April 23, 2011 - Courage My Love

Shit, shit, shit, crap and double shit! I am at work. The first reasonably nice day of the year, the SUN is actually shining and it is going to be 14 or 16 degrees today (that's Celcius you American morons). I could be sitting on the Quay with a coffee, reading the paper and watching the river. But no, here I am at work. How did that happen? Easy, it's a split super long weekend here (Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon) but the Tues-Sat shift has to work on the Saturday, everyone else headed out of town and I got the short straw, the shitty end of the stick, low card, whatever fucking bad luck karma seems to dog me at work.

Okay, besides me, there are THREE other people here. THREE! Count them. Apparently they need a supervisor. Me. Jesus on a stick.

Okay no dwelling on the down side of an otherwise up day. I was thinking today of the men in my life. Men like Harry Bosch, Rebus, Jack Liffey, Alex Delaware, Inspectors Jury and Banks. I think the attraction I have for them is that they are all a little dark, a little twisted and with the exception of Delaware, loners. All of them are a fine line and a scream away from being serial killers, their ability to slip over that line mentally, into the mind of a killer, says a lot about them.

Rebus, is intuitive, and not to mention dogged, persistant, offensive and hilarious. His flaws, alcohol and women. It seems the alcohol wins most of the time. He's cranky, obnoxious and offensive. My kind of guy. He's always railing against his boss, the system, society, something, and you can feel his working class anger seeping out of his voice and comments.

Harry is dark, dark, dark. What's with detectives and music, they all like it. Harry likes Jazz. Is that a carry over from the authors? Harry is emotionally stunted, terrified of intimacy and very much the loner. The last few books, which involve his sort of ex, and his precoscious daughter, are not as good as the first bunch. It's part of the attraction for me, to see a character grow and develop though, even when I don't agree with the author as to the direction.

Alex Delaware is probably someone I would not like very much in real life. I don't trust people who pay over $200 for a pair of shoes. I do like his side kick though, a bit of a cliche, but a fat black gay guy covers a lot of marginalized groups, and the character is very good. Trouble comes to Alex, it follows him, he has the quirky mind that goes from A to B, and then jumps to M, back to D, and then fast forwards to X. Intuitive leaps in logic, a mostly non male trait, a bit too much American shoot em up for my liking, but if there isn't guns around, the average American can't pay attention.

Inspectors Jury (my romantic ideal) and Inspector Banks are pretty much in the mold of the English detective, but not totally routine. Jury was never in a rush to get into a relationship, and Banks, for the most part fails. The Jury books are humourous, at least in the beginning, but as Jury's character becomes more developed, we see better plots, and less of the English country side pubs and humour (even though all the books are named after pubs). The Banks books are not in the least bit funny, but they are always full of good music, and the plots are generally superior to most.

Jack seems to be a chick magnet of sorts. He's older, has less expectations of his women, and really really seems to enjoy their company. Jack is also a magnet for trouble, he is forever getting the crap kicked out of him, or shot or hurt somehow, and the trouble in the story tends to weave itself into his life in very negative ways (loses the girl, someone in the family gets hurt). Jack is humble, and that is one of his most endearing traits. He's "not a detective", he just looks for lost kids. I like the plots, and I especially like the way the author brings the country/city landscape to life. All the characters in these books "grow" , their journeys to the darker side make them better, smarter, kinder.

So there you can see my problem with men. The ones I like are fictional, and the real life ones I could go for are all about 32 years old (which feels slightly illegal). Not that I am looking. I enjoy male companionship but I will never again live with a male - there is something about testosterone that upsets the karmic balance in my living space.

So, after work there should be enough of the day left to muck about in the garden, so I will....