"We Live Amongst the Dust" by author Matthew D. Jordan, a Weird West trilogy of books

Seattle-based author Matthew D. Jordan spent over ten years crafting a huge, remarkable saga called We Live Amongst the Dust. The three-book series is equally gunslinging-Western full of action and blood, mind-bending time travel with portals, alternate universes and multiples timelines, striking emotional drama with characters of great depth, and a unique take on the post-apocalyptic genre, exploring how humanity rebuilds when life as they knew it falls apart.

Previously released under the title Tincture, the story was only available as a dramatized audiobook read by the author, complete with sound effects, voice acting and a vibrant soundtrack. All three books of the trilogy are now newly available in beautiful Hardbound editions with new introductions by Josh Gaines (being me).

In the first volume, An Apocalyptic Proposition, I provided a fairly “traditional” Foreword that overviews the thematic elements and philosophical implications of the series overall. I analyze the relationship between the characters and the main villain as an archetype, and suggest how the perspective and approach Jordan takes in this series is utterly unique among apocalyptic literature. It’s basically a literary analysis about how badass I think this series is and kind of hyping the reader up to enjoy it, and perhaps point them to a few elements to pay close attention to.

In the second and third volumes, the “Preamble” of And the Devil Pulls Six-Guns and the “Prolusion” of And the Old King of New Nebraska before the main text provide short stories within the WLATD universe, giving further backstory for main characters or previously unseen glimpses into the events prior to the novels. These add some exciting and fun layers of complexity to the saga overall, fleshing out even further the curious nature of this fictional world.

The books are newly available in this edition as of February 2022, and can be ordered at the link:

The entire series is also available for free listening as a dramatized audiobook at these links:

• Spotify

• iTunes

• Audible

The "Sacred Tongues" Series - Animated NFT Artworks based upon the Hebrew Alphabet

THE JEWISH KABBALAH

In the Summer of 2021, I was reading about Kabbalah, a branch of Jewish Mysticism that uses language, symbols and metaphors as a way of structuring the universe, creation and life into an understandable formula of interrelated categories. Regardless of the religious or esoteric associations with Kabbalah and whether or not it is “true” in a literal sense, it is a fascinating system and philosophy to study, and an interesting way in which to attribute complex, interconnected meaning to every facet of existence. In a certain sense, it is believed by some that the entire universe as we know it was “created” out of these twenty-two sacred letters, and that every single thing we have ever interacted with in this conscious body was some combination of the energies these letters represent. Everything was, perhaps, conjured into existence by the spoken Word of God.

While reading Daniel C. Matt’s book "The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism,” the author made reference to how Rabbis and mystics throughout history have made a practice of meditating upon the “names of God” as a way of deepening their own understanding of Divinity, the universe and themselves. I am not Jewish nor a part of any religion, and I don’t believe in a “god,” not in that sense. This study came from an innate curiosity about various spiritual systems of the world and a fascination with how cultures throughout time have discovered and utilized esoteric tools.

THE HEBREW ALPHABET

This led me to a personal meditative experiment: to take each of the twenty-two letters and spend a minimum of one hour meditating upon them. I set aside twenty-two days, and removed the Major Arcana cards from Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot Deck, each of which is associated with one Hebrew letter. Every morning, I would shuffle the twenty-two cards and pull one, and whatever came out was the letter I would meditate upon for that day. I sat in asana (a comfortable seated position in which the back is straight and the body is held still) and would slow my breathing to a steady, even pace while first staring at the Hebrew letter for a few minutes. I would then close my eyes and repeat the pronunciation of the letter mentally, over and over in my mind, as a mantra. In a method learned earlier in my practice, I would “vibrate” the sound of the letter while seeing its shape in my mind’s eye, imagining it hovering before me in an empty space. For example, mentally repeating “Lamed-Lamed-Lamed-Lamed-Lamed” and imagining that the audible sounds of the word were “buzzing” within my third eye point, stimulating the pineal gland.

As a side note, this method of “vibrating” within the third eye point can be utilized for any word or sound, be it Om, YHWH or another “God name,” the name of any deity, angel or spirit, a Transcendental Meditation phrase or your own unique mantra. Results may vary from person to person and it will surely take some disciplined, repeated effort to notice an effect (meaning: don’t necessarily expect a reaction the very first time you do this—it takes practice and time). Test it out for yourself and see what happens.

Three cards from Aleister Crowley’s “Thoth Tarot” - note the Hebrew letters at the bottom of each

As I moved through each Hebrew letter over a series of days, I would receive astral “visions” for each, and every one of them was utterly unique. These visions (I use that term loosely—more like a suggestive ride I was taken on through my imagination) embodied the imagery, colors, symbols, archetypes and themes wrapped up in these strange, mystical letters. Sometimes the vision would be subtle and simple, little more than a particular color and texture given to the symbol. Other times, they were full-fledged narrative journeys on par with scrying the Enochian Aethyrs, often with “spirit guides” leading me through the astral plane, animals appearing as poignant symbols of certain Divine or Elemental aspects, occasionally angels with pictorial messages to deliver, and even deities revealing themselves in brilliant, sometimes terrifying form.

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I must at this point express how fully surprised I was to have received such an intense “response” from these ancient symbols, and I can fully acknowledge how, frankly, “crazy” or unlikely these experiences may sound. I recognize that my descriptions here resemble the utterances of a dope fiend who has just returned from a high-dosage psychedelic trip, or perhaps the rantings of one whose rational mind is not sound and who may need some serious mental health assistance. But I can assure you that I approached this practice with a very serious and sober mind, and my only request for skeptics or those intrigued would be to make your own inquiry into these curious glyphs—treat it like a personal science experiment, be consistent, keep a journal and always take notes, see if any patterns emerge. For me, it was amazing and fascinating to be shown such vibrant, particular imagery while moving through this alphabet. At the time, I had never experienced anything like it, and came out of the experience with an assurance that these symbols are far more than merely letters to form words on a page, but that they carry a power all their own—an energetic imprint, if you will—and a significance that is mysterious, bizarre, beautiful, scandalous and wonderful. I cannot claim to have much understanding of this phenomena, and it is something I will continue to study and play with.

THE SACRED TONGUES SERIES

Months after this process, I had the idea to look back on my notes and use the imagery from my “astral visions” as inspiration for a series of art pieces. Thus, the Sacred Tongues series was born. I believe that individuals will be drawn to one particular letter or another, based upon their own unique framework and subtle hints from deep within their unconscious (including you, reading this, right now). If any symbol appeals to you right off the bat, there’s good reason for that—probably a hint to look deeper. My hope is that those who come across these pieces, whether they purchase an NFT from me or not, will use them as a starting point for personal exploration. What I ultimately believe that these letters “did” to me (or did for me) was to unlock and unveil deeper levels of understanding, perhaps scrubbing away layers of energetic debris within my psyche. I also believe that this is a practice that can be returned to over and over, that new and different things will be revealed over time as one is ready to receive it. And I absolutely believe these cosmically-charged symbols can do the same for anyone who spends enough time with them. What’s even more interesting is that your experience will be completely different from mine, stemming from your own individual framework and the ideas upon which your understanding of reality have been built. Happy Meditating.

