Bob Greenberger

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October 20, 2004

It's Like Being Back in School

I like to read. No surprise there. I like baseball. To those who know me, also no surprise. As a result, I like reading about baseball. Fiction and non-fiction. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been participating in a reading group covering Fantasy and Mysticism in Baseball and last night we dissected Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.

Initially, I found the book not to my taste starting with the lack of any sympathetic characters and the author’s inability to give me a reason why Mr. Waugh is in the sad state that we find him.

Last night’s conversation was eerily similar to my old AP English classes taught by Mr. Piorkowski. Our moderator began by pointing out the novel was listed as one of the 100 most important books in the 20th Century. To which I rejoindered, “That’s the same list with Ulysses as number one so it’s a suspect list.” We then were told how it’s considered a Post-Modern classic with definitions of Modernism and Post-Modernism.

What a load of hooey.

First of all, modern means today, the here and now. After today is tomorrow. That’s futurism or science fiction not post-modernism. Who makes up these absurd titles?

Anyway, Post-Modernism apparently is closely linked with existentialism, something I also find ridiculous. Both question everything from reality vs. fiction to the nature of fiction to why we're on this planet and so on. Life’s too short for such nonsense if you ask me. I guess I’m more a meat and potatoes reader. I like to be entertained or enlightened, hopefully both.

Which is not to say, I disliked AP English or last night’s discussion. In both cases, picking the book apart to find the layers of meaning intended (or not) by the author can be fascinating. Starting with the meaning of the book’s title all the way to why it has eight chapters and so on. J. Henry Waugh, for example, can be condensed to JHWH or Yahweh. And his best friend is named Lou, short for, of course, Lucifer. You can find the rest of the religious imagery on your own.

I have a greater appreciation for Coover’s efforts thanks to the discussion and can now better articulate why I disliked it. Still, any book that requires this much effort to comprehend and tries to be so full of these clever little touches fails by my standards. Clearly not for me. And apparently not for the vast majority of the people at the meeting.

At least our final book in the series is Darryl Brock’s If I Never Get Back, a book I enjoyed upon its release and can recommend to one and all.

It’s a good time of the year to be reading and talking baseball, since, after all, we’re having two very exciting League Championship series. Both may wrap up tonight and we can talk about that later.

Posted by Bob Greenberger at October 20, 2004 11:36 AM

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Comments

Posted by: Michael A. Burstein at October 20, 2004 11:54 AM

Posted by: Allyn Gibson at October 20, 2004 11:08 PM

Posted by: Wil Holland at March 20, 2005 11:03 AM