Day Thirty-Seven

5/7

The Book: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

ISBN: 0-375-72488-5

Suggested By: Dan Solomon

Where: Home

When: 9:30-10P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 337- 390 (63)

The Lead In: Putting your assignment off till the last time at night is a bad idea.

The 411 on the 55: Dylan goes to a comic/art/movie festival and his father is being honored for his artwork. Dylan seems pretty blase to the whole thing, though when a section of his father’s movie is shown, Dylan gets a little misty. While at the festival, Dylan hears the story of how Mingus, now in the state pen, saved his dad’s life with a kidney transplant. Just before leaving, a man hands Dylan his mother’s last known address.

The next chapter concerns Dylan cheating on his girlfriend after getting coked up. Again, Lethem’s weak suit is female conversation. After this episode, we get the roots of Dylan’s college experience, just after leaving Brooklyn.

Line of the Day: “Fuck you lookin’ at?” pg 385

The Fact on the Fiction: The man, the legend, the webpage. BobDylan.com

Day Thirty-Six

5/6

The Book: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

ISBN: 0-375-72488-5

Suggested By: Dan Solomon

Where: Home

When: 2:30-3:10P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 281-336 (55)

The Lead In: Some writers are really good at description, some are really good with dialogue, some are really good in character development. Lethem has written a pretty solid book up to this point, but when he has to insert a set dialogue between a woman and a man, he does a stinker of a job. Not impressed at all. pg 309-318. Horrible.

The 411 on the 55: Dylan decides to get in on Mingus’ drug deal. As he sits down to invest his money, Mingus’ grandfather, who has disapproved of his son’s lifestyle, barges in with a gun, eventually leading to Mingus blasting his own grandfather.

After this gripping climax, there is a piece of music writing done by Dylan (the fictional character, of course), done for liner notes in a box set. He discusses Barrett Rude Jr. (Mingus’ dad) and his career in soul music.

The next scene is in the 1999, Dylan is living with his girlfriend, a black woman, who accuses him of being unable to get over his childhood. He admits to being depressed but leaves for the airport. He flies to California to pitch a movie idea about a prison soul band in the 60’s The Prisonaires. The movie maker loves the idea.

Line of the Day: “Leave him alone, Gus. Little Dylan can do what he wants. He’s my boy, he’s going to college, damn, I can’t believe how the time goes, can you believe it, Gus? Little Dylan’s taking off to college, the boy can’t get high because he’s keeping his shit together.” pg 286

The Fact on the Fiction:  Found a blog that discussed the inspiration for Barrett’s soul band. Oddly enough, while reading through it, I spotted that this guy was in Mission, Tx some time ago. Weird. Interesting though. He says its the Spinners. SteadyBlogging

Day Thirty-Five

5/5 (Cinco De Mayo!)

The Book: The Fortress of Solitude

ISBN: 0-375-72488-5

Suggested By: Dan Solomon

Where: Home

When: 7-7:45P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 225 - 280 (55)

The Lead In: Caught a Ramones quote today, made me happy, because it wasn’t in italics or in quotation marks. “It’s the end, the end of the seventies.” From Rock and Roll Radio I think. Good song. Such a good good band.

The 411 on the 55: Dylan falls into a new crowd at his new school, bunch of white kids. They all become punk rock kids, until Sugar Hill Gang sparks rap. Mingus and he remain close.

Well, dabbling back in punk rock music, Dylan and a group of friends go to a house to get high after a show, they get mugged by an bully that used to torment Dylan when he was a kid. The girl Dylan is after pees her pants, which ends his chances.

Dylan and Mingus seem to be going in different directions. Dylan works all summer to get ready for college. In contrast, Mingus uses the ring to spray paint his mark on the side of a 26 story-high police tower. Mingus is getting into heavier and heavier drugs, while Dylan has taken up reading Hesse. Maybe this is the split of white and black youth in Brooklyn, as the author portrays it? Young they are similar, as they age, they divide?

Today’s reading ends with Dylan buying a bunch of comics off another friend, using part of his college money. His friend, Arthur and Mingus are going to invest in drugs.

Line of the Day: “Brooklyn’s chased you to the ground and nobody’s going to comprehend except that you’re marked, cursed, best avoided.” pg 267

The Fact on the Fiction:  (Shout out to Brandon for pointing this out, nice to see you following the blog!)  “One of the most important figures in twentieth century American music, Charles Mingus was a virtuoso bass player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer. Born on a military base in Nogales, Arizona in 1922 and raised in Watts, California, his earliest musical influences came from the church-- choir and group singing-- and from "hearing Duke Ellington over the radio when [he] was eight years old.” Mingus

Day Thirty-Four

5/4

The Book: The Fortress of Solitude

ISBN: 0-375-72488-5

Suggested By: Dan Solomon

Where: Home

When: 9:30-10:15P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 168-224 (62)

The Lead In: I can’t tell if this is a super hero novel or a coming of age novel or a novel about race relations. Either way, its good.

