Read on Twitter
was a bit embarrassed about my...”emotional outburst” ...re denis johnson so i figured id share some thoughts instead
embarrassing bc i think the point of the book can be lost on ppl? & it can be a magnet for types who glamorize pain/addiction, the aesthetics of it, w/out being critical re the work, something i was 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💯" title="Hundred points symbol" aria-label="Emoji: Hundred points symbol">% guilty of when i first read this as a Sad Girlhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="™️" title="Trade mark sign" aria-label="Emoji: Trade mark sign"> in my early 20s
but it was great to read at that time bc it helped check that impulse to isolate yourself, set yourself apart from others physically or in your mind, as well as the impulse to relentlessly judge others which fuckhead definitely does.
the tweet with the end of the first story in the collection made me think of the ending of the last, which i always took to mean healing happens with people, happens when you can accept you’re part of the world, not looking down on it
in that 1st story he is getting by on the charity of other people driving him around, giving him drugs, he has utter disdain for them. he claims to “know” all these things will happen to him, like the car crashing
and of course opting out of the world means relinquishing responsibility (from that same first story):
the last story in jesus’ son is probably my favorite even though/bc it’s the quietest one. in a previous story he picks up a married woman at a bar and they try to figure out how to get fuckhead inside w/out the husband noticing. the last story,
beverly home, starts like this:
beverly home, starts like this:
he works in an old folks home where he says his job is to “touch people”
he’s in a better place at the end but he certainly isn’t redeemed...for much of the story he is spying on a couple through their window
he’s in a better place at the end but he certainly isn’t redeemed...for much of the story he is spying on a couple through their window
but he stops after watching the couple fight; the husband washes the wife’s feet right after, an act of forgiveness, service, something good for the narrator to see
(i should mention it’s a Mennonite couple)
(i should mention it’s a Mennonite couple)
lol idk who this thread is for, i think just for me, but if you haven’t read it it’s beautiful, probably not a book that could ever get published today
