Start The Week

EXITS AND ENTRANCES. Christine Cole Catley - journalist, publisher and author - died on Sunday in her Devonport home after a brief battle with lung cancer, aged 88. Today, Maurice Gee marks his big eight-zero.

HOPELESSLY PANGLOSSIAN. Never let it be said that Muse is a haven of effete sports-phobes (which it is, but never mind)... The Duckworth Lewis Method's 'Mason on The Boundary' is simply delightful, as only two Irish blokes who made a concept album about cricket can be. (hat-tip Stephen Stratford at Quote Unquote)

HARRY POTTER, DEEPAK CHOPRA AND LOVE POETRY. I probably shouldn't be surprised that all of the above is rather popular in the library at Paremoremo. I wonder if some Muse reader would like to donate a copy of Avi Steinberg's Running The Books: The Adventures of An Accidental Prison Librarian

My name is Avi Steinberg, but in the joint, they call me Bookie. The nickname was given to me by Jamar "Fat Kat" Richmond. Fat Kat is, or was, a notorious gangster, occasional pimp, and, as it turns out, exceptionally resourceful librarian. At thirty years old and two bullet wounds, Kat is already a veteran inmate. He's too big — five foot nine, three-hundred-plus pounds — for a proper prison outfit. Instead he is given a nonregulation T-shirt, the only inmate in his unit with a blue T-shirt instead of a tan uniform top. But the heaviness bespeaks solidity, substance, gravitas. The fat guy T-shirt, status. He is my right-hand, though it often seems the other way around.

"Talk to Bookie," he tells inmates who've lined up to see him. "He's the main book man."

The main book man. I like that. I can't help it. For an asthmatic Jewish kid, it's got a nice ring to it. Hired to run Boston's prison library — and serve as the resident creative writing teacher — I am living my (quixotic) dream: a book-slinger with a badge and a streetwise attitude, part bookworm, part badass. This identity has helped me tremendously at cocktail parties.

The linked NPR feature interview with Steinberg is worth a listen, though you might not be encouraging your children to go to library school afterwards.

MAYBE I DESERVE TO BE KISSED. I can feel a sneaking sympathy with R. Crumb - who withdrew from a rare public appearance in Sydney this week after being called a "sex pervert" by a Murdoch tabloid. (Crumb explains why here; while the Telegraph pulls a Dixie Chicks and keeps things classy and hypocritical.) We can just console ourselves with this jolly tune from R. Crumb and The Cheap Suit Serenaders.

andin, 08:56 Aug 22, 2011

One can see in this example how skilled media professionals with low standards of integrity are able to mould and manipulate public opinion, popular beliefs and, ultimately, the direction of politics. The majority of the population in most places is not alert to this kind of deceptive manipulation. They are more or less defenseless against such clever ''perception management''.

Amen to that Mr Crumb!
And that Irish cricket music is very nice innit.

raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report

Craig Ranapia, 09:35 Aug 22, 2011

I do have my doubts my Crumb was in serious risk of being assassinated by enraged tabloid-reading Sydney-siders, and his reputation is based on (to put it politely) there being no such thing as over-sharing his self-loathing and sexual neurosis. But, on the gripping hand, I can understand why he wasn't that enthusiastic about walking into a Murdoch tabloid moral panic.

North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

Rich Lock, 09:44 Aug 22, 2011

For anyone who wants to know more about Robert Crumb, may I recommend searching out a copy of the 1994 documentary 'Crumb'.

I can understand why he wasn't that enthusiastic about walking into a Murdoch tabloid moral panic.

Especially if you've spent a decent chunk of your life dealing with that shit....

back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report

Craig Ranapia, in reply to Rich Lock, 10:03 Aug 22, 2011

For anyone who wants to know more about Robert Crumb, may I recommend searching out a copy of the 1994 documentary ’Crumb’.

I will heartily endorse that recommendation – it has recently been spiffed up and re-released by Criterion along with Terry Zwigoff’s little-seen first film Louie Bluie. (There a really interesting interview with Zwigoff here. Come December, I'm probably going to start howling "fuck me, Santa" at unfortunate moments - thanks for nothing, Terry.)

Though the really disturbing (and sad) thing about the film is coming to realize that however horrendously fucked up Bob is, he’s the well-adjusted one in his family.

andin, in reply to Craig Ranapia, 10:25 Aug 22, 2011

I do have my doubts my Crumb was in serious risk of being assassinated by enraged tabloid-reading Sydney-siders

Of course he wasnt. And the aging Rev Fred Nile et al would now be fulminating from their mobility scooters anyway. Kind of looks... silly. But it did occasion the eloquent blog post and he does like to "share". For which I say thanks. And there was Ghostworld, first time I saw Scarlett.

kiwicmc, 11:34 Aug 22, 2011

After retirement from school teaching my father taught up at Paremoremo. He loved it mostly but he has some fairly hair raising stories from the time that the Black Power declared a "Education is Staunch" year and their subsequent motivational techniques...

