Less Than Random Thoughts From a Science Fiction Author and Generally Good Guy [ Fawkes ]

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Why All The Trash?


No, not the one above type of trash, the one on the right.  Yes, and, as indicated, more arriving several times a day.  Now, I know I can be soap-boxie and, Heaven forbid, even holier-than-thou at times, but really, why do people put up with/accept/eagerly consume - trash?

I am both a writer and a reader.  I doubt very much you can be a writer unless you love books, certainly not a good one.  Great writing stirs the imagination, elevates the soul, and enriches the life.  I often reflect back on a silly scene from Don Quixote or a poignant passage from Bradbury.  Lines like, "A slight chemical imbalance" or "Schlachthof-funf" from the outrageous Vonnegut resonate in my noggin all the time.  And I rarely pass a day when I am not struck - often in the gut - at how today's society is becoming more like the 1984 envisioned by Orwell.  Good stuff!

I am, I say also, a big fan of wine.  A great wine, like a great novel or a great lover, elevates existence.  Metaphorically, those great gifts reach out a hand to raise us mortals from the mire of the pedestrian and the mundane, to a plane much higher than we could achieve on our lowly own.  Great stuff!

So, what's this to do with the thematic trash aforementioned?  Don't get me started.  Not while I'm in the middle of a feel-good buzz.

Darn, the mood has been shattered.  Thanks for bringing me back to the here-and-now!

My wife and I live at ground zero for wine - Northern California.  If you throw a barrel-stay in any direction, you'll hit a winery.  Napa is famous for them, but there are appellations springing-up left and right up and down the state.  There is an old saying in the wine business that all it takes to make a small fortune is to start with a large fortune.  Truer words, my friends, were never spoken.  It costs tons of dough to start-up and maintain a winery.  The production equipment is ridiculously expensive, labor costs are astronomical, and the product is fickle.  Most new wineries are started, or at least under-written, by millionaires out of vanity.

N.B: Only the initials of the entities mentioned below (and in all future) are presented.  I wish to convey that these are real producers, I just wish to overtly offend no one.  My father would, and he is my shining anti-example.  Wait, in saying that, I'm being like my father towards my father.  Yikes, can't have that written on my tombstone.  Let me re-phrase: My F would, and he's my shining anti-example.  Whew, I feel better now!

So, what's my point, with all this great literature and wonderful, expensive-to-make wine talk?  I am reeling still after weekend experiences which were not unique, but were actually nauseatingly all too familiar.  We went to a local winery's "special event" barrel tasting.  As a treat, HHW offered barrel samples of the four components of their Signature Wine (Flagship, Pride-o-the-Port, Golden Child - call it what you will, but it is their darling) along with the barrel blend of the components, which are the 2014 Signature wine.  Before we did the barrel tastings, we all tasted all the wines available for purchase, maybe fifteen each, all told.  Of the fifteen wines, two or three were awful.  One was nice, and the rest were neither good nor bad, but they were not worth purchasing, let alone the calories if consumed.  In the barrel tasting, one component was excellent, the rest, dull and unpromising.  The Signature wine was dull and uninspiring, a value at the $5 price-point, perchance $8, but never in the wine maker's wildest dreams worth the $30 they will be asking.

Also, this last weekend, I began two books from the library.  Recent bitter disappointment in the form of lost dollars have compelled me to rely heavily on the library nowadays.  So, I checked-out FOTS, by D.P. and BHD, part three of a D.W. series (he has lots of them).  I enjoyed the first book of W's series, although I found it annoyingly simplistically written.  The second book was okay, like room temperature tap water on a hot day.  Book three was... more-of-the-same.  Not bad, not good.  Not worth the time to read unless confined to an iron lung, but not dangerous to one's sanity.  FOTS book was completely unappealing to me.  I mean, I'm sure D.P. is a nice guy, pays his taxes and donates vehicles to good causes, but the book is flawed.  However, this omitable book has received one-hundred and thirty-three reviews on Amazon, with an average rating of four and a third stars, out of five possible.  W sells more books than Gideon gives away Bibles and has an actual army of devoted fans.

Let me summarize.  I went to yet another winery jam-packed by adoring paying customers which spent a large fortune and spent a great deal of time and effort in the production of a utterly forgetful panel of wines.  I started - and quickly finished - two novels which are generating both significant coin and buzz each, which are not worth the attention of a decerning reader.  Why, oh why, do people settle for trash?  You see, the alternative to trash, that is to say not-trash, actually good product, is out there, albeit is lesser supply, in both arenas.  Why do alleged "book lovers" consume desert sand when caviar is available at a budget price?  Why do "wine lovers" sip-down swill, when affordable alternative are out there?

Beats me...

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