A Post for February

I should get at least one post in for February.

I haven't felt like writing lately. The one time I had the urge (Monday the 17th), the inspiation disappeared quicker than a drop of water in the Sahara. I was set to write about the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary show, but that flame blew out quickly. Maybe I'll tackle it again at some point.

So, what else is new? The U.S. is still a shit show and Trump and his gangsters are ruling as authoritarians with no regard to checks and balances. All the creaks, gaps, and inadequacies of our Constitution have been exposed and exploited. Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress are essentially too afraid to stand up to Trump. So we're fucked.

Listen, I know that is a very reductive assessment of our current state of affairs in the United States...or is it?

I can't remember if I mentioned reading Beyond Belief: a Chronicle of Murder and its Detection by Emlyn Williams. It's allegedly the book that Morrissey used as inspiration for the song "Suffer Little Children." Anyway, it's been a slog but is finally, on about page 290 of 370, getting a bit more interesting. The book is about the notorious Moors murders in Manchester (1963-1965). The problem I find with the book is that Williams was going for the "new journalism" non-fiction novel approach that Truman Capote perfected, in 1966, with In Cold Blood. Williams, however, is no Capote. He does have some writing flare, but not enough--and I am frustrated by the constant use of working-class Mancunian and Glaswegian dialect for the fictional conversations between our "lead characters" Myra Hindley, Ian Brady, and Maureen & David Smith. Hey, I read Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, which is written solely in Edinburgh vernacular, but I eventually got used to the rhythm of that. I'm having a harder time with Beyond Belief. Maybe it's because the dialogue in this book is not as intriguing as Trainspotting. The narrative of Williams' book can be hard to follow, so I have been helped by watching a 3-part British docudrama series from 2006 called See No Evil: the Moors Murders, starring Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) as Maureen Smith, and Maxine Peake (recently starring in Say Nothing as Dolours Price) as Myra Hindley. This series clarified some murkiness in Beyond Belief.

And, with that, I shall leave you 'til next time.


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