The Weekly Digest is a weekly (no shit?) update that captures highlights from the week that was. At the end of each week, I share a collection of thoughts, recommendations, and links. Like everything else I write, it's awesome, but it may be too long for email so make sure you click through.
š” No More Mr. Nice Guy?
On Book Reviews & Literary Criticism
A consequence of drifting so far from the āwhat I doā of this newsletter is that my perspective on it has changed. This week, I read a number of articles about book reviews and literary criticism, and the usual din about our culture in decline. For example, some folks on Substack are celebrating that famed book reviewer Ron Charles has joined Substack after getting canned by the Jeff Bezos-owned WaPo; I have more muted feelings on it because 1. the man lost a stable source of income, 2. I donāt need that kind of competition, and 3. it is indicative how rapidly late-stage capitalism is eroding the standards of culture. How-ever you may choose to define those standards, the absence of an independent fourth estate, whether for art or politics, would be certainly detrimental.
I digress. My point being that Iāve been thinking a good bit all week about what it means to be a book reviewer (and āliterary criticā) here on Substack, and ā as I am often wont to claim ā in service to the Substack fiction community.
I enjoyed this conversation between John Warner and Lincoln Michel (two Substackers I frequently annoy with my restacking) that touched upon Substackās current place in the literary ecosystem.
And paired it with Blake Lefrayās recent article on the rampant āgaslightingā in book reviews. Which directed me to Like This or Die, by Christian Lorentzen, an article on similar topics from a few years ago. And Iād be remiss if it I didnāt add The Positive Toxicity of Book Reviews from Dear Head of Mine.
All of this has been whirling in my head, partly because Iām getting a āfresh startā with my bill-paying job and there is room now for a soft reset of Vinny Reads, and Iām wrestling with how I want to take these collected perspectives of books and book reviewing to heart.
To wit: I am reading a book that I promised to review, and I am not enjoying it so far. It has the same issue that a sizable bit of Substack writing has; it is not finished. The language is passive, there are mixed metaphors, sentences are structured poorly in a way that is less idiosyncratic than it is just unpleasant to read1, et cetera. Nothing unfixable in a vacuum, or with concerted time and effort, but thereās a reason an insurance company will ātotalā your car even if it can still drive.
Is the car no good, or is it just beat-to-shit and needs a good buff and wax? I guess thatās for critics (and insurance adjusters) to make judgement calls on2.
Unmoored from the financial incentives of the wider publishing world, where does one draw the line between being a āgood literary citizenā who wants to encourage art and artists, and being an honest voice of critique both for readers and for writers?
Seems like itās been a question thatās been kicked around for at least a few years now, but Iām sure Iāll figure out a satisfactory answer by next Fridayā¦
šBook Bits
The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman
I never understood ācomfort readsā before, but man if these Dungeon Crawler Carl books donāt scratch some innate, dopamanic3 itch in my lizard brain.
Red Deadās History by Tore C. Olsson
Iāve only ever gotten the original mythologized history and the neo-Western pushback versions of the Wild West. This one uses Red Dead Redemption 2 as a vehicle for exploring the accuracies and incongruencies in the history. Fun read so far, as far as history texts go.
Recent Book Haul:
Masculine - a short story collection from Bad Clown Books.
My thanks to Trey Hinkle for the copy. Lots of Substack names I recognize in the ToC, and Iām eager to dive into these stories.
Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock
The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
Lives of the Saints by Nancy Lemann
NYRB book of the month
šŗScreen Time š„ļø
A new section? Jesus, Vinny, pick a lane. I havenāt made a secret of the fact that my reading has slowed significantly this year. My hope is to start rekindling some of that momentum as the weather starts to warm. In the rainy and cold interim, Iāve been rewatching Deadwood, and just started season 2 a couple nights ago. Similar to rewatching Justified, Iām struck by all the surprising cameos (did you know Sarah Paulson was in this?!) but also by how much of it holds up on rewatch. I may see if thereās a Deadwood-equivalent history book to Red Deadās Historyā¦
Iāve also been playing Crimson Desert, though not making much progress. In a less meandering playthrough, my 55ish hours would probably have me halfway through the main story. That is not how Iāve been playing. Iām not normally a completionist, but despite a seemingly in coherent story this world is just so damn cool to explore and pretty to look at. It feels like the first game that steps forward into the next era of open world games, ambitiously large and overstuffed. Maybe Iāll finish it before GTA VIā¦
š”Substack Spotlight:
This weekās spotlight will focus on those articles I mentioned above as well as an example of what I think is an excellent review of a book that 1. cuttingly critiques the material and 2. actually made me want to read it for myself.
Normie Transgression by Udith Dematagoda
The Positive Toxicity of Book Reviews from Dear Head of Mine.
Are Book Reviews Gaslighting Us? by Blake Lefray
Keepin' Your Head Above Water (Making a Wave When You Can) by John Warner
Scavenging in the Media Wastelands: Or, Substacking While Trying to Make a Living Writing by Lincoln Michel
šļøWriting
On Altered States, None Midwestern
I enjoy a hemp-derived THC drink called Nowadays. The can has 10mg of THC which ā for me ā provides a nice floaty body-high with less of the impairment that alcohol would require to get to that same place. Another distinction: when I get drunk I get chatty, but when I get high my mind starts to race with possibilities. This is not ground-breaking stuff (and definitely screams of ā40-year-old man trying to pretend heās still coolā), but itās relevant because Iāve used it to break through my writing inertia.
Whether those ideas generated have any merit is an unanswered question, but unlike most ācreatives,ā one of the areas where I struggle is idea generation4. My goal is to work them to completion or death (preferably the storyās and not mine), because it is a muscle I need to build.
Thereās actually a lot of muscles I need to build. And a beer gut Iād like to shrink. And my doctor would probably like me to do some fucking cardio. Long story short: Iām out-of-shape and a bad writer. Thanks for subscribing!
šøFleeting Thoughts
I started my new role on Monday. Itās odd feeling like the ānew guyā when youāve worked at the same company for 12+ years. Iāve been encouraged to āenjoy it,ā however one is supposed to do that. I will enjoy the new paycheck which is, after all, my employmentās raison d'ĆŖtre. The team dynamic is significantly more relaxed, and the work is more interesting. Iām sure Iāll be bitching about it here in no time.
One of the ironies is that I will likely be using AI significantly in my new role. Iāve mentioned before that my undergraduate degree was in Computer Science, and I have a fascination with neural networks (which are slightly different) going back at least two decades; I am, if nothing else, interested in the actual potential of these AI models. After all, if the soulless machine can do the soulless parts of my job (i.e. PowerPoint) for me, thatās a good thing.
Or at least a better thing than ripping off artists and homogenizing their work. Let the machine produce the detritus and flotsam of capitalism; let the humans make art.
š»+š¤,
ā V
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This may be a personal gripe, but I develop an excess of bile when sentences end in prepositions.
Ahh fuck!
Not a word.
I also suffer from difficulty starting, difficulty maintaining work ethic, and difficulty finishing. When I complete something, itās usually in a fugue state similar to how Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but with less mushrooms and cocaine.
I could never review a book. Iām a āif you canāt say anything niceā¦ā guy so even if I decide to provide only good reviews, doesnāt that destroy credibility? Welp, hats off to you for putting in the good work.
There are some great Deadwood books, in fact. Deadwood: Stories of the Black Hills is gorgeous, by David Milch himself, and was made relatively close to when the series was, so thereās less lost to time then accounts made 10 or 10 years later (but less juicy gossip).The Deadwood Bible by Matt Zellers Stetz just has a shitton of information, and I think might stand as the āfinal wordā on the series. And Milchs memoir has some good Deadwood stuff in it in terms of the series Inspiration, and the feeling of when the show was actually being made.