Author Topic: THE BRICKEATERS (Project of the Week for a while)  (Read 868 times)

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moleshow

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THE BRICKEATERS (Project of the Week for a while)
« on: October 26, 2018, 01:48:59 pm »
well, let's get this thing going again, rev up the ol' PotW engine and watch as it leaps to life with a twisted tale of confused and complicated criminality, cynicism, cavities and Cadillacs flowing like a jolt of electricity through its plastic-wrapped silver veins. that tale is...

The Brickeaters.

this one's gonna go until monday, november 5th... or i might extend it, who's to say? THIS IS ALL BESIDE THE POINT.

so yeah. Brickeaters! let the discussion begin.
"All our lives we love illusion, neatly caught between confusion and the need to know we are alive."

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Snorp

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Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK(S?): THE BRICKEATERS
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2018, 11:12:47 am »
Finished last night, pretty good read.

Read BDOTM just before,
for the first time, also enjoyed.


moleshow

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Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK(S?): THE BRICKEATERS
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2018, 08:45:02 am »
extending this for another week, because.. yknow.
"All our lives we love illusion, neatly caught between confusion and the need to know we are alive."

moleshow

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Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK(S?): THE BRICKEATERS
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2018, 05:34:11 pm »
i am cold, my socks are wet and i'm unexpectedly stranded in a section of the KCMO area... sort of. and though i do not find myself reflecting upon the curious behaviors of people dying of hypothermia, i do find myself reflecting on brickeaters. so if you'll allow me to do my gear-shifty-thing...

It's time to talk business, and it's time to talk Brickeaters.

This book captures one of the singular overarching themes of the parts of The Residents'  body of work that focus on storytelling. This theme comes up over and over again in various iterations, in singularities and multiplicities, with boldness or with passivity:

Need.

(And, just as importantly, the relationship between need and loss.)

Pretty much all the major characters are driven by loss and need. The desire to fill the voids created by the world and taking whatever one can get to do the job. There's something very quintessentially Residents about that. It shows up, like... pretty much constantly, it seems. With Mr. X (indeed), every single character from the 90s up until Wormwood (and even then, the religious aspect of need shows up in Old Time Religion), most of Demons Dance Alone- the list really does go on to contain every major album from 2002 to now. But to see that theme expressed in a literary format kind of changes the game.

Frank is just a rancid little man, but what brings him to Clinton is his need to be somebody and do something. The whole tale fills a void in him, as does Patty. (Insert obvious joke here, followed by obvious joke about inserting.) Patty has a void in herself emotionally that Frank sort of fills. Everything that happened between them is kind of gross and lame, but they're both incredibly needy. (Though Patty is a whole lot more likable. Ahem. Beside the point.)

The codependency between Ted and Wilmer was probably one of my favorite parts of the book. Ted, as a pretty unassuming and anxious fellow, really bloomed as a person upon meeting Mr. Graves. Here you have this absurdly tall and terrified 20something techie who, through becoming the getaway driver for a career criminal, finds what seems to be the deepest and truest friendship he's ever had. While Wilmer, hardened and harsh with a tender, caring soul, takes up a (grand)fatherly role in Ted's life, taking up a genuine interest in the bizarre world of his work and bringing a spark of sense and passion to Ted's otherwise tedious work. Their mutual investment into the increasingly bizarre and internal world of Crawford Beasley is not built upon some individual desire to have a reason to go on and to matter. It's built upon the deep sense of justice ironically held by Wilmer and fueled by the expertise and hesitance of Ted. They seek to gain nothing, only to prevent harm. Wilmer's life of crime has left him with almost no life to return to outside of his wife and prison. Ted's life of observing crime has left him with a life that he cannot keep together. They both live, in their own ways, in the shadows. Wilmer isn't particularly high profile and his crimes really aren't even notable enough for the nightly news, and Ted is about as behind-the-scenes as one can get without walking out of the building.

And what's incredible to me is that at the time we're introduced to Ted, his unwavering trust, love and need for Wilmer hovers so close to him that he doesn't dare speak of what happened for quite some time. The PAGWAG events before the 3rd part of the book were only possible for Ted because Wilmer gave him the strange sense of security he needed to pursue that deeper look into it to find out just what was going on while he gave his companion an outlet for the urge within him to prevent actual harm. The emotional reasoning for the enmeshing of their lives amazingly didn't get in the way of their interactions- they filled voids in each others souls but they didn't attempt to recreate what had been there before. Instead, they embraced the new and moved ahead.

That's my rant on that, but here's some other thoughts.

The side characters, like Patty's brother and the catfish dude were so much fun. Tragic fun, but fun nonetheless. There's a richness to the small town experience that's really captured well. Death by fire ants.

Crawford Beasley is peak Missouri. Everything about his character makes sense, and the comedy of his existence is only negated by the fact that even though he's hilarious, he has intent to do... somewhat real harm. (Which-- by the way-- gets even funnier with the bottled water revelation.) The military gear, the Hummer, the power of his presence... And then the stuff that he says. The stuff about his mother was also very Residents. Man, do they know how to write the most sinister momma's boys, or what? I'd like to see an official image of what he would sort of look like. The black teeth... Yeesh. Fluoride does weird stuff to teeth even at lower levels.

His "if God was a gun" rant was actually a fantastic thing to read. I can only dream of them putting out a little audio thing or digital booklet of those, kind of like Dixie's dad's poems in Bad Day. The whole thing was like Bad Day... But better.

The ending kind of hit on that note. It was a pathetic ending for all of those characters consumed far too deeply by desperation and need. I felt especially bad for Ted when he died, but I was a little surprised by how quickly things went with Patty and him. That, I must say, struck me as being slightly out of left field. But it's okay. I wonder if Frank stays in the dog cage forever?

L.A. Times? Yeah right.

--

Brickeaters good book go read it 10/10 mole approved
"All our lives we love illusion, neatly caught between confusion and the need to know we are alive."