Book Club 2025: The Paris Review #84

I’m continuing to sample issues of The Paris Review from different eras (while having lunch). This is from 1982, and is a really solid issue.

Among the noteworthy things is an interview with Philip Larkin, who comes off as a bit of an asshole. Which turns out to be accurate.


The longest piece in the issue is a number of selected letters by Archibald MacLeish. The first half consists of letters to Ernest Hemingway, and isn’t all that interesting, but the latter half concerns MacLeish’s campaign to get Ezra Pound released from the insane asylum he’d been stuck in for a decade after he was charged with treason. (Pound was an enthusiastic Mussolini supporter.)

What makes these letters so fascinating is that Pound is obviously insane, and MacLeish is debating him in an exasperated fashion. It’s so 2025 — you have one guy spouting what seems like deranged conspiracy theories, and the other guy, who’s trying to be helpful, arguing against.

And I quite liked this amusing poem by Lisel Mueller. I feel seen! Dimly and astigmaticly!

The Paris Review #84 (1982) (buy new, buy used)

Random Comics

Here’s some comics I’ve read over the last… month, I guess?

The Crepax omnibus series continues towards its end. These volumes are impressively big and heavy.

But I don’t think anybody would claim that this is prime Crepax.

It’s mostly later works here, and while the artwork is still… you know… Crepax… the stories are even more wispy than in the olden days.

But the pages are still impressive to look at.

Yeah, must be a month… four issues of Spirou, that makes sense.

The magazine was in the doldrums for a few months back there, but there seems to be a new buzz going around now. Did they get a new editor or something?

Like the double-sized spring issue — where all the series did special episodes dealing with the same plot: An invasion of spring flowers.

That’s just fun.

And there’s a new strip written by Lewis Trondheim! And it looks like there’s going to be a page in every issue! And the jokes mostly revolve around reading Spirou! It’s so meta!

So that’s fun. I’m a bit behind on my Spirou reading, though.

Oh yeah, I bought this thing. It’s more than 900 pages long, and it weighs several tons.

There’s about 300 pages drawn by Neal Adams, which was part of the attraction, of course, but…

… the other reason I got this is that there’s a whole bunch of other 70s DC comics here. (All featuring Deadman, though.) I’ve got a certain nostalgic thing going on for these comics, as these were just about the first American comics I read as a child. So this style — Adams, Aparo, Garcia-Lopez, Dillin, Giordano — just tickles me on some level. I guess all these artists tried to draw like Neal Adams? More or less?

But then there’s the writing, and it was kinda a slog to get through this. I dipped in and out for about a month, and that’s even with skipping a lot of stuff.

One problem with this collection is that Deadman was featured as a backup feature in a lot of comics, and there’s random team-ups with other super-heroes. And every time that happens, they reintroduce Deadman and spend several pages telling the reader what his deal is. That makes perfect sense in the original context, but it’s tedious when reading the same thing over and over again.

One non-Adams-aping artist here is Keith Giffen! We get four issues of Challengers of the Unknown drawn by him (featuring Deadman and Swamp Thing, of all people), so that’s fun.

I finally finished this book, and it took me several weeks, because… well, it’s over 200 pages of this.

While each page is amusing, collected it doesn’t really cohere into anything more. The artwork’s attractive.

Which isn’t something you could say about this. I bought this by mistake — I read “Paul B. Rainey” and my brain somehow went “yes, I must buy this new book by George Wylesol”.

This is not that. There’s No Time Like The Present is from 2016, and it’s reprinted because Rainey’s latest book has been optioned for a movie.

This book is relentlessly ugly, and it’s fucking tedious. I kept on reading, thinking there might be a twist coming that might make things more entertaining (like his recent book), but nope. It’s just page after page of the most stupid sci-fi time travel thing ever.

I mean, I like the hatred displayed towards nerds — they are the worst! — but it’s just… bad. It has the structure of oatmeal filled with toenail clippings. I haven’t done any research (oops my internet connection is down!) but I’m guessing this was originally serialised over a long period of time? It just goes on and on and on, before getting to the final section, which explains everything and is even more boring than what went on before, and that’s just a major achievement.

I got some floppies!

Of note are the Ryan North-penned Fantastic Four I mean Three I mean Two. These comics don’t look good — the current Marvel house style for artwork is really offputting — but they’re really entertaining. And these are even event tie-in comics! Unpossible!

And of course, the Ryan North-penned Star Wars comics. Also fun!

OK, that’s it.

Book Club 2025: Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi

I have to say that I was kinda annoyed while reading this book. It seems like a very calculated approach to making an international best seller. It’s got an elevator pitch plot (“woman lies about being pregnant so that she can get out of doing menial tasks at work”) coupled with a provocative title and a cover designed to appeal to people grown up reading Japanese comics.