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I’m Josh Gaines, an artist who does kind of a bunch of different things and I live in Portland, OR. See my other work on this site or join my Patreon pals for even more fun, weird stuff.

ART AS RITUAL - Magick sigils in art: A painting in tribute to the Divine Mother, the sacred feminine & the planet venus

This post includes affiliate links that support independent bookstores (instead of Amazon!), from which I make a small commission.

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In this video, I discuss a painting of mine that includes magickal sigils, astrological glyphs and symbols, as well as Sanskrit, Hebrew, Latin and English names of Spirits, Archangels, Angels, Deities and Goddesses from various spiritual traditions. The books I refer to in this video are:

• Frater Ashen Chassan/Bryan Garner “A True Relation of What Transpired Between Frater Ashen Chassan, His Scryer Benn mac Stiofán and the Spirits” published in 2016 by Azoth Press.

• Damien Echols "High Magick"

• Damien Echols "Angels and Archangels"

The illustrations of the Archangel Anael and Olympic Spirit Hagith are by Alex McVey.

The Goddess Venus was worshipped by ancient Roman culture, as well as by the name Aphrodite by the Greeks. The planet Venus in our solar system that was named after her has, for centuries, been associated with benevolence, love, kindness, fertility, sensual pleasure, joy, hope and more. The Venus astrology glyph can be seen everywhere in modern day western culture, and while it is a fitting symbol to equate, simply, with women, it holds much more depth, history and sacred meaning than merely that. Goddess Venus can be seen as an extremely loving, nonjudgmental aspect of Divinity, a form of the Universal Self that expresses complete acceptance and perfect love for every living being.

Archangel Anael (or sometimes Archangel Haniel) is the planetary intelligence that presides over Venus and embodies its starkly feminine energetic imprint. Western ceremonial magicians, practitioners of Kabbalah and devotees of Christianity, Judaism and Islam have called upon this particular entity or interacted with its presence in a number of capacities over the last few thousand years. It can be a wonderful angel to work with, as it has a powerful love for humanity. While archangels can be intense and even alarming entities to interact with, Anael will overwhelm the practitioner with a sense of love that is beyond the capacity for human comprehension.

The Goddess Persephone, also known by the names Kora or Kore, is the Queen of the Underworld
Goddess of death, life, grain, and destruction. Persephone has gotten a lot of revitalized attention with modern practitioners and spiritual seekers in recent years. Her mythology can easily be found elsewhere online so I won’t cover it here, but suffice to say that her story of being stolen away into the Underworld and later rescued, ascending back to the land of the living, serves as a worthy metaphor for those on the spiritual path who must dive deep to confront their own shadow and cross the abyss before rising once more to life—awakened, enlightened and realizing Oneness with the Self.

The Olympic Spirit Hagith (pronounced ha-GEET) is also associated with Anael and the planet Venus. The Olympic Spirits, according to some sources and traditions, were once human and each have unique stories pertinent to their attributes, their nature and their transformation into immaterial beings. Hagith may be, in a certain sense, an angel in her own right, but is perhaps differently “ranked” in angelic hierarchy and serves a unique role as a “lesser” (or at least different) aspect of Anael. Hagith often presents herself as a white dove, and her role involves linking human hearts with a thread of profound love.

The Goddess Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven, was a figure embodying sex, love, war, justice, and political power. Ishtar was worshipped prominently in ancient Babylonian, Assyrian and Akkadian cultures, sometimes under the names Inanna or Astarte (the latter has been thought of as a “demon” in some circles, which I personally believe is an erroneous attribution). Ishtar shares many qualities with the Thelemic goddess Babalon, the Scarlet Woman and Mother of Abominations. Discerning spiritual seekers will understand that ultimately, these names and forms are merely different manifestations of the same underlying truth. Notably, Aleister Crowley’s Book Four features the eight-pointed star of Ishtar embossed on its blue hardbound cover.

The Hindu Goddess Kali is an often fiercely portrayed female deity of time, creation, destruction and power among many other attributions. She is the ultimate figure representing the Divine Mother in Advaita Vedanta, the highest, supreme form of the goddess, and was worshiped by Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and many devotees of the Vedantic tradition. She is still widely worshipped to this day.

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Timestamps for the video:

• 0:00 The Hexagram, the six-rayed star, Union of Masculine & Feminine Anahata Chakra, Aleister Crowley, Vishnu

• 1:03 The Goddess Venus, Planetary Intelligence, Astrology Natal Chart, Benefic Planet, Pentagram, five-pointed star

• 3:52 Archangel Anael / Haniel of Venus, Seven Classical Planets, Angelic Speech and Language, Netzach, Kabbalah Tree of Life, Anael Sigil, Rose Cross Sigil

• 5:03 Frater Ashen Chassan's book "Gateways Through Light and Shadow," scrying, angel evocation, Anael ritual, calling upon anael

• 5:30 Names and forms of the Divine Mother: Goddess Isis, Ishtar, Inanna, Astarte, Kore, Kora, Persephone, Babalon, Shekinah, Sophia

• 6:48 Anael as a loving presence, Rose Cross sigil, Damien Echols, Haniel sigil

• 7:30 More about Sophia, Shekinah, Kore & Ishtar. Gnosticism, Bride of Christ, Old Testament, Father God, Feminine counterpart, Greek goddess, Assyrian, Babylonian, Akkadian deities

• 8:50 The Olympic Spirit Hagith, Hagith sigil, human to angel transformation, symbol of the dove, Thelema, OTO, Ordo Templi Orientis

• 11:12 Kali Ma, Hindu Goddess, Dakshina Kālikā

• 12:12 Why I painted this particular image, being drawn to particular spirits on the magickal path, art as devotion, art as ritual

Who Created God? Is God Real? All Deities from Any Religion Represents This ONE Thing

Is there only "One True God?" Are gods real? Why are there so many different deities across world religions? Why devote oneself to a deity? What is sex magic? What is raising sexual energy? What is the purpose or intent behind any of this?

Brought to you by the ZEIT HEIST Podcast. "Reality Reconsidered" A playful, imaginative inquiry into the world of the Occult, Spirituality, Meditation & Everything Else. Created & Hosted by Josh Gaines. Watch on YouTube or Listen on Spotify and iTunes.

Support Josh’s work in all its forms for just five bucks on Patreon. See Twitch for art streams and live talks.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 - Monotheistic Religion, Christianity's “One True God”

• 3:10 - A Singular, Masculine Deity making sense for a specific culture at a specific time in history

• 5:13 - ALL Gods & Deities represent the same thing and are only “Real” to a certain extent

• 8:44 - Why deities are primarily represented with human-like qualities and features

• 9:27 - The Sacred Feminine, the Divine Mother, the Union of Masculine & Feminine Energies

• 10:02 - Choosing a deity to give devotion to and why

• 11:40 - Sexual energy & romantic adoration of “God” while being mindful of your INTENT

• 13:58 - An experiment you can utilize to raise sexual energy towards devotion

• 14:45 - Where is the one place that Gods do really exist?

• 17:20 - You can create your own god

• 18:48 - Even when millions worship the same deity, it is different in each individual's mind

What is a Demon? Should you work with Goetic Spirits in Magick?

