Jonathan Lethem and "Brooklyn Crime Novel" January 3rd @ 12pm SLT
His avatar is still a yellow duck (you figure it out!) and we will still meet on the beach instead of a noisy intersection in Gowanus because in Second Life we can!
Jonathan Lethem (friend of the show, who even made it onto the cover of PCGamer one time) has written a new book and it is about … Brooklyn.
Now Drax’ (talking about him in the 3rd person again? What gives?) first thought was: “… nooo what do I care about a place I never been?”
But 2 minutes into this incredible tale about remembering and forgetting childhood (trauma?), fragmented as it is by design, just like our memories, building towards something, something we can not be sure of, we are not being assured by the narrator: a conclusion like in an “actual” crime novel perhaps? Will it be delivered?
Yes: 2 minutes into “Brooklyn Crime Novel” I am so hooked that I am sitting here with Google Maps open, tracing the steps of the protagonists, taking notes on the history of gentrification as it applies to various intertwined neighborhoods, and I am in awe of the magic only literature can deliver …
But then I feel sorry for Jonathan having to demystify his latest, on SL Book Club Island #2, on the beach we built for his appearance talking “The Arrest”.
Why? Well, because I feel like cheating me, him, the audience, every potential reader, because when we dissect these works, I feel we strip that magic like we strip off old paint during renovating a Brownstone interior we bought in pre-gentrified Boerum Hill.
Works like Jonathan’s new novel, works of fiction that allow you to build worlds in our heads, our very own worlds actually, not just Yet Another World, these books will last and retain this magic, if we let them!
Instead I just want to scream (like the “Screamer”, a character in the novel): “JUST BUY THIS DAMN BOOK AND READ IT!”
Ok, I done it. Let’s hope the cops don’t show up …
Now back to listening to “Trout Mask Replica”, remastered version of course, not like the original vinyl that makes a cameo in the book!
See you in-world at showtime = January 3rd at 12pm Pacific!