Read this post while listening to this playlist of Hawaii hip-hop, curated by me and mixed by Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa.
Dear reader, I have been busy and I have been lazy. But I have not forgotten you, nor have I stopped reading. Here’s what I’ve been reading and writing these last few months.
Reads from the last few months
It Is Still A Bad Idea To Antagonize Mike Tyson by Ben Fowlkes, Gawker
“My boy just got beat up by Mike Tyson,” the cameraman says, before asking his friend to show off the bruises. “Yeah, he got fucked up. Just trying to ask for an autograph, man. I don’t know what happened.”
What happened, it would appear, was a classic case of fucking around and finding out. And for a change, here the internet response was fairly unified. No diatribes about the relationship between violence and free speech or even the deteriorating etiquette in air travel. Instead, mostly what people wanted to know was: Who in the hell would mess with Mike Tyson?
See What You Find by David Roth, Defector
At Lit Hub, Michael Lindgren writes that he “learned to write by reading Roger Angell,” and in retrospect I guess I did, too. I didn’t know that was happening, but I knew that something was. I was a kid, and I cared about baseball with my whole hungry being, in the way that kids do before they find other things to care about. I wanted to know everything about it, to become filled up with it and so become it. The whole of the game was there in the Angell stories I read, the mechanical and technical aspects of the performance, and also the human chaos of the performers, and also the uncertain tension in which the game suspends the two. I had not known, even in all my headlong tweenage caring, that there was actually that much there to care about.
The Rifle That Ruined America by Ryan Busse, The Atlantic
The astounding transition from an era of self-restraint to where we are now began in 1999, after the murders at Columbine High School. The National Rifle Association’s convention was scheduled to take place just a few days after that school mass shooting, and only a few miles away, in Denver. Although much of the convention was canceled, the NRA leadership held closed-door business meetings in which they discussed strategy options, as we know from secret recordings of those meetings recently uncovered by National Public Radio. The choice before the NRA, as leaders saw it, was either conciliation and engagement with lawmakers to help draft improved policies or aggressive resistance with the aim of frightening its members into believing lawmakers would come after their guns. The NRA chose to enter the culture-war business, and so did the gun industry.
1989-2001: America's Long Lost Weekend by Walter Shapiro, The New Republic
For most Americans who were alive then, the 1990s were the best years of our lives. No fears of nuclear war, a sense that permanent prosperity was at hand, and a smug feeling that the world was about to enter into its second American Century. Titanic, the highest-grossing movie of the 1990s, said it all—we were awash in luxury and bristling self-confidence until we hit the iceberg on September 11, 2001.
Looking back from the perspective of this dismal decade, we can now see the glory years of the post–Cold War United States as a tragedy. So many problems today (massive income inequality, global warming, Vladimir Putin’s bellicose one-man rule in Russia, and the threat of authoritarianism here at home) could have been lessened by smart and aggressive government action during these 12 years of peace and prosperity. Instead, the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11 was a time of missed opportunities.
It’s Time to Stop Living the American Scam by Tim Kreider, New York Times
Midcentury science fiction writers assumed that the increased productivity brought on by mechanization would give workers an oppressive amount of leisure time, that our greatest threats would be boredom and ennui. But these authors’ prodigious imaginations were hobbled by their humanity and rationality; they’d forgotten that the world is ordered not by reason or decency but by rapacious avarice.
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Books from the last few months
I’ll keep the reviews short here, but if you’re interested in hearing more about any of them, please ask.
Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
-If you love dogs, you’ll love it. And probably cry, too.
On Knowing Oneself Too Well by Takuboku Ishikawa, translated by Tamae K. Prindle
-Very good collection of poems. Not all of them will hit, but a lot of them will.
Night Is A Sharkskin Drum by Haunani K. Trask
-Decent poetry collection. Trask is a fierce and formidable mind and a must-read for anyone who wants to understand Hawaii, but nonfiction is where she’s at her best.
Habitat Threshold by Craig Santos Perez
-Really good poetry collection. More inventive and deliberate with language and structure than the other collections I read in April.
God Of Nothingness by Mark Wunderlich
-Solid book of poems. The writing is fine — not like a teenager responding to how her day was “fine,” more like a proud horseman describing his steed — and some images are striking. But it’s also a little dense, in the way Very Serious poetry can be.
Tower by Bae Myung-hoon, translated by Sung Ryu
-Really great short story collection. All the stories take place in a massive tower that qualifies as its own nation state. It’s good and weird, but also smuggles some thought-provoking ideas and unexpected heart.
Home in the Islands edited by Jan Rensel and Margaret Rodman
-Scholarly essays on how changing housing structures over time reflect changing social conditions across various Pacific Island nations. Interesting stuff, if you’re into this (admittedly) esoteric subject matter. But I liked it, and I learned.
People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Ted Goossen
-Loved it. It’s a short story collection where each story is about a different person in the neighborhood (hence the title). The characters sometimes wander into each other’s stories, and some recurring threads are spun throughout the book. Kawakami is subtle and strange and disarmingly charming, and this might be my favorite book of hers.
Steering The Craft by Ursula K Le Guin
-A solid book on the craft of writing. Lots of good insights, as well as writing exercises for teachers (or people who are into that sort of thing).
The Most Fun Thing by Kyle Beachy
-An OK collection of essays on skateboarding. I felt like I wanted to like it more than I actually liked it. There were flashes of excellence, but it lacked a certain precision for me, and never seemed to be able to stick the landing.
Writing from the last few months
Kids are going through more than most adults understand. It’s nice to not have to wear masks, but let’s keep using them when we’re regular sick. Some reasons for parents to get involved with their kids’ schools, and why politicians like to say schools are failing even when they’re not. Why do we have summer vacation? No, really.
I took a deep dive into Hawaii’s housing crisis for Dwell Magazine. It’s a proper essay, with a lot of research behind it, but it’s about more than housing economics; it’s about who gets to live in Hawaii.
I also have an essay (about Max Holloway and the necessity of attempt) in the latest volume of The Fine Art Of Violence, which you can order here. The series is one of my favorite things in the MMA world, and I’m stoked I got to contribute to it.