Wednesday Supposes Erroneously

[evelyn_b]

What I've Finished Reading

In the end I gave up on the idea that The Power Broker was too large to take to bed or to the local coffee shop, even though it really, really is, and just let it bulldoze straight through all the hours of my life until it was over. The day after I finished it, I was on the porch of said coffee shop, trying to describe the desolation of the Cross-Bronx Expressway to someone who hadn't read it, when a guy from the other side of the porch leaned over and said, "Are you talking about The Power Broker??" And just like that, we were all talking about The Power Broker.

The subtitle of The Power Broker is "Robert Moses and the Fall of New York," and that's because the premise of the book is that while New York City in the twentieth century could theoretically have been ruined by a lot of things, it was actually ruined mainly by one guy, his unchecked power over all things concrete, and his insatiable love of gigantic freeways and bridges. And the New York Times being a magnifying mirror for the characteristic errors of every age, but that probably goes without saying. I don't have the background to know if this is an accurate analysis, but it's definitely a vivid one. If you like deep dives into city infrastructure and its discontents, or dazzlingly lucid descriptions of arcane political manuvering, you might like this book! Side effects may include nightmares about living by firelight in half-demolished buildings in the shadow of an unfinished freeway, and/or never again being able to shut up about Robert Moses for generations to come.

I also finally made good on my promise to read one of Kevin Kwan's rich-people books, which I've been making to myself ever since Crazy Rich Asians made a splash . . . what, ten years ago now? The one that turned up in the Little Free Library is Sex and Vanity, and it's a lot sweeter than I expected. It's also a meticulous homage to or hand-tinted xeroxed photocopy of A Room With A View. Some of the plot-driving mores fit a little awkwardly into the contemporary setting, but I know so little about Haute New York poshos, and Kwan serves them up with such breezy assurance, that I was willing to go with it 80-90% of the time.

And I spent a long time wishing to love but not really feeling His Dark Materials, which I bought in a big three-in-one paperback years ago. Why I didn't actually love it, it's hard to say. It's chock full of Cool Stuff that I wasn't super into. The only point at which I got emotionally involved was briefly when Will and Lyra met, and later when the worldbuilding contrived itself to force Will and Lyra to live in separate worlds. This is probably my own fault for not being ten.

What I'm Reading Now

It's Franzen O'Clock! Time to give the fiction of Jonathan Franzen another shot with The Corrections. The prose is admirably deep and specific but I don't care for it. Reading it feels like someone is gently forcing my head into a large fish tank, only instead of water, the fish and my head are swimming in Mid-American Malaise. But maybe, eventually, in a good way? Who knows; I'm just getting started.

I'm also reading A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. My impression of Vinge based on one and a half books is that his plots don't thrill me but his aliens are the best. A year after reading it, I couldn't tell you with any certainty what happened in A Fire Upon the Deep, but I doubt a day has gone by since that I haven't thought of its pack-intelligent space dogs or its tragic cyborg kelp. A Deepness in the Sky alternates between the representatives of a couple of antagonistic human cultures investigating a very weird star system and trying to manipulate one another, who are all right I guess, and the star system's inhabitants, a civilization of hibernating spiders trying to reckon with the effects of industrialization on traditional culture, whom I will love to my dying day.

What I Plan to Read Next

I just bought a short-story collection called Shit Cassandra Saw, which looks promising! But I might not get to it for a while.

Comments

[osprey_archer]

I am tempted by The Power Broker but also unsure if I really want to inflict that on myself. But then, I AM going to NYC next month (if all goes well!)... surely I should learn more about the history of the city...?

I adored the first His Dark Materials book (which I read when I was eleven - that IS exactly the right age for it) and then getting progressively less interested in each book as the series went on. So much Cool Stuff, and yet after we left Lyra's world, so little Cool Stuff I actually cared about? Maybe if Pullman had pulled out a civilization of hibernating spiders trying to reckon with the effects of industrialization on traditional culture, then I could have gotten back into it.

[evelyn_b]

You will learn a lot about NYC! You'll also get a free workout just from pulling it off the shelf. I can't guarantee that you'll come away unscathed.

