Syntax of Things

Everything and Still Some

Thanks for all of the horse racing advice.  I'm going to spend the morning prepping, studying racing forms, looking at pictures of horses with funny names, and picking out the perfect hat to wear to Del Mar.  Instead of the regular goodness you've come to expect <cough>, I'm giving you a quick rundown and update of all the categories I've used here at Syntax of Things:

Baseball:  The Braves have regained their rightful place atop the division standings.  Ok, so they're tied for first, but it's been a long two months of waiting for the inevitable.

Books & Writers:  I will be picking up the McCarthy novel at some point before going out to the track.

General:  According to this report: "The central Appalachian states lead the nation in toothlessness. More than 32 percent of Tennessee residents surveyed last year had lost six or more teeth because of decay or gum disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That number was 38 percent in Kentucky and 43 percent in West Virginia, which holds the distinction of the most toothless state. Kentucky ranked No. 1 in toothlessness in 2003."

Hell in a Handbasket:  The Patriot Act is well on its way to renewal.  Doesn't that help you sleep better at night?

Images: 

Fisherman on Martha's Vineyard, Mass. display a massive 1,100-pound tiger shark Sunday, July 17, 2005. Unfortunately, the fisherman failed to capture first place in the monster shark derby because their boat was six minutes too late in returning to Oak Bluffs harbor with its catch. (AP Photo/Chris Lewis, ohmycod.com)

Impressions Before Reshelving:  I need to do a better job with the category.  To be honest, I forgot that I'd created it.

Load of Links:  See any post this week.

Music:  Bradley's Almanac has mp3s of Dinosaur Jr.'s recent homecoming show.  I've always been a fan of their cover of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven."

Ramblings:  No time for rambling today.  Got horses to study up on.

San Diego:  Well, let's see.  Our mayor resigned shortly after being named one of the three worst mayors in the country.  Within moments of the interim mayor's ascendancy to power, he was convicted, along with another city councilman, of taking bribes from some strip club owners who hoped they would help repeal San Diego's "no touch" law. There was actually a third councilman convicted, but he died last year of liver failure brought on by some heavy drinking (allegedly).  Well, the two convicted councilman have now resigned, meaning that I am without representation until at the earliest November.  Meanwhile, we are to elect a new mayor this Tuesday and I don't think anyone gives a damn. 

Smoking:  Operation Quit-by-Christmas is still in the planning stages.  Considering hypnotism.

Sports:  "It is 'Faith Night' at the ballpark. The Class A Hagerstown Suns are among the minor league teams, mostly in the South, that will bring in Christian entertainers, have players give their testimonies, conduct faith trivia quizzes for prizes and have giveaways that could include biblical bobble-head dolls." (emphasis mine)

Television & Movies:  SoT recommends: Me And You And Everyone We Know

The Books I've Read:  I hope to have a sidebar up soon showing the list of books I've completed this year. Right now, I'm on book 32 of 2005, a little off of last year's pace but not bad considering the lack of time I've had this year.

The IJ Report:  Done, done, and done.

The Kerouac Project:  On hold.  Blame the recent slate of new books that have kept me away from Kerouac.  I still want to do this but for now Jack will have to wait.

Tour of California League:  Geoff and I will be hitting the road in August to check out the new park in Stockton and the non-Cal League stadium in Fresno.

Weather:  This is usually my least favorite time of year to live in San Diego.  Long months of no rain in the forecast.  Incredibly enough, we have a significant chance of some thunderstorms over the next few days thanks to a nice monsoonal flow and the remnants of the latest Atlantic hurricane.  This does mean that the humidity has gone up significantly, and along with a heat wave it makes for some uncomfortable sleeping in an apartment that has only one window a/c unit. 

Would You Like Fries with That:  This is the one project/category that I want to finish before the end of the year.  That's my goal, but I'm not making any promises.

The Kerouac Project: Kerouac's Early Years

I had hoped to be able to spend some uninterrupted weeks of reading and thinking on the Kerouac Project, but like most things in my life right now, the project has been pushed to the back burner more often than not.  Nevertheless, I've managed to finish the first two books, Atop an Underwood and Orpheus Emerged.  Neither of these works would convince a newcomer to Kerouac that his writings are worthy of further pursuit.  In fact, if I were to recommend anything in the early stages of formulating a Kerouac theory, it would be to leave these two aside until finishing the more savory Kerouac novels.

Atop an Underwood is a collection of early Kerouac essays and story fragments, some dating back to his early teens.  Many of the selections are downright unreadable, serving only to show the genesis of some of the tropes of Kerouac's later works.  One does get a glimpse of the artist as a very young man writing mock newspaper accounts of horse racing, developing his own type of fantasy baseball league, and dreaming of one day traveling west.

+ NY Times review and excerpts from the collection

I first read Orpheus Emerged several years ago when it was released in e-book only format.  I read it again last year when it came out in hardcopy  and now for the third time as part of this project.  Kerouac wrote this short novel at the age of twenty-three, not long after meeting Ginsberg and Burroughs and some of the other characters that would make up the Beat Generation.  In fact, the characters of this novel are loosely veiled versions of the friends Kerouac had in his Columbia days and a reader of Kerouac's many biographies will catch glimpses of some of the incidents that shaped the man later in life.

For a nice sample of Orpheus Emerged in audio format, go here for an mp3 of Eric Jenson reading from the book.

Up next, Town and the City.

(Re)Reading Inspiration

Every so often as I stare at the shelf containing my collection of Jack Kerouac's books, I'm reminded of a conversation I once had with one of my undergrad professors.  Dr. D, the Shakespeare scholar of the department, and I sat in a bar not far from campus discussing his book that he wanted me to help him proofread.  At some point, we began talking about me and why it was I had decided to become a writer.  I tried to come up with some sort of answer full of enough sophistication so that this Oxford-educated snob would not laugh into his Guinness.  Try as I might, I couldn't avoid the truth, so I explained to him how as a fourteen year old I had become enamored with Jack Kerouac's writings, how he had opened up a part of my self that I had kept under some pre-conditioned wraps, how I realized that being a writer could be a possibility worthy of pursuit.

To his credit, Dr. D didn't laugh.  He kept nodding his head as if he identified with something I was saying.  Then he said the one thing that I have carried with me to this day: "Mr. Bryant, you will find one day that you have outgrown your idol."

I didn't argue with Dr. D (although I was fully prepared to remind him that he still participated in those Renaissance Faires at which he pretended to be some sort of knight in shining armor).  After all, I was already a reluctant Kerouac fan who feared being lumped in with a burgeoning new wave of wannabe hipsters who were discovering the man by way of Gap ads or the 10,000 Maniacs.  But deep down, I never thought it possible that I could outgrow Jack Kerouac.

Now fifteen years after that conversation, I'm ready to test Dr. D's statement.  Beginning today, I plan on going through all of Kerouac's books and with eyes not blinded by some romantic fandom I'll see if age and maturity have lessened my love for Kerouac as a writer.

I'm going to stick to Kerouac's prose and plan on reading the books in order of date written (see reading list below the fold if you'd like to follow along and/or participate).  If after a few novels I feel that Dr. D's prediction has merit I might abandon the project.  I hope, though, that he was wrong.  First up, Atop an Underwood, a collection of Kerouac's early writings.