monoceros blogsI love the rainy days we've been having lately; it's perfect weather for reading and lazing, though I don't get to do enough of either. This evening, I actually hurried through my front door to get out of the shockingly cool (for Singapore), rainy breeze. These lower temperatures also remind me that the weather in the U.S. is changing and cooling as well.
It's almost fall there, and October means the arrival of the Best American series. Ever since I was assigned the Best American Essays books for two non-fiction courses, I've been buying a copy every year. Except during my instructor days, of course, when the publisher sent me copies of Short Stories and Essays without my asking! The Best American books are often assigned in classes because they are so non-textbook-like. And when the Best American Non-Required Reading series edited by Dave Eggers came into play, readings became more quirky and lively, and covers got illustrated by the likes of Adrian Tomine and Art Spiegelman. And then the introductions. The past few years have had Viggo Mortensen (I have to say here that I can't wait to see him and Naomi Watts in "Eastern Promises" - tattoos and naked knife fight!), Matt Groening, and Beck writing pieces for the anthologies. This year, it's Sufjan Stevens. Splendid.
Although the books aren't on shelves yet, I managed to read the introduction for this year's Best American Essays. David Foster Wallace does the honors this year and it's by far the most thought-provoking introduction I've read in some time. By turns absorbingly conversational and erudite, Wallace examines bias (the "Best" in the title isn't safe from his musings) and choices determined by points in time, and states why essays on Iraq matter and why memoirs have no place on his favorite list. He also writes about the responsibility and necessity - in a world throbbing with information, trivia, noise, news, and battling voices - of those selected to make selections for the public, or rather, the "deciders," as he terms it.
His introduction alone convinces me that this year's edition is going to be exceptional. It makes me want to read his choices and think about why they got places in the book. For once, the introduction won't be an obligatory piece of writing; it may be seen as one of the bests as well, an excellent piece of prose alongside the essays selected for the anthology.
Read it here.
Posted by Monoceros at September 15, 2007 12:16 PM