The thickness of late summer air in the east has found its way up north to those of us here in Boston. The air has a heaviness to it that marks those who travel through it with an odd sticky film. It is the mark of summer that is not as aesthetically pleasing as a tan nor as pleasant as a breeze in the park under the canopy of an oak. However, walking down Commonwealth Avenue and across campus last night I was reminded of the beauty of a humid night. Every light has an extra glow. The greens and reds and yellows of stoplights are warmer and more alive. The blues of emergency stations seem to hang in the air much like the moisture. All the miracle, mystery, and authority that BC attempts to muster in its gothic architecture is softened by the glow of lights on a muggy evening.
I have burned through and burned for more books than I thought I would want to this summer. There were gentle and grace-filled books and there were raw sexual and political escapades (in the books. My life is nowhere near that interesting.) A good piece of fiction can cover a multitude of sins. A great essay can do the same. Learning the origin of the essay in my French class was quite helpful in my appreciation of that genre of writing. In French, to essay is to try. It is an attempt at something. There is a notion of an essay being a shot in the dark, an potential answer but by no means the final word. There are always more attempts to be made.
Words have very much been on my mind this summer, which is no departure from the fall, the spring, or whatever other seasons there might be. I have been thinking about how lightly I use them. Humor as justification for the lightness of words is only so much of a justification. I fear that the words set forth are done with far less heft than they can carry. Part of this comes from Marilynne Robinson's writing style. It is prudent and thrift without being too minimal. The same could be said for Flannery O'Connor's style. I wonder if place shapes these words and the way they are delivered. The isolation of the O'Connor farm or Iowa City might give rise to a subtler literary voice. It might also make one crave company and overstuff the times spent with others with words like a pillow with too small a pillow case. A tendency of mine, which has been suffered by my always more than patient friends, is to see every detail as important, every connection as relevant, and every person in need of a backstory. Perhaps there is a way for me to sift through the connections and the details and the characters of my own tales in such a manner as to disclose them in their fullness without providing an unneeded surplus of words. I have yet to find it.
Still, the cultural artifact. There is a kind of spiritual art which stands out to me. It is art that is deeply personal and acquainted with sorrow and joy which fails not in its creativity nor its compassion. I can list off those whose works bring forth this spirit but it is by no means exhaustive. David Bazan, Marilynne Robinson, Wendell Berry, Flannery O'Connor, mewithoutYou, and several others. I do not know how to describe the spirit of their work in any other way than to say that they could all easily say the line: "Its a cold and its a broken hallelujah". And these artists seem connected to a much deeper and much older tradition than other works. Theirs is a spirituality that is unsettling, theirs a God who is trouble, theirs a spirit who haunts. Their Jesus has flesh on his bones. I don't really know what to say other than that my mind and my spirit has been continually blessed by listening to "Control" whilst reading "The Lame Shall Enter First". If you know some good visual artists who exhibit this same spirit--if it even makes any sense--please let me know. I feel that's missing from this collection of cultural artifacts.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Depths of Nerdery
I want to talk about the word Nerdery. I love it, it does so much more than other words do, and better yet, it's a neologism. Some words are what you make of them (like a couple of my favorite things in life) and nerdery is certainly one of them.
Nerdery: (verb). to engage in activities deemed "nerdy" by the populace. Also to act in the manner of one who would be called a Nerd.
Nerdery: (noun). as in, "the nerdery". A place in which nerdy activities--usually those involving mathematics, literary, historical, and philosophical theoretical discussions, and the repeated neccessity to either a)continuously define and redefine words or b)roll a 20+ sided die to determine hit points--take place. Typically found within places called laboratories, libraries, your mom's basement, record stores.
Why do I talk about nerdery? Isn't it obvious. I love my nerdery. I love being in a nerdery. However, several things that have come to mind over the course of the past week that prompted me to attempt to post about how much of a nerd I am and about why. Now, of course there is the age old difference between geeks and nerds which is constantly up for debate in these, our postmodern times. However, I am certainly not an expert in this field and so I would commend to all interested parties the excellent analysis that John Hodgeman provides concerning this matter.
What prompted this inquiry is actually the limits of words. I've been toying around with writing some fiction and found that I was getting frustrated with the limitations of the english language. Specifically, I'm frustrated that we really only have one good word for feet. Feet. Sure you can say hoof, or trotters, but when you're not going for the whole "man is a beast" angle, it's really frustrating. We have all of these words that we use for other body parts (i.e. mouth: jaws, chompers, mandibles, etc.) and we've imported a great assortment of words from other languages to talk about something like ghosts. Ghost, spook (not in the Phillip Roth sense), spectre, poltergeist, spirit, etc. So many words for an etheral being and yet when it comes to our own feet, we've only got one good word. Tis a shame.
