"And I admit it kind of sucks to be told that the answer to what seems like an insoluble dilemma is to change your attitude and see what happens. But most of the time, that is the answer."
This is so true and also it sucks that it's true! Also, I wonder how many of the writers I enjoy are also Taruses 🤔. We gotta stick together.
I also love Fermata. It was the book that taught me how much fun it is to push a premise as far as you can. A lesser writer would have had him stopping a plane crash or fighting crime but Baker's too much of a rascal. Arlo is problematic but also very human, which is the gift of a great writer, I think. Detestable but familiar. The touch that sticks in my mind is how Arlo activates his power -- it comes and goes with different little rituals he has to perform in order to get it to work, and those rituals change seemingly at random and he's powerless for a time. I can relate to this, too, because I'm constantly trying to figure out ways to outsmart the powerful person inside me who abjectly does not want to write, and I have to constantly change my approach so that guy doesn't get wise. He always does, though, eventually.
A movie version of Fermata was in development for some time, and I recall Neil Gaiman being signed to write it. Yikes.
The only thing that I did not like about the Fermata at the time was the ending, which felt like a cop out… like oh, now a woman has it and it turns out she’s exactly the same kind of pervert. Whereas up until that point I felt like there was something interesting in how what Joyce was trying to get him to understand beyond “that’s really creepy.” But I also liked how her first thought was “hey, I could do white collar crime” lol.
I was not a fan of Neil Gaiman’s work pre-scandal and the idea of him doing an adaptation is so bad… leave my wholesome pervert Mr. Baker out of your mess!! But I don’t think it’s really a filmable book, honestly, I think the tightrope it’s walking the whole time wouldn’t work if you were looking at actually naked women.
That's a great point! Showing what Arlo sees is making the audience an accomplice in his crime and it's not really a You're Just as Bad as He Is kind of book (like the movies that depict ultraviolence and tell the audience they're terrible for enjoying it -- violent video games with liberal arts degrees love to do this, too).
Nicholson Baker IS our wholesome pervert lmao I love that
I think your observations can be generalized into an inherent problem with self-improvement of any sort. To be stronger, smarter, more beautiful, etc. involves finding shortcomings in your current state, and doing the necessary work to overcome those shortcomings.
The only option to being self-critical with respect to an attribute you want to possess is to assume that you already possess that attribute and to therefore love yourself for having that attribute. But in that case, you open yourself up to criticism from others who recognize that you lack the attribute you love yourself for, and are able to demonstrate to you as a practical matter that you lack that attribute. This introduces another sort of pain, which can produce a range of possible behaviors, only one of which is productive self-criticism.
As bizarre as these dynamics are when the attribute in question is beauty, they pale in comparison to the dynamics when the attribute is knowledge.
I wonder if there’s an analogy here between knowingness and knowledge perhaps—you can know how to self present yourself as intellectual, but that isn’t always the same thing as knowing things. It is probably a good thing to know how to do, but it can conflict with qualities you want to cultivate in the intellect like curiosity and humility.
Your post also has me thinking that the last time I made a serious effort to get stronger what I felt was acute embarrassment at being so weak. I had to stop because of illness and by the time I was well enough to go to the gym the idea of losing whatever small steps I’d made just made me not want to go back. I find it hard to exercise and not dislike myself! Hm.
The trick for all of these is manageable self-criticism - find something very specific that you can't do that you want to do, and then accept that you will do it badly and feel frustrated until you learn to do it. If you don't feel frustrated, you need to pick something harder.
I had a pretty easy time doing that with intellectual projects, but a lot harder time doing it with exercise until I got to be best friends with a guy who now works full-time as a strength trainer. He loved to talk about experimenting with different weird exercises. After a certain point, I got intrigued by some of the exercises he was talking about, and started practicing them on my own. It's a lot less intimidating doing something with a very low weight if you're just interested in seeing if you can make your body do the task.
Of course, I'm now old enough that getting up from sitting on the floor is an interesting physical task to work on!
I adore The Fermata 😩
maybe I should work up the courage to reread it I just feel like the charm won’t work a second time………
no no I think let it stay preserved. all the Bakers I've read and enjoyed feel like they benefit from a one-and-done
Yossarian in Catch-22 is also a wholesome pervert.
