The Thrill of the Hunt

OPENING MONOLOGUE

In last week’s newsletter, I wrote about how we should be booing our airline pilots instead of wantonly applauding them every time they do their job.

The feedback to my advice has been overwhelming, especially from the airline community who kindly sent me many letters asking me to “cease and desist” — whatever that means. I’ve also been told that my advice (my attorney has asked me to use this word) has put me on numerous “airport lists” which, I’m guessing, means I’ll be getting some serious VIP treatment the next time I fly. I’ll be sure to say hello to you suckers in the back as I’m sipping champagne in first class!

While we are on the subject of booing, I have made a list of other occupations that deserve to be booed more often:

• Influencers

• Billionaires

• College Sophomores

• Toll booth workers (especially Willie from Worchester)

• My foster parents

• Putin

• Male pornstars

• Babies

• Understudies

I think that covers it for now. Let’s get started!

Today's reading

• The Thrill of the Hunt

• More Argonauts?

• A Running Duck vs. Cobra

• “It should feel good to make meatballs.”

The Thrill of the Hunt

This excerpt from a recent interview with Don Hertzfeldt really spoke to me:

You might remember from last week how I’m slowly rebuilding my hardcover Stephen King library. And it’s been a lot of fun hunting for the books online. I even have a spreadsheet with King’s entire output to check off what I have, edition, etc.

This is what my mid-life crisis looks like, it seems.

In the process, I’m discovering a lot of cool independent English bookstores in and around Poland. And as much fun as it is to order these books and have them sent, I really wish I could do this in person — especially as it’s hard to tell the difference between the book club and bookstore editions of some of the older books.

I do miss the hunt. The independent music stores. The hard-to-find bookstores. The dark comic book stores. Even the more mainstream places like Borders and Suncoast Motion Picture Company.

(When I was in the States last month, I was thrilled that Barnes & Noble was still around. I excitedly took my 12-year-olds, and you would have thought I had brought them to an old-timey Amish museum. Outside of the Starbucks, they did not see the appeal at all. “You don’t get it,” I said. “This was our internet!”)

I miss the discovery. I remember stumbling across this limited-edition In the Mountains of Madness with illustrations by Fernando Duval in the back of a bookstore in Dunedin, Florida back in 1996. Only 1000 were printed and it was signed by Duval. And it was sitting at the bottom of this ridiculous pile of books in some dusty corner just waiting for me.

Or the “horror” closet in the used bookstore in Port Richey, Florida, where the walls were lined with horror books from floor to ceiling. This is where 12-year-old me discovered Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, James Herbert, and so many others. Black paperbacks with demented covers. That closet might as well have been a portal to Narnia.

Look, I love the instant access. If there’s specific music I want to hear, Spotify will deliver it to me in seconds. That is fucking cool. But the problem with being spoonfed “everything” is that it creates the illusion of everything. You’re so overwhelmed with the choices you don’t notice that the stuff you love is missing. TV shows disappear. Movies vanish. You have access, sure, but you don’t own anything.

This is why the hunt is important. It forces you to browse and engage with the weirdos in the shops (who often turn out to be the Beings of Light). It keeps your head in the game. You’re no longer passively consuming. You’re actively engaging.

More Argonauts?

After following Nick Pendleton’s work for over 20 years, I figured I knew what I was getting into when I cracked open his latest book. This was my mistake. 

MORE ARGONAUTS: ANOTHER ARGONAUTICA is an astonishing book – it’s not just unlike anything Nick has written, it’s unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s colorful and dense, filled with rich detail and twists and turns. It’s at times laugh-out-loud funny, and other times unexpectedly heartbreaking. It’s a rich journey that is as life-changing for the reader as it is for (some of) its characters. 

The real delight is how personal MORE ARGONAUTS: ANOTHER ARGONAUTICA is. Just as Heracles’ children are on a journey to confront their absent father, Nick is on a journey to confront mythology itself – how it influenced his writing, impacted the lives of those he loved, and shaped who he is.  

Sometimes the answers are lyrical and poetic, and other times harsh: “I’m a person just like you, is all I’m saying. We’re adults here. What did you expect? Advice and encouragement and hugs and apologies? Naaaah. We’re adults here. I’m not gonna bullshit you.”    

MORE ARGONAUTS: ANOTHER ARGONAUTICA is about the search for sunlight when you’re trapped in the shadow of those who came before you. It’s about meeting the damaged lunatics who most people see as legendary heroes. It’s about getting out from under the weight of all the stories you’ve been told so that you can start writing your own story. How far would you go to escape the gravity of your past so that you can propel yourself to your future? 

It’s a love letter to all myths – even the ones we haven’t invented yet. It’s a book about stories and storytelling. It’s about everything, really – a remarkable accomplishment in 303 pages. 

MORE ARGONAUTS: ANOTHER ARGONAUTICA is easily Nick’s best book. You need to read it.

A Running Duck vs. Cobra

Most people remember Stallone’s movie Cobra as one of the more hyper-violent, hyper-masculine, and hyper-too-serious-for-its-own-good action movies of the 80s.

I think of it as a great example of Stallone’s hubris as an artist — especially how he views the writing process.

The movie was based on Stallone’s original script for Beverly Hills Cop (can you imagine living in that timeline?). It also incorporated enough elements from Paula Gosling's 1974 novel A Running Duck to earn her a writing credit.

When Cobra was about to be released, Stallone offered Gosling the opportunity to have A Running Duck reissued as the movie’s novelization — only this time Stallone would have his NAME ON THE COVER AS THE WRITER.

Gosling wisely declined.

Funnily enough, Gosling’s book was adapted for the second time in 1995 as the Cindy Crawford/William Baldwin movie Fair Game. Neither Crawford nor Baldwin asked to have their names on the cover of Gosling’s book.

“It should feel good to make meatballs.”

I’m signing off for the week with this excerpt from a handwritten recipe for meatballs from my grandmother:

I love that she felt it important to add this to the recipe.

Have a great rest of the week, everyone!