In this interview snippet, an experienced ceremonial magician discusses the real reasons why one should (or shouldn't) perform demonic magick, and the ultimate purpose behind doing so.

This clip is from the ZEIT HEIST Podcast. "Reality Reconsidered." A playful, imaginative inquiry into the world of the Occult, Spirituality, Meditation & Everything Else. Created & Hosted by Josh Gaines.

Support my work in all its various forms by joining me on Patreon for five bucks.

Zeit Heist Episode 3: Micki Pellerano -- NYC Artist, Astrologer, Ceremonial Magickian

Professional Astrologer, artist and ritual magickian Micki Pellerano joins me on ZEIT HEIST to discuss his ever-expanding knowledge of astrology, planetary timing for magickal ritual, the use of talismans, stones & crystals, ceremonial magick, working with deities, planetary intelligences & more.

Micki is a student of the master astrologer Austin Coppock and he is constantly educating himself further on the wide-reaching nuances of astrological science & philosophy. Micki has been initiated into a Western magickal order, & has a fascinating background as a Cuban-American with a family history intertwined with occult interest, including ties to Santeria. He has enjoyed a varied & globe-trotting existence with success in the New York art scene, read Jenny Hval’s tarot, & has been featured by the likes of VICE and BOMB Magazine.

Find the audio-only version of the episode here, or wherever you get your podcasts: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts.

Support ZEIT HEIST & all of my varied projects by joining me on Patreon for five bucks.

Zeit Heist Episode 2: Cliff of Enochian.Today on John Dee and Edward Kelley, Liber Loagaeth, Gebofal Working, Scrying Aethyrs, Performing a Jupiter Working, Astrological Timing for Ritual

For Episode Two of Zeit Heist, I had the pleasure of speaking with Cliff of the highly popular Enochian.Today blog, a website that catalogs in great detail Cliff’s own adventures into the depths of the Enochian magickal system. The site is a wonderful resource for beginners and adepts alike, as it contains scores of entries including printable reference diagrams for all of the Enochian furniture, over a hundred Enochian prayers, personal accounts from students regarding their unique experiences with scrying the Aethyrs and wise insight from Cliff regarding things like Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, Meditation methods, and instructions for techniques such as Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.

Our conversations covers his recent completion of the Gebofal Working i.e. the Liber Loagaeth holy book in angelic language (consisting of over 100,000 figures in Enochian script!), astrology and how astrological timing can inform or support particular magick rituals, a story or two about John Dee and Edward Kelley and their workings with the Enochian angels for Queen Elizabeth II in the 1500s, the possibility of there being as yet unrevealed aspects of the Enochian system waiting to be unlocked by the angels, and more.

Watch the full episode on Youtube or listen to the audio only version at Spotify, Apple iTunes or Google Podcasts (or wherever you get your podcasts).

Support Zeit Heist and get access to even more conversations, art and video not shared publicly at Patreon.

Zeit Heist Episode 1: Goetic Magic, Demon Ritual, Magick, Thelema, Freemasons, OTO, Golden Dawn, Deities, Angels, Kundalini & More

In this first episode of the ZEIT HEIST video podcast, I (Josh) talk with Dani Kerwood, someone who has been a profound personal mentor to me, practically like a guru. Dani’s own practice and experience goes far and wide, despite their relatively young age.

In this sprawling, fascinating and highly informational episode, we discuss many facets of the Occult world, touching on such subjects as Freemasonry, Thelema, the Ordo Templi Orientis, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the problematic nature of magical orders and lodges, Demons/Goetia/Goetic entities, angels and archangels, deities, Aleister Crowley, Eastern meditation practices Raja yoga, Pranayama, Kriya yoga and Kundalini Tantra, the Rainbow Body and more.

Hear Dani’s wise and insightful take on all of these subjects by watching the interview on YouTube here.

The audio-only version of this conversation is also available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker or wherever you get your podcasts.

To support ZEIT HEIST and get access to even more conversations about the Occult, Spirituality and Meditation not released publicly, join us on Patreon for just five bucks a month.

Texture Podcast Episode 24: All You Need is AUM (OM) - Eastern Meditative Practices, Ceremonial Magick, & Being Post-Christian

On this episode of the TEXTURE Podcast, I talk about the mantra sounds of chakras to be vibrated during meditation (which can be used for root chakra meditation, heart chakra meditation, third eye meditation, and more), my history in Evangelical Christianity, delving into the study of the Occult over the past year, and how Ceremonial and Ritual Magick ultimately led me back to the basics: simply Meditating. I talk about how there's been a lot of monetizing of this trendy "new" practice in America and some of the pitfalls of how it's perceived and what its ultimate purpose may be. I also offer some suggestions as to a higher purpose for sitting and breathing, and how you don't need any of the Spiritual Materialism bullshit, but simply, your own body and breath. Not coming from the perspective of an expert, merely sharing what I've learned and have found to be helpful.

Here is a helpful infographic for Chakra names & mantras.

Subscribe to TEXTURE on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Join me on Patreon for just $5 a month to support my work in all its forms and get access to a bunch of extra treats:

Stevie Wonder "Love's in Need of Love Today" - Songs in the Key of Life Album 1976 - Karaoke Cover Song

A karaoke cover of Stevie Wonder's "Love in Need of Love Today," the opening track on his 1976 double LP masterpiece, "Songs in the Key of Life." No pitch correction, no pretense, no BS--just me singin' my heart out in pure love, baba-a-a-ay (done in two takes edited together which is why my mouth doesn't always match the audio, hahaha). I genuinely love this song, and its lyrics and message are as relevant today as they were nearly fifty years ago. It amazes me that Wonder put out this track and this album *at age twenty-seven,* not only for the incredible musical proficiency it displays from such a young man, but also for the lyrical maturity of the songs. This album is, among other things, an anthem against racism, a plea for equality, unity and peace, a sincere expression of an African American's experience in America, particularly one born in the 1950's, with all of the social and racial implications of the time. To be born *a blind Black man* in such a time and place, Stevie Wonder had SO many odds stacked against him, and yet he was able to transcend history, location, race and society with brilliant music and, what seems to me, a compassionate heart. Now, is any of THAT going to be expressed through me crooning this track, frequently straying from being on-pitch? No, but I'd encourage anyone unfamiliar with Wonder's discography (beyond his top 40 radio hits) to dig into this album.

XIX: The Feminine Sun of the Qabalistic Tree of Life

4.25" x 5.5" illustration using Micron Pen, Metallic Pen & Acrylic Paint on 400 Heavyweight Watercolor Paper.

Historically, the Sun has been regarded as a powerful energetic entity in our solar system, commonly attributed with Masculine features. While this may be true on some level, I would posit that the sun can, at times, also exhibit a very strongly Feminine energy, sending warmth, healing, the spark of life and enlivening golden waves thrumming off of its burning form, flowing across the cosmos to wash over us with loving constancy.

The spheres surrounding this central sun are perhaps representative of the other planets in our neighborhood system. Perhaps they are the ten sefirot of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, embodying energy points of a human soul, a model of the life cycle itself, and a map of the entire universe and how it all fits together. Everything in this conscious experience is a living, intelligent, interconnected piece of the whole.

See more of my work & join my artist community at Patreon.

The Qabalistic Cross and The Middle Pillar: Golden Dawn Rituals portrayed as esoteric art.

