Every 14 Days...(14)

The Beautiful and the Grotesque (Akutagawa Ryunosuke)

Japanese literary legend Akutagawa is a writer I’ve come across more from film adaptations than actually reading his work. I have polished off a few of his shorts (boom boom) in the past, most notably ‘Rashomon’ and ‘In a Grove’, but with ‘The Beautiful and the Grotesque’ I have more than doubled the number of his works that I have consumed.

A mix of weird and wonderful, the collection is started by a rather intriguing, if not overly long and bemusing, introduction by translator, John McVittie, which sets the collection in  a strange context. Typically well written, the collection is full of interesting life lessons in short story format that chiefly inform, educate and entertain.

But while each story has its own place, reading endless back-to-back new stories can leave some flying passed with barely a word being taken in. while some show why so much has been put on his talents, others I can barely remember, and so may have to be read another day…if I can be arsed.

Days to read: 22

Days per book: 14.3

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Murakami Haruki)

From one legend of Japanese writing to a more modern day equivalent – though not so much in his motherland. And another long collection of short stories – will I ever learn?! With an introduction by the author himself, the collection is both old and new, with some of his very first short stories previously unreleased in English combined with some newer works.

Like in previous anthologies of his that I’d read, some of the shorts were turned into full novels and so some of what was read was familiar, and the inclusion of ‘Tony Takitani’, made into an excellent film, I was often aware of the end results.

The stories here all have something in common: being rather strange. As with much of his work, there has to be a sense of accepting the incredible and once that’s done, they can be enjoyed. There are hits and misses here, but overall entertaining.

This now marks my completion of all Murakami’s work translated into English and available in the UK, so someone needs to either translate his earlier stuff of he needs to write some more.

It was also while reading this book that my ‘Every 14 Days’ experiment shot to fame via Richard Herring’s ‘Warming Up’ blog. Read here and listen there. 50 books read in 716 days, falling just short of my target two years in to this failed experiment and counting…

Days to read: 16

Days per book: 14.3

I Can Make You Hate (Charlie Brooker)

The latest in the line of the father Konnie Huq’s son’s columns from ‘The Guardian’ and more of the same. With the death of his ‘Screen Burn’ column part way through the time period, some scripts from his television shows have been thrown in for fun. However, as these are items done using cutaways and video clips, they are not always as effective in print and so could have been left out at little detriment to the overall collection.

The removal of ‘Screen Burn’ means that there are less ‘Big Brother’ obsessed moments and more of a range of topics to entertain while your anus is expanded as you evacuate your bowels.

Days to read: 11

Days per book: 14.2

Back Story (David Mitchell)

Sex, drugs and rock n roll. This is neither the time nor the place.

It’s fair to say that David Mitchell hasn’t exactly lived a wild and crazy existence up until now. Despite obviously having the interesting aspect of a career in television comedy to comment on, his life outside of work could be described as quite unremarkable: He went to a minor public school, then was chairman of Footlights at Cambridge before taking the leap to work low level jobs in London while trying to fulfil the ambition of a career in the media that many fail to achieve.

While he’d certainly be the most interesting of your friends and one to definitely include on the invites to a dinner party, he has little of a love life in which to speak of and the only real scandal surrounding him is that he isn’t as similar to Mark Corrigan in real life as one might have originally thought. And that’s what makes this a more interesting autobiography than many.

Keeping in line with a lack of any shocking life events of which to speak, the memoir is based around the fact that after suffering from a bad back, he was encouraged to take walks to improve his physical state. Staring off in his home in Kilburn, Mitchell makes his way through the London streets, ending at Television Centre, Wood Green. Along the journey, various landmarks recall a chronological account of the various stages of his life. Maybe not completely original in chronological and metaphorical recounting, but nice nonetheless.

What it lacks in shock value it makes up for in pure pedantry in his trademark logical manner. It’s an honest account – particularly regarding his recent engagement – and provides insight into his opinions on how television works and why most of it is lacking. And if reading at Waterloo Station, a fat woman might say ‘good choice’ to you.

