The History of Luminous Motion

Books Read in 2012

Posted on 2012/12/282012/12/30 by Jason Hensel

Another year and another list of the books I read during the past 12 months. While I enjoyed many of the books, not many of them excited me, causing me to buy extra copies so I could force them into friends’ hands.

If was to do that, though, here are the ones that were my favorites:

Fiction: Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams, The People Who Watched Her Pass By by Scott Bradfield, and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima
Non-Fiction: Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Long for This World by Jonathan Weiner, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive by Robert B. Cialdini, Noah J. Goldstein, and Steve J. Martin, and Sanford Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell
Play: In the Next Room or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl
Poetry: Happy Life by David Budbill

Here’s the full list:

House of Holes by Nicholson Baker
Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht
The People Who Watched Her Pass By by Scott Bradfield
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
Point Omega by Don DeLillo
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
Long for This World by Jonathan Weiner
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Dream Police: Selected Poems, 1969-1993 by Dennis Cooper
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
Hadji Murad by Leo Tolstoy
The Hot L Baltimore by Lanford Wilson
No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
The Marquise of O by Heinrich von Kleist
In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima
Under the Glacier by Halldor Laxness
Aura by Carlos Fuentes
After Claude by Iris Owens
Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Oranges by John McPhee
Sanford Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell
This is How it Goes by Neil LaBute
The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus
Happy Life by David Budbill
Old Times by Harold Pinter
Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks
The Marriage of Bette & Boo by Christopher Durang
Cloud Atlas by David MItchell
The Drunk in the Furnace by W.S. Merwin
A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O’Neill
Time’s Power by Adrienne Rich
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
How to Improvise a Full-Lenght Play by Kenn Adams
Guest of Reality by Par Lagerkvist
Far Away by Caryl Churchill
Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive by Robert B. Cialdini, Noah J. Goldstein, and Steve J. Martin
In the Next Room or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl
Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
Desolation by Yasmina Reza
Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley
One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace
Bhagavad Gita translated by Stephen Mitchell
Art by Committee: A Guide to Advanced Improvisation by Charna Halpern
Seascape by Edward Albee
Busy Monsters by William Giraldi
Adult Head by Jeff Tweedy

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Review: Busy Monsters

Posted on 2012/12/242013/01/03 by Jason Hensel

I will admit that a great first line is all that is needed to cause me to continue reading a book. Surely, I’m not the only one that’s been drawn into, for example, Fahrenheit 451 or A Prayer for Owen Meany based solely on their first lines. Busy Monsters by William Giraldi is another book that kicks you in a kidney with its first line: “Stunned by love and some would say stupid from too much sex, I decided I had to drive down South to kill a man.” If you’re not grabbed by the lapels after that first line, then you’re suffering from a deep state of depression that Hallmark wouldn’t even be able to help.

Busy Monsters is the story of Charles Homar and his quest to win back a woman who left him. Homar is writer for a periodical that publishes his over-the-top, true-life stories. Yes, Giraldi makes Homar similar in name to Homer, another writer who wrote over-the-top stories full of monsters. And if you didn’t catch that in-your-face similarity, then let me drive you back to school for your first day of high school freshman English.

Homar’s fiancee leaves because she wants to discover a living giant squid. In his quest to win back his lover, Homar tries to prove himself a man by shooting down a ship, capturing Bigfoot, and confronting UFO enthusiasts. Homar, of course, has his own odyssey on his way to reunite with his Penelope.

Giraldi’s narrative reminds me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins. I’m okay with that; however, it took me a couple of pages to get into the swing of things if I put the book down for a day. The style’s over-the-topness took me aback for a bit, but once I got into the groove, I was happy to ride this rocket to its destination.

Along the way, Giraldi wrote some great lines that encapsulate the book’s theme.

“We human monsters make choices with the minds of worms; good sense lies east, we veer west; trouble sends an invitation, we RSVP the very same day.” Also, “…all I mean to say is that a human being is an oblivious ape in the grip of nonsense…” Those are two that come to mind and really struck me enough to memorize the page numbers they’re on.

If you’re a fan of Vonnegut or Robbins, then I believe you’ll love Busy Monsters. It’s a fun read, and it will cause you to contemplate what kind of monsters, real or imaginary, you’d battle to win what’s important to you.

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E.L. James Predicted to Win Nobel Prize in Literature

Posted on 2012/10/082012/10/09 by Jason Hensel

I don’t know why, but I always get excited during Nobel Prize in Literature season. Awards really shouldn’t mean anything in the long run, and many great writers have never been awarded a Nobel Prize. Still, I can’t help it. I like guessing who’s going to win, and once a winner is selected, finding all the author’s works and reading as much as I can by him or her.

