Rick Moody is an affirming talent.
Rick Moody's existence means that my own abilities, whatever they are, can't be that poor. Somewhere in the throes of my self-doubt I imagine some limit -- a sub-basement -- where my feelings can call it a day. Rick Moody, along with nine thousand adjectives, occupies that space.
Dale Peck's done a much better job of marinating, cooking, and skewering Rick Moody than I ever could. Say what you will about Peck's hatchet jobs, I'm not sure I can get behind a writer that stresses the orthopedic nature of shoes at least thirty-five times in a paragraph that is as many pages long.
But why read bad books?
Or, the better question: why read Rick Moody?
I read Rick Moody for the same reason that I have some boring friends. It's the same reason why I know anything about the differences between various swimsuit cuts. It's also why my sister Angelica likes to set things on fire in crowded restaurants.
Boredom inspires a functioning mind. It lets me finish a draft. (For Angelica, it helps determine the flammability of one's plum sake.)
Boredom makes me reconnect with old contacts rotting away in my cellphone, anything to prevent me from finishing that one paragraph about the aged breasts and the blender.
I love Rick Moody because I realize that if he can connect such disparate things as fishermen at dusk, geiger counters, spaghetti, a series of flaccid interstate highways into one trail-mix paragraph -- read, Purple America -- I ought to be able to do the same, readability be damned.
Rick Moody's existence means that my own abilities, whatever they are, can't be that poor. Somewhere in the throes of my self-doubt I imagine some limit -- a sub-basement -- where my feelings can call it a day. Rick Moody, along with nine thousand adjectives, occupies that space.
Dale Peck's done a much better job of marinating, cooking, and skewering Rick Moody than I ever could. Say what you will about Peck's hatchet jobs, I'm not sure I can get behind a writer that stresses the orthopedic nature of shoes at least thirty-five times in a paragraph that is as many pages long.
But why read bad books?
Or, the better question: why read Rick Moody?
I read Rick Moody for the same reason that I have some boring friends. It's the same reason why I know anything about the differences between various swimsuit cuts. It's also why my sister Angelica likes to set things on fire in crowded restaurants.
Boredom inspires a functioning mind. It lets me finish a draft. (For Angelica, it helps determine the flammability of one's plum sake.)
Boredom makes me reconnect with old contacts rotting away in my cellphone, anything to prevent me from finishing that one paragraph about the aged breasts and the blender.
I love Rick Moody because I realize that if he can connect such disparate things as fishermen at dusk, geiger counters, spaghetti, a series of flaccid interstate highways into one trail-mix paragraph -- read, Purple America -- I ought to be able to do the same, readability be damned.
"But why read bad books?"
ReplyDeleteIndian Writing in English (IWE for short) has thrown up a lot of trash in the recent past. I haven't heard of Rick Moody, but if he does learn of the existence of these writers we have flooding our market, then, I am certain he would be forced to conclude: "they're existence means that my own abilities, whatever they are, can't be that poor"
I read a lot of trash because I find it entertaining. Highly so.
Since we don't get a lot of Indian writing in English (those that we do get cater to the diaspora, so it's a different class of fiction), who do you consider bad? OK, other than Chetan Bhagat, I know he's pretty bad.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, man. "Anything for you Ma'am" involves someone being involved with a beautiful girl named Shreya, so I'm inclined to think it's non-fiction.
DeleteJoking -- joking.
But hey, in the vein of Rick Moody, it makes me feel better about myself; why should people from IIT be good at EVERYTHING?
Hahaha. True.
ReplyDeleteBut try telling that to the average Indian reader-- obviously she/he thinks otherwise. The IIT tag increases sales exponentially.