Rebel without a Clue

I’ll admit that I’m a wannabe author. The dream of my youth was to make my living writing, while pragmatism and law school won out. As I’ve started to actively pursue my writing life I’ve always wanted, I’m finding that everything has changed in some ways and in others it hasn’t changed at all. Maybe my biggest ambition though is that societal change has always been the catalyst for great writing and great art, but it has to be writing and art that catch the spirit of an age. The rebel writer is an iconic figure – Hunter Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller, James Joyce, Norman Mailer – to name just a few from the last century, but how do you rebel in a digital culture of chaos?

What Book Am I? After 500 the answer is: Number 500.

You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared
to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do
understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once
brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in
the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you
additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

In one of those serendipitous experiences that can only happen in cyber space, I was randomly clicking on people who had posted on one of my favorite author's blogs and they had a link to discover which book I am. As corny and stupid as these quizes are, I took it anyway and there I was Book 500. Yep, that is me. More on me tomorrow.

The Contents of My Back Pack

I haul a lot of books around with me. At any given moment I am midstream of 60 or 70 books, but if I get torn too off course, I'll go back and start anew.

So, here are the books I'm currently reading, many of which I'm sure will end up in the next block of 500 and may even end up in the last three, although I've already decided which book is going to be number 500 -- Ulysses by James Joyce. I'm currently through 16 episodes and have two more to go.

I've read raves about the book and I've had a life long struggle connecting to Joyce. I read A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man in college and all I remember is how much I hated the book. I probably ought to go back and read that book again. I enjoyed The Dubliners, but Joyce has always felt inaccessible. Finnegan's Wake looms on the horizon, but I think I've had just about enough Joyce for now. Joyce is maddening because you know that he has crammed so much detail, minutae, trivia, mythology, literary references, literary styles and historical details into this non-narrative novel that most of the time I had that awful feeling of "I just don't get it." No one likes to be made to feel stupid, and Ulysses makes me feel that way at times. On a couple of rare occasions, I get that feeling that comes only with great literature -- a feeling of connection, depth and genius being conveyed to me through the words. I've felt like this about Ulysses a couple of times in the previous sixteen episodes and I have a hunch that my lack of feeling was due more to my unpreparedness and lack of knowledge, rather than any defects in Joyce.

Although it does raise a valuable question: If you communicate your genius beyond the ability of the audience to understand, is that desirable? effective? useful? What is the point if no one gets it? Joyce did something right, judging by the books staying power, but he didn't make his art suited for a mass market audience. I'll do more on Joyce and Ulysses later.

Some more books in my backpack:

The Meaning of Everything, Simon Winchester
Best American Erotica 2002, Susie Bright, editor
Story of O, Pauline Reage
Orpheus Emerges, Jack Kerouac
Chronicles of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
James Joyce's Ulysses, A Study, Stuart Gilbert
Letters to a Young Contrarian, Christopher Hitchens
Elements of Style, Strunk and White
Kangaroo Notebook, Kobo Abe
Severance, Robert Olen Butler
Move On's 50 Ways to Love Your Country, MoveOn.org
Why Orwell Matters, Christopher Hitchens
Mythic Worlds, Modern Words, Joseph Campbell

Well, if I finish all of those, I'll be ten books into the next fifty.