What To Read While Self-Quarantining
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Also, consider donating to the Art-House America campaign, which is raising money to keep independent movie theaters afloat during this crisis.
But first, a note: I've provided links to IndieBound, a website that finds the nearest independent bookstore that sells the book you want. In times like this, it is a pressing need to support small and independent bookstores in any way you can, many offer delivery or "take-out" style delivery methods.
Movie Books
The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930
After The Jazz Singer (1927) became a massive hit, in a matter of a couple of years, Hollywood underwent a complete and rapid change: new technology took over, studios were torn down and rebuilt, movie theaters were wired for sound, and talent in front of and behind the camera either adapted or died and was replaced. But more than anything, the movies were changed on a fundamental level, never to be the same again. The Speed of Sound chronicles these tumultuous times in fascinating detail, focusing not only on the new technology and the history of synchronized sound (which had been around in one way or another since the early 20th century) and the careers that were changed by talkies, but also what was lost in the transition. Not just the style of silent movie making, but both the communal and personal experience of movie going. The complete and total death of the silent film was and is a monumental tragedy and the process by which it was brought to an end couldn't be further from what is depicted in Singin' in the Rain. This is one of the best movie books I've ever read but is still accessible for even casual classic movie fans and is sure to give you a long list of movies and stars to check out when you're done with it.
Forbidden Hollywood: The Pre-Code Era (1930-1934) - When Sin Ruled the Movies
The introduction of talking in the movies brought about all kinds of opportunities for Hollywood to try new things and not surprisingly, they decided to push the envelope on what was then considered to be "good taste" by puritanical elites in America. Of course, Hollywood is just a barometer of America and the country has always had a taste for the lurid, sensual, and off-color. Simply put, if the people didn't want it, Hollywood wouldn't make it. Eventually, the puritanicals won out and Hollywood enacted more stringent censorship on its productions, which took full effect midway through 1934. Before that is what is known as the "Pre-Code" Era, which Vieira details in Forbidden Hollywood, giving an account of the fight for and against censorship and the taboo-challenging films that found so much success during this time. For anyone unfamiliar with Pre-Code Hollywood, there is sure to be some surprises in terms of just how risque these films could be and a good reminder that the moral and puritan "good old days" never really existed, they were an artificial creation of certain men with power. As an added bonus Vieira, who is also a photographer as well as a writer, includes a wide variety of stunning glamour portraits of movie stars from the period. This is truly a beautiful book as well as an informative one.
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of New Hollywood
In a previous post I recommended the Netflix documentary series Five Came Back, based on a (superior) book by Mark Harris. Harris' previous book Pictures at a Revolution is just as good and it covers a fascinating period: the death of "old" Hollywood, which by this point had grown stale at bests, and the beginning of "New Hollywood" and fresh, European-influenced filmmaking that would lead to a fertile period of great and inventive movies in the late sixties and seventies. The five movies Harris chose to focus on were the Best Picture nominees at the 1968 Academy Awards - The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Bonnie and Clyde, Doctor Dolittle, Guess Who's Coming Dinner - each of which, in their own ways represent parts of both old and new Hollywood and the changes that were coming. Harris is a great writer and this book is remarkably readable, full of details about the productions and state of movies at the time. However, what makes the book so special is Harris' ability to draw aspects of culture and society at the time (and now) and tie them in together with the movies, what they represent and how they reflect the times and people that made them.
Non-Movie Books: Non-Fiction
Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West
Perhaps no part of American history is more diluted in understanding than the American est. The movie western (even most "revisionist" westerns) fail to tell the true story but the history of the West is rarely taught in any sort of detail. The "legend" has so outstripped the facts that the truth is seeming to matter less and less as America constructs the version of itself that it wants to be, no matter how untrue it might be. Dreams of El Dorado goes a long way in correcting those mistakes, offering a concise and readable history of the West, beginning with the Louisiana Purchase and covering major periods like Lewis and Clark, missionaries, Native Americans, trappers, Texas, the gold rush, cattle drives, railroads, and the Civil War. The book is broken into sections, vignettes which detail certain aspects of history but are mostly unconnected to each other by characters that a traditional non-fiction history might. However, by breaking up the story into manageable chunks it become more digestible and actually easier to see the big picture. Reading Dreams of El Dorado will be an eye-opening experience to many, not just because it tells the real story but because the white Americans are clearly the bad guys for much of the story and come out looking poorly, for example Texas was founded by illegal white immigrants(!) who rebelled against Mexico, not because of any grand desire for freedom but because they were worried that the Mexican government was going to take away their slaves(!!).
