Back to the Lists: #23 The USA Trilogy

John Dos Passos

The USA Trilogy(1930 - 1936) by John Dos Passos is often referred to as the American version of Ulysses.  Having read both, I can now say with conviction that Passos is much easier to read than Joyce, although at times I was challenged by his narrative choices.

The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936) follow several characters through the years leading up to and including World War I as well as the boom years that followed. The final volume ends in 1930. As with many of the modernist books written during this period, Passos experiments with narrative and time. Each chapter is dedicated to a single character and how they experience these years.

Passos introduces each character with a lengthy personal history providing all the facts the reader needs to understand or recognize each character type. The cast of characters includes labor agitators, socialists, politicians, business men, socialites, a handsome man who twice marries well, journalists, artists, a preacher's daughter, a Texas heiress, a mechanic turned aviator, and an aspiring starlet. Each brings their own cast of characters. And, as time passes, they each pass through each others' spheres - some briefly and others intimately.

Between each rather long chapter, Passos inserts brief chapters entitled the "Camera's Eye" and "Newsreel." The first consists of short stream-of-consciousness passages lacking a defined narrator, punctuation, or immediate relationship to the previous chapter. Instead these passages serve as personal snapshots of the time - much like memories of a distant past. The second of these inserts consists of seemingly random lists of actual headlines and lyrics from popular songs of the time. However,  when compared to the characters' stories, these snippets help to more clearly define actual public sentiment compared to the characters' beliefs. Some of these "Newsreels" are rather humorous while others are tragic - particularly when viewed from the perspective of hindsight.

The narrative style within the USA Trilogy is quite easy to read. The writing is sparse and elegant, but once a character is introduced, you may not see them again for hundreds of pages. For me, this made it a a little difficult to keep everyone sorted. Other than that, I think the book does an excellent job of capturing its time.

I was most interested by the parallels of that time to our own Great Recession. In this work, Passos theorizes that the easy money of the 1920s was one of the direct causes of that historical stock market crash. Passos describes people who were feverishly borrowing money to invest, but once the investments went south and the loans were due, everyone paid the price of greed - whether they were playing the market or not.

Of even more interest, during the years between WWI and the Great Depression, there was a bit of a domestic war brewing between the "Makers and Takers" - except back then the workers were the makers and the bosses, financiers, and bankers who benefited from the labor of others were the takers. It is a bit of revisionism that allows this same argument to adopted and reversed during our recent hard times where the wealthy indignantly assumed the label of makers while labeling workers (and the unemployed) as takers.


Rating: 4 out of 5 bootlegged bottles of whiskey.

And, unless I am misreading the list, this is the last multiple volume entry among the remaining books. From here on out, it will be smooth sailing.

Next up: #22 Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara

Colonoscopy: The Live Blog

Colonoscope

There are several rights of passage that we all experience as we move into middle age. For men, that often entails professionals wanting to stick things into your butt. At 48 I received my first professional prostate exam. And, after a valiant campaign of procrastination, at 51 I am officially scheduled to have a colonoscopy bright and early Monday morning.

Everyone who is acquainted with me or has read my blog knows that I have a particular penchant for talking about poop - as do my siblings. There is something odd about that, but delving into the reasons for this fascination are perhaps better suited for another blog post.  While it is easy to joke about things that happen in that area of the body, with my family history of colon cancer, this is not a procedure that I can ignore or put off.

Preparation for the procedure begins five days prior to the appointment. At that time you must avoid all nuts and sesame seeds and stop taking iron supplements. The next milestone is swearing off all solid foods at midnight, two nights before the procedure. After that, it's only clear broths, Jello, and Popsicle - but not the red or purple ones.

As I write this, I think longingly of the hefty portions of chicken simmered in a champagne cream sauce with fettuccine and vegetables, as well as the slab of chocolate pie that Chad placed in front of me last night. For that, I cannot thank him enough. It was a veritable feast in preparation of the fast to come.

Yummy broth, pills, and stuff I am supposed to drink

Prep Day:
Sunday 7:30 AM
Today's menu includes clear liquids as long as they are not red or purple.
Started the day with coffee and apple juice.
Off to Sunday teaching at the Kadampa Center.
I notice my allergies are particularly bothersome today, despite the Zyrtec I took last night before bed.