Days to read: 19

Days per book: 14.3

Every 14 Days...(10)

My Name is Daphne Fairfax: A Memoir (Arthur Smith)

To me, Arthur Smith was a moaning old bastard that always seems to be reading an audio book whenever I’m in the car with my dad. More and more, I would see him on telly – and not just repeats of the Red Dwarf ‘Backwards’ episode, and eventually live at various Radio 4 recordings, as I myself became a moaning old bastard.

But I must admit I only really know the moaning old bastard Arthur Smith of the last decade; I know little of his time before he became either old, moaning and/or a bastard, and so for once, I actually read an autobiography that had featured some things I didn’t expect. For one, he’s not even called Arthur; he’s Brian to his friends – Arthur being his middle name – and his life has been one much more sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll than I had anticipated.

This isn’t the most revealing or creative memoir ever, but it doesn’t need to be, being well written and painting an interesting picture of stand-up from the 80s onwards, as well as life in South London over the latter half of the 20^th Century.

Days to read: 14

Days per book: 14.5

Burmese Days (George Orwell)

I remember having to read ‘Animal Farm’ in English Literature at school when I was about 13 and thought: ‘He’s done quite well there.’ Probably about 13 years later, I read that other famous book that he wrote and was of a similar opinion that he deserved a good ol’ fashioned slap on the back for it. I decided to wait a little less time before reading another of his novels, his first: ‘Burmese Days’.

Based on his time spent as a policeman in Burma it’s a tale of colonial life for Brits abroad in their new habitat with the ‘inferior’ natives. So controversial was it in raising issues regarding colonial rule, it wasn’t published in the UK for quite some time, and only then in a version less likely to raise stiff, upper eyebrows as to the attitudes and behaviour of the British out in the Empire and the forgotten nature of their existence back home.

Spend a good amount of time over a two day period reading this and you will start to think in early 20th Century Orwellian language, such is the descriptive nature of the language here. It is another work by him with brilliant social comment and paints a picture of a bleak society that goes unspoken. He really was good, wasn’t he? Here, have another slap on the back, my learned friend.

Days to read: 11

Days per book: 14.4

The Hell of it All (Charlie Brooker)

The third book of his articles about television and stuff in general taken from the Guardian, and is much more of the same. Though, sometimes I do think he should have edited out some of the specific ‘Big Brother’, ‘Apprentice’ and ‘X factor’ articles, as: a) I did/do not watch any; and b) most people will forget the contestants in these shows the week after they finish, let alone recall them two or three years down the line, making many articles, while funny, quite irrelevant.

Days to read: 13

Days per book: 14.3

So, that’s it. With my travelling in Japan for three months, I took seven (count them) books with me to get me through my time in Asia, starting with ‘Dawn of the Dumb’. I have now completed them all with best part of a month still to go, leaving me blank for a while. Oh no wait, my girlfriend’s arrived in Japan to bring me some more…

Every 14 Days...(9)

Disgusting Bliss: The Brass Eye of Chris Morris (Lucian Randall)

I’d read that Lucian Randall’s book around the career of Chris Morris rarely goes into too much depth and so would add little to the knowledge of one of his fans. While keeping himself out of the spotlight, his work has always come under great scrutiny for its controversial nature and subject matter. So, while a book around the enigmatic and semi-mythical man maybe interesting, does it add anything?

Essentially, no. Much of the first half of the book focuses on the ‘On the Hour’ team, their various disputes and the transition to television spawning a long list of individual career pathways. Most of which can be gained from 'The Day Today’ DVD extras, any work of Lee and Herring in the 90s and having heard the name Steve Coogan. While offering the odd tid-bit here and there, it doesn’t add much to the bank of comedy trivia.

As the title suggests, much of the fruit of the work revolves around ‘Brass Eye’ and its various controversies; and it does offer some extra depth to that which may already be known. But, while ‘Disgusting Bliss’ serves as a good story of Chris Morris’ career, it’s more of a chronological summary, whereas something more creative would have been better. Most of the main players involved are referenced and quoted throughout, but in many ways, it feels more like a fan writing about his hero, though anything else would prove tricky when writing about such an elusive subject.

Days to read:14

Days per book: 15.3

Dawn of the Dumb (Charlie Brooker)

Returning to the sometimes Chris Morris collaborator’s collection of articles for The Guardian, ‘Dawn of the Dumb’ is ‘Screen Burn Part II’, continuing to feature his ‘Screen Burn’ column, as well as extra pieces written for the newspaper.

