Saturday, October 30, 2004
REAL DIRTY
While contemplating whether to re-subscribe to Granta [mainly because of the tempting free 25th anniversary issue], I discovered this Raymond Carver piece from the magazine's fourth issue.
Carver is not a pleasure to read: his prose is at once repellant and riveting. He evokes the less savoury details of an existence spent trying to keep the misery at bay and not succeeding. It used to be pegged as dirty realism, though I suspect that the adjective is no longer necessary.
Vitamins is brilliant because it turns the popular notion that 'vitamins are good for you' into something more akin to 'vitamins won't do shit, and life will always suck'. I think my job as a licensed pill pusher may be in jeopardy if I start saying this to customers; discouraging the sickly plebe from buying products is generally frowned upon by management. And drug companies.
While contemplating whether to re-subscribe to Granta [mainly because of the tempting free 25th anniversary issue], I discovered this Raymond Carver piece from the magazine's fourth issue.
Carver is not a pleasure to read: his prose is at once repellant and riveting. He evokes the less savoury details of an existence spent trying to keep the misery at bay and not succeeding. It used to be pegged as dirty realism, though I suspect that the adjective is no longer necessary.
Vitamins is brilliant because it turns the popular notion that 'vitamins are good for you' into something more akin to 'vitamins won't do shit, and life will always suck'. I think my job as a licensed pill pusher may be in jeopardy if I start saying this to customers; discouraging the sickly plebe from buying products is generally frowned upon by management. And drug companies.
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