I can announce now with great pleasure that I AM still capable of reading a grown-up book. And a very fine one it is, too. Titled Spectacular Happiness, it is set in my former stomping grounds of Cape Cod, and is most wonderfully a tale of exactly a form of anarchy I have long practiced in my heart and mind: the destruction of the monster houses built by people with more money than soul along the beachfront, or on narrow strips of dune. The author is Peter D. Kramer, and I'll have more to say when I've finished the book. I'm not very far into it yet, but am entirely in love with this man's writing.
I am actually reading another book as well, but I've been working on this one for some time: Killing the Buddha, by Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlett, the guys responsible for the website of the same name as the book. Jacket copy says "...a many-colored, positively riveting look at the facets of true belief. Together these curious minds tell the strange, funny, sad and true story of religion in America for the spiritual seeker in all of us: A Heretic's Bible." As I say, I began the book some time ago, and set it down to read some trashy fiction, I'm sure. Now, however, I am most interested in becoming more acquainted with religion in America, the phenom that seems to be credited with winning the election for Bush. This is a phenomenon that needs to be understood if we are to ever get this country back on any true moral footing. I can't believe we have come to the place where people's private sexuality and decisions about their own bodies are the only manifestation of morality that the public cares about. Religion, morality, spirituality, obsession, fanaticism, realms that seem to have interwoven in a strange and scary way.
3 comments:
Both books sound fascinating. I've long enjoyed the KTB website. I do think we as a culture are at an interesting time in terms of religion, morality, politics and ethics. Where we're headed is interesting but scary if we mess it up.
Ummm...don't attack your anarchy too fiercely. The industry I work in caters to people who can afford those behemoth homes. ;-)
I've been studying religion off and on for quite a few years. I've got a stack of books I have yet to dive into about cultural anthropology because I think that's where all religion started. When man began settling down and not roaming for food, 'he' began developing rituals. Rituals beget religion. (IMO) :-) ---Robbie
So I read Spectacular Happiness over Christmas. I can't say I liked it as much as you seem to. I was quite taken with the narrator's anguish over his relationship with his son; that was the part that rang truest to me. But the matter-of-fact relating of his story about blowing up the houses -- he and his friend (I forget her name) seemed really disturbed. But then -- they were. And I guess his ability to dissociate himself from what they were doing was part of the point.
I did get hold of Killing the Buddha tonight so I'm about to go get started on that.
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