10:00 AM
After teaching I chatted with Scott about volunteering for the lawn care team at the center.
Stopped by Harris Teeter for some wet wipes - a necessary preventive care need.

10:30 - Noon
Coffee
Wrote and posted an entry about my recent oral surgery experience
Chatted with Dad on the phone - twice
More coffee - it's working
Sort of hungry.

Noon -14:00
Another cup of coffee
Really hungry
Take two Dulcalax (laxative pills)
Chase them with low sodium chicken broth - wonder how I track that in the sodium tracker?
I should have gotten some vegetable broth to balance out my lunch.

14:40
Broth just makes me hungrier. Starting to have a bit of a headache.
Must think of something else.
Is it my imagination or do I have to go to the bathroom?
Time for more chicken broth. This time I added a bit of curry I bought in Grenada for a little extra flavor.
Stomach is rumbling. Hunger? Or the beginning....
It just occurred to me that my last post was about my mouth. This post is about the other end of the alimentary canal - the "South Mouth."
Coincidentally, I am going to the same doctor who stretched out my esophagus a few years ago.
I was thinking that someone needs to write a song about this. After a quick Google search, it appears several already have. Here's one by "Butt Midler." One would think they would be better given the subject matter.

15:26
Did you know a single, one-cup serving of low sodium chicken broth contains 24% of your daily recommended sodium. I just passed 100% of my daily recommended allowance and I am still hungry.
Bathroom reading station has been prepared with two magazines, NOOK eReader, and wipes.

I think it will be necessary to break the "No television on Sunday rule." I need to be entertained.

15:54
It's really the anticipation - and the hunger.
I'm feeling really self-aware.

16:30
Anti-nausea pill

17:00
Drink the drink.
It tastes like salty cherry medicine. Pretty awful actually.
Now I know why I needed the anti-vomit pill.
The question is whether to chug it or sip it?
Regardless, once this is down, I will have one hour to drink another liter of water. Of course, it will take at least a liter of water to get this taste out of my mouth.

Wipes, Nook, magazines lined up

18:07
It's working.

18:17
Hmmmm - that was weirdly satisfying, but I am afraid to get too far from the toilet.
Wet wipes are awesomely wonderful.
Oddly I am not as hungry as I was.

17:05
Dinner Time - Beef broth, mmmm good!

17:27
One cup in, one cup out.

20:05
Blowing nose - bad idea. Enough said.
Beef broth is a lot better with a dash of Tabasco and another dash of Worcestershire sauce.

20:30
Repeat.

21:41
I am concerned that my intestinal flora and fauna will never recover. Surely nothing can survive a power washing such as this.
All commercials are about food. Current craving is BK Big Fish with extra tartar sauce.
Each time I change position, i.e. roll over, sit up, stand - the need to visit the toilet becomes urgent.

23:00
One last mug of beef broth before bed.
Perhaps the Tabasco was not such a great idea. It's a little tender down there.

23:45
Bedtime
You know you are clean when you poop clear water.
I am porn star clean.

Monday 17:13
Besides the procedure getting started a little late, all went well. The staff and doctor were quite nice. As I was going under, I heard the doctor turn up the music; I was being scoped to Led Zepplin's Ramble On. I found that amusing.

As usual, I woke up from anesthesia a little early, so I got to see the length of my colon as the scope was pulled out. I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of the cleaning routine. I said something to the effect of "That is one fine looking colon." The doctor agreed and reported there were no abnormalities or polyps.  After some world record setting flatulence, I was allowed to go home. First stop, breakfast at Big Ed's with Dad.

Joking aside, the preparation was not as bad as the horror stories I heard all last week. The procedure itself was painless. Afterwards, once you pass the gas they pump you up with, there was no residual pain. The best part? As a parting gift, I was presented with a beautiful picture of my sexy colon.

Picture from deep inside yours truly.

Due to the clean bill of health, it will be another 10 years before I have an opportunity to blog about this again. Who knows what can happen in that time?





