Murder, Life, Bus

Every once in a while now we get a bus that was obviously a charter at one time: retractable arm rests, reclining seats, no back door. It’s strange, but nice. Not so nice has been the selection at Goodwill, which has featured absolute dreck. Nothing like old software manuals and countless “Bible Quotes for Gangly teens” to make you want to gget on a charter bus for far, far away.

Interesting juxtaposition of reading material. I picked up a James Patterson some weeks ago, only because his books are ubiquitous so I thought that to be a member-in-good-standing of pop culture I’d better get a little familiarity with the man. I read Kiss the Girls. It was interesting that a white guy would base his writing career on a black detective; it could be very intriguing. Well, there was no reason for the detective to be black. It had no bearing whatsoever on anything of importance in the novel. Oh, there was an incident where white cops hassled him because he was black, but that was surely inserted only because a good black character has to be hassled by white cops in books by white writers. I suppose that’s the price of trying to write from the perspective of someone you’re not – you don’t really know enough. But I’m glad Patterson makes the attempt (and I understand he’s continued with the character in billions of other books).

It starts with a grisly, sick murder, and revels in further grisly, sick murders. That’s one thing. The writing is atrocious in spurts. The main sin is characters who talk to the reader, noot to the other characters. Example: As the hero‘s girl friend, badly mauled, is rushed to the hospital, a cop tells him “They’re bringing her to the Duke Medical Center. You’ll get some arguments from the university people, but that’s the best facility in the state.” Who among us wouldn’t bring up the rivalry between universities at a time like that?

The book wasn’t as bad as its parts, though. I thought I had the bad guy pegged, and was wrong. That’s good. I made time to read it – also good. But, whew, here’s another guy I think I’m better than. Than whom I think I’m better.

Meanwhile I’ve been studying for an SGI Buddhist Learning Review. So for part of my bus ride I’ve got a sicko destroying life, and for the other part I’m infused with hope and faith in the best of human nature. Buddhism teaches the possibility of self revolution, and the self revolution of others. In fact, the latter is, like, the Main Thing. Buddhism equals altruism equals compassion. I’m reading now about “Bodhisattva Buddha”, how the compassion of a bodhisattva is possible because the bodhisattva lives form the perspective of enlightenment. This is the opposite of Kiss the Girls. It’s also, I think, the opposite of my current reading, Of Human Bondage which bondage is, I gather, metaphysical – and whose eradication is the goal of Buddhist practice.

So it’s an interesting month, so far.