Acrylic & Ink on Wood, 10” x 8” x 1”

This painting represents two ceremonial magickal practices combined & interpreted in a celestial, cosmic form. This image embodies many ancient symbols & ideas about human origins, the ultimate source of creation, mankind's quest for union with the Divine Light, a soul's desire to bring itself into balance, to awaken one's connection to the universal truth, & the revelation of the True Self, the True Will, the Holy Guardian Angel. Planetary & cosmic energies interplay with everything we do throughout our lives, as demonstrated in part by astrological ideas. This painting seeks to tap into truths deeper than words, associations known by the subconscious & by the physical body itself, not necessarily symbols or ideas recognized & identified by the conscious mind.

I’ve recorded a video going into greater depth about the meanings behind this painting, both in an overall sense but also the extremely personal and vulnerable qualities it holds for me:

Much of the insights from which this painting came were gleaned from Damien Echols’ book High Magick.

THE VHS BOY reviews "Good Morning, Vietnam," Barry Levinson's 1987 comedy starring Robin Williams & Forest Whitaker

I’ve not shared here yet that back in March, soon after the start of the stay-at-home order, I began going down to the garage at my apartment in Denver to record absurd, silly “reviews” of VHS tapes as a way to let off some steam and have a little fun under the moniker “The VHS Boy” (this all started on Instagram @thevhsboy) It’s been an enjoyable outlet to not only talk about the films I’ve actually been watching—often seeing them for the first time—but an ironic, unfiltered outlet through which to speak with biting clarity, satire and humor about the worst parts of what is happening in the world today.

So, here is the most recent of these “bad” movie reviews/mini podcasts/irony-boy rants: THE VHS BOY: Good Morning, Vietnam on YouTube

You can find all the rest of the videos I’ve done since March here: THE VHS BOY YouTube Playlist

Support Josh on Patreon and get access to more art, podcasts, videos & all sorts of things.

2018 - The Year in Film: A Personal Confession and List

2018 was a depressing year—not for cinema, for me (and—dang it—wasn’t 2017 a rough one too?). As of December, I have watched roughly twice as many films, if not more, than I have in any previous year and probably broke a personal lifetime-record amount of time in front of a TV or cinema screen.

I attribute this to several things. Most prominently, finding myself deeply depressed, anxious, overwhelmed and generally discouraged about life. I was stagnant, paralyzed and afraid, and movies served as a temporary escape for me. (It’s worth noting that I don’t believe this is necessarily always a bad thing. Letting one’s mind get lost in a story for two hours can be lovely, inspiring and quite restorative.) But in my case, I was using movies (and junk food, and marijuana) as salves for my sadness and as distractions from the things in my life that I didn’t want to deal with, the things I was terrified to address head-on (still am).

Another facet that played into this was my “decision” in January 2018 to go ahead and become a director myself, despite the fact that I had only one short film under my belt, almost no other film experience, no notoriety, very few connections and have been in the same non-film related job for twelve years. “Oh, I’m doing my homework,” I told myself. “I’m educating myself in filmmaking by watching a wide array of great and terrible films, learning a little something from each of them.”

This ended up being more or less true, actually, and despite bad habits and generally feeling like a lazy, worthless shit of a person, I did learn a great deal and filled half a notebook with notes on film stocks, aspect ratios, lens brands and types, notable lines of dialogue, quotes from director interviews, camera movement ideas, color-grading observations and more. Also I wrote a feature length script so maybe it isn’t all for naught.

All that to say, I watched a lot of movies this year, and while my reasons for doing so are arguably unhealthy, it was a lot of fun and I do believe I grew as an artist and a storyteller because of it. Movies mean a lot to me. I think they can be powerful and inform our experience. I think they can communicate great truths. And I really do want to, and intend to, make more of them. Perhaps even good ones.

But for now, here’s what I saw this year, in chronological order, with a few annotations on the particularly great or horrific ones.

1. About Time, 2013 - (Director) Richard Curtis - 7/10

2. The Shape of Water, 2017 - Guillermo Del Toro - 8/10

3. Silence, 2016 - Martin Scorsese - 9/10

4. Prince of Darkness, 1987 - John Carpenter - 8/10

5. The Color of Money, 1988 - Martin Scorsese - 7/10

6. People, Places, Things, 2015 - James Strouse - 4/10

7. Brawl in Cell Block 99, 2017 - S. Craig Zahler - 9/10

8. The Island of Doctor Moreau, 1996 - John Frankenheimer, Richard Stanley - 2/10

9. Heavy Metal, 1981 - Gerald Potterton - 4/10 film overall, 9/10 animation

10. Phantom Thread, 2017 - Paul Thomas Anderson - 7/10

11. Child’s Play 3, 1991 - Jack Bender - 6/10

12. The Running Man, 1987 - Paul Michael Glaser - 7/10

13. Blade Runner 2049, 2017 - Denis Villeneuve - 9/10

14. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948 - John Huston - 8/10

15. Gremlins, 1984 - Joe Dante - 8/10

16. Moonstruck, 1987 - Norman Jewison - 9/10

17. M*A*S*H, 1970 - Robert Altman - 6/10

18. Annihilation, 2018 - Alex Garland - 7/10

19. Dark Star, 1971 - John Carpenter - 8/10

20. Night of the Living Dead, 1969 - George A. Romero - 8/10

21. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, 1985 - Steven Spielberg - 4/10

22. The Soultangler, 1987 - Pat Bishow - 7/10

23. Good Time, 2017 - Josh & Benny Safdie - 9/10

24. A Ghost Story, 2017 - David Lowery - 9/10

25. The Deer Hunter, 1978 - Michael Cimino - 6/10

26. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1981 - George Miller - 9/10

