In the pursuit of spending my money more on experiences than things—at which I am only partially successful, but I’m trying—every month I’ve been going through bookstores and other book-ish places, and checking out the events they have on offer. Places like Town Hall, the University Bookstore, King’s Books in Tacoma, Third Place Books (both locations), local libraries, and a few other places.
It just so happened that three of these events were scheduled for within an 8-day period in the beginning of October and so I, like a genius, decided to attend all of them. Luckily, I had company at each of them. I do love doing things alone, but it’s sometimes nice to have someone to experience and debrief these events with me.
Event #1: Sally Field – In Pieces
The inimitable Sally Field came to the University Bookstore (by way of the University Temple United Methodist Church), as part of her book tour for her new memoir, In Pieces. I’m not the most familiar that I could be with Sally Field’s career, but I do greatly admire her and thought that $30 for a copy of the book (signed) and an event was a pretty good deal. (Seriously, I cannot recommend the University Bookstore enough, if you’re in the greater Seattle area. I’ve previously seen Seanan McGuire there, as well as attended a YA gathering hosted by Epic Reads which included Maureen Johnson and Kendare Blake, whose books I hadn’t read up to that point, but was introduced to there.)
My friend Taylor attended the event with me, and my friends Chad and David also happened to be attending so we got to sit all together.
It was quite a moment in time to see Sally Field. She talked a bit about her frustrations with where our country is and is headed, and she talked about her own experience keeping her abuse to herself for years.
The way that she talked about writing her book as tackling a new skill was so relatable and inspirational. Somebody asked if she would want to get into directing, and she said she tried it and it wasn’t for her because she is good at being an actor and thinking internally, but directors have to be thinking on a macro level, extremely externally focused, and that’s not her strong suit. But the writing. It took her seven years to write because she really wanted to get it right. She didn’t want to work with a ghostwriter or even a co-writer. It was her mother’s death that kind of inspired her to look back on her life and documents and journaling that she’d collected; she wanted to examine her life and lay it pretty bare for readers. It was also lovely to hear her talk about how her relationship with her sons changed as they read more of the book, and got to experience her more fully as a person in her own right, rather than “just” their mom.
She also talked briefly about Sybil and how that experience impacted her life, which is one of my main points of reference with her work. I watched the film when I got a bit obsessive about dissociative identity disorder (or DID, formerly known as multiple personality disorder) in high school. As a person who suffered what I would consider some pretty formative sexual trauma as a child, I was always fascinated by the idea of DID, mostly wondering what would cause a person to have fractural identities, and why MY brain hadn’t helped me cope that way. You know, just really fun intellectual exercises for a 14-year-old. Anyway, that movie always struck me because it is so raw and emotional and vulnerable, and I marveled that she could get to such a place without completely breaking down as a human.
Overall, a worthwhile evening. I’m glad that I decided to go, even though I’m just a fan, and not a superfan.
Event #2: Hank Green – An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
Though it would have been awesome and more convenient for me personally if Hank’s book tour had come through a venue that was a bit closer to the Seattle area, it was not terrible to drive up to Bellingham on a Saturday and spend a bit of time with my little brother, talking about nothing and watching Hank play around on stage for a while. And I totally get why he and John enjoy having events up there, because Bellingham is super adorable and especially lovely in the fall.
I had pre-ordered Hank’s book. (Small side note: There’s been a lot of open discussion among the authors I follow on Twitter, especially recently, about how important first week book sales are for authors, so I wanted to make sure I contributed to the first week sales, and I wouldn’t have if I’d have waited until this event to get my copy.) So by the time we got there, I had already devoured it. DEVOURED. It was a bit slow-starting for me, but once I got into it, it was un-put-down-able. Hank said that he read a lot of mystery books to nail some of the pacing and storytelling aspects of AART, and I absolutely could tell. I was on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. Also, I’m a huge nerd who does puzzles of all kinds in my spare time—jigsaw puzzles and kakuro (with math!) are two of my favourite puzzles—so reading a book that is basically a long series of puzzles, with some plot thrown in, was kind of nerdy paradise. The idea of sequences that must be solved together, as one unit across the world, something that is collaborative and truly impossible to complete on one’s own, was quite a poignant representation. It made me think about something like climate change, and how it will truly require every nation, every people, to come together and mutually decide to make a change. Synergy is an absolutely remarkable thing. (See what I did there?)
