CSotD: Smooth moves and old stories
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Start with Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, which happens to tie into this Hemingway spoof I posted on Facebook yesterday. Ironically, "A Moveable Feast" is firmly anchored at my house: It's next to the john, because I was decluttering and donating and came across it and thought, "Well, I suppose I ought to read it first."
Reading "The Crack-Up" ruined any chance I had of enjoying Fitzgerald's writing, because it reveals how he squirreled away precious little descriptions to later jam into his novels like Cinderella's sisters trying to make the glass slipper fit. But at least it was published posthumously by his friends.
By contrast, and fittingly, Hemingway prepared most of "A Moveable Feast" himself (his third wife's final edit being posthumous), and my problem with it is not what it reveals about his style, which remains sparse and eloquent, but about his own preening, pompous character.
He was a tourist.
It works wonderfully in "The Sun Also Rises," because Jake Barnes is, literally, a tourist at San Fermin and he is also an outsider in Paris and tragically distanced by his war wound from love. His lack of genuineness is central to the book, and what fascinates me about it is how, the older I get, the more I fail to feel the romance of the story.
Which I discovered somewhat by accident: I hadn't read the book in more than a decade when I recommended it to a GF who was in her mid-30s and nobody's fool. She finished it and said, "I couldn't stand any of these people."
So I read it again myself and, while I found much to admire in the writing, I agreed with her distaste for the characters. I found myself feeling sorry for poor Robert Cohn and that hapless toreador.
But there was a Brett Ashley in my life, too, Jake, and, in my 20s, losing her was indeed tragically romantic. However, the more I learn about life, the more I realize it was a bullet dodged.
Anyway, about SMBC: "The Old Man and the Sea" is one of those books teachers assign for three reasons:
1. It's short enough that some of the kids will actually read it.
2. Nobody can possibly misconstrue the symbolism.
3. They were assigned it when they were students.
It's too bad that Hemingway didn't write the one about the pickle jar, though, because the old man would have known the pickle-maker personally, and the pickle-maker would have greatly respected and admired the old man for his knowledge of brining, and of spices, and of all that is true and good about preserving cucumbers, and he would particularly respect the old man for eating his pickles with good, plain crackers, salted fish and a shot of the strong white Cuban rum.
By Contrast
Tank McNamara's love-life is particularly fun because, unlike that pendejo Jake Barnes, he not only knows how much he doesn't know in general, but how little he knows about women in particular. I will leave it to women readers to decide how attractive that is, but I have a theory.
Today's strip reminds me of a thing from the old days that was featured in a movie or TV show or two but that sometimes happened in real life, where you started a first date by suggesting you kiss right now so you could put the nervousness behind you and enjoy the evening.
The problem was, it was a move disguised as a non-move, so, if she went for it, she either had a really good sense of humor or she was completely gullible, which meant the evening would be just fine but it sure left the future up in the air.
Anyway, now that nobody smokes anymore, the thing of lighting two cigarettes at once and handing one to her is pretty much off the board, so you've gotta do what you can.
Last Chance! Order Today!
Okay, this is nearly a complete conflict-of-interest, but my pal-and-frequent-collaborator Chris Baldwin has a Little Dee graphic novel coming out in April, which you can preorder now or order then or whenever you like.
However, as is generally the case in such things, he is contractually required to stop selling his own, self-published Little Dee collections at midnight tonight. So, if you want to own the original versions, this is your last chance.
The non-conflict-of-interest recommendation is that I gave a copy of one of them to a granddaughter a few Christmases ago and, when she opened it, she laughed and said, "You gave me this last year." I apologized and she said, "No, that's okay. I love it!"
So buy several copies.
Don't wait another day to order!
Juxtaposition of the Day
Two cartoonists with very different lines and very different political orientations.
Kal manages to focus on two major issues in the hand-off from old 2015 to young 2016, which is particularly clever in that so many people seem to think you can only care about one of them. Not sure the Old Guy's idea is gonna work, but at least he's trying.
Meanwhile, I would have used different labels than Gary, but there's nothing there that doesn't at least "also" belong, and I love both his line (as always, even when I disagree with his point) and the overall setting and concept, which seems fresh.
"Fresh" can be hard to come by in this last week of the year, and tomorrow we'll get into some not-so-new-New-Year's-cartoons: Different issues but many familiar approaches.
In any case, the lack of dialog in Varvel's cartoon makes the thing work extremely well — the facial expressions say far more than could have been written.
More year-end stuff:
Sheldon is doing a few days of "Best of 2015." This was the first in the series and you can use the arrows to go from there.
Good stuff.
And Michael Cavna has a look at his 2015 cartooning/reportage over at Comics Riffs.
And I wish Gary Clement had gotten an English major to tighten up his scansion, but I love his A-to-Z wrap on the year.
Hit This at Midnight
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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