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A Few Books I Hope to Read in 2023
January 17, 2023

Every year I always hope that I’ll read more. But unless I’m reading something for review, I generally only crack a book at bedtime and then reading puts me to sleep. What I’m saying is, I’m a slow reader. As much I try to pry myself away from podcasts and listen to more audiobooks, most of the time I just want something, well, disposable, while I’m working out or driving to the grocery store.

But we’re just a little halfway through January, and it’s not too late for dreaming.

So here’s a list of a few books I hope to read for myself in the coming months.

 

You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming

I’ve already read the first book in the Blofeld Trilogy, and I’m nearly done with second. So I figure that I might as well round third and read You Only Live Twice next. Somehow I’m not sick of James Bond, and despite the tiny print in these editions they go down smoother than a gin martini (I assume). And despite what the movies have led us to believe, Bond is just as apt to grab a bottle of Jack Daniels as he is something shaken, not stirred.

Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett

Every year I read a biography, usually of an author. Two years ago I read one on Tolkien, last year it was Robert E. Howard, and this year it’ll be Ian Fleming. This is a thick tome, so I expect it’ll take longer than the other two. My understanding is that ol’ Ian led quite the tawdry life. Should make for some, uh, interesting reading.

On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

It can’t be all spies all the time, so I’ll need to break things up with a little science fiction. I’ve never read any Anthony. I also have the second book in the series and if I like it I may do like I have with Bond and jump right into the next one. Anyone have any thoughts? I’m pretty much going in blind.

Hombre by Elmore Leonard

Summer is a good time for westerns, and by the time I get through the above titles I’m sure we’ll be in the midst of sunny days. I’ve read a fair share of Leonard’s crime fiction and two historical novels, but I understand he cut his teeth on oaters. When I found this one I picked up two more, so again, I may keep going.

The Brave and the Bold by Hans G. Schantz

This is one book I don’t yet have on my shelf and I probably won’t pick it up until mid-September. But after reading the first two in the trilogy, I’m looking forward to learning the end of the story. 

Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone by Mark Dawidziak

The sole ebook on the list, I’m trying to read a few paragraphs whenever I’m out and don’t have a physical book on me. Or if I wake up early and don’t want to disturb the cat sleeping on my shoulder. Reading this will likely prompt watching more episodes of the TV series, which will also give me more to write about here.

And that’s my list. I’m sure I’ll work some other titles in here and there. If I’m disciplined, I should have time for more than that this year. I’ll want to sprinkle in some old murder mystery novels, there will probably be another Hemingway kick, and maybe even a classic. What’s on your list for 2023?

 

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F1 is Modern Western

As a nation, the United States is unique. We don’t share a genetic heritage, but a creed. Americans and our ideas come from all over the world. But we’re at our best when take those outside ideas and make them our own. Everything we have came from another culture, but there was a time when we could take things and collectively make them better.

Democracy? Check. Rock’n’roll? Check. Heck! Chinese food? Yes, we did.

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One of the greatest art forms we’ve given the world is the western genre. While rooted in courtly romances of King Arthur, we took the idea of the man on horseback who makes things right on his quest for something spiritual and made it distinctly American. Most of the time, these stories aren’t historically accurate, but that’s not the point. They’re soaked in the American ethos. For better or for worse, the western has become the American myth, even more so than 1776.

And the cool thing about myths is that you can take them and tell other stories. 

Star Trek (and later Firefly) took the western to space. 

A few weeks ago I was able to see F1: The Movie on IMAX, and I had high hopes. Director Joseph Krasinski had proved himself with Top Gun: Maverick, which is about as American as a modern movie can get. But mostly, I just wanted to see if he could do with racecars what he’d done with fighter jets. In that regard, I was everything I’d hoped it would be. The idea of Americanism didn’t even cross my mind, since F1 is primarily a European sport.

Boy, was I surprised.

Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes with all the careless cool of Paul Newman in his prime and a Steve McQueen swagger. While Pitt has never played a cowboy and isn’t a racecar driver in real life, Newman and McQueen played both, and did both. Hayes has been keeping himself busy with no-name races since an F1 crash nearly killed him some 30 years before. But when Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), an old friend and rival, needs some wins to save the team, he tracks down Sonny.

And the old dog knows a few tricks.

