October 16, 2005
Book Review: All The King's Men (1946)
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While the novel might masquerade as the story of Willie Stark, at its core it tells the tale of Jack Burden, Willie's right-hand man, and narrator of our story. Stark might be more popular, more successful, and more dynamic than Burden, but it is Jack who is the more complex and interesting character. It just so happens that Willie's rollercoaster story is a nice backdrop on which to paint the picture of Jack Burden's life. The book jumps back and forth through time and history, but eventually we learn that Burden was not always Willie's trusted friend, and with good reason - Stark seemed to be nothing more than a poor, simple redneck farmer with aspirations of becoming a lawyer. Nobody, including Jack himself, knew about the fire that burned in Willie's spirit. But Willie knew. And he kept his secret closely guarded, until one day when he unleashed his passion and fury on an unsuspecting public who were craving for his message of change with a zealous lust. Like a whirlwind, Willie Stark became governor and he hired Jack Burden as his personal advisor and confidant.
Burden, by contrast, is a man who has been slowly defeated by time and circumstances. While an idealist by nature, he has become jaded and cynical, content to brood over situations and overanalyze things rather than take proactive steps to make his life better. When we meet him we find that little good has ever happened to him: a dysfunctional family life, few meaningful relationships, and no sense of purpose. Despite all of this, he is excellent at his job - whether it is putting heat on a member of Willie's opposition, or digging up dirt on a potential threat, he executes his duties with a grim sense of purpose. Throughout all of this, he slowly reveals the tapestry of his life, and we learn about his family, friends, and relationships. His thorough attention to detail provides us a rich picture of the events which have led to his disillusionment.
Other characters weave in and out of their lives, but Willie and Jack are the undoubtable core of this tale. Each character raises interesting questions. Jack's first story about Willie relates his uncanny ability to transform almost instantaneously from mild-mannered simpleton to a wild-eyed demagogue with a penchant for invigorating a crowd. Which is the real Willie Stark - the quiet ommoner, the wild man, or both? With Jack, you cannot help but wonder what has led to his cynicism. Throughout the story, Jack himself searches for the answer to this question, and in the course of finding the answer, he discovers himself, and ultimately sets off a startling series of events which bring the book to a powerful and moving conclusion.
Despite all of this, I found the book to be painfully hard to finish. Portions of the book, the middle section in particular, seemed to crawl along - and the complexity of Warren's use of the language only magnified the problem. While I can appreciate good imagery, page-long sentences about minutiae really try my patience. And while Jack's story eventually becomes fascinating, in the early stages of his self-exploration he has a tendency to go on long tangents about metaphysical concepts which I found hard to follow with devoted attention. While I felt the book was exceedingly long for the subject matter, I don't think there is any portion of the story that felt ripe for cutting. I think my gripe with the novel is Warren's tendency to linger on subjects, especially minor ones, for far too long. There is no doubt that his talent for imagery is extensive. But in this case, perhaps it was too extensive.
Yet I would still recommend avid readers to give the novel a try. There is no doubt that the story is interesting, assuming you can wade your way through the initial slow parts to reach the thrilling climax. And the novel is saturated with fascinating insight on humanity. There are numerous portions of the book where I became self-reflective, finding myself in Jack Burden at times. I wish I had enjoyed All the King's Men more, but the fact remains that it took a great amount of personal resolve to wade through the denseness of the book.
October 12, 2005
Thrills and Chills
So, the last two months or so have been a pretty rough time for my car and, consequently, me. Check this out:
- First I get a (completely bogus) speeding ticket. In what is becoming my yearly routine, I got the ticket the week before my birthday. It was a 16-over violation, just enough to count against insurance. The thing is, for the first time ever, I wasn't intentionally speeding when the guy clocked me. I was driving to lunch with co-workers and pulled a U-turn onto a major road, so I came up to speed quickly to avoid approaching traffic. Now the Jetta is no slouch, so it doesn't take long to get up to 45-50. I held down the accelerator a second too long and I had hit 61 just as I turned a corner and the cop was right there clocking. Not to mention that there was a red light just ahead, and we were in moderate traffic, so it's not like I was going anywhere anyways. Completely ridiculous. However, I refused to accept this one sitting down, like I did all the others. I went to court and the judge agreed to reduce it if I attend a defensive driving course. Fair enough compromise, if you ask me. Anything to keeping that insurance from skyrocketing...
