Everybody's doing it, so why can't I? 01/02/2010
And by "it" I mean "making best-of-the-decade" lists. I won't try to defend my obsession with top 10s (or top 50s, or top 100s). But given all the hours I've spent reading end-of-decade retrospectives, it seemed like I ought to throw together my own list of favorites. The operative words here are my and favorites. Also, yes, there were many good things that I did not get a chance to read/watch/listen to. Books 1. Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi -- The opening story, "Pocketful of Dharma," is a clunker, but the rest of this collection provides models for how someone in 2010 can write science fiction that's personal, political, and awesome. The best story is probably "Yellow Card Man," which immerses the reader in an overwhelmed/overwhelming future Bangkok, where Bacigalupi seems to tell a familiar character drama about someone who just needs to "get back on their feet" after personal disaster. Then he demolishes that structure and takes a sledgehammer to capitalist/entrepreneurial mythology. As a bonus, it's the only piece of fiction I've read that addresses Malaysia's racial tensions. Its bloody vision of the future of Malay Chinese isn't subtle, but it is vivid and believable. The first Bacigalupi story I read, "The Calorie Man," is more conventional, but it's probably my favorite in the book -- because of its portrait of an exhausted, depleted world, and because it caps that portrait with a perfect, ambiguously hopeful final image. 2. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link 3. Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott Comic Books 1. The Invisibles by Grant Morrison and various artists -- Okay, this one's a stretch, since the series only published six or so of its 59 issues during the '00s, and the main thrust of those last six issues was our anarchist superheroes' attempt to stop an evil end-of-the-millennium plot. But The Invisibles is my favorite comic of all time, and the final issue is a perfect distillation of its themes, as well as a preview of the decade's many other projects from my favorite collaborative team, writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely. 2. Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco 3. Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka Movies 1. Ratatouille, dir. by Brad Bird -- The first in Pixar's trifecta of not-just-really-good-but-genuinely-great movies (followed by Wall-E and Up), this one is the most deliriously inventive and perfect. I was so delighted with Anton Ego's first taste of ratatouille that I was literally stomping on the floor. 2. The Lord of the Rings, dir. by Peter Jackson 3. Before Sunset, dir. by Richard Linklater Albums 1. Super Taranta! by Gogol Bordello -- Gypsy punk that doesn't feel cutesy or exoticized, but rather raunchy, political, and a natural expression of a very contemporary mood. Every song has a quotable lyric, but my favorite is probably "Zina-Marina," which lays a funny lament about man's inhumanity to man over one of the album's catchiest tunes. 2. Kala by M.I.A. 3. The Woods by Sleater-Kinney TV shows 1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon -- The decade's highlights from my favorite television show include the brilliant dream episode, the brillaint-er musical episode, and a dead-on portrayal of the pain, confusion, and guilt of suddenly losing a parent. Plus the epitaph, "She saved the world. A lot." 2. The Wire, created by David Simon 3. Arrested Development, created by Mitchell Hurwitz CommentsLeave a Reply | News!The latest and greatest in Anthony. ArchivesOctober 2009 |
RSS Feed