I write this freshly returned to my pad after a day working my strange but delightful Cascadian sea salty beat. I drove through atmospheric rivers up to charming La Conner, Washington, to interview the good folks at American Tug for a magazine article. Most people will associate La Conner with tulip fields, migrating swans, cute boutiques, and legendary hippy author Tom Robbins (who retired there, I really want to cross paths with the guy someday!). However, a lively but inconspicuous maritime hub holds it all up behind the scenes.
Bottom line is that this awesome company has a great story to tell. They’ve been through a lot. But, like the stout tugboats they build, they just keep cruising. Thanks to recent developments, they’re expanding in every way while elevating the Pacific Northwest community they’ve always called home. Inspiring stuff! Stay tuned!
Where Have I Been?!
I haven’t posted in about a month and feel compelled to apologize for my absence. You, dear reader, have subscribed to a weekly-ish Substack with the occasional bonus article and audio. I have failed you.
I’m not sure how many of y’all out there have read Robert Bly’s Iron John, a favorite of mine. If you haven’t read the book, my answer won’t make sense. I have been conversing with The Wild Man. This is simultaneously a very vague and very specific answer. Ha!
From Iron John, “…The kind of wildness, or un-niceness, implied by the Wild Man image is not the same as macho energy, which men already know enough about. Wild Man energy, by contrast, leads to forceful action undertaken, not with cruelty, but with resolve.
The Wild Man is not opposed to civilization; but he is not completely contained by it either. The ethical superstructure of popular Christianity does not support the Wild Man, though there is some suggestion that Christ himself did. At the beginning of his ministry, a hairy John, after all, baptized him.
…Conversing with the Wild Man is not talking about bliss or mind or spirit or “higher consciousness,” but about something wet, dark, and low—what James Hillman would call “soul”...”
Norris Reads: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (Ya, THAT One)
If you follow along here, you know I like to read all kinds of things. Well, a certain romantasy (fantasy + mature romance) book has burst onto the scene, primarily from TikTok (specifically, BookTok). Fourth Wing by seasoned romance writer Rebecca Yarros is leading the pack sales wise, even making “Book of the Summer” lists and scoring a TV series deal with Amazon.
I gave it a shot. Why not? I’m overdue for a popcorn read.
Here’s an excerpt of the synopsis to orient you: “Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general―also known as her tough-as-talons mother―has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders... Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda―because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.”
Also, reminder, I don’t actually review books here and try to avoid doing so in general. I spotlight whatever I’m reading and pontificate stream-of-consciousness-style. What’s interesting to me is that this is one of those books with a slew of 5-star reviews opposing a smaller but resolute cadre of 1-star reviews.
This dynamic reminds me a bit of the Fifty Shades of Gray days. Women in their millions—many working class, mothers, or newer/casual readers—proudly declared, “THIS BOOK IS HOT AND I LOVE IT!!!”. However, the besieged haters—largely of the “literati”, aka avid readers, book world professionals, and higher education degree holders—rallied their ranks to make a stand. “This book is not only BAD, it’s BAD for women and literature!”
Me? It’s a book. Calm down. If it makes “me time” in the bathtub with a glass of wine and scented candle sweeter, it can’t be so bad. Likewise, to the diehard fans, please crack open other books. Any book. I’m begging ya.
To me, Fourth Wing is the latest in a string of pop culture flashes that say tropes are back. The book has ‘em all: the female protagonist using her smarts to go on a hero’s journey to win violent, society-mandated competitions (Katniss Everdeen); the brooding hunk on an enemies-to-lovers arc (Heathcliff, Twilight’s Jacob, etc.); a dangerous school/academy setting (Harry Potter, Divergent, etc.); the noble beast that bonds with the protagonist after proving worthy (Eragon, Mowgli, etc.); fated passionate love between a man and a woman meant for one another (old school Disney), and more.
Broadly speaking, I wonder if the zeitgeist is coming off roughly a decade of highly experimental, meta, subversive storytelling like a sugar rush. Those wildly popular franchises I cited (core Harry Potter, core Hunger Games, Twilight, Eragon, and Divergent) are all at least eight years past. Sorry, didn’t mean to make readers feel old!
Flash forward to today. We’ve completely deconstructed Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones. The new Matrix movie is meta beyond belief, Neo literally working as a video game designer. Nolan’s Tenant is so subversive structure-wise I felt like a moron for not understanding what’s going on. Still do. Ditto with Glass Onion.
Similarly, most books published these days seem written by writers for writers with the same dynamic. People like me, a professional writer, are over-serviced! It’s like the industry has adopted the “find a demographic and throw red meat at it” corporate media strategy Matt Taibbi outlines in his book Hate, Inc.—and we are the only target they can nail down reliably to sell things to. What of The People!? The casuals and normies? What do they like? Few in my world seem interested in listening or learning. The cherry on top is then we look down on people for not reading more at wine and cheese parties. Ha!
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate brilliant artists taking bold swings at things. The aforementioned Tom Robbins I love is a postmodernist GOD. But the timeless will remain, tropes and all. A cultural war or boycott on tropes is as foolish as trying to stop the phases of the moon and as unsustainable, and expensive, as the Vietnam War. The brooding hunk will always be hot. We all want the biggest, wisest, coolest dragon to choose us. We want to defy danger and win what the antagonists of our lives said we could not. Making friends is always heartwarming, besting cruel enemies forever cathartic. The Wild Man endures.
I look to my table of books, and Fourth Wing sits next to a copy of Infinite Jest my dad handed to me years ago. I’ve written about my ongoing third honest attempt to finish David Foster Wallace’s magnum opus. Well, I’m just about to toss in the towel after another noble try. I’m glad it exists and appreciate its smarts, but I just don’t know what the hell is going on and I’m not too proud to admit it. Notably, I did finish Fourth Wing.
Would an actual review of mine be full of critiques? Of course. The f-bomb is used a comical 77 times. I’d only recommend it to a few people I know, mostly fans of Sarah J. Maas. Is it basically Eragon meets Hunger Games with a target audience of randy ladies aged 16-40 instead of teenage boys? Yes. You got a problem with that?