It is hard to write about books (or movies) I really love. I can sometimes talk to folks about them when sufficiently outside my own head. In person my enthusiasm and lack of self-consciousness can override my general concern with being completely cogent. In writing though, I can't hide behind exuberance and physicality to make up for any lack of erudition on my part. 

Historically, my sci-fi book club had been focused on some pretty heady stuff... books that often require a lot of focus and energy, which is great. A very good thing to do for ones brain. But this tendency to skew into the "hard" sci-fi realm is often exhausting and left me needing a bit of a break from all that. For our club, me and the boys do a loose sort of rotation of choosing books. It's very unofficial but everyone does seem to keep the selection frequency in mind, which I appreciate! Having not really chosen a while, and needing a break from our usual fare, but with little real pre-thought I went with one of my favorites.

After recommending The Invention of Morel I hedged a bit and threw out some mumbled caveats as it is not strictly sci-fi and a bit more "literary(?)" than previous selections. I even insisted that the group didn't have to read it... as one does after embarassing mistakes. But it is also not a slog to read, conflicting with our previously established vibes. LOL. So I was secretly pleased that everyone agreed, come what may of their reactions. Even in translation, it is a wondrously concise and a breezily poetic read. Sorry hard sci-fi! I love you but you aren't always super pretty. 

The basic gist is a fugitive is looking to escape Venezuela for unnamed crimes. He tries to flee to a toxic island that a nice person tries to dissuade him from. Het gets direction help from the same nice person to this mysterious island. He promptly and miraculously gets there... lickidy split even. With little (No) fanfare he he arrives and makes himself at home (The book also provides a handy map). He settles in a bit and assumes he is alone but one morning he discovers he is surrounded by tourists! visiting the compound. Terrified of being discovered he hides and details all his actions and fears to us with only somewhat questionable accuracy. As men on the run from the law do (I suppose even ones not on the run from the law), he becomes fixated/infatuated/obsessed with one of the women of the tourist group. He follows her around planning how to approach her. 

After some entertaining hemming and hawing he does approach her but is quickly ignored. More lamentations and then some more stalking of the island guests, led by the Doctor who the story is named after, Morel. The twist is truly one of my favorite in all the books I've read. Book club was torn on what actually transpires but we mostly agree on the basics. I was incredibly tickled everyone seemed to love it. Not just like it. Love it. They were beside themselves that it hasn't been turned into some other media or was/is more well-known. I am too. Last Year at Marienbad has some themes and maybe borrows a few things but it is definitely not a straight up adaptation. (Later, after being energized by my book club friends, I went down a rabbit hole of wikipedia and it turns out there is a movie that I'll now have to try to find. 

So anyways, in conclusion or whatever, go read The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. Read it on a short flight or the beach or in bed or on the run.

This is a really wonderful read. Telling the story of the folks at home coming together to publish 122 million ASE's (Armed Service Edition paperbacks) for US soldiers. It's a quick read and does a great job of highlighting the differences in idealogies of the countries in opposition. Very much recommend. 

I've been working my way through the Criterion Godzilla Box Set. I bought it last year for half off because there is always a sale on B&N or Criterion.com. Before the purchase I had only seen the original as well as some of the more recent ones (Minus One is incredible)... and also the incredibly bad one in the '90s with Matthew Broderick. Other than that, any images in my head of Godzilla and his enemies were a mashup of random tv moments, early internet pictures, probably MST3K, and whatever else 80s and 90s culture thought to bubble up from the Japanese classic(s). I fear that much of what was out there was in jest or mean spirited but luckily I always took Godzilla seriously. Watch the first one if you haven't seen it and tell me its not a great film in its own right, full of social and political commentary. Go ahead and try to tell me that. 

The movie starts, as many films do, with a Giant Blue Egg. It washes ashore after a typhoon. A young photographer takes pictures of it and later the CEO of Happy Enterprises buys the egg! for exploitation and profit! This is the main driver of the plot, such as it is, and the best thing to say about the pair of regular folks pushing the plot forward is that... its all pretty brief.

Godzilla always has a way of making an entrance. In this one, the fourth in the series, we find him just sort of coming out of the dirt... and shaking it off, like he had been drunk at the beach and some kids decided to bury him. Its really great. Then there is a wild scene with some miniature women (apparently called Shobijin) who come pleading for the blue egg, which of course turns out to be Mothra's egg. The CEO tries to catch them but they evade him with ease. They sing a bunch too. I'm going to take a moment to mention how much I absolutely love forced perspective in film. If there is a giant or a miniature alien/creature/person/etc. you can believe I'm watching it. So with the introduction of the Shobijin... this one shot up the list to my favorite Godzilla film. Its just something that gives me unreasonable joy... I love giant and little things in film so much that I have no desire to analyze it further. 

The folks who are trying to get Mothra's egg back to Mothra seek out the help of the Shobijin on Infant Island, a site of old nuclear tests... The Shobijin were played by a singing duo called The Peanuts. Anyhow they agree to plead for the regular folks to Mothra and after a short song and tbh very little convincing.... Mothra agrees to help them against Godzilla. The egg hatches and THE LARVAE fight Godzilla!

All of it is very very good. 

Spent some time adding a list page to serve more as a log of my watching/viewing activities. 

Link on the left. 

This one was a movie club pick. I've seen it 2 times before. It has always been great. It is still great. I pick out different things to notice each time. This go-round the kids stood out. The movie is nothing without the kids... its also nothing without the rest. It has all the things. The mood(s). The music. The sadness. The strange moments of hope. The picture of LA in the 70s.... it all feels familiar and impossibly far away. 

Love it.