But on the other hand — that title isn’t nearly as attention grabbing in Japanese, and the original cover is:

So — most of that isn’t Emi Yagi’s fault.

If you’re like me, when you read that elevator pitch plot, you naturally immediately thought “and the twist is that” and let me stop you there — but you’d be right. Which is another thing I was annoyed by while reading this book.

But… it’s pretty good? There are some riveting scenes in here. It’s well written (but the translators make some odd choices, like not translating oshibori (warm towels) out of the blue), and it’s amusing. But it’s not like… It’s OK.

I was wondering what the people on Goodreads would say about it, because I could easily see how people would feel pretty unsatisfied by it (people have a tendency to go on and on about identifying with protagonists and junk like that), and neither otaku nor people who hate the Orientalism inherent in otaku-ism will quite find what they’re looking for here.

And indeed — this has an exceptionally low number of people giving the book five stars. (It’s usually in the 20-30% region for a book rated at 3.5.) But also very few people who loathed it. Skimming the 4K (!) reviews, it seems like many people were slightly nonplussed by the book, but somehow feel obligated to kinda like it?

Diary of a Void (2020) by Emi Yagi (buy used, 3.5 on Goodreads)

Book Club 2025: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

This turned into some kind of hate read.

I mean, I knew that Sanderson was a prime example of Extruded Fantasy Product, so I’ve never sampled any of his books until this year. And… I was kinda pleasantly surprised? I mean, the books were all kinds of hokey, but they were indeed kinda entertaining.

And now this one.

I don’t even know how to describe it. Well, OK, it has typical Middle Book Syndrome — it’s taking us from the premise established in the first book to the probable resolution in the third book. So that’s all well and good, but it’s not just that this book is boring — because it mostly is — but it reveals how thin Sanderson’s world building is, and that’s more disappointing than anything.

Sanderson is primarily interesting in creating systems of magic; i.e., a science fictional approach to magic usage, where he teases out rules for how they work and all that. Which is OK, but it reads like a teenager who’s really into super-heroes and spends all his time doodling in his notebook about a new super-hero he’s created.

There’s so many super-hero/magics fights in this book. They’re not badly written or anything, but it’s just… c’mon. C’mon.

So it took me over a week to get through this book, because every time I sat down with it, I found that I wanted to do something else instead. But it’s not like I’m shy about ditching books that bore me — but it was sufficiently entertaining to stop me from doing that, which is even more annoying.

It’s like… I dunno. MVF, Minimum Viable Fantasy? Or something? The worst part of it all is that the final revelation was kinda interesting, so I’m probably going to read the final book in the trilogy, even though I didn’t really enjoy reading this one?

*sigh*

Stupid Extruded Fantasy Product.

(Or perhaps it would be a better use of my time to read the Wikipedia plot recap instead and save myself the pain.)

The Well of Ascension (2007) by Brandon Sanderson (buy new, buy used, 4.38 on Goodreads)

Comics Daze

It’s another lovely day, so it’s time to read some comics. Accompanied by music from… let’s say 1974.

David Bowie: Diamond Dogs

11:29: Ambiguous Blu by Noah Schiatti (Fieldmouse Press)

I got this from here.

I really like the artwork here…

And the storytelling is original and compelling. It’s great! But too short!

11:38: Kutikuti: Roiju (Living the Line)

Ah, this is that Finnish anthology…

This anthology has a very unified tone…

And there’s a couple compelling pieces.

(Like the above.) But it’s mostly just kinda vague? It’s strange.

Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark

11:53: Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business by Arvind Ethan Davis, Ilias Kyriazis, Chris Peter (Pantheon Books)

I’d normally not buy something that’s called “Raymond Chandler’s “. I mean, not because I have anything against Chandler in particular; it’s just that comics adaptations of hard-boiled crime stuff usually sucks. (Except when Tardi does it.) But this is published by Pantheon, and they sometimes manage to publish good stuff.

Oh dea. The artwork is unattractive, and it seems like this is one of those adaptations where they’re afraid to cut too much of the deathless prose.

And it’s just bad! I mean, storytelling wise. How is the eye even supposed to move across these pages? I think I see what the artist is going for, but it’s not successful.

OK, I’m ditching this after 12 pages.

Various: This Is Reggae Music

12:06: Murderburg by Carol Lay (Fantagraphics)

Yay! Carol Lay!

Oh, I guess she’s drawing on a tablet (or something) now… it gives the artwork a certain stark quality.

This book is a collection of shorter pieces — 30 to 60 pages — and they’re kinda oddly structured. That is, there doesn’t really seem to be much structure?

