jeers: the crisis of narration
sometimes at the bookshop i overhear some very bad conversations. no one goes here to read anymore, they just come here to crack wise.
if ever there are three or more lads, which is rare, the books are mere fodder for their roasting. 'hey azz, this is your book haha' one will say as he points to a copy of chris kraus's i love dick. 'oi fuck off' says his friend, ensued by some cheers and jeers.
if two lovers walk in, they will only ever browse the greeting cards or erotica, not reading but whispering in each other's ears and rubbing each others waists, usually with some form of boner. what they are looking at is never very funny or erotic, and i have stopped bothering to look.
the children in the bookshop always make me disappointed. they are always wanting to spend their grandma's voucher on the minecraft jokebook. w-what is r..e-red.stone or.ore.. used for? rr-ro-rowing a r.red stone b-boat. they always sulk when they have to pick a different book.
students from the nearby uni are also not good. today a young man was browsing the childrens section with a girl from his class. 'its giving..' he said. 'its giving...' he repeated again and again, clearly unable to identify what ‘it’ was ‘giving’. at last he came to an answer. 'its giving... paul simon!' i looked over to see what the ‘it’ was. it was a childrens novel whose cover showed a greasy freckled boy about to barf. 'paul simon?' the girl laughed, 'like garfunkle paul simon?' 'no no no,' he said. 'not him, its giving something else. its giving... another paul, paul.. simmons? paul...' 'dano?' she asked. 'nah, i dont know who that is. no, its giving... whos that guy.... um.. from childhood, you know, like, he did the books about bums?' JENNINGS i shouted from across the store. 'yeah!' he said. 'thats right! its giving paul jennings.’ i looked over to see him standing with his hands on his hips, looking down at the book like he’d just finished an important jigsaw puzzle. 'whos paul jennings?' asked his friend.
byung chul hanh wrote a book called the crisis of narration. i havent read it but i think about the title some times. hanh is right. when people can only say 'its giving' and can't remember the name of paul jennings, there is indeed a crisis of narration. this crisis is not just relegated to the bookshop. i have over a thousand acquaintances and only three of them ever bother to write down their humorous anecdotes. me and the anecdote writers are all on each other’s thin ice, so if ever i want to hear a story, i have to ask my grandma or my friend drew or the monk at the buddhist monastery. this is enough for me, but i do wish i could hear more folk stories and humorous anecdotes more of the time. all i hear in both normal and alternative circles is the most flaccid regurgitations of internet speech and reclaimed slurs, always met with open mouthed gasping and the sounds of geese eating corn.
‘this worm is retarded’ says the young man, pointing at a stuffed toy of the very hungry caterpillar. the girl laughs, then points to a stuffed animal of the gruffalo. 'nahhhh lowkey’ the boy says, ‘its giving labubu coded'. they are both laughing. 'nah nah, for real, its giving labubu coded ha ha ha, for real low key, its giving labubu coded ha ha haaa nah, lowkey, lowkey, its giving its giving labubu ha ha its giving labubu coded haha low key labubu coded for real'.
even though its $38 i decide to buy ursula k le guin's translation of the tao te ching. i would like to reach the stage of being so at-peace that i no longer need a jeers section. the lady at the counter looks like what i imagine le guin herself to look like: gracefully aged and bookish. picking up the book, she adjusts her spectacles and examines the cover. i await her wisdom. 'ah,' she says, turning to me with piercing eyes. 'rick rubin vibe coded the tao te ching'. wait what. she repeats again. 'rick rubin vibe coded the tao te ching.’ hm. i know vaguely who rick rubin is, but i still have to ask her what she means. 'rick rubin,’ she says, ‘fed the fed it into AI and got it to make pictures'. maybe this is why there is a crisis of narration. everyone is just vibe coding instead of just reading.