Loafing about
Sometimes, there’s nothing to do but to not do anything.
I nearly bailed on writing EELS this week because I am deep in that late-summer slump. I read a very fun book I wouldn’t call great. I look outside and it hurts my eyes. I have given up on my garden. I mostly want to talk about the Great Expectations adaptation on Hulu, while I knit gloves and think about colder times. I am the eternal jilted bride of winter.
Anyway! My pal Gabby suggested a listlessness episode rather than me flaking on my EELS commitment, and as she is an angel, I have mustered up my last ounce of energy this week and am flinging it at you with questionable aim. At any rate, it’s a good counterweight to last week’s revolting productivity issue. Sorry about that.
I would bet you have like 20 book pals. You know exactly who I’m talking about. Mightn’t they like EELS? Forward this to them or share on your socials and let’s find out!
Want to see what I’ve recommended in the past without thumbing through tedious and/or delightful archives? I get it! Who’s got time! Well, good news—there’s a handy spreadsheet out there with all sorts of helpful info to help you choose your next read, and if you’re an EELS subscriber, I’ll give you access to it.
👔 Carry On, Jeeves
P.G. Wodehouse, 1925
The aristocracy loafs with such bumbling style, and Wodehouse satirizes it to a T. Honestly even main loafer Bertie Wooster satirizes himself. And that’s what I like about ol’ Bertram—he’s aware he’s a waste of space! Happy to be reliant on his manipulative valet Jeeves (let the man grow a mustache, Jeeves), happy to be handed seltzer at particular times of the evening, and happy to sling about the latest 1920s slang. It’s like Downton Abbey, only fun and not a royalist pamphlet!
If you’re not familiar with Wodehouse, Wooster, and/or Jeeves, you are not familiar with how funny a cleverly dim man can be. I would write in this style all day if I could, but, being perhaps a cleverly dim person myself, I can’t. Here’s a quote that sums up the perfect uselessness of Bertie:
“What ho!” I said.
“What ho!” said Motty.
“What ho! What ho!”
“What ho! What ho! What ho!”
After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.
Recommended to: Those old eggs who are perfectly braced for every turn of the track and don’t mind stretching the lemon for a bit of a pip about London, New York, and some country houses, what?
Recommended format: I’ve never done audiobook but I imagine it’s fantastic. And if you’re feeling particularly jellylike, just lie around and watch Jeeves and Wooster. Once you hear Hugh Laurie doing Bertie, you’ll never be able to hear Bertie any other way. Also, FYI, you can pick up any Jeeves and Wooster book and get the same gist.
🎶 Bel Canto
Ann Patchett, 2001
Sorry, my beloved Ann Patchett. I know your book is not about useless people. It’s simply that in this hostage situation involving very wealthy and very powerful men (and one female opera singer), there are days and days and days where no one has anything to do.
Eventually, things happen. But for a long time, the loafing itself is very interesting—leave it to Patchett to make loafing interesting. There’s a real aspect of the sublime here. Things get simple and beautiful. Love is easy. Friendship is basically growing on trees. It’s like the opposite of Lord of the Flies, only with guns?
Recommended to: Those who deeply want to experience some sort of transcendence by listening to and finally understanding a beautiful piece of music by a classical composer, performed by a virtuoso. I mean, the book isn’t going to sing to you of course, but it might set you on that path, as many people within the book find this path themselves.
😐 Bartleby, the Scrivener
Herman Melville, 1853
Don’t look at me like that. Melville is awesome, and you can read this in one day. And then you’ll compare various people you know to the titular character for the rest of your life. “That dissenting immovable monument of a colleague is a REAL BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER,” you’ll say loudly as you cast your eyes about, and then when you see a person who lights up, you’ll have a new reading pal. Thanks, EELS.
Bartleby is almost actively idle. He chooses idleness with an intensity. He prefers not to do…whatever it is you ask him to do. What do you do with that? Do you fire him? What if he won’t leave? What is passive resistance? Is inaction the greatest form of action? What is anything? I am tired just thinking about it! It’s too hot!
Recommended to: Those who need something light but meaty, if you know what I mean. What ho! What ho!
Read this, too
🌱 Where My Cousins Are From — Kelly Gerow, 2023
No need to head to the library for this essay, you can click it and read it right this very day online at Modern Southern Folklore. I love lots of people, but Kelly a little more than most. She’s also written a novel, of which I have read a draft, and I can tell you with 100% unbiased honesty that it is going to knock your socks off. I can’t wait to talk about it here when it hits the shelves. In the meantime, enjoy this essay about her relationship with West Virginia—the good, the bad, the wild, the wonderful.
And now, a bonus recommendation
🔥 Fahrenheit 451 — Ray Bradbury, 1953
Recommended to: “People who didn't read it in high school because they were busy doing other things, like reading similar books. I cracked open a gifted copy not thinking I'd ever finish it, and immediately was hooked, occasionally shouting ‘this is writing!’ Bradbury nails the ‘oops, all fascism’ society that we have been dipping toward either lately or at least over the last 70+ years. The writing is so cool and sparse and no word wasted. Also, I think he predicts our parasocial relationships with podcast hosts?”
Not recommended to: “People who (spoiler) hoped that when all of the great books have burned and only been saved in the minds of brilliant men, that one of them would commit to memory something fun like a Fannie Flagg book and not just the classics. You'll never get people into reading again that way.”
Recommended by: Kelly herself! She’s into learning bird calls and songs through the Merlin Bird ID app and watching the last season of Reservation Dogs. The last three books she loved were Can I Recycle This: A Kid’s Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics, Demon Copperhead, and every Chubbs McSpiderbutt in the Cat Kid Comic Club books, which she and her 8-year-old love.
Important note! I actually am bailing next week and trying to end this lethargic summer with a big literary bang by doing some pinging around Western Massachusetts for a few days with another person I love a little more than most. Likely, I will come back with Edith Wharton stories. Lucky you!
That was the nineteenth EELS! I would be just so grateful if you’d share widely with your networks! As always, send any and all questions, feedback, and shouted book recommendations by hitting reply.
📚 Susan