27. Friday the 13th, 1980 - Joseph Zito - 6/10

28. Carnosaur, 1993 - Adam Simon - 5/10

29. The Omen, 1976 - Richard Donner - 6/10

30. Red Heat, 1988 - Walter Hill - 5/10

31. A Stupid and Futile Gesture, 2018 - David Wain - 5/10

32. The Lawnmower Man, 1995 - Brett Leonard - 6/10

33. Paris, Texas, 1984 - Wim Wenders - 8/10

34. Buddha’s Palm, 1987 - Taylor Wong - 7/10

35. Nocturnal Animals, 2016 - Tom Ford - 8/10

36. Fast Times at Ridgemont High, 1982 - Amy Heckerling - 6/10

37. Duets, 2000 - Bruce Paltrow - 7/10

38. Carlito’s Way, 1993 - Brian De Palma - 6/10

39. 48 Hours, 1982 - Walter Hill - 8/10

40. Night Shift, 1982 - Ron Howard - 8/10

41. Screamers, 1995 - Christian DuGuay - 5/10

42. Wizards, 1977 - Ralph Bakshi - 5/10 story 9/10 animation

43. Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2017 - Jon Watts - 8/10

44. You Were Never Really Here, 2017 - Lynne Ramsey - 6/10

45. Heat, 1995 - Michael Mann - 7/10

46. Spawn, 1997 - Mark A.Z. Dippe - 6/10

47. Johnny Mnemonic, 1995 - Robert Longo - 6/10

48. Avengers: Infinity War, 2018 - Joe & Anthony Russo - 9/10

49. D.C. Cab, 1983 - Joel Schumacher - 5/10

50. Hannibal, 2001 (unfinished) - Ridley Scott - N/A

51. Solo, 2018 - Ron Howard - 2/10

52. Hellraiser II: Hellbound (unfinished) - Tony Randel - N/A

53. Little Shop of Horrors, 1986 - Frank Oz - 4/10

54. Hereditary, 2018 - Ari Aster - 8/10

55. Loving Vincent, 2017 - Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman - 4/10 story 10/10 animation

56. Saturday Night Fever, 1977 - John Badham - 9/10

57. First Reformed, 2017 - Paul Schrader - 10/10

58. Tightrope, 1983 - Clint Eastwood &Richard Tuggle - 6/10

59. Deadpool 2, 2018 - David Leitch - 8/10

60. Dogville, 2003 - Lars Von Trier - 8/10

61. Ghost in the Machine, 1994 - Rachel Talalay - 5/10

62. Incredibles 2, 2018 - Brad Bird - 8/10

63. Point Break, 1991 - Katheryn Bigelow - 8/10

64. Ant Man & The Wasp, 2018 - Peyton Reed - 7/10

65. The Killing of a Sacred Deer, 2016 - Yorgos Lanthimos - 9/10

66. Suspiria, 1977 - Dario Argento - 7/10 story, 9/10 atmosphere & color

67. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, 2018 - J.A. Bayona - 7/10

68. Sorry to Bother You, 2018 - Boots Riley - 1/10 Fuck this movie. Yes, I understand it, and Yes, still hate it. This movie can “S” my “D.”

69. The King of Comedy, 1983 - Martin Scorses - 8/10

70. Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, 2018 - Gus Van Zant - 8/10

71. Batman & Robin, 1997 - Joel Schumacher - 2/10

72. Logan Lucky, 2017 - Steven Soderbergh - 8/10

73. Alien: Covenant, 2017 - Ridely Scott - 8/10 I was quite taken by surprise by how much I enjoyed this. Far stronger narrative and execution overall than Prometheus.

74. Mother!, 2017 - Darren Aronofsky - 9/10 Wow. Deeply upsetting and disturbing, but beautifully done.

75. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (unfinished), 2017 - Luc Besson - 2/10 Oh, lord… Unbelievable visuals, but painfully bad dialogue and wholly disjointed plot.

76. Talk Radio, 1988 - Oliver Stone - 8/10 Damn, what a film. Seek this one out. It’s really something. Every bit as relevant today as thirty years ago.

77. Eighth Grade, 2018 - Bo Burnham - 6/10 A series of emotionally affecting moments, but it did not work for me as a cohesive film. Love you though, Bo.

78. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 2017 - Martin McDonagh - 9/10 Pitch perfect.

79. True Romance, 1993 - Tony Scott - 4/10 Tarantino’s script has its moments and Gary Oldman’s brief inclusion is stellar, but the protagonists are irritating as shit.

80. The Big Sick, 2017 - Michael Showalter - 9/10

81. Mission Impossible: Fallout, 2018 - Christopher McQuarrie - 7/10 Tom Cruise FALLS. OUT. OF A PLANE.

82. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, 2017 - Rian Johnson - 8/10 Having no stake in the matter, I actually thought this was pretty damn decent. Franchises need new life breathed into them.

83. Star Trek: Beyond, 2016 - Justin Lin - 6/10

84. The Florida Project, 2017 - Sean Baker - 10/10 My mind continues to mull over this movie. Inconceivable how well it works for its simplicity. Really a thing of beauty.

85. Platoon, 1986 - Oliver Stone - 6/10 Apocalypse Now is a better Vietnam War film.

86. JD’s Revenge, 1976 - Arthur Marks - 5/10

87. Free Fire, 2016 - Ben Wheatley - 1/10 It baffles me that A24 put this out, easily their weakest movie. High-Rise sucked too. This is an emotionally vacant, plotless piece of shit. All aesthetic, no emotional core. Garbage.

88. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society, 2018 - Mike Newell - 5/10 My wife wanted me to watch this with her. It was “cute.”

89. The Dark Crystal, 1982 - Jim Henson, Frank Oz - 6/10 story, 10/10 puppetry & art direction

90. The Thing, 1982 - John Carpenter - 10/10 Umpteenth time seeing this. A flawless movie from start to finish.

91. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (unfinished), 2001 - Steven Spielberg directing Stanley Kubrick’s script - 4/10 This seems like it should have been a no-brainer winning combination and I very much wanted to like it, but it was painfully bad. Disjointed, too playful and silly, the tone was all wrong. Couldn’t bear to finish it.

92. Election, 1999 - Alexander Payne - 8/10 Payne is one of my favorite directors and is a fellow Nebraska native. Despite that this film is billed as a Comedy, it is remarkably smart and is a starkly honest political satire. Even more relevant today.

93. Blackkklansman, 2018 - Spike Lee - 8/10 Wild, brutally honest, important. His best film.

94. The Matrix Revolutions, 2003 - Wachowski Sisters - 5/10 Every couple of years I revisit this movie, thinking that magically over time it will get better, except that it doesn’t. The weakest chapter in the trilogy.

95. Downsizing, 2017 - Alexander Payne - 5/10 So many good elements, somehow, do not add up to a good picture. Very disjointed, lopsided, tonally off.

96. Let the Corpses Tan, 2018 - Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani - 3/10 Visually very interesting, but waaaaaaaaaay too French for my tastes.

97. Barry Lyndon (unfinished), 1975 - Stanley Kubrick - N/A I have tried three times to watch this movie, and every time, I’ve turned it off after about an hour. Technically interesting from a filmmaking side, but painfully boring.

98. The 6th Day, 2000 - Roger Spottiswoode - 7/10 I’ve made it a personal goal to watch every Schwarzenegger movie. Silly, explosive early 00’s fun.

99. Citizen Kane, 1941 - Orson Welles - 8/10 One of his few good films before he became a self-absorbed, grossly overweight, arrogant hack.

100. Chinatown, 1974 - Roman Polanski - 10/10 This movie continues to reveal its brilliant qualities and careful nuance every time I rewatch it.

101. Eraser, 1996 - Chuck Russell - 6/10 Remember what I said about Schwarzenegger?

102. Hold the Dark, 2018 - Jeremy Saulnier - 8/10 Saulnier is killing it. He has made and is going to make some great films in his life.

103. Free Solo, 2018 - Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi - 8/10

104. Iron Warrior, 1987 - Alfonso Brescia - 4/10 So silly.

105. Parenthood, 1989 - Ron Howard - 7/10 Great cast, very funny.

106. Unsane, 2017 - Steven Soderbergh - 7/10 Soderbergh’s ability to pull off widely diverse genres and tonal approaches amazes me.

107. Mandy, 2018 - Panos Cosmatos - 8/10 WHOOOOOOOOAAAAAA!!!!! A. BLAST.

108. Midnight Cowboy, 1969 - John Schlesinger - 8/10 A beautiful picture.

109. Straw Dogs, 1971 - Sam Shepard - 8/10 Unsettling in all the best ways. A very bizarre and controversial film, especially for its time.