I had the reverse experience with HDM (again, probably partly due to being the wrong age). Lyra's world was so overstuffed with Cool Stuff that I felt slightly put upon at all times, but Will's perspective was a welcome relief from the barrage. And I did kind of like the rollyphants and their seed pods.

A big part of my problem was that I spent a large part of the first book hating the whole daemon thing, and so whenever the daemons had to take on an emotional resonance (i.e.,constantly), my engagement was strained. I knew my dislike of the daemons was irrational and based entirely on my mind having been poisoned at a young age by annoying Disney sidekicks, but knowing wasn't enough to overcome it. And a lot of the worldbuilding ended up being similarly unappealing, to a lesser or greater extent.

No blame to Pullman for all this - I think it's just a good candidate for the time machine that only lets you send books to your younger self.

[osprey_archer]

Oh God, His Dark Materials must be unbearable if you hate daemons. The cute shape-shifting animal sidekick is 95% of the point of the book! ("And atheism!" Pullman chimes in, offended that I have stiffed his philosophical underpinnings in favor of all daemons, all the time.)

A time machine to send books to your younger self would be the BEST time machine. The books show up labeled "From Auntie X" (X being your name obvs) and you spend your childhood thinking that perhaps you are named after this aunt with impeccable taste in literature. (Although it would be interesting to see which books you THINK your younger self would have liked that your younger self would actually reject!)

[evelyn_b]

I powered through it because I know my dislike was irrational Disney poisoning! But hoo boy did I ever not care for those daemons. (I'd also gotten the idea that HDM was Atheist Narnia and was disappointed to find it less atheistic than advertised).

This would be a great one for the time machine because I honestly don't know which way it would go. I think I'd have a more passionate reaction, but whether it would be passionate love or passionate hate or hate-but-i-can't-stop-making-up-stories-about-it, it's impossible to say. I know I did read and love Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke at some point.

[osprey_archer]

It IS supposed to be Atheist Narnia and I've never gotten over the fact that Pullman ended up accidentally recreating God and calling it Dust. That was a choice! I guess! Not one I would have made if I was shouting from the rooftops that I was going to write the anti-Narnia, but you do you Philip Pullman.

I don't love Frances Hardinge's books the way some people do, but I thought her duology Fly by Night/Fly Trap was far more convincing as atheist children's fantasy than HDM.

[landofnowhere]

I mostly agree with you about Vinge -- though I think I do think better of his plots, but yeah, his aliens are far more interesting than his humans. I'll be interested to hear what you think when you've finished A Deepness in the Sky, because [spoilers].

Have you read any Adrian Tchaikovsky? I like his stuff in a lot of the same ways I like Vinge's.

[evelyn_b]

I haven't read any Adrian Tchaikovsky! I'll have to check him out.

I wouldn't try to make the case that Vinge's human plots are bad or boring. They're fine! It's just that my mind is a sieve and easily distracted by aliens. The best plot in the world would have a hard time holding its own against spiderbabies riding the spiderbus.

[landofnowhere]

Adrian Tchaikovsky has written a *lot* in multiple genres, but the books I've read from him are Children of Time (alien spiders!), Children of Ruin (sequel, alien octopi, also more spiders!), and The Doors of Eden (a multiverse filled with all sorts of intelligent species!).

And that's fair! I'll wait until you've finished this book to talk about what I think is really cool with the plotting of this one

[evelyn_b]

Sounds good! I'll read on. . .

[lirazel]

I was just learning about Robert Moses through an episode of, of all things, Defunctland. I was vaguely familiar with him before, but wow, what an asshole. I'll have to read that one when I am in the correct mood.

[evelyn_b]

Is that the episode about the World's Fair? You should - there is so much more where that came from!

[lirazel]

Yup, that was the one! And I won't forget it because it described Moses as "not able to say it, but he really didn't like poor people very much." Or something like that and it was so understated and dry!

[chelseagirl]

Hurray, The Power Broker!

Of course, around here, people generally do talk about Robert Moses. But less than you might imagine.

[evelyn_b]

I am glad I read it here, in a small town far from New York. I feel like my current temptation to relate everything anyone says back to a Robert Moses anecdote would be even worse if I were surrounded by all the places he managed or failed to pave.