detroit: A woman can be better than a movie
Detroit: I wish I had an… in my life, but for real, not pretend
Detroit: When you are sick is when you really want to have a woman around
Detroit: I would be willing to… a jewess if she looked like Scarlet Johansen
Detroit: I’m not into that – who is that Jewess from Star Wars?
Detroit: Natalie Portman
Detroit: Does nothing for me.
Detroit: Plus, she cannot act.
Detroit: If she were a muslima, I doubt she’d have much of a career in Hollywood
YourMoralLeader: diana spechler, the novelist?
Detroit: Yup
Detroit: Would do
Detroit: Just how I like ’em
Detroit: The man who invents truly natural looking and feeling artificial breasts will make billions
Detroit: What became of your writing career?
YourMoralLeader: 0 change
Detroit: meaning?
Detroit: Are you writing anything?
Detroit: blogging does not count
Detroit: If you were more energetic – by a factor of 20 or so – you would be famous
Detroit: Your problem is that you are content to let the years roll on by
Detroit: I can see the doors closing on you
Detroit: But you don’t seem to mind much
YourMoralLeader: i’m working on that movie script
YourMoralLeader: i’ve been so weary
YourMoralLeader: i’m getting into alexander technique and acupuncture and getting more zip
Detroit: you should write books that people want to read
YourMoralLeader: i’m 2" longer
Detroit: longer?
Detroit: I don’t know what that means
Detroit: you need to write books
Detroit: Like my suggestion for how to date while poor in LA
YourMoralLeader: two inches taller
Detroit: This is the PERFECT economic climate for pitching that work to publishers
Detroit: How tall are you?
YourMoralLeader: 6’2
Detroit: That’s nice, but you need to write
Detroit: you need money
Detroit: $25/day is illegal chinaman money
Detroit: You should hire a dominatrix to beat the words out of you page by page
Detroit: And then you could dedicate your book, first to her, and then a line below to Rabbi Mushkin
Detroit: Ted Haggard is back in the limelight. Christians forgive; Jews never forget