(courtesy of Marvel Comics website)
So there is the word nerdery but there is certainly more. If it's just a word that I'm complaining about then just call me Wendell Berry and point me to the farm. Let me tell you about the nerdery that I miss most up here in Boston. It is the kind of nerdery that was ever-present in Greenville and the kind that I've found myself subjecting my friends to because, well, I can't help myself sometimes. I'm talking about the kind of nerdery known as gear nerdery. I first realized that this was a unique kind of nerdiness for me to exhibit up here when I found myself combing the recently added gear page on Musicians' Friend on a whim. A frequent whim actually. It's the kind of nerdiness that sees a friend's question about fuzz pedals as a reason to start researching the different kinds of transistors that go into making a good fuzz sound (SF363 transistors for the original Arbiter Fuzz Face which are, with a few exceptions--namely the London Fuzz that Bender and I discovered--still the cream of the crop of fuzzes in my opinion) . Granted, there are guys who like gear and then there are gear nerds. I like to think of myself as somewhere in the middle but then two things happened. First, I was listening to Michael Jackson songs in my friend Jon's apartment and I then turned to my friend Emily, who was on the couch with me, and proceeded to talk for a good 15 minutes or more about compression debates between sound engineers. And then proceeded to theorize about the connections between the R&B guitar sound which uses a compressor pedal and the commercial country music with which that particular guitar sound has become synonymous. But what really made me light up was when Emily looked at me confused and I went, "Oh, I'm sorry, you're probably wondering what compression is, in itself". She wasn't, but I show no mercy.
Earlier today, when I was off getting a strap for my Jag and contemplated getting straplocks, I had this conversation with myself. "You know, I've had both the Schaller and the Dunlop ones. The Dunlop's are definitely cheaper, but only by a couple of bucks, and besides, the Schaller's are quality and my other strap has them so they would be interchangeable even though the blue of the other strap is aesthetically displeasing with the red of the guitar. Anyway, what's really bugging me is that, it seems like the more adult thing to get the Schallers. They're just more mature by way of strap-locks than the dunlop and that's pretty much all there is to it."
Indeed. More adult. Gear nerdery strikes when it is least expected. But it is still, not the weirdest form of nerdery that I love passionately and more or less without shame. Perhaps I should love it but shamefully. I am speaking, of course, about my book fetish. I still refer to it as my greatest vice. I go to Brookline Booksmith about twice a week just to look at the books. They don't change the books they receive very often. But I go to be amongst friends. I go to be with Flannery and Marilynn, with Paul and Soren, with Rainer and Homer. I also go because I am eagerly awaiting the day when Marilynne Robinson's book "Home" comes out in paperback. And here's the kicker, I'll be disappointed if it comes out in paperback and it was published by Picador. Now, I am such a book nerd that I have a favorite publishing house (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux) and Picador is an imprint of said publishing house. But I'm still disappointed. Can't really tell you why. Maybe its because Flannery O'Connor's stuff is FSG, and The Metaphysical Club too. These are books I love. I wish FSG published philosophy texts, for obvious reasons.
But I love being in the nerdery of Brookline Booksmith and Mr. Music and Cafe Fixe/Athan's. I love engaging in nerdery like discussing the limitations of dream-logic (i.e. what the correct cheat codes would be when you have to battle an army of vampires in your dream and all you have to defend yourself is a NES controller). Plumbing the depths of nerdery is nothing but rewarding. And it's all around us. Two of my favorite bloggers, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Bill Simmons are both huge nerds but in different fields that are not typical nerderies. And yet there they are, doing it right.
Nerdery: (verb). to engage in activities deemed "nerdy" by the populace. Also to act in the manner of one who would be called a Nerd.
Nerdery: (noun). as in, "the nerdery". A place in which nerdy activities--usually those involving mathematics, literary, historical, and philosophical theoretical discussions, and the repeated neccessity to either a)continuously define and redefine words or b)roll a 20+ sided die to determine hit points--take place. Typically found within places called laboratories, libraries, your mom's basement, record stores.