110. Dressed to Kill, 1980 - Brian De Palma - 7/10

111. Isle of Dogs, 2018 - Wes Anderson - 9/10 The story was a bit strange to me but this is a technical masterpiece. I can’t believe it was made by humans. Visually perfect.

112. Beyond the Black Rainbow, 2010 - Panos Cosmatos - 7/10 Amazing aesthetic, sound design, visuals and music. Closing scene is unfortunately very weak and half-assed compared to the rest of the picture.

113. Empire Records, 1995 - Allan Moyle - 7/10 Silly 90’s feel-good fun. If you enjoy High Fidelity or School of Rock, this one is worth a watch.

114. Europa (Zentropa), 1991 - Lars Von Trier - 8/10 The more I reflect on this film, the more brilliant I realize it is. Unique and technically impressive use of actors interacting with front and rear projection, also an interesting mix of film stocks.

115. Legend (unfinished), 1982 - Ridley Scott - N/A UN-BE-LIEVABLY BAD. Tom Cruise and Tim Curry as the Devil?!? This should have been great! How did this movie get made? Painful to watch.

116. S is for Stanley, 2016 - Alex Infascelli - 8/10 If you love Kubrick, watch this.

117. Magnum Force (Dirty Harry 2), 1973 - Ted Post - 8/10 One of the best in the series.

118. The Enforcer (Dirty Harry 3), 1976 - James Fargo - 5/10 The worst in the series, haha.

119. Good Guys Wear Black, 1978 - Ted Post - 3/10 I wanted to see young Chuck Norris kick some tail but, unfortunately, he does not kick many tails in this one. Like a bad TV movie.

120. The Boss of It All, 2006 - Lars Von Trier - 8/10 Von Trier makes a comedy. Smart as a whip, irreverent, satirical, great.

121. Suspiria, 2018 - Luca Guadagnino - 9/10 Standing ovation.

122. Ready Player One, 2018 - Steven Spielberg - 7/10 This. Movie. Is. Bonkers.

123. Fantastic Beasts 2, 2018 - David Yates - 2/10 story, 8/10 CGI Went to this with some Harry Potter fanatic friends. Incredibly weak material, a thousand new characters no one gives a shit about, Hollywood trying to squeeze more dollars out of a franchise by watering it down to appeal to the lowest common denominator. To be clear, the HP films and books are great, but this is not.

124. Fellini Satyricon, 1969 - Frederico Fellini - 4/10 story, 8/10 aesthetic Crazy, crazy, crazy. Has some amazing visuals and set pieces. Bizarre, sacrilegious, wild. More interesting as an important piece of filmmaking history than it is as a film.

125. Epidemic, 1987 - Lars Von Trier - 8/10 I’ve been watching through all of Von Trier’s films this year. While they don’t all land as great movies, he always does something unique and approaches each film as a wholly new thing. I think he’s an utter genius who exists in a caliber all his own and each of his films has taught me something.

126. The House That Jack Built, 2018 - Lars Von Trier - 9/10 So much to unpack here. I could (and might) write an essay about all the layers of this film. Evidence of a filmmaker at the peak of his craft and comfortability. Brutal, but very lovely as well.

"THE FAMILIAR" Volume 4: Hades by Mark Z. Danielewski - Book Review

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Even with four installments, we’re already too far into this series for me to attempt to give a cursory overview of Volume 4 while trying to hide specifics. Those who are caught up in the series will know what I mean. That said, I’d like to touch on highlights of the book in order to spark intrigue while not completely spoiling the more important elements.

In The Familiar, Volume 4: Hades, one encounters (among other things): a teenage girl named Xanther who may very well exist in multiple (or all possible) timelines, knows the names of every animal she encounters (not their species or type, their personal name) and sees dark stones covering the eyes of every person around her which she must mentally “flip” away. Xanther also gets transported to a creepy-ass winter forest with thousands of floating, disembodied stone-eyes marching towards her every time she has a seizure. There are some downright nightmare-inducing page turns in these sections.

Additionally, Xanther found a cat (or is it the other way around?) which is not actually a cat (we aren’t sure exactly what it is yet), is thousands of years old or more, possesses definite (if uncertain, to us) power and for whom something very powerful and very bad is definitely coming.

Other elements of note, rapid fire: three A.I. beings called the Narcons who directly interact with the narrative and provide commentary/references/clues for the reader, glass orbs that are kinda-sorta-maybe computers but which can scan catalogued events throughout time, pink and blue balloons that hold some highly addictive substance (upon which one character named Jing Jing is hopelessly dependent), “The Great Tian Li,” an elderly witch (?) from Singapore who has flown to Los Angeles because she claims the aforementioned cat belongs to her, one very bad dude in Mexico City simply known as The Mayor who traffics endangered animals for the purpose of brutal sport, a Latino gangster named Luther who has lost his appetite and can’t get it up anymore because of (...), an alcoholic, depressive detective named Ozgur, a stubborn little taxi driver named Schnork who is suppressing some extreme grief and a handy new interactive service called HomePorn in which strangers come into your home and have sex in front of you (!!!).

Simply put, this series is insane, in all the best and most intriguing ways.

Something I very much appreciate about MZD’s approach with The Familiar books (and an aspect I’ve mentioned in previous reviews) is that he maintains a balance between difficulty and enjoyment for the reader. These books are challenging at times, no doubt. They’re mysterious, they’re abstract, they’re minimalist and some passages can be utterly inconceivable. However, they’re also heartfelt, dramatic, dark, terrifying and funnier than one might think. I’ve found myself getting emotionally invested in more than half of the nine characters and deeply curious about the remainder of them. To put it simply, The Familiar is a more accessible series and a more approachable read than its basest premise would suggest. To naysayers who might deem the series pretentious, all I can say is that you must pick one up and read it before letting your assessment land there. These aren’t just hard books for the sake of being hard. They’re fun, they pay off and there’s a community around them to help parse out the questions as you go.

With each subsequent volume, MZD is rewarding those who endure with more hints, more clues and (a few) answers, all the while the greater mystery deepens and grows more complex. Imagine if the television series LOST had all been planned out ahead of time and was leading somewhere that actually made sense. The nice part is that the books are each small segments of the larger treasure map being pieced together, (helpfully) referencing one another (with page numbers [even!]) to keep the reader on track and remind them of passages past (passed(?)). It’s all one big mind-bending, reality-defying, possibly simulated and probably multi-timelined puzzle. And the picture is getting clearer all the time, so keep scrying.

-J.G.

"THE FAMILIAR" Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain by Mark Z. Danielewski - Book Review

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In Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May, I was introduced to a wild, scattered, multifaceted universe from the mind of Mark Z Danielewski, a story in which a girl finds a unique, powerful, mysterious (dangerous?) cat. Many other characters entered into the mix from across the globe and while I may not have known exactly what was going on, the experience was still interesting, exciting, colorful, and contained the necessary beats to keep me moving forward, anxious to know what came next. There was enough heart in certain characters to get me invested in them and their stories. Amazingly, for what at times was a difficult read, it ended with me thinking that, “Yes, I’d read another one of these.”

