Sir Salman Rushdie

Yup. You read that correctly.

Author, political critic, and dare I say humorist Sir Salman Rushdie paid a visit to Greensboro last night for the next installment in the Guilford College lecture series: Literature and Politics in the Modern World. Riveting. Fatwa be damned!!!

At one time, novels were one of the main sources for news and information concerning the world around us. Take Charles Dickens. Whether it was reporting on substandard children's orphanages or frankly inventing a lot of Christmas, his novels reported on the state of the world, fomenting change where needed. With the multitude of avenues to receive news nowadays, some say today's novels fall by the wayside and do not provide this service to society anymore. Rushdie says hogwash.

When the state mandates that Item A is the "truth", and an author writes a novel from his/her own perspective and states the TRUE Item B in their book, the author has become a political author.

The differing importance of the Napoleonic Wars to Tolstoy and Austen are interesting. Tolstoy brings a version of the Russian front in War and Peace from his own perspective, virtually bringing to light a worldview of the Russian military leader Kutuzov that stems mainly from the book's exploits versus more timid real-time "newsy" accounts. Jane Austen uses military figures in her romance novels merely as pretty party guests in impeccable attire, nevermind the war of the time that was ravaging. The war did not affect her lifestyle as it did Tolstoy.

The novel is not a mouthpiece of the state, a nation, a religion, a cause. The novel is the perspective of the author alone; the thoughts and vision of the world through the eyes of the author. The novel still has a place in the world for political and newsy topics.

Afterward, I had the privilege to have three books signed by Rushdie. Invigorating. So cool to meet the man. The line was immense and time was short, so no personal photo op with him. But he's caught for posterity signing my books, including the eponymous The Satanic Verses.

NPR interview: "Charles Ardai: Hard Case Shows a Soft Spot for Pulp"

May 5, 2008: Chris hears an NPR interview with Charles Ardai, the founder of Hard Case Crime. [What's that, you ask? Why, re-read this post to find out: http://thehouseofgordon.blogspot.com/2008/05/hard-case-crime.html]

May 30, 2008: the first shipment of books arrives at the House of Gordon.

October 17, 2008: a repeat of the interview is played this afternoon on NPR's Fresh Air.

The 30-minute interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=90183296&m=95822697

The House of Gordon collection so far:
They're a LOT of fun!

Monday 08.25.08

The Tattered Cover bookstore, pictured at left, was a home away from home for Chris. Coffee, books, and political ramblings and rumblings all under one roof? Sign me up! The building just SMELLED of books. When you open an old hardcover and stick your nose in the binding, THAT smell. It was wonderful. Getting up early, making the drive into Denver, then waking up completely with good coffee surrounded by books and the granola-types and the pretentious and the learned and the stuffy. Hmmm, what category do I fit in?...

Anyway, it pays to hang around the center of political discourse and whatnot, because look what came home to North Carolina:Neato.

16th Street is a mall downtown where no vehicles are allowed, except for mall buses. Shops and restaurants and boutiques and the like. Blocks and blocks and blocks. Quite a hike from top to bottom, but it was the place to people watch and basically see some of the more, um, "reasonable" people this world has to offer:










Lunch was yet another brewpub: Rock Bottom Brewery on 16th Street. Sure it's a chain, but Rock Bottom always has a soft spot in our hearts, especially when we were chosen to "test out" the service at the Cleveland Rock Bottom right before it opened...and we begged and pleaded and received their recipe for Asiago Cheese Dip and Beer Bread. Yum!

After more sightseeing and browsing, the shining moment of the day: a fundraiser for Al Franken, Democratic nominee for senator from Minnesota. A website that listed all sorts of events for non-delegate, non-lobbying commonfolk had this listed. Being a fellow left-leaning liberal, Chris jumped at the chance to do this. A mere $250 donation to the Al Franken campaign got Chris a ticket to a law office downtown and a private reception with Mr. Franken. Damn, this was so cool. Hors d'oeuvres, wine, and again Fat Tire beer were all complimentary...well, as complimentary as $250 gets you. Before his remarks, a Q&A, and some general socializing and imbibing, he stated he would do something that would "blow our minds away" but he would not tell us what it was until he started to do it. Huh??? So, close to 2 hours of fun, he begins the mind-blowing. Al Franken can draw the contiguous 48 states by memory. Freehand. Pretty cool party trick. Chris may start practicing.

Afterward, it was back to Boulder and a stop at Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery for a fresh dose of Birckenstocks, granola, and hippie. Pretty good beer too. The server was keen on bringing me a sampler based on what beers I enjoy: IPA's, porters, and stouts. Tasty.

My afternoon changed in a heartbeat. It was Friday, sunny, 3:00. The doorbell rang with a quick burst of anticipation...

The first few books in the Hard Case Crime novels arrived today. Hooray! Pulp fiction lives!

The first in the series, Grifter's Game, is a mere 205 pages, so I'm sure it will be consumed with famished recklessness.

There was no mistaking the taste, not now, not after many years. When you work in a racket, even briefly, you learn what you can about the racket. You learn the product, first of all. No matter how small your connection with the racket or how little time you spend with it, this much you learn. I had played the game for two months, if that, in a very small capacity, but I knew what I had on my dresser. I had approximately sixty cubic inches of raw heroin.

Oh these are going to be fun!

Hard Case Crime

When Kimberly enrolled in Nurse Anesthesia school back in the fall of 2005, Chris wondered what he could do to be around the house and not make too much noise while she studied. Then it hit him...make his way through the Star Wars Universe via books (well, all the ones except for the kids crap). Start at the beginning and read his way through to current releases. He had two years to complete the mission, and thankfully he succeeded. Right before graduation in 2007, he had made his way through gobs and gobs of $6.99 mass market paperback books. There are now 97 Star Wars paperbacks on the shelf so far to date. 97! Now all he has to do is catch up on the occasional Star Wars paperback release every month or so for the new ones. Neato.

So now, when not reading American History books (the 704-page Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence is currently slowly being consumed) and there's a need for some fun, some candy, some cheese, some pure unadulterated entertainment, there's a fresh idea:

At lunch one afternoon about 2 weeks ago at Walgreens, Chris sat in the Jeep in the parking lot "away from it all" listening to Terry Gross's Fresh Air on NPR, and an interesting interview took place with Charles Ardai. Ardai publishes "Hard Case Crime" novels, reprints of old stories and also new books of classic crime and pulp fiction. Think film noir on the page. It was an intriguing interview to say the least. Classically painted covers, pulpy stories, fallable heroes. Fifty titles had been published since 2004, with the 51st book (Fifty-to-One) comprised of 50 chapters, each chapter titled one the books in order of publication. Pardon the pun, but how novel!

So tonight, with Star Wars - Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice completed, a Barnes and Noble online order was initiated (with Christmas gift cards) for the first few books in the Hard Case Crime series. This should be fun!