The latter stands the test of time a little better, being more a collection of his thoughts and musings that are less dated than his various whining over ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.  Much like with ‘Screen Burn’ before it, it is laugh out loud (LOL) funny in parts, though also drags if reading too much at once. Here also, his obsessions over ‘Big Brother’ seem to dominate many articles, with little said about other shows on television at the time, apart from any ITV ‘talent’ show and ‘Dragons’ Den’, which have become new targets for his rage here.

Again, brilliant in parts; this could serve as an article a day toilet roll!

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 15.2

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (David Simon)

So, having finally seen ‘The Wire’, I thought I’d go to the original research material that created it: ‘Homicide’, especially as I had a 3 month trip coming up, it’s a long old read and was only £4. Not just in weight terms, but much like the ‘The Wire’ this is heavy stuff, with plenty of depth into character backgrounds , with numerous personalities to follow. This is essentially a journalistic account of the year David Simon spent with the Baltimore Homicide Department, watching their every move and documenting their lives. Everything here then is real.

Three things are covered in the book: Firstly the backgrounds of each of the detectives in the department, all of whose identities are included; details of the murders that they worked over the course of 1988; and lastly descriptions of the process in which the detectives work.  This is a full and detailed research project that formed the basis for much of the television work Simon has since been part of.

Perhaps having just watched ‘The Wire’ all the way through, I can’t help but picture each of the detectives included in their on-screen personas, which probably clouds a lot of my reading here, and so, it probably wasn’t as rewarding for me to read this. Indeed, with so much detail to follow, it can be easy to miss parts of entire story threads and feel bogged-down with information. But reading this only adds to the credibility of the television series, knowing that much of it was based on real detectives working real cases.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 15.1

Kitchen (Banana Yoshimoto)

So, next I decided to have a look at the debut novels of two of Japan’s better known authors throughout the world: Murakami Ryu, who I’ve read before; and Banana Yoshimoto, who is new to me. Starting with the latter, I quickly worked through the short ‘Kitchen’, Yoshimoto’s debut from 1988.

My first reaction is that this is a book written by a woman, for women. There is a bit too much sentiment in the writing style, with the narration has far too much subjectivity too it than I like, feeling a bit more like an extended list of what the character was feeling each moment, not letting the reader draw their own conclusions. This left me a little like how I felt after reading Xinran’s ‘The Good Women of China’: feeling like I am too stupid to understand how those involved may or may not feel.

But it’s not all bad. The writing improves as the book progresses, and this edition comes with the short (carried away by a…) ‘Moonlight Shadow’ which is an improvement on ‘Kitchen’. Banana Yoshimoto is lauded by many, but doesn’t really do it for me. Though, all that have mentioned liking her have been women. But, in the words of Mike Newell ‘I know that sounds sexist, but I am a sexist.’

Days to read: 7

Days per book: 14.8

Almost Transparent Blue (Murakami Ryu)

Off the back of the success of Miike Takeshi’s ‘Audition’, I read Murakami’s book that it was based on. Enjoying it, I followed it up with his ‘In the Miso Soup’, which I also liked. His debut, written when he was 23, winning him the Akutagawa Prize, is a far more complex affair than the simple, easy to read novels from later in his career.

To start, the writing style is a little confused: It continually switches between an endless stream of consciousness from the narrator’s perspective, to structured dialogue between the characters. Speaking of the characters, none really seem to develop personalities or idiosyncrasies here. Combined with the writing style, it is often difficult to tell who is actually speaking, though in the context of the story, it almost seems unnecessary, melding into a ball of different voices as the characters seem to.

With little in the way of character identity thrown into a world of endless drug abuse and sex, there is no real sympathy or empathy with any characters. All seem far too preoccupied with heroin and penis size to truly care for, making you relieved that it’s only a short piece. The main point of intrigue here is that the lead shares the authors name, hinting at a semi-autobiographical nature, as does the strange ‘Letter to Lilly’ at the book’s close. Other intrigue comes in the setting: a small Japanese town with a US Army base, leading to some insight to the opinion of the Japanese to Their US guests in the 1970s.

Like ‘Kitchen’, it improves as it goes, though in a short work, that isn’t really a good thing, and the lack of any real story make this simply a graphic description of drug and sex parties among a band of losers, though perhaps that is what people looked for in it. But not for me.