Every year I hope that W.S. Merwin wins the award. His poetry is excellent, but it’s his translation work that should guarantee him the prize. He and Robert Bly have introduced me to so many writers through their translations that I would have never known. In fact, let’s give the prize to both Bly and Merwin.

As usual, the U.K. odds maker Ladbrokes has been regularly releasing the latest odds on who will win. As of this blog entry, it’s Haruki Murakami at 2/1 odds. Another favorite of mine, Cormac McCarthy, is at 16/1 odds. The writer who is last on its list, though, is the most perplexing. At 500/1 odds, E.L. James of Fifty Shades of Gray fame is predicted to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

I took a screenshot of that listing just to remind myself of how silly awards can be. But still, Merwin should totally win.

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Books Read in 2011

Posted on 2011/12/272012/01/02 by Jason Hensel

Every year I post my annual list of which books I read, a list that helps me remember past events and feelings that I may have forgotten, like resting in my hammock on a nice summer day reading The Truth About Celia or the eagerness I felt flying to Italy while reading Poets in a Landscape. You could say that I remember things through the books I’ve read. I don’t think that’s such a bad way to live. Happy reading in 2012, everyone!

Lysistrata by Aristophanes
Tinkers by Paul Harding
Me, Myself & I by Edward Albee
Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Diviners by Jim Leonard Jr.
The Second Child by Deborah Garrison
The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke
A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton
Burn This by Lanford Wilson
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr
The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute
Augustus by John Williams
Poets in a Landscape by Gilbert Highet
Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier
A Happy Death by Albert Camus
The Commedia dell’Arte by Giacomo Oreglia
The Architect of Flowers by William Lychack
The Actor’s Art and Craft by William Esper and Damon DiMarco
Dying City by Christopher Shinn
Slowness by Milan Kundera
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
Improvise: Scene From the Inside Out by Mick Napier
Book of My Nights by Li-Young Lee
The Sea Gull by Anton Chekhov
Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason by Jessica Warner
The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books by Jeff Martin and C. Max Magee (editors)
Beautiful & Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry by David Orr
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Jitney by August Wilson
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honday Dynasty by Tony Hoagland
Travesties by Tom Stoppard
Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
The Harvard Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin
The Wrecking Light by Robin Robertson
The Chairs are Where the People Go by Misha Glouberman with Sheila Heti
In a Forest, Dark and Deep by Neil LaBute
Whatever by Michel Houellebecq
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
The Night Season by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Seven Guitars by August Wilson
The Curfew by Jesse Ball
The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh
The Jokers by Albert Cossery
Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey Into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism by Daniel Pinchbeck
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
Normal People Don’t Live Like This by Dylan Landis

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Review: Whatever

Posted on 2011/11/102011/11/10 by Jason Hensel

Duality is a common theme in literature. In fact, it’s one of my favorite themes, especially when it’s an internal struggle. Questions such as who we are, what’s our place in the world, how we perceive ourselves as opposed to how others perceive us are questions that have fascinated and baffled humans for thousands of years. I suspect we’ll still be trying to answer them millions of years from now as the growing Sun swallows our planet.

Whatever (Original French title: Extension du domaine de la lutte) by Michel Houellbecq is another book posing these types of questions without definitive answers. With so much literature published on this topic, the most important question rises as to how well a writer attempts an answer.

The novel’s protagonist is a 30-year-old computer programmer who writes strange stories about talking animals in his spare time. He’s content (or resigned) to how is his life is playing out, until he’s sent on a trip with a co-worker to train provincial workers on how to use a new computer system.

His traveling partner, Raphael Tisserand, is younger and a virgin. Together, they train by day and go out at night in various French cities. The protagonist (he’s never given a name) observes Tisserand’s repeated failures in trying to have sexual relations with women and comes to the conclusion that capitalism is to blame. Because of a free-market economy, the rich (the good-looking) get richer and the poor (the ugly) get poorer.

In one of the more suspenseful scenes in the book, the protagonist urges Tisserand to exact revenge on a woman and her lover that has thwarted Tisserand’s advances. The outcome, though, succumbs to the protagonist’s capitalist theory about love.

After this scene, the book becomes a lot more philosophical, shooting toward the universal like a slim rocket.

“For years I have been walking alongside a phantom who looks like me, and who lives in a theoretical paradise strictly related to the world,” the protagonist says toward the end of the book. “I’ve long believed that it was up to me to become one with this phantom. That’s done with.”

This is a common feeling among many in the world, that what you once thought would happen–or once thought you’d be–will no longer be a part of reality. It’s a difficult realization. Some never accept it, for better or for worse.

It’s this realization that Houellbecq asks his readers to consider in Whatever. His hero’s response may not be your choice. Nevertheless, it’s the only choice that will keep us alive.

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