Luke is a great character. Sort of a cool loser, one who I think qualifies as Camus’s Absurd Hero. He has no purpose in life, cutting the heads off of parking meters because he lives in a small town and there’s “not much to do in the evening.” And yet, he’s driven to live a certain kind of parody of life, full of ridiculous challenges and stubbornness. It’s absurd!

This book is organized in a unique manner that I find really interesting. It’s basically a bunch of interwoven anecdotes starting with Edie’s grandparents and slowly moving forward into time. It’s really interesting hearing about Edie’s story this way because it feels like you’re just sitting around a table and getting the story as the members remember it. It’s great to hear about a father talking about his children and then hearing the child, when grown up, talking about her parents. Hearing multiple people talk about the same person, etc. I’m only a fraction of the way through but this story is completely engaging so far.

Quotes:

“I’m ready… promotion…” And when he doesn’t get it: “I’m ready… depression…”

“You don’t need a license to drive a sandwich!”

“His chops are too righteous!”

“With my mermaid magic, I’ll turn you into men.”

“Don’t worry, this’ll only hurt a lot!”

“Knucklehead McSpazatron”

“I love being purple!”

I guess there are many more over on IMDb.

A great book on a great topic: how to deal with the fact that we’re all anxious about what he broadly defines as “status”. Personally, I do want to be incredibly famous, but most people don’t seem to feel the same. The way he describes our need for status might actually be closer to our universal need to be loved/admired/respected by people. Each word triggers a different goal… and I find that some people relate to the word “respect” more than “star worship”, and some vice versa. Included herein are general philosophies for finding the appropriate subset of set of all people that are most able to satisfy your need.

Personally, I liked the solutions offered in the Philosophy and Bohemian chapter the most. In fact, I think I’m going to look into John Ruskin as a result of a few things mentioned. I have to admit that I skimmed over a bit of the Religion chapter.

My only criticism of this is that, while enjoyable and thought-provoking to read, now that I’m done with the book the thoughts have sort of ceased. Maybe John Ruskin will pick up on the topic of the “wealth of life” where Alain de Botton left off…

A great story about a great con.

I like this passage, on page 152:

When I’m walking around New York I’m always aware of the smells around me: the rubber mats in office buildings; upholstered seats in movie theaters; pizza; Orange Julius; espresso-garlic-oregano; burgers; dry cotton tee-shirts; neighborhood grocery stores; chic grocery stores; the hot dogs and sauerkraut carts; hardware store smell; stationery store smell; souvlaki; the leather and rugs at Dunhill, Mark Cross, Gucci; the Moroccan-tanned leather on the street-racks; new magazines, back-issue magazines; typewriter stores; Chinese import stores (the mildew from the freighter); India import stores; Japanese import stores; record stores; health food stores; soda-fountain drugstores; cut-rate drugstores; barber shops; beauty parlors; delicatessens; lumber yards; the wood chairs and tables in the N.Y. Public Library; the donuts, pretzels, gum, and grape soda in the subways; kitchen appliance departments; photo labs; shoe stores; bicicle stores; the paper and printing inks in Scribner’s, Brentano’s, Doubleday’s, Rizzoli, Marboro, Bookmasters, Barnes & Nobel; shoe-shine stands; grease-batter; hair pomade; the good cheap candy smell in the front of Woolworth’s and the dry goods smell in the back; the horses by the Plaza Hotel; bus and truck exhaust; architects’ blueprints; cumin, fenugreek, soy sauce, cinnamon; fried plantanos; the train tracks in Grand Central Station; the banana smell of dry cleaners; exhausts from apartment house laundry rooms; East Side bars (creams); West Side bars (sweat); newspaper stands; record stores; fruit stands in all the different seasons-strawberry, watermelon, plum, peach, kiwi, cherry, Concord grape, tangerine, murcot, pineapple, apple-and I love the way the smell of each fruit gets into the rough wood of the crates and into the tissue-paper wrappings.

It is from this movie that I discovered the singular joy that is throwing plates out one’s window and listening to them explode on the street below. I only have two plates left, and am leaving them for a special occasion.

P.S. Whiskey bottles don’t break when you throw them from my window. They bounce!

The affectless gaze, the diffracted grace, the bored languor, the wasted pallor, the chic freakiness, the basically passive astonishment, the enthralling secret knowledge, the chintzy joy, the revelatory tropisms, the chalky, puckish mask, the slightly Slavic look, the childlike, gum-chewing naivete, the glamour rooted in despair, the self-admiring carelessness, the perfected otherness, the wispiness, the shadowy, voyeuristic, vaguely sinister aura, the pale, soft-spoken magical presence, the skin and bones, the albino-chalk skin, parchment-like, reptilian, almost blue, the knobby knees, the roadmap of scars, the long bony arms, so white they look bleached, the arresting hands, the pinhead eyes, the banana ears, the graying lips, the shaggy silver-white hair, soft and metallic, the cords of the neck standing out around the big Adam’s apple, it’s all there, nothing is missing, I’m everything my scrapbook says I am.

I have no idea why this album isn’t available anymore. It is one great sequence of raw pop songs. It’s equal to, if not slightly superior to, their second album, Meadowlands. Clearly the universe’s order is flawed in some fundamental way.

It has the best table of contents I’ve seen in a long time. Here it is:

CAUSES
I. Lovelessness…...3
II. Expectation…..11
III. Meritocracy….45
IV. Snobbery….....73
V. Dependence…....85

SOLUTIONS
I. Philosophy…...105
II. Art….........121
III. Politics…...173
IV. Religion…....215
V. Bohemia…......265

I love it. Now I must read it.