First Quarter 2021 Round up

Blogging continues, though it isn’t clear if anyone is even looking at what I post.

Hits are wa-a-y down.  Where is everybody?

Obviously, the posts are better than ever ( : – ) ), so what’s going on?

Is this pandemic related?  Is this something to do with global politics, e.g., blocking in China or EU? Or maybe changes in WordPress reporting.  I dunno.

Band Names

As always, I noted some Dave Barry tribute band names, taken from real scientific and technical publictions.

Stochastic Parrots
Neanderthal ears
The Laschamps Excursion (Pronounced Las Champs, or in SoCal, LA’s Champs)
The Chicxulub Impactors  (Or just Impactor)

Books Reviewed

Fiction

Smoke by Joe Ide
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler
Trio by William Boyd
Outlawed by Anna North
Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams
Tropic of Stupid by Tim Dorsey
The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter
Aphasia by Mauro Javier Cárdenas
The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem
Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino by Julián Herbert

Non-fiction

The Light Ages by Seb Falk
Kindred by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
The Last Million by David Nasaw
New Money by Lana Swartz
Extraterrestrial by Avi Loeb

Book Review: “Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino” by Julián Herbert

Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino  by Julián Herbert

This collection was published in 2017, the English translation came out in 2020.

These stories are set in Mexico, and, as the title suggests they are very cinematic.  And like the popular cinema they are obsessed with drugs, crime, violence, and in one story, zombies.  If a gringo wrote these stories, they would be considered racist stereotypes, full of stupid, violent, criminals.  No one has a normal life, everyone is part of a drug cartel.

I gather this is supposed to be clever writing, with references to academic theory and deep philosophy, as well as pop culture.  I read the English translation, so I don’t know if the Spanish is especially clever writing.  In English, it’s about as interesting as any other clever writing, which is not that much.

The stories are not that interesting because the characters are repulsive and/or pitiful, the situations alien (to me), and the action violent and inexplicable.  Maybe Mexican readers get more out of it.

The titular story not only confirms the author’s love of QT’s pulp cinema, but also contains meandering cinema theory embedded in a violent Mexican crime story.  Sigh.

Still and all, the title alone is a gem, and I’m happy to buy the book just to pay for that great joke.

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1. Julián Herbert, Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino: Stories. Translated by C. MacSweeney, Minneapolis, Grey Wolf Press, 2020.

 

Sunday Book Reviews