To My Readers

             

For the past decade I have published my thoughts on the many weird books I read.  In that time, RXTT’s Book Journey has grown in ways I never imagined, reaching readers worldwide.  The blog arose because of my love of the old, weird, out of print, and reference books, and my wife’s desire that I share my thoughts on them with the world at large, as I always do with her.  She is my inspiration.

If I believe in anything, it is the power of the wisdom, stories, and information contained within humanity’s writings.  The ancients assured us that language and written words were powerful tools.  “In the beginning was the word,” and all.  Our thoughts may or may not shape the world around us.  The mystics still debate.  However, our spoken and written words most definitely DO shape the world around us.  I am not the man I am, and this word we share is not the world it is, without the words handed down through the thickness of time. 

An example, nearly one hundred years ago, a man named Vonnegut witnessed the fickle whim of man’s inhumanity to man.  Decades later, after many stories and books, he wrote a novel called Slaughterhouse Five, or The Children’s Crusade.  In it, using the constructs and themes of science fiction (time travel, aliens, dimensional travel, lunatic fringe, etc.), Vonnegut vomited out his vitriol, pure and choleric, upon the vast, unchanging, and overwhelming stupidity of man, the stupidity that would allow for war, slaughter, pain, and terror to be the tools used to bring “peace.”  He told the rest of us what many tried to, but none had done in words which both a bright thirteen-year-old, and a deeply wise octogenarian would understand.  It is the saddest and funniest book I have ever read.  It changed who I am deeply, altering everything I have ever done, and every interaction I have ever had.  If that is not power, then nothing is.  That is just one book.  One among thousands published in my country that year alone.  It is said that most of the words written by man have been lost.  The works humanity is aware of existing are nearly infinite.  Thinking about the vast oceans of lost works is like mental torture to a book lover like me.

It is a mindboggling thought as I desire to know as much as possible, to understand as much as possible, at least about what interests me.  Because of this desire, I also flatly understand the impossibility of my dream.  I stare bluntly ahead, facing my own wall of ignorance, the mountain of books and wisdom and teachings lost to time, but specifically to me.  I think this is something all book lovers face sooner or later.

It is because I love books that I wanted to create RXTT’s Book Journey.  Each new book is a new world to explore, or a new idea to ponder, and I have travelled deep and wide, reading what interested me, when it interested me.   I appreciate a well-written, insightful review, whether it be of a film, book, or kitchen appliance.  It is a pure communication of ideas.  The feedback I receive from the authors themselves, sometimes concerning a decades-old book of theirs, is precious to me.  Corresponding with, and hearing sincere appreciation, from giants such as Freeman Dyson and Alan Moore was a never-imagined dream come true.  Meeting and reading brand-new works from young writers is an equal thrill, and I have been very fortunate in that regard as well. 

Writing a novel is another story.

While not many of the books I read are fiction, I love the power of a well-crafted story to illuminate, entertain, and enlighten its reader.  Most life-long readers dream of writing their own novel, and many try.  I joined them.  I wrote daily.  My story grew.  The world I created filled up, the story flowed like a glacial stream, slow but steadily building, and I managed to complete it.  IN CRED is my first novel.  I wrote it mindfully, wanting to present a self-contained world, a story entertaining and intelligible, to any clever reader willing to explore the mindways.  The tens of thousands of readers I have worldwide showed me that there are many like me, many who want deep dives into old texts, who are curious to know what the source materials are like.  Readers whose favorite reading experience is not the self-satisfaction of a driving plot, or the florid oscillation of word and language, but the quintessential feeling of having one’s mind BLOWN AWAY by a new idea.  I want my readers to experience that as often as possible, and I wrote IN CRED with you in mind.

Once finished, I had to share it with someone.  The magic and power of words truly spark up when they are shared.  I handed IN CRED to my wife.  I shared it with some close friends.  I reached out to a couple of authors I call friends and asked them for their opinion.  Their feedback and appreciation mean everything to me.  It took some internal literary courage, but I worked diligently to make IN CRED available to readers. 

It is available on Amazon, in Kindle eBook, glossy paperback, or hard cover versions. (I used my B.F.A. in Studio Art and drew the cover artwork also.)

IN CRED’s dedication page may speak of my wife and parents, but IN CRED would not exist without the readers of RXTT’s Book Journey.  I so greatly appreciate that you are out there, wherever you may be in this beautiful world of ours.  I hope my reviews have enlightened and informed you in the same way that the books I love have enlightened and informed me.