Hank put together quite a presentation, and major props to him for powering through this last night of his tour, while sick, to make the evening entertaining and impactful. It was an incredibly thoughtful and well-constructed show: we got a little talking, a little Q&A, a little trivia with some baseball bat hitting, some songs, and some musings.
Strongly recommend Hank’s book—WARNING: IT IS A DUOLOGY AND IT ENDS ON KIND OF A CLIFFHANGER BUT IT’S STILL SO GOOD AND YOU SHOULD READ IT IMMEDIATELY—and strongly recommend the rest of Hank’s work, if you haven’t gotten into it. I first encountered him via Vlogbrothers years ago, but I also am a big fan of his Twitter (especially re: being a literal boss), PodCon (coming back to Seattle in January!), and there’s a lot more because the man is nonstop.
In closing, here’s a photo where basically all three of us look quite shit, I think. Lolololololol.
Event #3: Eric Idle with Ryan Stiles – Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography
Man, this one was so hit or miss at various points. My friend Heidi came with me, and neither one of us is the most familiar with all of Eric Idle’s work (and how could we? it’s extensive) but again, $30 for a signed book and an event is kind of unmissable. Then after buying tickets, they added Ryan Stiles as the interviewer, and I have fond memories of him on Who’s Line Is It Anyway?
I am glad I didn’t have higher expectations, or it might have been a pretty disappointing night. I don’t know that I have experienced a more visceral example of two middle-to-older aged straight white men who are a product of their time, and they just seemed to stop.
But let me pause there for a moment and talk about the things that I enjoyed, because there were actually a fair number. I liked 2/3 of the songs. Eric Idle sang “Bruce’s Philosopher’s Song” (that one was a hit with Heidi, who knew it well) and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” because, obviously; it’s the title of the book. I really loved getting to hear some stories about George Harrison, whom Eric Idle was close friends with. And not because he was a Beatle (because honestly I’m kind of neutral on The Beatles) but because they’re stories that I think are lovely tales of friendship. Idle told a story about how Harrison mortgaged his house for $4.5 million to fund Life of Brian, only because HE wanted to see the movie. “It’s probably the most expensive cinema ticket ever,” Idle added, with a chuckle. Such a sweet story. Or about how George Harrison taught his daughter how to drive. Charming.
And then, at some point, things kind of went off the rails. Ryan Stiles definitely seemed less than prepared, sometimes asking questions which were almost immediately negated by Idle with a perplexed look on his face. (For example, asking Idle if he was there for the birth of all of his kids, and Idle responding, “All two of them, yeah, I was.”) That’s some quick Googling to find out the very basic information about him. Yikes. And then further devolving into questions like, “Were you a player when you were a young guy?” The answer to which has no relevance to Idle’s book or his career, and stereotypically lionizes a man for his sexual prowess while subtly dismissing young women for theirs. Or when, upon talking about George Harrison, Stiles asked Idle if he and George had ever masturbated together, assumedly referencing this revelation. Idle said no, but that it made sense to him because The Beatles were teenagers and what 15-year-old doesn’t masturbate with his friends…which was uncomfortable for everyone…and then Stiles replied by talking about how long it had been since he’d seen his penis. So, just a real fun, appropriate time for everyone involved.
I’m going to choose to dwell on the positive points of the evening, and hopefully burn from my brain the negatives.
My biggest takeaway, honestly, wasn’t even about Eric Idle or Ryan Stiles. It was something that Eric Idle said about Robin Williams. He said that Robin had to really trust you in order to let himself NOT be funny with you. We all wear masks, we all put on personas to an extent, and become who we think people expect us to be. But to have people with whom we can be truly vulnerable, truly ourselves, without having to perform…find those people and hold them close and treasure them. Those are your people.
Jo In Real Life 