It's Gonna Be the Future Soon

Sunday was the Brooklyn Book Festival. It was a beautiful sunny day (I guess summer isn't over yet after all), and there were lots of people milling around, browsing the tents and booths, listening to authors read and talk. There were lots of kids and dogs as well; I saw a black lab carrying a mini beach ball in its mouth. Happy dog.




When I walked past the children's tent, I overheard the speaker say, "Listen, children! I know you love computers - but nothing will replace books! Read books!" Get 'em while they're young.





At the Word tent ("Greenpoint's independent bookstore"), I saw this Personal Library Kit. It even comes with a date stamp! (I miss due-date cards; can you tell?) Being blessed with a number of nerdy literary friends, I'm keeping this in mind as a potential gift idea.





And while we're being nostalgic - the bookmobile! Which reminded me, naturally, of Audrey Niffenegger's short graphic novel, serialized in last year's Guardian. You can check it out here, if you are so inclined.





Infinite possibilities, indeed. After browsing around (and running into no fewer than four people I knew - the boyfriend of an old roommate, two people I went to college with, and an editorial assistant at Riverhead), I went to listen to Jeffrey Rotter, Gary Shteyngart, and Sloane Crosley discourse on "Satire and Comic Relief in 2009," moderated by Ben Greenman. "How can you be funny in dark times?" he asked, fairly early on. How can you NOT be, I wondered. What's the alternative? Clinical depression? Insanity? Incidentally, I'd just read a relevant quote in Martin Gardner's introduction to The Annotated Alice:


"Laughter, declares Reinhold Niebuhr in one of his finest sermons, is a kind of no man's land between faith and despair. We preserve our sanity by laughing at life's absurdities..."


But of course the three panelists were there precisely because they shared that outlook, more or less. A few gems from Gary Shteyngart:

On being a satirist when the Bush administration was in office: "When stupid and evil collide, you're in paradise."

On writing: "When you start writing a book, you don't really know how it's going to end, unless you're a really bad writer."

On writing books in the age of digital media: "Nowadays every second is a huge leap. We're not living in the present anymore, we're living in the future...The present's gone in a moment."

On his latest project: "I just finished a book about the collapse of the United States. It's a comedy."


On the question of sources of inspiration for writing lasting satire, Jeffrey Rotter cited cia.gov, particularly the Department of Defense briefings circa 2005 - "enduring comedy," he called it. Sloane Crosley mentioned local newspapers; she said she'd seen a headline in the Times Picayune that read, "Mimes Refuse to Talk to Police." "Not in The Onion - real!"


I love funny newspaper headlines, especially because they are almost always unintentionally funny (unless you are reading The Onion). My dad and I used to cut them out of the newspaper and tape them to the fridge. Here are a few I can remember offhand:

Youth Gulps Gas, Explodes

Ducks Given OK to Talk

Scientists Can Create New Brains Cells

IRS Accused of Using Audits for Retaliation (didn't we all suspect that already?)




Yes, it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.


What I'm listening to: Sorry About Tomorrow by Hot Rod Circuit, Outer South by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

What I'm reading: The Annotated Alice by Lewis Carroll, I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley (again)