If you love science fiction that explores intimate segments of what it means to be human, you will enjoy IN CRED.  If you seek speculative fiction with big ideas told in intimate ways, you will love IN CRED.  If you enjoy original characters and settings, and a clever story whose progress is constantly surprising, you will love IN CRED.  If you appreciate literature that is honestly edifying without being sentimentally trite, IN CRED is for you.  If you enjoy stories where daily experiences go batshit crazy, and regular people are forced to deal with it, you will enjoy IN CRED.

This is just the beginning.  The spigot has been opened.  Further stories are in the works, and I am very excited about it.  If RXTT’s Book Journey was an initial stab at sharing my thoughts with the world, IN CRED is a mighty cannonade.  I would love for you, my fellow readers, to dive into IN CRED and let me know your thoughts!  Stories are magic, as my man Neil Gaiman says, and I have just begun the show.

 

Sincerely Yours,

 

RXTT

IN CRED - Debut Novel by RXTT

IN CRED

A mystical experience or a death-time delusion. A journey to the farthest reaches of the cosmos, or a trip into the inner recesses of the mind.

Cred's day is not going well. Collapsing at the record store and finding himself face to face with the god he accidentally created unhinged him somewhat.

This new problem, however, completely terrifies him.
With the help of some friends, a desperate ploy to save our universe is put in motion.

If only Cred can figure out how.

♦

NOW AVAILABLE!

IN CRED

The debut novel by RXTT.

IN CRED - Kindle Edition

IN CRED - Paperback

IN Cred - Hardcover

The Hulk's Smartest Enemies Hatch an Intricate Plot!

 

Fall of the Hulks/World War Hulks (2010)

            The life of a former comic book aficionado is a strange one.  I followed the Incredible Hulk comic book for a few years as a youngster, absorbed in the tale of a genius whose altruism causes his transformation into a being of pure, brutish, strength and rage.  One of the joys of comic fandom is that, whenever you jump into a new comic, there are back issues, and former stories, available to discover.  For instance, I relished learning that the Hulk was initially grey, the change to green made for purely illustrative purposes, later retconned into the Hulk’s “evolution.”  Several other people had become “hulks,” altered by the same Gamma energy that Bruce Banner initially experienced, by the time I came to the comic.  Various gamma powered enemies and frenemies appeared in the comic books, each slightly different in some way from the original Hulk.  When I stopped reading the monthly comic, I lost track of the story.

Much later, my ears perked up at tales of a story called Planet Hulk, published in 2006.  Reading that story caught me up somewhat to what had occurred in the Hulk’s world since my fandom days.  After an extra-destructive rampage, ending with the Hulk destroying much of Las Vegas, the smartest heroes in the world (naming themselves the Illuminati) conspired to trick Bruce/Hulk into boarding a rocket.  The rocket launched and sent the Hulk to a planet across the galaxy.  Planet Hulk tells the story of the Hulk, unable to turn back into Bruce Banner, rising from a slave and gladiator to a rebel leader of a worldwide revolution on this planet.  He rules, marries, and sires offspring.  The shuttle that brought the Hulk becomes a monument.  An internal issue causes it to explode unexpectedly, killing the hulk’s bride. The Hulk blames all of this on the Illuminati members who initially banished him, and wages war on Earth and its heroes.  That story is called World War Hulk and has the Hulk and his cronies beat the crap out of everyone in the Marvel universe.  Eventually, the Hulk is beaten via a gamma-power draining weapon, allowing for Bruce’s imprisonment.

This brings us to this story, that of the Fall of the Hulks/World War Hulks.  Using the power drained from the Hulk, various gamma-enhanced super-beings are created, tools for their respective creators.  It is a complex and fun story, which sees the Intelligencia, the cabal of hyper-smart arch-criminals responsible for draining the Hulk’s gamma power, plot and achieve the capture of the smartest minds on Earth.  Initially conceived as a team to help plunder the Library of Alexandria from the Eternals that cared for it, the Intelligencia now sought to utilize the brain power of these geniuses to help compute their evil schemes.  As usual, I will refrain from giving away much of the plot structure.

Their plans and schemes are complex, as suited to such smart villains, and only someone with the brains of Bruce Banner can stop them.  The Hulk has always been a great blend of insane power and destruction at the hands of the Hulk, and brilliant science and humanity coming from Bruce.  It is what drew me to the comic as a youth, and what keeps me checking in every few years to see the amazing stories the good people at Marvel craft.  I recently read the more current Hulk comic of Immortal Hulk, which is amazing.  I look forward to more!

IN CRED

 

After a decade of writing this blog I am at a loss for words.