Despite their success, neither Yoshimoto’s nor Murakami’s debuts did much for me. Murakami is a writer I would say has definitely improved since, though the extent I will both to consider another Yoshimoto book is debatable. Though willing to try…

Days to read: 6

Days per book: 14.5

I've Never Seen The Wire

‘Now, normally when you see a special about jail, it’s on regular TV and there’s a lot of shit they don’t show. Oh, not the HBO jail specials...’ Chris Rock

Let’s say someone tells you they’ve just seen the greatest film of all time, and then that film turns out to be ‘Top Secret’ starring Val Kilmer. Whether or not you actually like the film, you will always walk away disappointed by the fact that you have not seen the greatest film ever made, despite Val Kilmer’s performance.

The audacity of hype often makes seeing something irrelevant, as however good someone says something is, the reality will get nowhere near to touching the excitement that your imagination will create. ‘The Hunger Games’ is not going to be the ‘film event of 2012’; it’s going to be shit.

I often found myself watching HBO’s ‘Oz’ late night on Channel 4 in the late 90s, when the channel was still reasonable. So, when mutterings among friends mentioned ‘The Wire’, a show that features many similar cast members as ‘Oz’, I could see myself believing that it might actually be ‘one of the greatest TV shows ever made.’

But, having never actually seen it for myself, I left it at that; what I can’t see, can’t entertain me. But as the name came up more and more, I decided that it probably would disappoint, never having heard a bad word said against it. I didn’t need to see it. I can sit comfortably knowing that it is one of the greatest television shows ever made without ever having seen it, much like how Christians treat their relationship to ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera.’

But maybe I should.

So, waiting for an adequate moment – say, quitting my job – to sit back to watch 60 episodes worth, I proceeded to borrow the box set and let the inevitable disappointment enrapture me.

I was soon disappointed to discover I had not been disappointed. Probably the first time since I first saw the whole first series of ‘Peep Show’, I actually wanted to watch as much as possible, putting off silly chores such as sleep to get through the first few episodes of the first season. A lot has been said about ‘The Wire’ being more novel than television show, and that is exactly how it works: every second has to be taken into fully understand what is going on and follow the many characters and each of their individual storylines.

With so much detail put into even the smallest regular characters, each is realistic, with charm, flaws, personal problems and an inability to speak clearly. Also, the fact that main characters can go missing for a few episodes if not relevant to the main storyline gives it an edge over many shows which serve more as a vehicle for overpaid celebrity. The cast, as well as the viewers, are in this for the long haul.

The creators/writers and many cast members having actually been part of homicide in Baltimore also adds to the realism, with former child murderer Felicia Pearson playing a hit-woman and Method Man playing a man with an actual Wu-Tang Clan tattoo, as well as Brits playing various degrees of convincing Maryland accents.

Much can be said about the level of depth, the multi-layered storylines, the social comment, the believable characters, the focusing on every aspect of crime, and I’m sure many others can do it better than me. But, with the understated nature of much of what takes place, for once you feel you are watching a television show that is about telling a story.

I easily missed ‘The Wire’; it being shown on random channel FX and at a not-exactly-noticeable-time on BBC Two, but perhaps that’s a good thing. There was not as much publicity that I’m aware of as doled out for other hour-long US drama series; the hype came more from people that had seen it and liked it (and not just on Facebook), with claims of it being ‘the greatest’ coming after people had seen it, rather than before. 

Every 14 Days...(8)

The If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One EP (Stewart Lee)

After his last book, ‘How I Escaped My Certain Fate’, in which he annotates transcriptions of his three stand-up DVDs to date, Stewart Lee follows up his ‘LP’ with an ‘EP’ of his most recent live DVD along similar lines.

It’s an interesting approach to the autobiography, adding stories behind the routines to document the real-life events that inspired the falsified anecdotes.

To read, it is horrible; constantly switching between footnotes and the main body, confusing as to which page you are actually meant to be on. But for the diehard comedy purist, it’s an insightful work to inspire another viewing of the DVD. However, what’s most interesting about this book is that it was first published in 2012, yet I bought it off the man himself in December 2011.

