Cursed by my readers (and James Joyce)

Dear OMFers—

I thought we had a good thing going. I thought we had started to build trust. I empowered you to choose my next classic to read, and you selected Joyce’s Ulysses. Certainly not a light read. But I was excited for the challenge, especially with all the Odyssey buzz.

I have to admit on starting it, I’m pretty confused. There are a lot of references swirling around that are above my head. But thus, I persist. In Chapter 2, Stephen has a short conversation after teaching a class about hand, foot & mouth disease. On Tuesday morning, when I read this scene on the train to work, I didn’t think much of it (aside from the fact that it was one of the more straightforward passages I read).

Fast forward to later that day, and guess who calls? Daycare! Yes, daycare, to let me know that my son in fact has HFM and needs to be sent home for (likely) the rest of the week.

So, thank you, readers for this twisted prank you’ve pulled on me. You are to blame for my lack of reading progress this week. Surely, this is a sign from the literary gods that we should’ve chosen another book.

But I will persist. My annotated copy will arrive soon, and I will forge ahead with my now hopefully immune child. I do not know what the remainder of the plot has in store, but I hope it involves fewer rashes.

Most Hollywood sequels have a formula: take the beloved characters from the first iteration, tweak a few plot points, sprinkle in some nostalgia, and let everyone cook again. That’s pretty much how I felt about DWP2 when I watched with my wife this week. Andy has a bit more agency this round, but Miranda is still Miranda—though, maybe with a bit more heart.

But I watched another “sequel”—actually a prequel—this week: Monsters University. My daughter loves Monsters Inc., despite my now needing to check under her bed and closet for monsters every night. We thought we’d try MU, and I must say kudos to the Pixar team. This was not formulaic. Mike & Sully seemed like an unlikely duo in the first, but it gave us no reason to question. I thought it was smart how MU used their personalities and subverted them them to show how they became friends, especially since it ends in failure. Really interesting movie for kids—and apparently also for 30-something dads.

I hope you appreciate my take on a decade-plus-old children’s movie.

I recently read The Art of Fielding and found it bland. Then I realized that’s pretty much how I’ve felt about every sports novel I’ve ever read.

Thus, I am now on a heroic quest to find the Great American Sports Novel, if such a work exists. (P.S. I’m not sure it does.) More to come on this front.

Until next week . . .

—Matt