    With Volume 2: Into the Forest, things got more trippy, more spooky, more uncertain, more untethered, and yet also more tied together. Things were starting to make more sense. I was already familiar with the format, the main characters, and the fact that to understand the book better, the best plan was not to get too hung up on the mysteries and just keep moving forward, trusting that Danielewski would reveal things when the time was right. I learned more about the dangers (and powers) of curious electronic(?) Orbs that could search time and space and were inherently unpredictable. I saw dark and frightening stones cover people’s eyes, and disembodied eyes floating out of the page towards me from out of a cold and sinister forest. I realized that this story was going to be a lot of things, but safe was not one of them. And when it ended, I felt like I was awakening from a very exhilarating (and terrifying) nightmare… yet I was hungry for more.

    In Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain, on one hand, the pace smoothened out a bit. Where Volumes 1 and 2 were rip-roaring with frequent chaotic and puzzling events, Volume 3 slowed down. It took its time giving me more depth and history into the characters with whom I was now very familiar. Knowing well the tone and voice of each person, I was able to roll through the narrative relatively easily and enjoy seeing the plot unfold without the literary-acrobatics of figuring out the format, because I was already comfortable with it.

On the other hand, Volume 3 got stranger than ever, and scarier than ever, pulling the curtain back slightly further to give the reader a glimpse into Xanther’s potential, importance, and power (although none of these have yet been fully realized in her or divulged to us). Whatever is going on, she is in a precarious, volatile, highly dangerous situation (and nope, I don’t even fully understand what that situation is). Along with that, I’m not sure if even the ancient cat will be able to protect her from it (or if he himself is in fact a part of the danger, despite their apparent bond). The spookiness of Volume 2 got ripped open wider and, man, was it exhilarating. The complexity of the story's vastness also spun out further, but links are beginning to be made.

What I must stress about this series is that while it is a challenge, it is also perhaps one of the most rewarding reading experiences I’ve ever had. It is worth the effort. It is worth the digging into the text and looking for clues and patterns between the three Volumes and discussing theories with other readers online. And Danielewski knows this with complete clarity. The series is not just difficult for the sake of difficulty, or complex for the sake of highbrow artsy overindulgence. Instead, it is an experience built with great intention and needs to be given careful attention. But also, it's, uh, fun to read. It goes against the fast-paced information overload of our current media culture and forces the reader to slow down, to take in the prose, to make notes and underline passages and refer back to the previous volumes, to pay close heed, to study. And for those who take the time and do the work, Danielewski is handing out literary parcels of gold with each new book.

Volume 3 only confirmed this fact. Things are coming together. Characters are crossing paths. Something enormous is being built, and yes, it’s still full of mystery, but there are more clues all the time, and they’re fantastically exciting. There were several chill-inducing revelations. Never have I had a reading experience that was so well balanced between poetic, philosophic beauty and tripping-balls bizarre.

These books are works of art, and they’re only getting better. Join the community surrounding this series, and scratch your head with the rest of us while slapping yourself for not picking it up sooner. You have not had a reading experience like this before. Sure, it’s daunting, but do you know what the most daunting part of it is? The fact that Volume 4: Hades  isn’t coming out sooner.

-D.G.

"THE FIREMAN" by Joe Hill - Book Review

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Joe Hill’s The Fireman bears similarities to Lord of the Flies and Fahrenheit 451 (both comparisons that were made very early on in the book’s publicity run), but also, in my mind, to Stephen King’s 2009 modern epic Under the Dome. Like Golding’s book, it has the "my clan/your clan" adversity that builds throughout the novel and ultimately swells out of control with deadly results. It functions as a study in the irrationality of groupthink and the idiosyncrasies of people’s behavior who have been manipulated by an autocratic leader in whom they have blind faith, as the people of Chester's Mill with Big Jim Rennie in Under the Dome. And, like Fahrenheit 451, it has a lot of fire in it.

All three of Joe Hill’s previous novels (NOS4A2, Horns, Heart-Shaped Box) have been, more or less, “intimate” books with relatively few main characters at their centers. The Fireman is new territory for him in that regard, as it features a wide assortment of characters with vastly differing backgrounds and sensibilities. This contributed both to the book’s strength and, in my opinion, its weakness. While a number of the characters were written with utter clarity and easily discernible personalities (Harper, The Fireman, Jakob, Renėe, Allie, Nick, Ben, Carol, Tom Storey, The Marlboro Man, Harold Cross), other members of Camp Wyndham became muddled and lost in my mental inventory only because of the largeness of the book and the size of its cast of characters. I found this to be only occasionally distracting and, admittedly, the blame may lie more with my poor reading skills than with the author’s ability.

To touch briefly on one other negative quality, I felt that the pace of the book took an enormous two hundred page dip in its middle third. The beginning section was riveting, and the ending was fantastically exciting—a true heart-racing page-turner—but the meandering interpersonal drama of Camp Wyndham in the middle of the book was somewhat slow and frankly not all that interesting.

Those things aside, Joe Hill does an exceptional job of introducing the reader very swiftly into the nature of the world as it stands when we enter the story. An epidemic infection called Dragonscale, carried by a rare spore and transmitted to humans in an unknown way, is causing people all over the world to spontaneously combust. Evidence of the disease can be seen on the skin of its victims (before the point where they burn up) in the form of swirling black tattoo-like formations, flecked with gold. In the opening chapters, the Space Needle in Seattle tips over, engulfed in flames, ignited people flying out its windows before it crashes to the ground on live television. And the blazing mayhem only increases from there.

Speaking of blazing, Hill should be given credit just for his use of such a diverse collection of fire-, smoke-, and ash-related words. You can only say something is “hot” or “burning” so many times before you have to dig out the old thesaurus and start finding new ways to describe flames. Joe does, and well.

I have to admit that the last two hundred pages made up for the narrative lull that preceded it. In a way, there was not one climax, but three, as the novel wraps up several facets of its storyline at different times, each more satisfying than the last. Not only was the conclusion exciting, but clever in such a way that will inspire one to say of Hill, “That sly son of a bitch.” Having read everything he has published up to this point, I can personally attest to Joe Hill’s talent for dropping seemingly insignificant little nuggets throughout his stories and imperceptibly bringing them back around at the perfect moment. These small payoffs, along with his ability to be heartfelt without being corny, make the conclusions of his books often very satisfying.

While some of his books may be substantially stronger than others, I haven’t read a “bad” story by Joe Hill yet. He has a unique voice and is an undeniable talent, which makes me think he’s gonna be churning out good ones for many years to come.

-D.G.

"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon - Book Review

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This book struck me in an odd way in that I could recognize in a disconnected, impartial observer sort of way that it was clever, heartbreaking, artful, extensively detailed, well researched, and deeply funny, except that all of these qualities added up to me not caring one bit about the novel or the characters.  If this says anything, I recognized in a purely analytical sense that, Yes, indeed, this is technically a "good book," but I would never pick up another of Chabon's works again. There was nothing within it that struck a meaningful chord in me (though, clearly, it has struck a chord with a great many other people).

Something that bothered me was that Chabon's sentences could be so over-puffed (that's the primary word that kept coming to mind) that they almost became a study in how lengthy and convoluted with highfalutin vocabulary a sentence can be. I'm all for lengthy sentences, and I'm all for coming across new words in my reading (in fact, I hope for that quality in a book), but I got the sense at times that Chabon was simply showing off in order to prop his novel up as high art, real capital-L Literature, crafted for the express purpose of earning the praise of the New York City and NPR crowd. Or, perhaps Chabon is just really smart and it comes naturally to him to write in this way. That doesn't mean it is terribly enjoyable to read.