- I blew a tire at like 5 AM coming home from a post-wedding party. Luckily a friend of mine had left at the same time and was close by when it blew. I ended up finding out that a screw was the culprit. Two things suck about this, besides the obvious inconvenience. First, the tires are expensive, because they are stock for the vehicle. It cost me about $280. I would much rather replace them with good tires that are much more affordable, but it doesn't make sense to do so when I'm just replacing one. Second, I had blown another tire about 2 months before this. At this rate I'm going to have to set aside a yearly budget of $1000 for the "Tire Blow-Out Fund".
- My engine light has been going off sporadically for the last month. I've had it in the shop 4 times now. It's nothing serious, but it's preventing me from getting an emissions test done, which I need to do in order to renew my very-expired tag. Not to mention that I have to keep taking it in to the shop. Last time it took them 2 days to find out that some random valve was malfunctioning, which they replaced (under warranty), only to have the light come back on a day later. I've got to take it back in Thursday yet again. You'd think a dealer service department would know how to fix their own cars...
- I got in a fender-bender about a week ago. It wasn't my fault - some moron pulled out in front of me onto a main road, and underestimated how close I was. I hit the brakes and swerved as much as possible, but he was trying to pull into a left-turn lane, which was the same direction I was swerving, so we made contact. Luckily it wasn't bad - I have a small dent near the headlight, but there is some cracking around the fender. I can't tell how deep it is - it might just be cracked paint, which would be nice. I need to get an estimate and determine if it's worth filing an insurance claim.
I could sure deal with a nice period of inactivity after my current run of luck...
Zoom Zoom
On the bright side, however, I'm going to be attending Zoom-Zoom Live in two weeks. Mazda is doing a nationwide driving experience tour to celebrate the release of the new MX-5 Miata. I'm not a huge Mazda/Miata fan, but it sounds like it's going to be a fun day. Not only will I get to test drive the new Miata as well as a Mazda 6, but there will be timed racing courses, and best of all, a performance driving class. It's at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and should be a blast. The thing that I find hilarious is that I'm going to be taking both a defensive driving class and a professional racing class, potentially on the same day. But I think we all know which one will be more useful to me (hint: the racing class).
Prison Break
I think I have a good knack at picking out good TV shows. Just take a look at my track record. Two of my favorite all-time shows are ER (still running after 11 seasons), and The X-Files (9 seasons), both of which were groundbreaking and wildly popular. I started watching both in their early stages. I knew before it began that 24 would be a huge success. I've been hooked on The Shield since the second-ever episode, and it has been one of the most successful cable TV programs ever. Two years ago I picked up The OC, which is a goldmine for Fox, and last year it was Lost, which won the Emmy for Best Drama.
I say all this to attempt to give credence to this next statement: my new show for the year is Prison Break, and I think it will prove to be the breakout hit of the year. It's not perfect, and it took awhile for me to be sure that it was worth watching, but I think it's going to turn out to be a great season of TV. The story is pretty solid and I think it's only going to get more interesting. It's not that complicated of a back-story, so you could catch up easily at any point. I would recommend checking it out...
Horror Month
Continuing in the vein of entertainment, I'm trying something for the month of October that I think will be a lot of fun. I'm giving myself a "Netflix Project". With Halloween coming up in a couple weeks, I've decided to spotlight horror films for a month, in order to see the great ones of the genre. I chose 20 films, including some genre classics, as well as some modern favorites which I haven't seen, and organized them in a rough chronological order. Here's a sneak peek of the list:
What do you think? Any must-sees that I missed? Keep in mind that I'm focusing on ones I've never seen, so that eliminates The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, Jaws, Psycho, The Birds, The Blair Witch Project, 28 Days Later, Misery, House of 1000 Corpses, Jacob's Ladder, and The Shining, in addition to several of the Jason/Freddy movies...