The 411 on the 55: Dylan is shipped out of town for the summer to camp, he has an experience with a girl, making out. He lies about it later. He also has a sexual experience with Mingus, which was interesting, to say the least. Basically, Dylan is growing up.

They begin to push the idea of Arrowman or Aeroman and start fighting crime together at nights. Its  not incredibly super-heroey work, but they break up a couple of muggings.

Oh, and Dylan’s dad wins a Hugo Award.

Line of the Day: “Teenagerdom was a secret identity in the first place.” pg 189

The Fact on the Fiction: Ladies and Gentlemen, the official site of the Hugo Awards.

Day Thirty-Three

5/3

The Book: The Fortress of Solitude

ISBN: 0-375-72488-5

Suggested By: Dan Solomon

Where: Home

When: 9:30-10P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 112-167 (55)

The Lead In: Tagging is something I never understood, both as a young man and as a teacher. I get the psychology of marking territory and leaving a mark on your environment, but aren’t we beyond pissing on the walls? What good is it? I sometimes wonder if tagging is the poor man’s Next Great American Novel.

The 411 on the 55: Dylan and Mingus really embrace the concept of tagging, putting there mark DOSE, all over the streets of their neighborhood. Including on a bum’s back while he sleeps. Dylan’s father notices the tag later, and takes the bum to drug treatment. Turns out, this bum was the guy that Dylan saw fall earlier from the sky. He is the “flying man.” During one of his fits, he gives his flying ring to Dylan, saying he “can’t fight the air waves.”

Dylan toys with the ring for awhile, but nothing really happens with it until they are in the middle of a game of stickball in the street. All of a sudden he is jumping beyond anything he has ever done before.

On a side note, the issue of race is influencing the story heavily. At one point, Dylan and his three friends (all of color), go into a dept. store to steal paint. The three boys draw all the attention while Dylan, the white kid, fills his backpack. Interesting.

Line of the Day: “To be in this place is to admit you exist. To be in this place is to admit you want something.” pg 130

The Fact on the Fiction: Stop by this website for an overview on the state of graffiti culture. Graffiti.org

Day Thirty-Two

5/2

The Book: The Fortress of Solitude

ISBN: 0-375-72488-5

Suggested By: Dan Solomon

Where: Home

When: 10-10:30P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 56-111 (55)

The Lead In: I’ve noticed that the reading of this book is much easier than the Dickens’ of two days ago. I guess that makes sense, but I wonder why that is. A couple of reasons come to mind. 1) word choices may be more current to my own period 2) plot might be more predictable 3) the culture has eroded the level of thinking needed to read

The 411 on the 55: Dylan makes a friend Mingus. One, awesome name. Two, he’s black and, in being such, he helps Dylan grow into his skin. Don’t get me wrong, Dylan is still a dork, but at least he has a friend, and a cool one at that. Mingus’ dad is a musician at the end of his line, in semi-retirement, doing a lot of drugs.

Dylan’s mom moves out. He starts getting typed postcards, all of them sort of cryptic. I assume they are from his mother, but I am not sure. His dad sells all his paintings of his mom, starts painting for book covers.

One day, Dylan sees a guy fall from the sky, wearing a cape. Dylan is shocked, but, like everyone else in this story, the guy mugs him for $1.50. He he. Awesome.

Line of the Day: “You regularly promised your enemies that what you did together had no name.” pg 83

The Fact on the Fiction: The History of Brooklyn goes way back: “The town of Gowanus was established in 1639 by the Dutch on a small tidal creek leading out into a small bay. In 1700, one of the first settlers, Nicholas Vechte, built a farmhouse of brick and stone on the site which later became Washington Park. Near this park the Battle of Brooklyn was fought in August 1776.” Simple Site on Brooklyn’s History

Day Thirty-One

5/1

The Book: The Fortress of Solitude

ISBN: 0-375-72488-5

Suggested By: Dan Solomon

Where: Home

When: 9:45-10:30P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 1-55 (55)

The Lead In: The Fortress of Solitude was Superman’s place in Antarctica. Don’t know if Superman is involved in this book.

The 411 on the 55: It’s Brooklyn, 1970s, and Dylan Ebdus is a very uncool kid. Fat, boring, not good at anything, he gets pushed around by everyone. His mom’s outlandish, smokes too much and offends the landlord lady. His dad is working on a movie, painting the individual frames by hand. Dylan is the only white kid on his block and bears the shame of that position. He is into comics, though I am not sure to what extent. 

Line of the Day: “Days were full of gaps, probably because they were too alike. And when something big happened it was impossible to hold it clear. The gaps rushed in even there.” pg 28

The Fact on the Fiction: Apparently a film version, directed by Joshua Marston is currently in pre-production.