Call Me Infidel

Satin Island, the new novel by Tom McCarthy, is required reading. I'm pretty sure I'll have more to say about it after I re-read it—and it demands re-reading—as I have his previous novels Remainder and C.. Here, though, in the meantime, is a video taste from Johan Grimonprez:



The imagery of skydiving, with its implication of faith, is one of the threads McCarthy weaves through the book. If it takes faith to skydive, readers of WoW will readily remember my own lack of same. In 2009, in what has turned out to be my longest serial post I indicted myself as incapable of making the necessary Kierkegaardian leap.

Here's the link to my essay, memoir, whatever you want to call it: Thyraphobia, or Purity of Heart is to Fear One Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Not Do Again. (Because it's a blog, you'll have to scroll to the bottom of the long page to read the first post, then scroll up. Sorry. Maybe one day I'll put the whole thing together, update, edit, and submit for traditional publication. But for now, it's still in the eternal digital ether.) [Spoiler Alert: maybe it's a good thing I didn't jump! {But see, Coda}]