{"id":5605,"date":"2010-10-01T04:00:07","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T08:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=5605"},"modified":"2010-10-01T08:46:49","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T12:46:49","slug":"unrequired-reading-october-1-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-october-1-2010","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: October 1, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sorry about the lack of an Unrequired Reading last week. I was way too busy helping put on our conference. I’m way too busy finishing the October issue now, but I figure you deserve some of this.<\/p>\n

Okay, this is Required \u00e2\u20ac\u201d albeit depressing \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Reading: my pal Mitch Prothero writes about Gaza and life under Hamas rule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Lefties: we’re sinister and gauche<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I was hoping Hadji Murat<\/em> would make this list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Between thought and expression lies . . . a parking lot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Jim Woodring: real genius<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Jimmy Olsen: not exactly genius, but pretty awesome<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Oh-oh-OH Canada<\/a>!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I thought women’s runway shows were supposed to be outrageous, impossible fashions, but the stuff in this D&G show<\/a> looks publicly wearable. (And, MAN, are these girls gorgeous.)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Going to St. John’s College was the best choice I ever made<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The real Withnail<\/a>: he’s no Richard E. Grant, but hey.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Zeppelin Led: the tippy-top of the Empire State Building<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

No Nachos Galacticos<\/a>?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I have a feeling the humidity in Costa Rica would wreak havoc on all those books, but this house is still bee-yoo-tiful<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Don’tletthishappentotheYankees. Don’tletthishappentotheYankees. Don’tletthishappentotheYankees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

There are many reasons I have no interest in reading Freedom<\/a>\"\", the new Jonathan Franzen novel. First and foremost is that I thought The Corrections<\/a>\"\" was lightweight and dull, and that critics who praised it were unjustifiably trying to make it An Important Novel Of Our Time so that they could feel like they were part of something important. But one of Franzen’s literary idols, William Gaddis, once wrote something to the effect of alchemy being useless in an age where there is no gold. Anyway, here’s B.R. “A Reader’s Manifesto<\/a>\"\"” Myers’ takedown of Freedom<\/em><\/a>, and Jessa “Bookslut<\/a>” Crispin’s explanation of why she doesn’t plan to read the book<\/a>. Me? I’m gonna get back to Homer and Jaime Hernandez.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Okay, before I go: Mick Foley meets Tori Amos<\/a> (not in a steel cage).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorry about the lack of an Unrequired Reading last week. I was way too busy helping put on our conference. I’m way too busy finishing the October issue now, but I figure you deserve some of this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,1023,4,40,17,20,32],"tags":[1155,1159,1156,378,1158,1154,489,1160,507,76,1157,1153],"class_list":["post-5605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-fashion","category-literature","category-music","category-politics-explicit","category-religion","category-sports","tag-b-r-myers","tag-dolce-gabbana","tag-jessa-crispin","tag-jim-woodring","tag-jimmy-olsen","tag-jonathan-franzen","tag-mick-foley","tag-mitch-prothero","tag-richard-e-grant","tag-st-johns-college","tag-tori-amos","tag-withnail-i"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1sp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5826,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-december-31-2010","url_meta":{"origin":5605,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: December 31, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"December 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy New Year's Eve, dear readers! Welcome to the final installment of Unrequired Reading! That's right! Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary story! This feature is O-V-E-R! For a while now, I felt like I've been battling against the tide of instant\/mini-blogging by posting a weekly collection\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16142,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-544-mitchell-prothero","url_meta":{"origin":5605,"position":1},"title":"Episode 544 – Mitchell Prothero","author":"Gil","date":"June 27, 2023","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 544: Mitchell Prothero \"If you deregulate the global economy to the point where you can move whatever you want, wherever and whenever, and you deregulate financial controls so that it's easy to shift money around and hide it, then you're going to get a massive amount of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/protherocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C508&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/protherocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C508&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/protherocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C508&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/protherocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C508&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/protherocomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C508&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1578,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-july-7-2007","url_meta":{"origin":5605,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: July 7, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"July 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"You know the drill: lots of neat links after \"more\": Like most people, I assumed authoritarian China would overwhelm Hong Kong after the handover. Now I'm starting to think HK's capitalist fervor has infected the rest of the country. Happy 10th anniversary. * * * An Unrequired Reading post without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Design"","block_context":{"text":"Design","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/design"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2901,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-nov-14-2008","url_meta":{"origin":5605,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Nov. 14, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"November 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Time for another roundup of oddball links, dear readers! Just click more! From the Batter Blaster to Rocket Balls! * * * Yarr! Movie-time, mateys! * * * The former Jane Galt on saving the rust belt. (Of course, it's not just the Big 3 2.5) * * * The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1116,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-2","url_meta":{"origin":5605,"position":4},"title":"Unrequired Reading","author":"Gil","date":"September 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I've decided to make Unrequired Reading a regular post on Friday mornings. It'll consist of the same stuff I was posting at random in the past few weeks. Which is to say, thanks to the miracle of RSS feeds, VM goofs around online so you don't have to. As my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1286,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-jan-12-2007","url_meta":{"origin":5605,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Jan. 12, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"January 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time for some post-birthday Unrequired Reading, dear unrequired readers! Christopher Hitchens \"reviews\" Ann Coulter. * * * Idiocracy is out on DVD. * * * An even-handed take on the mystery of how much oil is really remaining in the earth. * * * The zen of Jimmy Buffett.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5607,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605\/revisions\/5607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}