I drafted four versions of this announcement only to find them inadequate, so I kept it simple.

I have written my first novel.

It is VERY good.

I am looking for a publisher from within my worldwide readership. 

Please reach out to me at rxtt.art@gmail.com  Subject Line "IN CRED"

Thank you for loving and reading books

Sincerely Yours,

RXTT

Carlo Rovelli Has Once Again Taken Me Along For The Ride

White Holes - Carlo Rovelli (2023)

I have admired so many great thinkers, imagining how it must have been for contemporary readers of Goethe, Homer, Nietzsche, etc.  To share in the intimate thoughts of those at the cutting edge of abstract human exploration (Literature, Philosophy, Science, Arts) as they themselves first share them with the world at large seems to me one of the rarest glories that life may afford for a layperson such as myself, in love with science and human exploration.  Reading the work of Carlo Rovelli I find myself exactly where I imagined decades ago, with open ears and mind, receiving original ideas from someone on the leading edge of abstract thought, ideas which will alter everything moving forward.  I feel so fortunate.

(I must mention here that Mr. Rovelli is Italian, and writes in his native language.  I feel a great debt owed to the translator of this book, Simon Carnell.  He managed to convey both the facts and the subtle meanings in a wonderful way.)

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist, and one of the most original thinkers.  He is gifted not only with the ability to grasp and calculate abstract mathematics and physical theory, but he writes like a poet, explaining the science with the same fervor with which he explains his personal mode of work.  He not only loves ideas, and exploring them as far as possible, but he loves the process by which he develops his ideas.  The joy he finds in work that, to many, may seem like mathematical drudgeries and theoretical mazes, is readily apparent.  I felt his joy and wonderment as his conclusions led to new questions, and eventually to the idea that a black hole does not "die" but is instead, reborn as a "white" hole.  

Thirty years ago, black holes were barely an accepted theoretical idea.  Today, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them catalogued in visible space, with nearly every galaxy containing a massive black hole at its center.  Physicists sought to understand the "life cycle" of a black hole, much like they studied the life cycle of stars.  Many assumed that a black hole was a permanent null void in space, while others, such as Stephen Hawking, surmised that through natural quantum effects, the black holes would slowly "evaporate" away.  Evidence of these processes has been found.   These became the consensus on black holes.

Mr. Rovelli's genius lies not only in the real of physical science, but in the much-admired (by me) and often lacking skill that is pure abstract thought.  It is in abstract thought that the human mind achieves greatness.  This place is where intuition, knowledge, and the magic of consciousness combine to create the truly new ideas.  From the first human to note that fire made the clay underneath hard and sturdy, thereby intuiting that shaping the clay while wet and then placing it in the fire she could create a vessel or bowl, to Albert Einstein discovering the relativity of time while pondering the way train stations miles apart managed to keep track of departures and arrivals, this mind abstraction has shaped all of humanity.  It is in this realm that Carlo Rovelli realized a black hole does not need to evaporate or die, since quantum effects prevented the actual formation of a singularity, always assumed to reside inside all black holes.  Instead, Rovelli grasped that the gravity pit would bounce back, in a sense, and that the black hole would become a "white hole," an object that spews matter and energy out of itself into the universe at large, without ever becoming a singularity.  This is a BIG idea, and the hard part was yet to come.

Many non-scientists assume that the job of physicist is to come up with ideas.  That is only the very start of the process.  The work comes in using rigorous mathematics to test the ideas over and over again, looking for any and all possibility of error, assumption, and misunderstanding.  One must also look into any previous work that may have analyzed the same phenomenon.  It can take a lifetime to properly verify that a physical theory stands up.  It is now 2024 and we still run experiments testing the theories Einstein crafted one hundred years ago.  THEY HOLD UP! My favorite sections of this book are when Rovelli describes the joy he feels when the mathematics consistently work in his idea's favor.  What the Universe does not allow will not happen. The joy of discovery is a pure one, and rarely described so beautifully.

I am fortunate to find myself here, with Carlo Rovelli, at the start of his journey.  I expect he will explore white holes and every new possibility they may bring.  I will be right there with him, receiving periodic updates hopefully, as he continues his foray into the unknown, leading the charge for the rest of us.  I highly recommend this book.

Thurston Moore's SONIC LIFE Became My Sonic Life

 

Sonic Life: a Memoir - Thurston Moore (2023)

I am a Sonic Lifer. In my heart, I truly came into my own when I first heard the sound of Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" at age 16.  I had finally discovered an aural equivalent to the skronk in my own head.  There was no turning back.  While Sonic Youth was not the first band I rocked to, or first loved, or first thought of as "my fave," they were the band that crystallized me.  Because of this I hold them, their music, and the individual members in very high regard.  

