LIGHTEN UP! PT 2

Did you find the reading material from last spring dry, overly didactic and analytical? I hear you. Like my lighter musical choices this summer, I’ve gone in a different direction with my reading material. 80’s sex, drugs, counterfeiting, and murder were on full display. Oh, I did revisit a classic for good measure. And no, unlike the films ...these titles are not supposed to be aspirational.


Prologue
I was a serious book collector years ago. I slowed down as my money went into building my business and not collecting rare or hyper modern works of art in literary form. I regret this to some degree, as I have held copies of the Glass Key, Maltese Falcon and several others that are worth exponentially more than what I could have had them for in the past. Like a lot more. As with a lot of things in life, that’s the game of collecting. Sacrifice now for a better tomorrow. In my small collection are a lot of "movie tie-ins". You know …Books that were made into movies. Here are a few that I re-discovered on my shelf this summer.
Put your delicate sensibilities on hold and enjoy.

To Live And Die In L.A.
A title that begs the question, “Is the book better than the movie?” No. The premise is the underbelly of Los Angeles in the early 1980’s, packed with counterfeiting and money laundering and general criminal behavior with good guys who walk the line. Almost made for T.V. like. Enjoyable, but …The movie plays up the seedy sleaze and violence better than the long form narrative of the book. It is no secret that I loved the Friedkin film. I saw it as a child and it set a lot of tones for me. Good and bad. It also gave me a taste for 1 color offset lithography, as Dafoe gives a short master class in counterfeit printing that is very accurate. I like the film better. As a collector, having both to enjoy for different reasons is important. Try the book, then watch the film. (an artist who prints money??? I think this has been with me for a while)

Less Than Zero
Answering the question “Is the book better than the movie?” Yes. But also kind of no, if you love the film's characters. If you do … they are nothing like the ones in the book and they will repulse you. It is filled with drugs, sex, non-gender-conforming roles, death …it can be seen as a lurid or obscene take on a 21-year-old rich kid's summer break from a small private college in New Hampshire, with a completely ambiguous moral compass. Returning to his hometown of L.A. boundaries and limits are explored at great peril to one's psychological self. But only sort of. There is a metamorphosis that never quite happens for the character, but you might go through one as a reader. It will challenge you. Don’t bother to rail against the author on Twitter. He loves that shit and has heard it all before. Even still …interesting book. No, Clay does not come home for Thanksgiving and see Blair in bed with Julian.

Our Man In Havana
Graham Greene sort of anticipates the Cuban Missile Crisis, by more than 4 years. Set in late 1950's Cuba, a local vacuum cleaner salesman gets embroiled in espionage and intrigue for extra money. Being recruited by MI6 and having money problems, including being a newly single parent with an expensive, material-driven teenage daughter, he decides to take on the role of informant. Unfortunately, having nothing to report to MI6, he begins to make up elaborate tales of intrigue and secret military installations, to prove his value. The book goes on from here and is certainly better than the rather enjoyable Alec Guinness film. Why this oddball from the above list? I am currently working on a new Broken Banknote piece featuring the Cuban Convertible Peso, which is the newest member of the obsolete currency club. Along with many more dry titles and research style essays, I find that a total picture, even with the somewhat fictionalized truths about a nation, works to give me the inspiration and background needed to render a more complete BBN piece.

Wrap Up
So there you go. Not one of those books is dry or essay-driven, fact-based explanations of movements or other ethereal nuances. They do include two visceral reads about L.A.'s underbelly and a slightly puffy light take on pre-Castro regime change. (sort of) Obviously, the third book is much lighter than the first two. Especially Less Than Zero. That book, by any decade's standards, pushed a few limits. Today, it would certainly make a list of cancel culture critics' top 5. As a side note, for the fall I am choosing female-driven erotica written from first person essays and narratives over the last 100 years. It should be interesting.