The incorrigible John Tynes offers these trenchant observations on Jean Shepard, originator of the I, Libertine phenomenon.
I don't know anything about that particular anecdote. But in case you don't know, Jean Shepherd is the author responsible for the delightful holiday film A CHRISTMAS STORY ("You'll shoot your eye out!") and the author of that piece, Joyce Brabner, is the wife of Harvey Pekar, the creator of the underground autobiographical comics series AMERICAN SPLENDOR. Pekar, an incorrigible ranter, was a regular guest on David Letterman in the late 1980s and was even offered his own talk show, but he alienated Letterman by using the show as a forum to criticize General Electric's corporate practices. His comics are fantastic, however. Before they got married, Brabner helped put together the graphic novel BROUGHT TO LIGHT, about the U.S.'s involvement with the Contras; half of that book was written by Alan Moore and painted by Bill Sienkiewicz.
So. I am defining the hole in my knowledge by carefully walking its perimeter.
Indeed. It feels that as the universe becomes more complex in terms of the burgeoning weight of trivia available, the more often whole schools of thought can develop which consist of simply making connections between one piece of data and another. Are Tynes' observations new information? Is endless geek ranting and re-allocating of facts from one bucket to another a substitute for actual conversation? Tynes won't mind my musings--he's just doing the woolgathering that it seems the Net was designed for. I guess I'm suddenly navel gazing and wondering, "Why am I telling you all of this?"
Guess an essay is coming on. I need to go eat at the Dahlia Lounge first, and maybe it'll turn out I just needed dinner. I get that way. I'll let you know.
8:35 PM
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