Maybe less pervert than horndog. But a man who loves women and so womanizer in an oddly wholesome way.
I’ve actually never read Catch-22, but now I’m interested…
"And I admit it kind of sucks to be told that the answer to what seems like an insoluble dilemma is to change your attitude and see what happens. But most of the time, that is the answer."
This is so true and also it sucks that it's true! Also, I wonder how many of the writers I enjoy are also Taruses 🤔. We gotta stick together.
I also love Fermata. It was the book that taught me how much fun it is to push a premise as far as you can. A lesser writer would have had him stopping a plane crash or fighting crime but Baker's too much of a rascal. Arlo is problematic but also very human, which is the gift of a great writer, I think. Detestable but familiar. The touch that sticks in my mind is how Arlo activates his power -- it comes and goes with different little rituals he has to perform in order to get it to work, and those rituals change seemingly at random and he's powerless for a time. I can relate to this, too, because I'm constantly trying to figure out ways to outsmart the powerful person inside me who abjectly does not want to write, and I have to constantly change my approach so that guy doesn't get wise. He always does, though, eventually.
A movie version of Fermata was in development for some time, and I recall Neil Gaiman being signed to write it. Yikes.
Tauruses who can’t sleep unite!!!
The only thing that I did not like about the Fermata at the time was the ending, which felt like a cop out… like oh, now a woman has it and it turns out she’s exactly the same kind of pervert. Whereas up until that point I felt like there was something interesting in how what Joyce was trying to get him to understand beyond “that’s really creepy.” But I also liked how her first thought was “hey, I could do white collar crime” lol.
I was not a fan of Neil Gaiman’s work pre-scandal and the idea of him doing an adaptation is so bad… leave my wholesome pervert Mr. Baker out of your mess!! But I don’t think it’s really a filmable book, honestly, I think the tightrope it’s walking the whole time wouldn’t work if you were looking at actually naked women.
That's a great point! Showing what Arlo sees is making the audience an accomplice in his crime and it's not really a You're Just as Bad as He Is kind of book (like the movies that depict ultraviolence and tell the audience they're terrible for enjoying it -- violent video games with liberal arts degrees love to do this, too).
Nicholson Baker IS our wholesome pervert lmao I love that
Oooh, I want to try that experiment on myself and see if I can coax my Leo sun woman into existence! Everyone likes a good experiment!
I believe in you 🦁
I think your observations can be generalized into an inherent problem with self-improvement of any sort. To be stronger, smarter, more beautiful, etc. involves finding shortcomings in your current state, and doing the necessary work to overcome those shortcomings.
The only option to being self-critical with respect to an attribute you want to possess is to assume that you already possess that attribute and to therefore love yourself for having that attribute. But in that case, you open yourself up to criticism from others who recognize that you lack the attribute you love yourself for, and are able to demonstrate to you as a practical matter that you lack that attribute. This introduces another sort of pain, which can produce a range of possible behaviors, only one of which is productive self-criticism.
As bizarre as these dynamics are when the attribute in question is beauty, they pale in comparison to the dynamics when the attribute is knowledge.
I wonder if there’s an analogy here between knowingness and knowledge perhaps—you can know how to self present yourself as intellectual, but that isn’t always the same thing as knowing things. It is probably a good thing to know how to do, but it can conflict with qualities you want to cultivate in the intellect like curiosity and humility.
Your post also has me thinking that the last time I made a serious effort to get stronger what I felt was acute embarrassment at being so weak. I had to stop because of illness and by the time I was well enough to go to the gym the idea of losing whatever small steps I’d made just made me not want to go back. I find it hard to exercise and not dislike myself! Hm.
The trick for all of these is manageable self-criticism - find something very specific that you can't do that you want to do, and then accept that you will do it badly and feel frustrated until you learn to do it. If you don't feel frustrated, you need to pick something harder.
I had a pretty easy time doing that with intellectual projects, but a lot harder time doing it with exercise until I got to be best friends with a guy who now works full-time as a strength trainer. He loved to talk about experimenting with different weird exercises. After a certain point, I got intrigued by some of the exercises he was talking about, and started practicing them on my own. It's a lot less intimidating doing something with a very low weight if you're just interested in seeing if you can make your body do the task.
Of course, I'm now old enough that getting up from sitting on the floor is an interesting physical task to work on!