Naturally, his tactics put him at odds with his teammate, Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris), and his cocky attitude is a big red flag to the team’s engineer, Kate McKenna (Kerry Conden). So the movie all the tropes of a sports film, and I don’t think I need to summarize further. But it’s not a sports film. Or rather, it’s not just a sports a film. Surprise, surprise, it’s the western myth transposed into a racing a story.

It’s spelled out in the trailer, but it didn’t strike me until the very end.

Kate calls Sonny Hayes an “old school rough and tumble cowboy” in a line used in the marketing. When he arrives in the garage, only Ruben knows him. Sonny is the stranger in town. Like James Garner in Support Your Local Sheriff, his method of restoring order and winning is unorthodox and effective. Like Shane, in that Alan Ladd classic, he’s guarded about his past. And like John Wayne in The Searchers and so many other westerns, Sonny Hayes is the outsider who must leave civilization once he’s made it civilized for those who belong there.

But he doesn’t.


Perhaps the hardboiled crime story, another uniquely American genre, is also an outgrowth of the western. Philip Marlow is the man who must walk down mean streets, who is not himself mean. As Raymond Chandler said, “He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him.” Basically, the man he’s describing is dangerous, but not cruel. Dispassionate in taking revenge, and restrained by a code of honor.

But destined to be lonely, nonetheless.

Why we’ve made that an essential part of the American is a topic for another time. But there it is. And it’s the story of Sonny Hayes. At the end of the movie [SPOILER], he rides off into the sunset as the credits roll. The western isn’t dead. It’s still there, in essence, speaking to our hearts in different ways.

Nothing more American than that. 

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Girl-Power Isn't the Problem: Stop Treating Movies Like TV Pilots

Last weekend I was able to sneak off the theater for a screening of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. Did I feel silly, telling the high school girl at the ticket counter, “One for Ballerina, and a small drink”? Well, not in the moment. 

I probably drank a liter of cherry vanilla Coke Zero, and that didn’t feel so great.

Plenty of box office analysts and Hollywood types are wracking their brains, trying to figure out why movies like Furiosa and Ballerina aren’t drawing huge crowds. Mad Max and John Wick are popular franchises, but apparently telling the stories of the women in those worlds isn’t working. Even if the movies are pretty good.

I’ve seen both, and they’re pretty good.

Some are arguing that no one will go near a movie that looks like it’s feminist girl-bossing. Others counter that movies like Alien and Kill Bill are female-led action films that were successful. Now, I’m not going to say that Ballerina is on par with those modern day classics. But I will say that, as a man watching the movie, it didn’t offend me. The movie never challenged me to confront any internalized misogyny. The small girl doesn’t take down John Wick in hand-to-hand combat.

Honestly, if you like franchise, whether you’re male or female, you should watch Ballerina.

In short, from a purely cinematic experience perspective, neither Furiosa nor Ballerina would be any better or worse with a male lead. Maybe that’s a hot take. But that’s mine, for whatever it’s worth. Well, okay, I wouldn’t watch a movie called Ballerina if it stared a dude. Nevertheless, I think you get my point. Petite women warriors aside, the plots and action are exactly as expected.

So what’s the deal?

Well, what no one seems to have noticed is that Ripley and The Bride weren’t replacing anyone. As we were watching their movies for the first time, we weren’t thinking about other characters for whom we already had a preference. Movies are more like TV than TV right now, and replacement characters have always been a hard sell, regardless of gender. We all remember Sam and Diane. Who still talks about Sam and Rebecca (even though Kirstie Alley won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the part)? I had to look up her name. 

No, they aren’t technically replacing them. It’s a spin-off, set in the same world.

Spin-offs tend to succeed when the characters are already well established (eg: Frasier). Furiosa and Ballerina are more like backdoor pilots, where new characters are dropped in for a single episode to sell us on the idea of a new show. This technique is very hit and miss on TV, and I can’t think of a single example of this working in a movie franchise. Film and television are very different mediums, and should be treated as such.

Still, if it doesn’t work on TV, it’s probably not gonna work at the movies. Not where new characters and spin-offs are concerned. 

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It’s making me nostalgic. 

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Some of these are movies I’ve seen before, but not in a long time. Others will be first time watches for me. There’s really no rhyme or reason to what I put on my list. It’s just movies that either interest me, or are currently in my collection, sadly unwatched. As things become available on streaming, I may add to the list. And if I don’t get to everything before the end of the year, no big deal.

Hopefully, they aren’t going anywhere. 

I’ll be posting some reviews and analysis as I go, so be sure to follow me here. 

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