A Widow’s Son, A Second Pillar, A Third Degree
We've got a new podcast about Bob Dylan with Ron Rosenbaum, some thoughts on the names we were never given, a new Instax, & more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 659 of my Virtual Memories Show, in which one of my fave writers, Ron Rosenbaum, returns to the show to celebrate his amazing new book, BOB DYLAN: Things Have Changed (A Kind Of Biography) (Melville House Press). We talk about how his lifetime fandom of Dylan led to this book, why he opted for a biographical meditation over strict biography, the week he spent with Dylan in the ’70s for a Playboy interview, what our response to Dylan’s songs say about us, and how he got over his sense of betrayal when Dylan joined a Jesus-cult for a few years. We get into his insight into Dylan’s Nobel acceptance and the Rosebud-moment therein, the question of theodicy (radical evil) and Dylan’s argument with God, Ron’s experience falling in love with someone to Dylan’s songs, and how Dylan’s post-Jesus songwriting methods became a reflection of his One-Mind consciousness. We also discuss authenticity vs. sincerity, the discontinuity of being, the impact of Salinger & Dylan on American language and outlook, Ron’s top 20-ish of Dylan’s songs, the 4+-hour movie Dylan made in the ’70s and how it may have led to his crack-up (and why Ron thinks it should be reissued), and more. Give it a listen! And go read BOB DYLAN: Things Have Changed!
Last week, I posted Episode 658 as Lance Richardson rejoined the show to celebrate his magnificent new biography, TRUE NATURE: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen (Pantheon). We talked about his youthful introduction to Matthiessen via The Snow Leopard, how this project grew beyond his (& his publisher's) original concept, the health risks of following PM's trek through Nepal to the Crystal Monastery and the fleetingness of his time there, and which of PM's many hyphens he focuses on (novelist-naturalist-Zen roshi). We got into Matthiessen's journey into American Zen, the problematic nature of race and gender in PM's life and work, PM's fixation on Bigfoot and how that shifted to the notional, the Paris Review/CIA connection that everyone asks about, and how Matthiessen's widow came to trust Lance with the project. We also discussed his fave of Matthiessen‘s novels, the financial challenges of long-term writing projects (this one took eight years), getting over self-doubt and learning from his previous biography of Tommy Nutter, what his literary upbringing in Australia was like, whether he came to like or despise Matthiessen, and more! (Plus, I monologue-rambled about my 20,000th day on earth and the pod-retirement of Marc Maron.) Give it a listen! And go read TRUE NATURE!
Recent episodes: Tom Tomorrow • Kayla E • Hunter Prosper • M.L. Rio • David Leopold • Dmitry Samarov • Ask Me Anything
A Widow’s Son, A Second Pillar, A Third Degree
I wasn’t a sure thing. Neither my life — given the complications my mother went through when she was pregnant with me — nor my name.
I hadn’t thought about my other names in years, not until yesterday morning.
My father was a freemason, and wanted me to bear a symbolic masonic name. Hiram was one of the contenders, after the allegorical murdered architect of Solomon’s temple. Mythically resonant, but I’m pretty sure the amount of crap I would have taken as a kid growing up in New Jersey in the ‘70s and ‘80s would have been even worse than what I went through.
As I’ve mentioned, I’m reading Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (tr. Woods) alongside my various pod-readings, and finished part 6 (of 7) yesterday. Hans Castorp, our ostensible protagonist, has just watched his cousin die of tuberculosis. The book starts out with him visiting his cousin at a sanatorium in the alps, where Hans comes to discover that he, too, has “a moist spot” and requires treatment. A 3-week visit becomes an endless stay.
Descriptions of the cousin’s final weeks reminded me uncomfortably of my dad’s end — inability to eat, heart failure, late derangement — but it was only 530 pages into the book, in the paragraph after his death, that it occurred to me that the cousin shared my other name: Joachim.
My brother’s name is Boaz, and Boaz and Joachim were the names of a pair of pillars in Solomon’s temple. (No, my brother didn’t have the easiest time growing up with his name.)
I suppose the idea was that he & I would bear those names and represent the grand architecture of the temple, the cosmos, the mystery of the masonic lodge. Pillars of Boaz and Joachim also flank the high priestess in the tarot, but I’ve never given that much thought.
Two pillars. I called Boaz on Sunday on the way home from this week’s pod-session in NYC, before my side trip to check out the grass over Dad’s grave. We talked about some hard stuff. We support each other; we had to.
I don’t know how I read more than 500 pages of Mann without making the connection to my unnamed self, especially when the narrative shifted into a discussion of Freemasons & Jesuits. I assume the last few months — this whole year, really — have left me cognitively scattered. But there he was, dead in a sanatorium, and there was my ungiven name.
I forget how I wound up Gil, but I assume it involved my mother putting her foot down. Sometimes I tell people it’s short for Gilgamesh, but it’s Hebrew for joy.
What was the name you had before you were born?
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Instaxery
New Instax this week from my podcast with Ron! I like the color & composition.
Artistry
Nope, didn’t draw anything this week. Sorry! You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
Let me know if you want to be on my postcard-a-day list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn or painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far. I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout-/meditation-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some more art & new Instaxes. (From Frankfurt, if travel etc. go according to plan.)
I’m just like Anne Frank, like Indiana Jones / And them British bad boys, the Rolling Stones / I go right to the edge, I go right to the end / I go right where all things lost are made good again,