A while back I started getting daily (sometimes multiple times a day) emails from the website Paste (pastemagazine.com). Paste covers pop culture and describes itself as “your source for the best music, TV, books, comedy, craft beer, food, travel, tech, politics and more.” The daily email provides recaps on all these topics. Paste is an offshoot of Wolfgang’s Vault, a website of live recordings, merchandise, etc. related to the late rock impresario Bill Graham (whose middle name was Wolfgang).
The thing that I find interesting, and at times maddening, about Paste is their best of lists. Now those of you that read my posts know that I frequently go down this path presenting my favorite this or best that, in typical John Cusack/”High Fidelity”style.
Paste gives you lists on steroids. Here are a few recent examples:
- The top 100 movies currently on Netflix (I can never find any movies to watch on Netflix. Who has time to watch all these movies? I don’t even have time to go through the list.)
- 324 ofthe Best IPA’s Blind Taste-Tested (You’re kidding, right? How long did this take?)
- The 25 Best Nintendo Games of the 1980’s (Who could possibly be interested in this?)
- The Ten Best New Albums This Month (I haven’t found ten new records I’ve liked in the past six years!)
I can’t compete with this. I struggle to come up with ten examples for any given list. Anyway enough of my venting and on to the point of this post. Recently (May 29) Paste published their list of “The 30 Best Dystopian Novels of all Time”.
While agreeing with much of the list there were a few glaring omissions (which is surprising since the Paste lists are usually so long it’s hard to imagine anything being left off). Here are four (actually six) that I would add to the Paste list:
“The Stand”, Stephen King– This is classic early King. Taking a break from his usual horror stories this is a tale of a mutating killer flu (Captain Trips) that is accidentally released from a military installation killing “99 44/100%” of the world’s population. The survivors split into the camps of good and evil and face off in the aftermath. The evil survivors are holed up, fittingly, in Las Vegas. King is one of the great popular writers of our time. It is a gripping read and one of my favorites by him (It, The Dead Zone and 11/22/63 being the others).
“The Passage” Trilogy, Justin Cronin– “The Passage” was the first book I bought when I got my first Kindle in 2010. In this first book a government experiment goes wrong and unleashes mutant humans (virals) and a plague that kills most of the world’s population. The virals, vampire-like beings, prowl the landscape feeding on the remaining uninfected survivors. Meanwhile a six-year old girl may hold the key to saving humanity. This book and the two others (“The Twelve”and “City of Mirrors”) in the trilogy lay out a sprawling adventure tale about the survival and rebirth of humanity.
“Station Eleven”, Emily St. John Mandel– This is one of my favorites. The writing is superb and the story is rich and layered. A plague (flu again) is unleashed on a snowy night in Toronto by passengers arriving on a flight from Russia. The flu wipes out most of the population and everything that defines society: “No more trains running under the surface of cities … No more cities … No more Internet.” Not far from the hospital on the night when the flu was erupting an aging stage star collapses and dies during his performance. The author weaves in this back story, and others, while following the struggles of one band of survivors who roam the area around the Great Lakes putting on plays and concerts.
“War Day”, Whitley Strieberand James Kunetka–Before Carmac McCarthy’s “The Road”there was this 1984 novel about the aftermath of a 36-minute nuclear exchange between Russia and the United States. Five years later, the authors, playing characters in their own story, journey across America to interview survivors and assess the state of the post-war nation.
Paste got most of it right but I think their list should have included these. Does anyone want to hear about my favorite IPA?
ARTS ROUNDUP
Reading– During the summer I tend to re-read novels from my two favorite authors, John D. MacDonald(Travis McGee series) and Robert B. Parker(Spenser series). Recently I re-read Parker’s “Sudden Mischief”. This one involves the ex-husband of Susan Silverman, Spenser’s long-time love interest, who has come to her for help because multiple women are suing him for sexual harassment. Susan asks Spenser to look into it and the situation proves to be more than first described. His alter ego Hawk as well as Boston police lieutenant Quirk are along to support Spenser in his inquiry. Really good late period Spenser.
Watching – Wimbledonon ESPN3. I’ve written about this before but this is the only way to watch the first week of this tennis major. Accessed via Apple TVyou can select the matches you want to watch. Total viewing freedom. I wish the network coverage of the golf majors would do this i.e., let you select the groups to watch in early rounds.
Listening – “Pure Jerry: Keystone, Berkeley, September 1, 1974”, Jerry Garcia & Merle Saunders Band. Garcia was touring this band during the Dead’s mid-seventies heyday. It’s all long, jamming workouts of cover tunes. Saunders shimmering Hammond organ, Jerry being Jerry and Martin Fierro on sax (and flute) creates a jazzy, R&B mix. “Roadrunner” and “Going, Going Gone” are two of the highlights of this three-disc set. Thanks to my friend Doug for turning me on to this band.