Stewart Mitchell > Recent Status Updates

The holiday has kept me moving through this at a pitiful pace but I’m still highly interested anytime I get the chance to read a chapter or two

Extremely interesting so far. Nixon’s biography is great reading on its own, but Perlstein adds so much with his insights into how Tricky Dick’s political career intersects with/helped shift American cultural consensus.

God I love Ishmael Reed. Nobody else does it quite like him.

Done with Typee. Will save the others for 2026.

Now halfway through Typee. The digressions are the best part, specifically any time Melville gets thinking about the savage vs. civilized world.

About 1/3 of the way through Typee. This is clearly not the same Melville who wrote Moby Dick but it’s entertaining enough as a debut.

Venturing beyond Moby Dick for the first time, something I should have done a while ago.

Hoping to finish this tomorrow. I’m torn between really appreciating the ideas being explored here and disliking some of Powers’s usual hiccups as a writer.

There’s a complete lack of tension in this premise so far, just a gradual exploration of an idea. I really respect Powers for being unconcerned with a dramatic plot, and I’m sure that many people would consider this boring for the same reason.

Interested to see where Powers is going with this one.