Days to read: 4

Days per book: 15.7

Bye Bye Balham (Richard Herring)

Essentially, this book is pointless.  The numerous unsold copies that haunt the writer’s basement –hindering both players’ shooting angles in his Me1 vs. Me2 snooker podcasts – are testament to this. Any pathetic human, such as me, can log-on to www.richardherring.co.uk and click on ‘Warming Up’ and read the blog that he has kept every day since 25^th November, 2002. Coincidentally, the same date that I started this little reading adventure (well, actually 26^th November).

‘Bye Bye Balham’ is the first six months of the blog in published book form, looking back at the words he wrote from 2008, adding information here and there. But, being that there is no porn on his website (sex porn, anyway), I have little to no interest in spending too long on his website (or any website for that matter) and so would much rather read the words on page than on screen.

Perhaps, though, the only reason he decided to publish this as a book in 2008 is that he knew that in January 2012, I would be spending a lot of time journeying up and down the Northern Line to and from Balham appreciating the irony each time.

Days to read: 16

Days per book: 15.7

TV Go Home: TV Listings the Way they should be (Charlie Brooker)

Completing the trilogy of comedians that wrote the pile of books I have to get through (can anyone guess what I got for Christmas?!), Charlie Brooker’s TV listings mockery was next on my chortle-sphere.

I’ve got more and more into Mr Konni Huq’s BBC Four shows over the last couple of years, and having enjoyed much of his screenplay writing, I thought it best I read some of his paper book writes as well. ‘TV Go Home’ is essentially the RadioTimes written by a man angry at how shit most television is, with falsely created TV shows to put an ironic spin on how most of television works, as well as hit-out at Shoreditch-based media types.

My balls did hurt in parts with laughing at some of the sheer outrageous and absurd ideas he concocts, though many programme premises are – this is a man who had the idea of the Prime Minister fucking a pig made into a commissioned programme. But as an overall read, it’s not one to sit down for long sessions with – having been based on a magazine – and thus, I hang my head in shame, Stewart Lee, it makes a great toilet book.

Days to read: 10

Days per book: 15.5

The Perfect Fool (Stewart Lee)

Wow! Those books I got for Christmas written by TV funny men (Richard Herring just wants to be on telly!) just keep coming!

A novel, I hear you cry. Indeed yes, a novel based on the Native American concept of the ‘perfect fool’: where a member of society plays the role of the fool in order to work as an example to others. Here numerous ‘fools’ each live out their equally ridiculous lives (in Balham and other such places) with seemingly no conclusion in sight, before they all meet in the deserts of Arizona.

This is stand-up Stewart Lee’s sole novel to date and starts as quite a struggle of a read. While outshining the works of say, Chris Moyles, the initial chapters feel rather conceited as Lee tries to use too grandiose a writing style to distinguish his work as literature among the throngs of pulp fiction. However, sticking with it, this soon becomes less of a problem as the story develops.

The various characters require some leaps of faith in the reader to make them believable and some of their actions towards the end seem a little out-of-place. But much like his comedy, this does raise some interesting points, whether you think it’s good or bad and raises Lee above some of the more foolish titles on the shelves…such as the works of Kipling. You are shit Rudyard!

Days to read: 9

Days per book: 15.3

Screen Burn (Charlie Brooker)

Part two of making my way through the books of Charlie Brooker is ‘Screen Burn’: a collection of works from his column of the same name the ‘The Guide’ in The Guardian. Now, the problem with reading this is that you have to cast your mind back to the years 2000-2004 and much of the television that was broadcast over this period. This is, however, the time when I was at University and staying in of a night to while away in front of the ol’ radiation king was not top of my list of priorities.

While much of the book is undeniably funny, with various social comments and guffaw-inducing remarks about popular culture, a lot of time is spent wracking the brain as to whether or not you can remember, or have even heard of, the various shows to which he is referring. Though, while some quick references may pass you by, the entertainment value is higher than most books as you read the pages of a man condemning the very thing he loves.

At 360 pages, this can become a little tired – with each article only around two pages long – and repetitive; never really able to get into the book in a long session, making it not really one for a long journey. But it was never intended to be anything more, as the writer himself describes ‘one easy-to-read-on-the-toilet package’. Are all his books toilet books?!

Days to read: 16

Days per book: 15.3