When the inevitable happened, and Sonic Youth ceased operations as the premier skronk-machine live act around, I accepted it, and thanked them for the long musical ride.  Not many bands can continue to make new, interesting, challenging music for nearly thirty years.  In 2015, Kim Gordon published a wonderful book, "Girl in a Band." Part memoir of her formative years growing up in California and the fine art world, and part personal air-clearing about the break-up of her marriage.  After decades of fandom, I was allowed a peek into the mind of someone I had both idolized and adored.  It was as beautifully written and insightful as the Artforum essays she wrote in her early life.  

Many people thought Thurston would write his own version of the events, because that is what a public wants to see, the airing of grievances.  Instead, Thurston Moore wrote this memoir to his first and one true love, loud rock music, and the thrills of a truly transcendent performance.  

Thurston begins with his older brother playing "Louie Louie" over and over on a scratchy vinyl single.  This resonated with me deeply.  As a child who started paying attention to bands and music in 1981, I grew up in a house surrounded by music, stereos, 8-Track players, turntables, etc.  Music was of primal importance in our house.  My mother's oldies station would play some songs that I just loved, including 'Louie Louie."  I was always attracted to the wilder, more propulsive oldies.  I liked things that rocked and began looking for such music.

Thurston Moore was such a teenager, always searching for new sounds, driving to NYC with a friend to explore the record stores, eventually spending weekends in the city seeing shows and buying used books.  He found himself drawn to the seedy lower east side and the Bowery, areas where the fringe bands could perform, and where an underage kid could sneak in if he arrived to the show early enough (a method I also employed at various Houston area venues.)  It was at such a show that he witnessed an early performance by the duo Suicide, one of the fiercest, most transgressive acts ever to come out of the NY scene.  Thurston had a front-row seat to something completely new, what became the No Wave scene.  Bands such as Suicide, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, and others forged a separate sub-underground for themselves where the musical goal was not to craft songs, but to destroy the very foundation of song structure and performance.  

Apart from No Wave, the avant-garde music coming from people such as Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca, stylistic innovators and sonic risk takers, also shaped and forged Thurston's musical sensibility.  Throw in a healthy dash of hardcore punk and a deep love for the absurd, and you have what Thurston brought to Sonic Youth.  

Those looking for a deep dive into Sonic Youth themselves and the workings of the band will need to wait for a different book, yet to be written.  This is a tale about one person's inner musical life, and the many people he meets.  Thurston is a music fan, first and foremost.  His life outside of performing music appears to be spent looking for old records, books, and poetry ephemera.  His interactions with the fellow musicians he befriends are recorded faithfully, and it is amazing how much Thurston can remember, not just about a person, but about the bands they were in, the music they released, etc.

As a Sonic Youth fan, part of my joy came from discovering new music through Thurston.  He was always careful to select opening acts that would challenge the typical Sonic Youth audience, who, although normally open minded, had aged along with the band.  In the late 1990's, as most of the band reached their 40's, many acts 20-years younger gained wider exposure through their association with Sonic Youth.  I was fortunate to attend a 1992 concert where Houston's Pain Teens opened up, followed by a very early iteration of Pavement (3 guys, including the OG drummer doing handstands between songs).  It was amazing.

Many memoirs are either hyper focused on a few short years of an otherwise boring life, or they seek to pack every detail and aspect of a human's life into one hasty, and unsatisfying tale.  Thurston Moore has written a specific, informative, moving tribute to his life in music, and the glories he found within it.  These are not the glories of an international superstar such as Gene Simmons or Taylor Swift.  They are the glories of a man whose preferred state of being is attending an intimate performance, talking to musicians and fellow artists, and experiencing the bliss of a great show.  In this respect, Thurston is a truly blessed and fortunate man.  He has lived the sonic life many dream of, and provided that very same to his fans.  Few people are so lucky.  I highly recommend this book.

(I must give a shout-out to the always-wonderful Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Texas, where I found this book, a signed first edition, and the last one they had in stock. My wife and I were out about town, seeking a nice day after a sequence of unfortunate occurrences, and the good people of Brazos Bookstore helped us start off right.  Brazos is a haven for anyone seeking to explore the current landscape of literature.  The staff work like curators at a museum, and the selection of books is exemplary.  Books for all ages, all subjects, and all manner of curiosity.  It is a beautiful place. - RXTT)