Read Some More Books

 

The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World

Benjamin Bratton

 

I really like the Verso Book Club, which is where I got this from. They send out books every month and it forces me to read more than I normally would and outside of my normal interests.

 

This book was an interesting short little thing, arguing in my reading for a large conception of the social – against the atomized person and thinking of us all as part of a system. I think it works but my main critique is that it exits in a weird middle ground. Part of me wanted to see it expanded. Then there’s another part that wanted it tightened up. For example, there’s a whole chapter against Giorgio Agamben. When I was reading it, I was like “Why is there a whole chapter about this guy I’ve never heard about?”. And it seems like the whole issue was on me, since reading this book I have seen at least a dozen references to Agamben. Again, thanks to the Verso Book club for expanding my theoretical horizons.

 

East of Eden

 

John Steinbeck

 

I’ve been on a bit of a Steinbeck kick since the pandemic started. I reread Grapes of Wrath at the beginning because I was worried about the economy crashing. In that reading I found a much better book than what I remembered from being forced to read it as a high school student.

 

Grapes of Wrath may be his most famous book, if because it is the bigger book of his that gets pushed by those high school students. I think that is an oversight, as East of Eden is the better book, I think. I guess that it doesn’t get taught because a good part of it centers on a house of ill repute.

 

But also – it does take a while to get going. Steinbeck here is writing a broad and epic sweep and must build the setting and the characters and then put them together. He does it so well though. There are places where he creates a character with such depth and complexity, and he does it in just a paragraph or two. It’s something that you can see and point out how well he does it but impossible to really saw just why it works. It’s just genius at work.

 

He also, in these pages, creates one of the most hate-able female characters ever put to the page. He just captures this psychopathy so well you must wonder who in Steinbeck’s biography he modeled from to create this character. Who hurt you, John?

 

So, this book just builds, grows, and has an incredible momentum right up until the end, an end that just gob smacks you. In my opinion it is one of the top dozen or so novels I have read. It’s amazing and you should read it.