The Lost Kingdom of the Monkey God
Speaking of eye opening experiences, The Lost Kingdom of the Monkey God manages to do just that on multiple occasions. An account of the rediscovery and exploration of a lost city deep in the jungles of the Mosquitia Mountains in Honduras, the book is a startling reminder that there is still much of our world that we don't know about or haven't discovered or rediscovered. The telling of how they find the area they visit, who helps them get there, and what they find is remarkably enjoyable and benefits from Preston's telling it as a fiction author who went along on the expedition. It really reads more like an adventure novel with thrilling encounters and colorful characters. There is also a twist in the second half of the story that is another one of those eye opening moments. Though it is hard to "spoil" non-fiction, in the case of The Lost Kingdom of the Monkey God, what eventually befalls the members of the expedition is interesting enough that it is worth going in relatively blind.
Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression
Technically, there are sections of this book that deal with movies but the main thrust of the book isn't just about movies, so I've included it in the non-movie book section. In an earlier post I made a loose parallel between the COVID-19 pandemic and The Great Depression, and while the hopes are that it gets nowhere near as bad as that, the similarities - unemployment, homelessness, economic uncertainty - are at least strong enough to warrant the comparison on some level. The Depression is a fascinating period because it was the worst of times in America but also led, directly or indirectly, to an explosion of culture, artistic creation, and social consciousness. This is what Dancing in the Dark covers, looking at the writing, music, movies, art, design, theater, and more at the period and dissecting how the Depression informed the culture and art as well as how the culture and art informed out understanding of the period. Though many of the usual depression era subjects are here - Ernest Hemmingway, George Gershwin, Busby Berkeley, etc. - Dickstein unearths many worthy subjects. This a little bit more dry of a history but it is fascinating none-the-less.
Non-Movie Books: Fiction
The Best of Cordwainer Smith
One of the the true originals of fiction writing, Cordwainer Smith's science fiction is unlike any other and truly a special experience. Professionally, Smith was an expert on both East Asia and psychological warfare, both of which influence his writing though not nearly as much as his wild imagination. I'm just going to list a few things in Smith's science fiction so you can get an idea just how wildly creative and different his work is from anyone else: telepathically linked cats that shoot space dragons with lasers, laminated rat brains used to fly ships, genetically engineered human-animal hybrids, prisoners used to grow replacement limbs, and "stroon" an anti-aging drug harvested from giant diseased sheep on Norstrilia (Old North Australia). That's just the tip of the iceberg with Smith and if it doesn't immediately pique your interest, I don't know what to tell you.
The Annotated Big Sleep
The Big Sleep (1939) might not be Raymond Chandler's best novel (might) but it is certainly his most important and one of the most influential crime novels ever written, responsible not only for the shape of future crime novels, but also the content, tone, and verbal style of the entire film noir movement, along with the works of Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain. It is also a wonderfully fun and entertaining story that highlights Chandler's gift with words and language. The Annotated Big Sleep is easily the definitive version of the novel, with notes by Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, and Anthony Dean Rizzuto as well as Chandler's own writings, maps, pictures, and the context of crime writing and Los Angeles at this time. There has never been a better way to enjoy and understand this novel, its influences, influence, and place in culture, society, and history.
The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James
The ghost stories of M.R. James are unique in the annuls horror history because James' background as a prominent medieval scholar (and important figure at both King's College and Cambridge) informs the ghost stories he tells. James' ghost stories, many of which were written to be read aloud on Christmas Eve, come together at a perfect middle-ground between scholarly and terrifying, the protagonists are usually researchers, scholars, or professors going about their investigations into seemingly mundane historical events, ancient buildings, or antique texts when they come across some element of the hauntingly supernatural. They almost lull you into a false sense of security with details of people and places long dead before becoming suddenly and immediately terrifying. Though the actual ghostly encounters usual don't last very long (the stories themselves are fairly short) they can be quite scary. Written between the late 19th century and the 1920s, James stories mark an important departure from the Gothic horror story and are one of the first steps towards modern horror.
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