I'm not saying the book is shit--not in the least. It is one of those grand epics that encompasses the entirety of its characters' lives and explores a wide assortment of facets (magic tricks, isolated life in the arctic, World War II, lock-picking, writing stories, drawing superheroes, a Jewish Golem). Its sensibility is big, bold, and unabashedly American, but in a colorful, fun way that mirrors the comic books at its center. The drama that unfolds between its three main characters, while not particularly engaging to me, was well told.

It was interesting to read this not long after having finished The Goldfinch (both novels were Pulitzer Prize winners) because, although I enjoyed that book far more, I noticed some parallels. that made the two seem noticeably similar. Both books are big in scope, even though they pivot around a small group of characters. Both span the length of someone's life and therefore are widely varied in the areas of human experience that they consider. Perhaps that isn't much and sounds generic, like it could fit the description of many novels, but in reading Kavalier & Clay I kept being reminded of Donna Tartt's book.

In all, this book wasn't my ideal reading scenario, but I can see how a different type of person would find it unutterably adventurous and pleasurable. Still, at nearly 700 pages, I didn't quit as I might have with a lesser book. I stuck with it because it was admittedly engaging 85% of the time, I just can't put my finger on why it didn't connect with me more on an emotional level.

Recommended if you're into: Stories that take place in New York City, 1920's to 1950's America, the Golden Age of comics, Harry Houdini, World War II, McSweeney's Quarterly (because it's got the same literary tone as much of what Dave Eggers puts out), classic superheroes, vintage TV and radio.

-D.G.

"The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi - Book Review

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This was a decently entertaining read, but there were enough thematic and structural issues to also make it a distracting and confusing one. Something about the story felt amateurish and incomplete, and the ending itself was abrupt and seemed not completely thought out. It was not terrible, it simply felt like an idea that never got fully developed, thus the book never felt “solid” or came into its own.

It could be said that this is a “mid-apocalyptic” book (if such a thing exists—it does now, I guess) in that the story takes place not before or after a great calamity, but in the middle of the world falling apart, and the reason is much simpler than zombies or a viral outbreak: it’s water.

The premise is initially intriguing, if odd. The extent of the novel’s world takes a few chapters to get your head around if you come into the book cold, as I did. It takes place in a near future version of America where it no longer rains and the drier states such as Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas have become dangerous and desolate territories where water is scarce and what little is available is controlled by corrupt powers with their own self interests in mind. California, on the other hand, has become more or less its own country with plentiful water and resources. It is viewed as a sort of paradise that the rest of the US aspires to, however their borders are strictly monitored and getting inside the state is nearly impossible without a great deal of money or social stature.

Much of the book takes place in Phoenix, a city that has been largely abandoned and left to die by the rest of the country. Gangs and savages have sprung up who preside over the weak and helpless. They run prostitution rings, take cuts of cash and water from small business owners within their territory, and watch over the borders so that inhabitants cannot simply leave the state. It’s a dire situation.

The plot centers around three characters in vastly different situations whose stories eventually intertwine: Lucy, a journalist who covers primarily grisly murders often related to water rights conflicts; Angel, a highly trained hitman/undercover investigator/Jason Bourne type (the slang term for his occupation being water knife) who works for a powerful figure named Catherine Case based in Las Vegas who controls most of the water in the Southwestern states; and Maria, an impoverished young woman who makes her living by buying up water at low rates and reselling it in convenient locations for a profit.

I did come to care about all three of these characters, Lucy in particular, and Bacigalupi’s ability to write dialogue and small human moments was notable. The book plays out as sort of a medium-speed thriller (I would consider something by Lee Child or Michael Crichton to be “full-speed,” comparatively) mixed with more intimate moments between the main characters in their struggle to survive.  

One of my issues with the book is its smallness of scope. If there is literally no more rain anywhere and this water epidemic is supposedly affecting the entire world, why does the author only give us a pocket of the whole story? What’s going on in other countries? Why is the American government so standoffish to its own states that are suffering? Some of these details are alluded to—loosely—and I recognize that some of this approach may be commentary on a future government that is even more apathetic to its own people than it is now, but this aspect still bothered me. Only so much could be done about the scope, I realize, and the author prioritized the characters in their geographic situation, but I feel that these details could have at least been fleshed out more to give a larger idea of what was happening in the world at large.

There were some extremely graphic descriptions of torture and one sex scene that got pornographic. These things don’t generally bother me in a novel per se, but in both instances they felt like X-rated scenes shoved into what was otherwise a PG-13 novel, which is to say they felt highly out of place. They were jolting enough to take me out of the flow of the story and say, out loud, “Wait, what?” These contributed to the book’s overall inconsistency in tone.

In all, The Water Knife was not a bad read and it held my attention for the most part, but I kept waiting for it to break wide open and become truly great—except it never did. The author’s writing was decent and his concept was interesting, and there was undoubtedly a lot of research that went into making the concept believable and realistic. However, based upon this work alone, I would probably not bother to pick up another novel by Bacigalupi. It’s not crap, it just isn’t my thing.

-D.G.

"The Outlaw Album" by Daniel Woodrell - Book Review - Short Story Collection

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I picked up this short volume at a library used book sale for one dollar, and am now so very grateful that I did not spend anywhere near the $24.99 retail price (highway robbery for a book that has a large font and is not even 200 pages long). After reading through it, I got the sense that this collection was hurriedly assembled and released as little more than a cash-grab in the wake of the success of the Oscar-nominated film Winter’s Bone, based upon Daniel Woodrell’s novel. I myself read Winter’s Bone and found it to be decently enjoyable. It was not anything mind-blowing, but was entertaining and had compelling characters and an engaging plot, and was the reason I decided to go a little further down the road with Woodrell’s work.

The Outlaw Album, on the other hand, read like a series of college-level in-class writing exercises, and unfinished ones at that. The majority of these stories felt incomplete, like ideas jotted down but never fleshed out. Very few of them had character, and the characters themselves were not memorable. On certain stories, it seems that Woodrell tried to employ a minimal, jump-cut sort of storytelling that often left me bewildered because the scene changes and implied action made very little sense, as if he was attempting to be dark or ironic by leaving the reader to read between the lines and not quite succeeding.

On a more positive note, I will say that a few of the stories were pretty good and had plot arcs that actually made sense and were interesting. Woodrell also occasionally lucked out with a very strong sentence here and there; vivid, eloquent one-liners full of stark detail or metaphors that landed just right. But those two compliments are about as kind as I can be towards this collection, a book that, believe it or not, I had set out with the expectation to enjoy. Very rarely do I feel the need to rip a book up and down, but this volume came across as an amalgam of largely undeveloped stories that whoever edited them must have barely glanced at before giving them the stamp of approval.

Woodrell’s writing is, in this case, like a second rate Donald Ray Pollock, or a third rate Cormac McCarthy. He has neither the devastating punch nor the literary touch that those men do. If you want some quality Southern fiction with grit as well as heart, read those authors instead.

-D.G.