w666
September 17th, 2009, 09:57 AM
"Head Down" is an essay written about the Bangor West Little Little League championships during the summer of 1989.
I don't like baseball, and so would not intentionally read an essay such as this. I didn't read it when it ran in the New Yorker. I didn't read it again when Nightmares and Dreamscapes was first published, nor when I later listened to the audio tapes.
Now this material has been re-released on audio CD, so I was excited at the chance to listen again (my cassette Walkman has long since passed on). And, true to form, I had every intention of not listening to "Head Down" again. I loaded the CDs up on my iPod (what new contraption will I have 16 years hence?) and set about the business of listening. I favor audio books these days because they afford me the luxury of being able to do something else while I'm "reading" (house work, exercise, etc.). And as a result, I now consume ~ 50 books per year compared to the relative handful of paper books I could read when dedication to the task was required.
Today I was on a long run, perhaps a half hour yet from home when I finished listening to "Suffer the Children" (god, I love that story! And I recall nostalgically the days before Columbine when it was OK to write about murdering children). I discovered then that I had already listened to all the other stories on my iPod. I had to decide whether to spend the next half hour in silence, or god forbid, listen to that "goddamned" (spoken with a Maine accent, as Steve would say it) essay about baseball.
I reluctantly chose the latter. The essay was read by the author, so I was at once both seduced and soothed. I suspended my skepticism and pretended as if it were just another SK story. The characters and the scenes were richly developed. And there was plenty of action, anticipation and suspense. Although it may have been better had there been some sort of clown who snatched away the short stop, or perhaps Randall Flagg might have made a cameo appearance to broker some sort of Faustian bargain assuring Bangor West's victory.
Now that I'm finished, however, my opinion is merely "not bad". And I still don't like baseball!
Will I now move on to read "Faithful"?. I think not....how does that old joke go?
"Do you want to see Roseann Barr in a bikini?" you ask?
"Spell 'way' " I respond.
"Way....that's W-A-Y".
"Good. Now, take the 'F' out" I counter.
"What do you mean?....there ain't no F in way!"
I don't like baseball, and so would not intentionally read an essay such as this. I didn't read it when it ran in the New Yorker. I didn't read it again when Nightmares and Dreamscapes was first published, nor when I later listened to the audio tapes.
Now this material has been re-released on audio CD, so I was excited at the chance to listen again (my cassette Walkman has long since passed on). And, true to form, I had every intention of not listening to "Head Down" again. I loaded the CDs up on my iPod (what new contraption will I have 16 years hence?) and set about the business of listening. I favor audio books these days because they afford me the luxury of being able to do something else while I'm "reading" (house work, exercise, etc.). And as a result, I now consume ~ 50 books per year compared to the relative handful of paper books I could read when dedication to the task was required.
Today I was on a long run, perhaps a half hour yet from home when I finished listening to "Suffer the Children" (god, I love that story! And I recall nostalgically the days before Columbine when it was OK to write about murdering children). I discovered then that I had already listened to all the other stories on my iPod. I had to decide whether to spend the next half hour in silence, or god forbid, listen to that "goddamned" (spoken with a Maine accent, as Steve would say it) essay about baseball.
I reluctantly chose the latter. The essay was read by the author, so I was at once both seduced and soothed. I suspended my skepticism and pretended as if it were just another SK story. The characters and the scenes were richly developed. And there was plenty of action, anticipation and suspense. Although it may have been better had there been some sort of clown who snatched away the short stop, or perhaps Randall Flagg might have made a cameo appearance to broker some sort of Faustian bargain assuring Bangor West's victory.
Now that I'm finished, however, my opinion is merely "not bad". And I still don't like baseball!
Will I now move on to read "Faithful"?. I think not....how does that old joke go?
"Do you want to see Roseann Barr in a bikini?" you ask?
"Spell 'way' " I respond.
"Way....that's W-A-Y".
"Good. Now, take the 'F' out" I counter.
"What do you mean?....there ain't no F in way!"