Auckland, New Zealand • Since May 2008 • 88 posts Report

Anne M, 12:47 Aug 22, 2011

Just requested that my local library buy "Running the Books". I hope you're getting a % from increased NZ-based sales?

Since Nov 2006 • 104 posts Report

Craig Ranapia, in reply to Anne M, 13:32 Aug 22, 2011

Oh, that would be nice but no. :) At the moment, my paid book pimpage is happening in the pages of the Listener -- which, in a odd coincidence, I have to deliver two reviews by morning tea time tomorrow.

Danielle, in reply to Craig Ranapia, 14:25 Aug 22, 2011

Yeah, that Crumb documentary is... something.

Come December, I’m probably going to start howling “fuck me, Santa” at unfortunate moments – thanks for nothing, Terry.

That movie makes me want to beat the crap out of inanimate portions of nativity scenes. Cathartic!

Also:

you might not be encouraging your children to go to library school afterwards

You shouldn't be encouraging them to do that anyway. Unless you hate your children and want them to suffer, in which case encourage away.

Sincerely,
2011 MLIS graduate

Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report

Jackie Clark, 20:35 Aug 22, 2011

I loved Running the Books. Great book, I thought, and combined with something I saw recently that was talking about the dearth of books in prison, I think I should donate all our unwanted books to either of Mt Eden's stone fortresses or the Wiri womens' prison.

Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report

FletcherB, 20:00 Aug 26, 2011

What does it say about me that, I saw the title sequence of the video and read it's name three times before realizing it wasnt "Cheap Slut Serenaders"?

I'm hoping the answer is that it's just a sign I read most posts here at PA and I'm up with the latest trends in feminist re-claiming... right? :)

West Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 893 posts Report

Sean Murgatroyd, 12:01 Sep 13, 2011

The Crumb affair made me angry, as a lover of his work. I know he helped me accept the vast swathes of my character that don't line up with the expectations handed down from my upbringing. There's a fearless self-honesty he communicates that isn't present in those who campaign for "family values".

This type of person is, of course, active in New Zealand as well as across the Tasman, even if they get less traction.

I always remember watching a documentary on New Zealand "naturists" with my other half - there was nothing else on, and these were the days when we watched tv at all.

A certain moral guardian was one of the contrasting opinions recruited by the reporters. At one point he commented the danger with these camps was that it was all about the men controlling the women and girls for the purposes of predation. Something about his phrasing made me distinctly uncomfortable, and I turned to herself and commented that it sounded like he was, in fact, stating what he'd like to do in an ideal world.

The moral guardian, as it turns out, was Graeme Capill. As we know he is still a very well respected figure in the community, with the sole exception that he needs written consent from his probation officer to have contact of any form with a minor.

No wonder Crumb lives in France. Vive la différence!

New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report

Joe Wylie, 12:24 Sep 13, 2011

Robert Hughes on Crumb:

We can never see things with the x-ray vision of Superman or the deductive brilliance of Dick Tracy, but we can sure as hell remember what it was like being stomped on by authorities, whether parents, cops or some terrifying ogress of a nun, as little Robert was in his Catholic school nearly half a century ago - and we can share the bloody inventions of revenge set forth in his drawings.

The buggers are still providing the raw material, whether or not he needs it.

Eat nun's head, you bastards!

flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

Kumara Republic, 13:30 Sep 13, 2011

The Crumb incident, like Shut Up And Sing, illustrates the hypocrisy of the anti-PC brigade. Such hypocrisy also emerged in the Spews of the World privacy invasion scandal, and more malevolently, during the fallout over Anders Breivik.

The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report

Rich Lock, in reply to Kumara Republic, 13:38 Sep 13, 2011

Humans are very hypocritical creatures and don't really like exploring or acknowledging the darker aspects of themselves. When someone, like Robert Crumb, comes along and holds up a mirror to those darker aspects and that hypocrisy, then people tend to react badly.

The 'screws' sold hundreds of thousands of copies every sunday, and when it was hacking the phones of celebrities, those hundreds of thousands of people didn't really give a damn. It took hacking the phone of a murdered schoolgirl to change that.

Kumara Republic, in reply to Rich Lock, 14:20 Sep 13, 2011

Humans are very hypocritical creatures and don’t really like exploring or acknowledging the darker aspects of themselves. When someone, like Robert Crumb, comes along and holds up a mirror to those darker aspects and that hypocrisy, then people tend to react badly.

In particular, Breivik’s delusional crusade brought out the No True Scotsman card in many of those who he cited in his manifesto. Many of them were in denial that ‘one of us’ could be capable of what they think Arabs have a monopoly on. Worse still, the Glenn Becks and Debbie Schlussels of this world went two steps further and effectively endorsed his actions – they make even the Tea Party look like Nelson Mandela.

Muse by Craig Ranapia

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