Q&A: David Lipsky | Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes

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From an interview with David Lipsky (via), here’s David Foster Wallace on the philosophical depth of country music:

Because that’s like pretty much all there is, when you’re tired of listening to Green Day on the one college station. And these country musics that are just so—you know, “Baby since you’ve left I can’t live, I’m drinking all the time.” And I remember just being real impatient with it. Until I’d been living here about a year. And all of a sudden I realized, what if you just imagined that this absent lover they’re singing to is just a metaphor? And what they’re really singing to is themselves, or to God, you know? “Since you’ve left I’m so empty I can’t live, my life has no meaning.” That in a weird way, they’re incredibly existentialist songs. That have the patina of the absent, of the romantic shit on it, just to make it salable… But that if you cock your ear and listen real close—that it’s deep, you know?… That we find, that art finds a way to take care of you, and take part. Kind of despite itself.

Q&A: David Lipsky | Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes

March 27, 2010

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You can still compare a coin to the moon–poets have done so in days gone by. The coin itself remains one of the few objects of perception continually and immediately surrounding us that, through long-established habits and fantasies, connect us across the millenia to antiquity–like bread and wine, our shoes, the dog, the knife, indeed the moon.

Pennies to heaven—By Joachim Kalka (Harper’s Magazine). Nice reflection on the death of money made of paper & metal. Better than most “death of” pieces. Also includes a nice discussion of Scrooge McDuck.

March 26, 2010

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If you are feeling nervous, nervous is good. All right? It makes us stop thinking about things. It makes us ready to play. If you’re nervous, that’s fine. Feel nervous.

Lacrosse coach Trevor Tierney quoted in John McPhee’s “Pioneer”. I like the “stop thinking about things” part–I’ve never been distracted while nervous. Nerves and focus go hand in hand.

Mother :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews

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Apparently Roger Ebert was posted his review of “Mother” while I was watching it. (via). I like this conclusion:

“Mother” will have you discussing the plot, not entirely to your satisfaction. I would argue: The stories in movies are complete fictions and can be resolved in any way the director chooses. If he actually cheats or lies, we have a case against him. If not, no matter what his strange conclusions, we can be grateful that we remained involved and even fascinated.

Mother :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews

Mother

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Mother. Eh. A hyper-protective mother defends an idiot son who’s been accused of a crime he may or may not have done. It waffled between realist slice-of-life and whodunit, and should have stopped at least 15 minutes earlier. I suspect this movie would have been better without the plot. Directed by Bong Joon-ho. I hear his movie The Host is pretty good.

Sext by W.H. Auden

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Stumbled across this in Dan Pink’s book, Drive:

You need not see what someone is doing
to know if it is his vocation,

you have only to watch his eyes:
a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon

making a primary incision,
a clerk completing a bill of lading,

wear the same rapt expression,
forgetting themselves in a function.

How beautiful it is,
that eye-on-the-object look.

Sext by W.H. Auden