Why do I talk about nerdery? Isn't it obvious. I love my nerdery. I love being in a nerdery. However, several things that have come to mind over the course of the past week that prompted me to attempt to post about how much of a nerd I am and about why. Now, of course there is the age old difference between geeks and nerds which is constantly up for debate in these, our postmodern times. However, I am certainly not an expert in this field and so I would commend to all interested parties the excellent analysis that John Hodgeman provides concerning this matter.
What prompted this inquiry is actually the limits of words. I've been toying around with writing some fiction and found that I was getting frustrated with the limitations of the english language. Specifically, I'm frustrated that we really only have one good word for feet. Feet. Sure you can say hoof, or trotters, but when you're not going for the whole "man is a beast" angle, it's really frustrating. We have all of these words that we use for other body parts (i.e. mouth: jaws, chompers, mandibles, etc.) and we've imported a great assortment of words from other languages to talk about something like ghosts. Ghost, spook (not in the Phillip Roth sense), spectre, poltergeist, spirit, etc. So many words for an etheral being and yet when it comes to our own feet, we've only got one good word. Tis a shame.
(courtesy of Marvel Comics website)So there is the word nerdery but there is certainly more. If it's just a word that I'm complaining about then just call me Wendell Berry and point me to the farm. Let me tell you about the nerdery that I miss most up here in Boston. It is the kind of nerdery that was ever-present in Greenville and the kind that I've found myself subjecting my friends to because, well, I can't help myself sometimes. I'm talking about the kind of nerdery known as gear nerdery. I first realized that this was a unique kind of nerdiness for me to exhibit up here when I found myself combing the recently added gear page on Musicians' Friend on a whim. A frequent whim actually. It's the kind of nerdiness that sees a friend's question about fuzz pedals as a reason to start researching the different kinds of transistors that go into making a good fuzz sound (SF363 transistors for the original Arbiter Fuzz Face which are, with a few exceptions--namely the London Fuzz that Bender and I discovered--still the cream of the crop of fuzzes in my opinion) . Granted, there are guys who like gear and then there are gear nerds. I like to think of myself as somewhere in the middle but then two things happened. First, I was listening to Michael Jackson songs in my friend Jon's apartment and I then turned to my friend Emily, who was on the couch with me, and proceeded to talk for a good 15 minutes or more about compression debates between sound engineers. And then proceeded to theorize about the connections between the R&B guitar sound which uses a compressor pedal and the commercial country music with which that particular guitar sound has become synonymous. But what really made me light up was when Emily looked at me confused and I went, "Oh, I'm sorry, you're probably wondering what compression is, in itself". She wasn't, but I show no mercy.
Earlier today, when I was off getting a strap for my Jag and contemplated getting straplocks, I had this conversation with myself. "You know, I've had both the Schaller and the Dunlop ones. The Dunlop's are definitely cheaper, but only by a couple of bucks, and besides, the Schaller's are quality and my other strap has them so they would be interchangeable even though the blue of the other strap is aesthetically displeasing with the red of the guitar. Anyway, what's really bugging me is that, it seems like the more adult thing to get the Schallers. They're just more mature by way of strap-locks than the dunlop and that's pretty much all there is to it."
Indeed. More adult. Gear nerdery strikes when it is least expected. But it is still, not the weirdest form of nerdery that I love passionately and more or less without shame. Perhaps I should love it but shamefully. I am speaking, of course, about my book fetish. I still refer to it as my greatest vice. I go to Brookline Booksmith about twice a week just to look at the books. They don't change the books they receive very often. But I go to be amongst friends. I go to be with Flannery and Marilynn, with Paul and Soren, with Rainer and Homer. I also go because I am eagerly awaiting the day when Marilynne Robinson's book "Home" comes out in paperback. And here's the kicker, I'll be disappointed if it comes out in paperback and it was published by Picador. Now, I am such a book nerd that I have a favorite publishing house (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux) and Picador is an imprint of said publishing house. But I'm still disappointed. Can't really tell you why. Maybe its because Flannery O'Connor's stuff is FSG, and The Metaphysical Club too. These are books I love. I wish FSG published philosophy texts, for obvious reasons.
But I love being in the nerdery of Brookline Booksmith and Mr. Music and Cafe Fixe/Athan's. I love engaging in nerdery like discussing the limitations of dream-logic (i.e. what the correct cheat codes would be when you have to battle an army of vampires in your dream and all you have to defend yourself is a NES controller). Plumbing the depths of nerdery is nothing but rewarding. And it's all around us. Two of my favorite bloggers, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Bill Simmons are both huge nerds but in different fields that are not typical nerderies. And yet there they are, doing it right.
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