The thermodynamic miracle.

Watchmen. I can't remember the last time I read a book so engrossing. I love it. I missed that. I missed reading!

I found the following excerpt on Tumblr a few months ago and reblogged it because I loved it so much, completely unaware of the fact that it came from Watchmen. Jon brings Laurie to Mars, where he has escaped to. She tries to convince him to return to Earth, as it is chaotic and destructive with his absence, but he doesn't believe it's worth it. He believes life is meaningless, that she's meaningless. They fight. She cries. He realizes he's wrong. He says:

"Thermodynamic miracles ... events with odds against so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing. And yet in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive, meeting, siring this precise son, that precise daughter ... until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air to gold ... that is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermodynamic miracle. But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget ... I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away."

Chapter IX, p. 26

I should have become a watchmaker.

I love Watchmen. I've been reading it slowly -- usually just during subway rides. Today I read chapter 4 and, so far, it's my favorite.

I tend to be attracted to stories about the misunderstood "monster." And then of course there's science fiction: the supernatural, the manipulation of space and time. Finally, the essentials: love & loss, nostalgia & torment. You know, all the stuff that makes for good literature.

I found the chapter on YouTube. I think it's better to read it; the suspense builds more dramatically as your eyes move from scene to scene and your mind processes what is happening. But still, seriously amazing.

Watchmen Motion Comic, Part 1/3


Watchmen Motion Comic, Part 2/3


Watchmen Motion Comic, Part 3/3



"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking ... The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
- Albert Einstein

Top 100 Science-Fiction & Fantasy

About a week ago, NPR published a list of the top 100 science-fiction and fantasy books, as chosen by their readers. I love, love, love science-fiction and fantasy, and some of my favorite books of all time made the list (1984, Animal Farm, Frankenstein!, Flowers for Algernon). It's my goal to read them all.

Right now I'm reading Watchmen. I really like it so far.

Air Lift, son of Bold Venture, full brother of Assault

Death of a Racehorse by W.C. Heinz

Usually, I wouldn't care, and seeing as how not many people read this at the moment, that I know of, I shouldn't. But just in case this blog should accumulate readers in the future, I'll considerately post the excerpt after my comments because I don't want to ruin the experience. In my opinion, for the end to be effective, the short story needs to build up to it. I finally decided to read this piece, which I only know because Chris Jones frequently mentions it's one of his favorites. This is weird but the first way I can think to describe the way it makes me feel is in Italian, "Mi colpisce." It hits me. It moves me. The last two grafs--so hard to read, but I still do over and over and they get me every time.

They moved the curious back, the rain falling faster now, and they moved the colt over close to a pile of loose bricks. Gilman had the halter and Catlett had the gun, shaped like a bell with the handle at the top. This bell he placed, the crowd silent, on the colt's forehead, just between the eyes. The colt stood still and then Catlett, with the hammer in his other hand, struck the handle of the bell. There was a short, sharp sound and the colt toppled onto his left side, his eyes staring, his legs straight out, the free legs quivering.

"Aw ----" someone said.

That was all they said. They worked quickly, the two vets removing the broken bones as evidence for the insurance company, the crowd silently watching. Then the heavens opened, the rain pouring down, the lightning flashing, and they rushed for the cover of the stables, leaving alone on his side near the pile of bricks, the rain running off his hide, dead an hour and a quarter after his first start, Air Lift, son of Bold Venture, full brother of Assault.

And so, when opened up by the knife, the meat dried out immediately

Esquire, February 2011

Brooklyn Decker Lightens the Burden of Living in This World by Tom Chiarella

I read the first few grafs and thought to myself, "I get that this is a men's magazine, and ok, yeah, Brooklyn Decker is gorgeous, but why does she get a whole article devoted to her?!?! There is literally nothing to Brooklyn Decker but her physical appearance." Voiced my opinion, to which my wise friend responded, "Maybe that's the point." Ah, yes. By the end, I found the story to be quite amusing. Below excerpt possibly a metaphor for Brooklyn?

"But it isn't the truth. The chicken was good when it came out of the oven. Just fine, juicy--piquant, even. Nice touch with the prosciutto, Brooklyn. But it was too hot, and so, when opened up by the knife, the meat dried out immediately. The salad couldn't save it. By the time she asked, the chicken really was quite a chore."

Tom Chiarella, you so smart.

PS, I can't believe she's only two years older than me.

And a Labrador retriever came along and lapped some up

Esquire, February 2011

We Drink It So You Don't Have To by David Granger

What: Skinnygirl Margarita

Why: Liquor stores can't keep the stuff in stock, which means your girlfriend is drinking it.

What It Tastes Like: Say the cute little four-year-old down the block made a bowl of lemonade but instead of sugar used Splenda and instead of lemons used lemon flavoring and put it in a big bowl filled with ice and set it in the sun so all the ice melted and the "lemonade" got kind of hot and she got bored and went inside and a Labrador retriever came along and lapped some up and then stuck his head in the bowl and got the stuff all up in his nose and sneezed uncontrollably into the bowl for awhile. That's what it tastes like. On ice.

Why I love David Granger. Love Bethenny Frankel, too, though, but guessing that Granger is most certainly right.

And the future will be what the future will be.

Love love love the What I've Learned section in Esquire. So I loved the "Meaning of Life" issue because it was filled with them. I almost blogged excerpts from each one but that would take too long, take up too much space.

Robert De Niro: "Now is now. Then is then. And the future will be what the future will be. So enjoy the moment while you're in it. Now is a great time."

The other people interviewed for this issue included Yoko Ono, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Aaron Sorkin ('Cuse alum!), Mary-Louise Parker, George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, Ruth Westheimer, Ted Danson, Danny DeVito, Ricky Gervais, Ferran Adria, James L. Brooks, Fred Willard, Albert Brooks, Jodie Foster, Jesus H. Christ (ha), and in memoriam (people who died this year and did interviews in the past), John Wooden, Jimmy Dean, Tony Curtis, David Brown, George Steinbrenner. Read 'em. And then read some more. They're all great.