The pacing is choppy and strange, and I don’t think the jokes are all that funny? The first story seemed like it was on an Addams Family tip (I think; I’ve never actually watched that), and then I wondered whether it was going to be more Murder Family (i.e., Evan Dorkin), but not really. It seems like a mishmash of all things (including The Sopranos, I guess), and it doesn’t really land.

I stopped reading after 110 pages.

Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1)

12:45: Cuba 42 by Ottavio de Angelis/Anna Brandoli (Vertige graphic)

I love Brandoli’s artwork. It’s so European — somewhere halfway between Tardi and Hugo Pratt.

I’m not familiar with the writer de Angelis — but this is a really entertaining and classic story of spies, paranoia and love in Cuba. It’s very noir and extremely cynical, and it makes relentless fun of a Hemingway-like dumb-ass writer character. Lots of fun, and quite exciting.

Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (2)

13:48: The Ardent by Carl Antonowicz (Fieldmouse Press)

This is a strange one. It’s about a monk that goes on a trip…

… and he meets three people that tell him their stories.

Which is, I guess, pretty classic, but it doesn’t really cohere in any way. Perhaps is makes more sense if you’re into religion or anti-religion or something.

14:17: Gaza In My Phone by Mazen Kerbaj (O/R Books)

Well, this is a tough read.

But very effective.

And heartbreaking.

Kraftwerk: Autobahn

14:32: Beat It, Rufus by Noah van Sciver (Fantagraphics)

As a stark change from Van Sciver’s previous hit comic Fante Bukowski, which was about a loser asshole poet, this one is about a loser asshole musician.

Fante Bukowski seemed pretty well-observed — it felt like Van Sciver had used himself for a lot of the stuff he was making fun of — this one feels way more generic. You know — rock musician on a trip, so there’s all the usual stuff.

But there’s some pretty good jokes in here. I mean, I didn’t actually laugh, but the right-hand page made me go “yes, that’s a joke you could have used by a stand-up comic”. (Sorry for using hate speech here.)

15:13: Crucial Times and Thought as a Crime by Kevin Barry (Desert Island)

I like this artwork.

Very acid-ey. And it’s fun, too.

Richard and Linda Thompson: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

15:25: World Heist by Linnea Sterte (Peow2)

As usual with Peow(2), the physical book is very handsome (detached spine and all of that jazz).

Sterte’s artwork is to gorgeous. It’s like… er… an updated version of Moebius? With Japanese touches? And, like, Brandon Grahamesque stuff with the backgrounds? Whatever the influences are, it’s stunning.

I mean, just look at it!

The story is pretty slight, but it’s pretty great anyway.

15:38: Santos Sisters by Greg & Fake (American Nature Comics Group)

This is very amusing, as usual. And the artwork is kinda magical.

The stories are perhaps… less mysterious than they used to be? Still, very entertaining.

Bobbi Humphrey: Blacks and Blues

15:51: Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards by Jim Ottoviani & Big Time Attic (GT Labs)

The artwork by Zander & Kevin Cannon & Shad Petosky is handsome — and they do their best to give each character distinctive whiskers so you can tell them apart.

It’s mostly men, so the whiskers really help! But oh man, there’s so many characters here that it’s just hard to keep them all straight.

This book is the (true) story of two early palaeontologists who where bitter rivals, and it’s told in a way that absolutely no major publisher would have gone for. There’s virtually no captions, and there’s no characters infodumping at each other like “as you know, Robert, we’ve found a lot of fossilised dinosaur skeleton bits here, and those two guys over there are mad at each other” — instead it’s all told en passant. I.e., it’s a very “modern” (i.e. late 80s) comic book where you have to pay attention.

Which means that there’s little chance of a breakthrough to a mainstream audience, because most of them wouldn’t be able to follow what’s going on at all.

But… is it a good comic? Hm. Well, I liked it, but I have to admit that I found parts of it less than thrilling. I guess I’m just not that interested, really? But it’s well made, certainly. I’m curious what others made of it…

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Betty Davis: They Say I’m Different

17:10: Hanging On By A Thread by Noémie (Black Panel Press)

This looks very nice… Drawn with coloured pencils, perhaps?

Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom

So, this is about living in Lebanon and getting cancer. But mostly about getting cancer.

It’s quite interesting, but it feels quite unbalanced. More than half of the book is about the aftermath (after the chemo had cured her), and those bits feel disjointed and mostly directionless. I mean, it all looks good, and it’s not bad or anything, but it’s like the book doesn’t know how to finish, so it just continues and continues…

18:05: The End

But I know when to stop! That’s enough comics for today, because now I have to make dinner.