 





 

2 Girls, 1 Mouth: The Sequel

Instruments of exquisite torture

To be completely truthful, this post should be entitled Two Hygienists, Two Nurses, a Dentist, a Surgeon, and One Dirty Mouth: The Sequel.


About a month prior to my fantastic Caribbean vacation, I visited my wonderful dentist for a regularly scheduled cleaning and exam. During the exam, my most excellent hygienist, Andrea, examined a spot on my gum that I pointed out to her as feeling like a blister. Sure enough, I had a dental abscess.

The abscess was located next to a couple of teeth Dr. Arrick had previously suggested I have removed, but in my wisdom, I had decided to keep them in place for as long as possible. Based on both the hygienist's and dentist's assessment, "as long as possible" had finally arrived. There was an open slot in Dr. Arrick's schedule, so I just moved down the hall into the "extraction suite" and took a seat in preparation for the procedure.

As Dr. Arrick came at me with a syringe full of pain killer, I reminded her that I am hard to numb. If she is going in, she needs to go in hard and deep. She will know she got it in deep enough when a single tear runs down my cheek. She laughed and said, "Oh Glenn, you are so funny." My dentist has  a dirty mind, apparently, but there was no tear.

Insert joke here

After a few minutes to let the medicine work, she came back to perform the extraction. She did a little magic around the gums and then went in with the pliers and started tugging. The medicine was not working. The pain was pretty intense. After three more attempts at numbing my jaw, I was sent home with a prescription for an antibiotic to clear up the infection and an appointment to return in 10 days.

Ten days later, it was exactly the same experience (see above). Since she could not get me numb enough to complete the extraction, Dr. Arrick suggested I see an oral surgeon. The surgeon could see me in a few days, but that would be only a day or two before I departed for vacation and I thought that was a bad idea. Besides, it was apparent these two teeth were determined to accompany me to Barbados.

Flash forward three weeks.....
Four days after returning from a most excellent trip, I was tan, happy, and patiently waiting in the Surgeon's reception room. Since is was a same-day surgery center, the wait was a long one. I arrived on time at 8:30, but my procedure did not start until around 11:00. Thank goodness for my most excellent manager, Rachel, who was able to rearrange her schedule in order to wait for me.

When I finally got called back, the nurse began reviewing the procedure with me. We discussed bone grafting just in case I wanted to have dental implants sometime in the future. I asked her what type of material would be used in the grafts. She responded,"irradiated, ground cadaver bone." I was slightly horrified, but that did not stop me from responding with "Well, I guess this will be the first time someone else's bone has been in my mouth for a reason other than fun." She was not amused.

Let's talk about my book.

When it was finally time to begin, two nurses came in to wire me up and insert the IV that would send me off to dreamland. I was warned that I would feel a little drunk, which was not problem considering "a little drunk" is one of my preferred feelings. When the drip started so did my mouth. I was talking and talking and talking some more. I started explaining the plot of the novel I am considering and asking all types of questions about the decline of taste as you age. After a few minutes of me blathering on and on, one nurse said to the other, "That doesn't seem to be working. Let's try the other arm." I thought it was working like a charm - especially since I was in a decidedly happier mood than I had been 10 minutes earlier. And suddenly, it was lights out.

Until I woke up - earlier than planned.

When I came to, there was a big plastic ring holding my mouth open. A man, with shiny tools appeared to be sewing something while chatting about his weekend plans. I was just lying there watching and listening when he noticed me, at which time he alerted the nurse that I was awake. Like magic, I was no longer awake.

When I next awoke, all dentistry apparatus had been removed and I was escorted to the lobby where my wonderful manager and friend greeted me with a smile and took me home. I few minutes after I arrive home, my most excellent neighbor, Troy, dropped off my pain medications and other prescriptions required for recovery. Then I went to bed.

A few weeks later, I was telling this story to my dear friends Cathy and Arjay over Videri chocolates and glasses of wine. Cathy asked about the next steps in this grand journey of dental implantation. When I told her I would be having a cat scan in a few months to make sure I was not rejecting the bone grafts, she immediately responded, "That mouth has never rejected a bone."

Touche my friend. Well played!