I'm Trying To Read More Dead People

I Judged About A Zillion Awards This Year So Ive Been Reading A Lot Of Books That Just Came Out.

The Idea To Make Hotel Reviews The Form Of The Novel Came First. So I Just Started Writing Hotel Reviews And Tried To Come Up With A Consistent Voice.

Cool Is Spent. Cool Is Empty. Cool Is Ex Post Facto. When Advertisers And Pundits Hoard A Word, You Know It's Time To Retire From It. To Move On. I Want To Suggest, Therefore, That We Begin To Avoid Cool Now. Cool Is A Trick To Get You To Buy Garments Made By Sweatshop Laborers In Third World Countries. Cool Is The Triumph Of The Will. Cool Enables You To Step Over Bodies. Cool Enables You To Look The Other Way. Cool Makes You Functional, Eager For Routine Distraction, Passive, Doped, Stupid.

The Great Recession Is Not Imaginary, And The Effects Loom Large. There Was An Article In The Nyt About The Galloping Death Rate Among White Men In Middle Age. Higher Than Among Any Other Demographic, Etc. Mostly Death By Drugs, Alcohol, Or Suicide. Many Of Them Rural. My Feeling Is That It's Many People Who Haven't Been Able To Get Back Into The Work Force. Reg Morse Is An Example Of The Problem.

People Know That Pain Is Part Of Our Nature, That It Cannot Be Avoided And That It Should Not Be Avoided. But Capitalism In This Country Is Focused On The Idea 1) That Life Can And Should Be Absolutely Beautiful; 2) That Beauty Can Be Defined According To An Ironclad Objective Standard; 3) That Beauty Can Be Held Onto Forever If Only You Do The Right Things Perfectly Enough; And 4) That It Can Be Purchased.