What I’m reading: A Fan’s Notes
What I’m listening to: Oblivion with Bells
What I’m watching: Gerald Green’s cupcake dunk.
What I’m drinking: Water. I’m taking a few days off from the lush life.
Where I’m going: Home!
What I’m happy about: Surprising my brother by coming out to St. Louis for his 40th birthday party last night.
What I’m sad about: Boarding my 4th Embraer ERJ 145 in a span of 52 hours. (We also had a party in Tulsa this weekend.)
What I’m pondering: This post from Donald Pittenger on great artists who hit a peak and never manage to come anywhere near it again. I thought Philip Roth’s late run makes for a good counter-example, but I know a lot of people find him irrelevant.
1. What caused you to re-read A Fan’s Notes?
2. That Pittenger quote and the essay that preceded it has a fatal flaw in that it depends on widespread acclamation as the standard for great works. You can argue it’s our buying into that notion that’s the trap, not someone’s desire to make great work.
Also, the only thing wrong with Welles post-CK career is that the bar was set way too high by CK. Okay, that and the Transformers movie.
I started re-reading A Fan’s Notes because THE GIANTS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!!
That was pretty much my only reason. I still enjoyed the first 100-150 pages, it REALLY falls off a cliff once the Chicago / Bunny Sue section begins. I’ll finish it off on the flight home, I guess.