This post is way more feel-good than I intended
Wherein I discuss Breaking Bad, Flex Mentallo, and imagination
Currently Reading (still, if I’m honest I haven’t really read since the last time I posted):
Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark
How to Read Donald Duck by Dorfman and Mattelart
What I finished this week
Flex Mentallo by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (this is a comic)
Breaking Bad (all 5 seasons) and El Camino
My sleep schedule is outta whack in California, which in a way is a comforting return to normal. Sleeping in a bed is a huge relief, I don’t wake up with a sore back anymore. Don’t get me wrong the couch I sleep on in Florida is comfortable, or at least as comfortable as a couch could be…it does have a mattress cushion, so that’s a plus. I say all this not to elicit pity or some strange notion that I’ve been leading a hard life… it’s not ideal but again, things could be worse. I generally keep irregular sleeping hours when I’m at my best so the fact that sometimes I have trouble sleeping or wake up much later than I intended to is comforting in a way.
Anyways, I write all this as a means to explain why I haven’t provided a newsletter update in some time. I feel this need to apologize even if nobody’s expecting these in any sort of regularity and I’m unsure how many people are actually reading this lol. Anyways onto this week’s stuff.
First things first. I finished Breaking Bad and El Camino (the film that’s a sort of epilogue) last night. They were good. BB had some unevenness at points in the show and there were moments where I felt like oh that’s not a decision that made sense, but overall it was a fine show. I mentioned before I find shows about criminals refreshing because there is no illusion that bad guys deserve what they get and it’s important for some sort of cosmic justice for men that lead violent lives to have violent ends. For such a cynical genre, there is a sort of demand for this to happen. It’s important for the narrative arcs and it’s something we all expect. I see it as some sort of affirmation that exists in contrast to what we see sometimes in the real world where the “bad guy” wins oftentimes. I am speaking in a very loose sense there are many “bad guys” who aren’t drug kingpins that continue to skate by so it makes us feel good in a way to see somebody get what they deserve.
All this leads to me reading Flex Mentallo, which is a trip and a wonderful comic to read. If you’re not into comics, but want to get into it…Grant Morrison’s a good person to start with. They seem very keen to sidestep the “gritty" cynical nature so many comic writers dive into and instead offer a sort of antidote and refutation of the world being a dark place. Morrison is probably the one author who can assert “Superheros are mythology” and not annoy me. Mostly because their messaging is more along the lines of “Heroes are always alive in our imagination to save us.” which is a wonderful sentiment.
In my last post, I discussed storytelling as a sort of transmission of values, and while this does not refute that idea it also posits that some stories can be a refutation of not just other stories, but specific worldviews and that is wonderful in many ways. Pessimism and Cynicism are sometimes unavoidable when one looks at the world with so much hurt and so many people falling just short of this or that, but imagination provides us a sort of antidote to feel better about things and work towards imposing that upon reality.
No matter how bad the wicked world has hurt you, in the long run, there is something gained, and it is all for the best … The note of hope is the only note that can help us or save us from falling to the bottom of the heap of evolution, because, largely, about all a human being is, anyway, is just a hoping machine, a working machine, and any song that says, the pleasures I have seen in all of my trouble, are the things I never can get — don't worry — the human race will sing this way as long as there is a human to race.
The human race is a pretty old place.
Woody Guthrie, “Notes about Music" (29 March 1946)
I hate using block quotes it reminds me of a notable author I also hate but didn’t want to deprive ppl of this quote.
Anyways this was a surprisingly feel-good quote and I think the reason is that last week I was pretty depressed and felt like I wasn’t accomplishing shit. I had two bigger assignments to do. One is another attempt at freelancing (even if I won’t get paid) the second was about my longer-term employment prospect and well…I finished the second. So that felt good.
Alright, that’s it. I’ll come back to this and other thoughts when I have them.
Adios, Read Flex Mentallo, and think about stories.