Viva McLuhan - Alex Beam - The Boston Globe

David Seaton's News Links

Here is something to think about... As if you needed that. DS

Earlier this year, in a book called "How to Read a Novel," British writer John Sutherland resuscitated Marshall McLuhan's famous "page 69 rule." Inundated by an ever-increasing flood of books, and lacking time to evaluate them, the late Canadian savant proposed turning to page 69. If the prose allured, buy the book. If not, don't. Let's see how well this works. The most gripping novel I've read in recent weeks is T. Jefferson Parker's "California Girl," a "Mystic River"-like coming-of-age tale set in Orange County. The murder story spans 50 years, during which time the protagonists hear a cabaret act performed by a not- too-talented folk singer named Charlie Manson, and one of them even shakes the hand of the up-and-coming congressman Richard Nixon. On page 69, Nick, one of the four Becker brothers, discovers the headless body of beauty queen Janelle Vonn in an abandoned orange-packing house. And therein lies a tale. Yes, I read higherbrow books, too. I just finished J.M. Coetzee's Booker Prize-winning novel "Disgrace," which has the twin virtues of being excellent and short. On page 69, Cape Town academic David Lurie explains an embarrassing sexual transgression to his daughter. "Women can be surprisingly forgiving," she opines. Not always, it turns out. I was happy to see that the former Christian Science Monitor editor Kay Fanning's memoir has finally appeared, posthumously, alas. "Kay Fanning's Alaska Story" spins the hopelessly romantic tale of Fanning fleeing her first marriage, three children in tow, and resettling in Alaska. As many journalists know, she and the former Chicago Sun-Times editor Larry Fanning married and took over the Anchorage Daily News, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976. The book exudes Fanning's infectiously positive spirit, sorely missed in the news business of today. Oh, I nearly forgot. On page 69, Fanning describes her husband's policy of handing out newsroom raises that the paper couldn't afford, another vestige of a forgotten era. Books come in over the transom, and of course I wonder, which are worth reading? How could I resist "Sex on the Brain," by brain-imaging specialist Dr. Daniel Amen? Here is how Amen reacts to a painful breakup, as related on page 69: "I was a neurochemical mess for nearly six months. I even scanned myself in the middle of the process to see what grief looked like in my brain. It showed excessive anterior cingulate gyrus activity (not normal for me) which was partially why I felt so sad and depressed." As long as we are talking about unnecessary procedures, we can include reading this book. Could "Sex" be the worst book ever written? Possibly. But here's a snippet from page 69 of Alexander Theroux's forthcoming novel, "Laura Warholic: or The Sexual Intellectual": "A large portion of Boston sex columnist Eugene Eyesone's waking life he spent daydreaming, and when not that it was its opposite, insomnia - or were they the same? - causing him to go wandering around half the night and into the wee hours of haggard morning" and so on. There are 823 more pages where that came from. Viva McLuhan! The page 69 rule works! Page 69 of the 1975 edition of "The Joy of Cooking" contains essential information on preparing Canape Snails, Barquettes, Rissoles, and Stuffed Choux (pronounced "stuffed shoe"). The Economist magazine's flooty- snooty Style Guide explains on page 69 that a Hobson's choice "is not the lesser of two evils, it is no choice at all." This is helpful, but the guide does not help writers avoid the similar pitfall of the phrase "the lion's share." It does not mean "a lot of," or "most of," it means "practically all of." The lion takes what he wants. You get the rest. Page 69 of my Bible has some spooky language along the top line: "The plague of darkness; Death of firstborn threatened." But if you read Exodus, chapters 10 and 11, you realize that everything is going to be all right after all. Not for the Egyptians, it's true. But the lord takes care of his people, and that is very reassuring. LINK