Stumbling about a book shop looking for something to read, I came
across the name Mishima Yukio and randomly decided to take a punt on a randomly
chosen book of his. ‘The Sound of Waves’ is what I came away with: a tale of
first love – probably not the best one to have chosen really.
Humble boy fisherman Shinji starts getting boners over the mysterious
Hatsue, the returning daughter of the wealthiest man on the small island of
Utajima (‘Song Island’). Eventually meeting her and speaking to her, it’s not
long before they are stood naked before each other. But, being that they are
young, unmarried and she is the pick of the birds, it’s not long before rumour
and gossip spread rife through the community, shaming both their names.
There’s no doubt that Mishima is a good writer, with a nice, flowing
style that reads easily, but I’m not really sure what the point of this book is
– if it’s that true love shines through, then that’s just a bit shit and gay
really. But I’m sure it’s something much more along the lines of the nature of
gossip and scandal in a community that revolves around traditional values. ‘The
Sound of Waves’ is perhaps not his best work, with ‘The Sea of Fertility’ his
most celebrated work, but marks the discovery of a new writer that will
undoubtedly make an appearance in the future, despite having committed seppuku
forty-two years ago.
Days to read: 15
Days per book: 14.3
You are Nothing (Robert Wringham)
‘If you’ve only ever read one book in your life…I strongly recommend
that you keep your mouth shut.’
- Simon Munnery
It’s quite often that a lot of the furore and protest over
controversial comedies – such as the will-become-appropriate-later ‘Jerry
Springer the Opera’ – is conducted by people that have not actually seen what
they are protesting about. What they are saying, therefore, has to be taken
with a pinch of salt and filed under ‘words of a bored nutter’. But, what if
it’s the other way round, and someone shamelessly praises something that they
have never seen?
Enter Robert Wringham and his book ‘You are Nothing’, an account of the
Cluub Zarathustra comedy night from 1990s London which featured a heavyweight
line-up of Simon Munnery, Stewart Lee (Stew Art Wee), Kevin Eldon, Sally
Philips, Richard Thomas, Harry Hill, Roger Mann, Al Murray, Johnny Vegas,
Graham Linehan, Peter Baynham, Richard Herring, Julian Barratt, among others. Beyond
having seen the unaired Channel 4 pilot on YouTube and that much of Simon
Munnery’s material was later used in ‘Attention Scum’ on BBC2, I know little of
Cluub Zarathustra. But, with the list of names performing early work that would
go on to become huge stars of British comedy and Richard Herring, it’s
believable that I would have loved the experimental showcase if I had seen it.
And this is Robert Wringham’s approach: write a book about something
you’ve never seen, but assume you would have enjoyed if you had seen it, and
try to make the most of sketchy twenty year-old memories of people who were
probably drugged-up and/or drunk at the time. Speaking on ‘Richard Herring’s
Leicester Square Theatre Podcast’ (RHLSTP!), Stewart Lee jokes about the
possible validity of the idea, much has he would have questioned the argument
of the 50,000 or so Christians who took him to court over ‘Jerry Springer the
Opera’. And when reading the book, it’s hard not to have a sense of this is a
man writing close to 200 pages in rather a subjective manner about something he
never saw.
Though having said that, it is good that an account is being made at a
time when all of the performers are still in a position to still have some
memory of it, no matter how vague. Given the endless list of television shows,
stand-up performances and even films that the bit-part line-up went on to
produce, it can only be agreed that Cluub Zarathustra certainly has an
important part to play in British comedy history and is worthy of a documented
account – even though it is a Go Faster Stripe Book and will probably only be
read by a couple of hundred people at most!
A couple of years ago, I posted a comment on the Cluub Zarathustra
pilot episode on YouTube. This led to a response from a man identified only as
‘Rob’ to message me asking if I’d ever seen Cluub Zarathustra live. One can
only hope that Mr Wringham wasn’t that desperate in his research and that
anyone writing any book ever should use every other tool available to them before
asking me for my account.
Days to read: 11
Days per book: 14.2
The Motorcycle Diaries (Ernesto Che Guevara)
Watch the film, read the book, feel intellectually superior to you now
that I have read the book and you haven’t.
Gap years are great, aren’t they? Gain work experience, go travelling,
become an important politic icon of the Twentieth Century. So the film would
have you believe, anyway. This is, as stated, more of a travel log of two
friends travelling across South America, one of which went on to become a
famous Marxist revolutionary. The film plays on events having great
significance in shaping Guevara’s change in political ideology along the
journey, but that is not the case. While the travels will have undoubtedly had
an impact on his future self, he did, of course, go back to University after
the travels to finish his course.
Mainly, it is an account of naivety, blagging and having to sleep
rough. It should probably have been called ‘The Unicycle Diaries’, as La Poderosa
gave up on them quite early on and much
of the journey was spent hitching, flying in the air or sailing by boat. It was
probably this fact: travelling on foot, hitching lifts and getting in with
locals rather than speeding past on a bike that would have led to a greater
impact on Guevara, making the title seem a little ironic in hindsight.
The man he became would happen later: here he is like any other male
student, unsure where he is going, in search of adventure and having a laugh.
Now for me to write my book: ‘Travelled Round Japan, then I Became a Member of the
Green Party’…or something.
Days to read: 10
Days per book: 14.1
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