Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Just in time for my morning commute...

More posts on subway smut, from Amy and Will at Crescat. I'd have to disagree with Will that over-shoulder reading should be eliminated. Any time I have forgotten to take something to read, or do not physically have space to take out whatever I've brought, or am only taking the train for a couple stops--not long enough to get anywhere in my own book, but long enough for a few sample paragraphs--I glance. I don't begrudge others glances of whatever it is I'm reading, but from what I can tell interest there is beyond limited. I also do not think the passage from Ada Will pulls up counts as "racy" in the over-shoulder sense I was referring to. I don't care to repeat exactly what was said in the passage from Thugs I encountered, but there was nothing in it that would require any understanding of literature. The vocab was limited to words that junior high kids are really, really excited to finally understand. As for Amy's sex vs. drugs, which is worse on the train, question... Not long ago I saw a man on the train roll a joint really openly, as though he were handrolling a cigarette in a Parisian cafe. The moments he was not focused on this activity, he was leering at a young-ish woman with her mother (?) sitting near him. Not so much leering as staring non-stop, which, as a woman who's taken plenty of public transportation, I can assure you is creepier. So sometimes, you get two for the price of one.

With that, to the subway.

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