He Gets Mad Because He Can't Read
This dawns on me today after a failed attempt to kick back and read a book by John Krackauer about the Mormons while listening to the Guess Who (the irony of which I may or may not explain below): I have a hard time reading Krackauer. Not a hard time, really. It's not like Krackauer is difficult (in the way that, say Joyce's Finnegan's Wake is difficult), and it's not like he's a bad writer (in the way that, say, Jim Kilpatric's writing column is sometimes difficult). It's something to do with attitude.
His or mine, take your pick.
I read a couple of his books-- Into the Wild and Into Thin Air-- almost back to back a few years back, and pretty much enjoyed them, but I kept having this creeping feeling that I ought not to believe hi. It's not that I thought he was lying or anything, it's just that he has this kind of hipster, huckster tone of voice that makes me second guess him. Which was fine, with the Everest book in particular, because I would stop at some point, half thinking to myself this is bullshit, and then I would think back to te reportage I read of the events at the time, and go Oh, no, he's right, that's happened, or that's how that happened. But with the Mormon book, it's been harder, since when I have that this is bullshit impulse, ususally what I'm reading is a single source testimonial, mostly uncorroborated or uncorroboratable-- and it's early on in the book, so I don't know how things might develop-- so I'm left with the notion that this is bullshit.
Listening to the Guess Who while reading about the weird shit that Mormons do is ironic, in it's way, because the band (legend has it) almost broke up when Randy Bachman quit leading a rock-n-roll lifestyle conflicted with his newly refurbished Mormon upbringing. Only it's not ironic, because after Randy quit, Burton Cummings re-constituted the band with new members, and they went on to have several hits over the course of a few albums, and Randy started up another rock band and went back to having a rock-n-roll lifestyle anyways (hey, I tell the tale I heard told).
His or mine, take your pick.
I read a couple of his books-- Into the Wild and Into Thin Air-- almost back to back a few years back, and pretty much enjoyed them, but I kept having this creeping feeling that I ought not to believe hi. It's not that I thought he was lying or anything, it's just that he has this kind of hipster, huckster tone of voice that makes me second guess him. Which was fine, with the Everest book in particular, because I would stop at some point, half thinking to myself this is bullshit, and then I would think back to te reportage I read of the events at the time, and go Oh, no, he's right, that's happened, or that's how that happened. But with the Mormon book, it's been harder, since when I have that this is bullshit impulse, ususally what I'm reading is a single source testimonial, mostly uncorroborated or uncorroboratable-- and it's early on in the book, so I don't know how things might develop-- so I'm left with the notion that this is bullshit.
Listening to the Guess Who while reading about the weird shit that Mormons do is ironic, in it's way, because the band (legend has it) almost broke up when Randy Bachman quit leading a rock-n-roll lifestyle conflicted with his newly refurbished Mormon upbringing. Only it's not ironic, because after Randy quit, Burton Cummings re-constituted the band with new members, and they went on to have several hits over the course of a few albums, and Randy started up another rock band and went back to having a rock-n-roll lifestyle anyways (hey, I tell the tale I heard told).
posted by Bobo the Wandering Pallbearer at 9:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home