I spent these past 12 days at my family's cottage in the Kawarthas. Much of my time was devoted to diligent work on the painting visible above. Other activities included daily swimming; writing; games of Trivial Pursuit, Slang Teasers (aka Balderdash), and Monopoly; a 1000 piece puzzle assembled by half a dozen collaborators; heated conversations about physics, grammatical mood, and the photocarcinogenic components of sunblock.
And, of course, reading.
I didn't devote myself to reading a single text, and so regrettably finished nothing -- rather, I dipped in and out of a multitude of novels and non-fictions, frequently reading passages aloud to my companions (a behavior they tolerated gracefully). I'd like to share with you a series of excerpts, many of which I did blurt out aloud or mark with a little dogear at the corner of the page.
I like to think that it betrays something of my thinking patterns that, when they are ordered carefully, each of the separately selected quotations shows thematic linkage to the quotation following it.
( Read more... )
Photo above by Jessica Smith, below by Chris Fritton.
By A.'s age I had read Interview with the Vampire, if not a few other Vampire Chronicles as well (and went on to read 10/12, mostly during high school). Having a predisposition towards books featuring vampires, I did, on Christmas day, glance through the book A. is now mired in. Here is what I encountered in the second paragraph:
"I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me."
This paragraph stirred three urges in me:
1. Shut the book. (I did)
2. Write a better vampire novel.
3. Figure out exactly what stirred urges 1. and 2.
3. ( Wherein I deliberate over petty details and ultimately read too deeply into this poor sentence )
2. ( Wherein I explain this urge a little more thoroughly )
1. ( Wherein I conclude )
At some point during this blog I expressed the extent to which it has broken my heart that in the span of 7 books, J.K. Rowling never included a gay character.
Well, ladies, the heart is mended - I'm whole, and can move on with life and love.
Albus Dumbledore is gay.
- Plot devices - some are acceptable and necessary, some are not. Chekov's gun - obviously cool. Along the same vein, foreshadowing is positive, sometimes. But Deus Ex Machina, eavesdropping, these ones? Not so fantastic. What makes a good plot device...? How much is execution?
- What is the difference between a good TV show and a soap...? How is this related to *above*, how is this related to the dialogue and acting...?
- How realistic should dialogue be...? How much should be said through words, through actions, through narrative...?
- What is worth reading?
This week I made 20 dollars more than I did last week, so I bought myself three books (more accurately: myself two; a friend one), coming in under the twenty mark.
{
For myself:
Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
Last Orders - Graham Swift
For a friend:
Rescue - Nicolas Sparks
}
I am pleased with my purchasing, though I considered several other worthy ventures costing only $20:
- treating self to four (4) Tankhouse Ales.
- seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix twice in theaters.
- printing 500 b&w 8.5x11 photocopies
- printing 100 digital photos (glossy, borderless, 4x6)
- posting thirty six standard size letters.
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jamezburling and I launched Knives Out, the literary publication he and I have been putting together for the past six months (you can view the table of contents here). For the launch there were a number of bands playing (Boxes & Bags, Ashelbury, Oscar Brown, Kaleidoscope City, and People of Canada). Also, costume party themed, "Early Halloween" and there were some great costumes: a couple of golden girls, Kaleidoscope City was dressed as superheros in tights, Jamez was retired (see below).
A Golden Girl and an interested senior citizen;
kaleidescope city
A young and troubled Remus Lupin (perhaps the early lost years?).
Out of our print run of 80, there are about 25 copies left. Which is awesome.
If you want one, let me know next time we cross paths & I will try to have some with me.
I could have stayed in the city, lined up at midnight, held the book immediately. But I decided it was right to read it at the cottage. When I first started reading Harry - at the age of eleven myself - the first three books had already been published. The wait was for the fourth one. We didn't even know what it was to be called.
The day it was released we were at the cottage. My father would bring it up when he finished work for the week. We went to the Marina by boat, and bought a newspaper, eager to learn the title, turning the newsprint pages right there in the store, looking over eachother's shoulders - the Goblet of Fire. When it arrived it was morning, eleven of us were reading it, all ages and genders. At twelve, I had only been reading for five years - a late reader, always slow, I couldn't stop, speeding out of control, finishing it the following night.
I've given away my true age, haven't I?
For the release of the last, I decided it would be the cottage again. It seemed right and true.
( Read more... )
Yes, it is the last Harry Potter ever.
You bet I'm going to re-read the series before the release date of July 21st.
No, I am not ashamed. Why should anyone be?
My start time was 9:00 this (July 12th) morning.
(my original start time was August 1999 - that was eight years ago)
Harry Potter and the ...
| Philosopher's Stone | (76,944 words) | |
| Prisoner of Azkaban | (107,253 words) | |
| Goblet of Fire | (190,637 words) | |
| Order of the Phoenix | (257,045 words) | |
| Half-blood Prince | (168,923 words) | |
| | |
EDIT: please note - mischief managed.
(x-posted on
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mapleleaf_poem)~
In this week's New Yorker there is an article about Michael Ondaatje. It's what I would call a mixed review. The reviewer pays close attention to Ondaatje's process, and to the form that the novels take. He seems to approve of Ondaatje's aesthetic. When the reviewer moves into the reader's point of view however, the tone of the article becomes more negative.
I'm not entirely sure how I myself feel about Ondaatje's novels. I respect the man. I love his poetry. When reading his novels, I feel as if I am listening to someone singing, but I'm worried that he's not going to hit the next high note - it sounds like he won't hit it, but then he does. The song goes well, but the anxiety is there.
The last few lines of the review are as follows:
"The novel has been quite slow in picking up what the other arts are doing," Ondaatje has said. "For years they have been doing things that are much more suggestive, much freer of chronological sequence." The impulse to experiment is worthy; one wants it to yield more than suggestion.
I had to read it over again to figure out what exactly happened there. Ondaatje used the word "suggestive" - a succulent word, full of passion and mystique. The reviewer took this word and turned it around, using it to implicate an inadequacy. What a nasty and delightful trick.
(Notice that where I used 'implicate' a synonym might be 'suggest'. It's getting hot in here.)
One unconscious habit I have when I read an article is to neglect to read the name of the article's author. I then, when reading, formulate a hypothesis regarding the gender of the author. I don't do it intentionally or carefully. It just happens.
For this article, my guess was female.
Some time late February I heard that Jessica Smith was planning to drive from Alabama to attend the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair & Electric City Spectacular. I figured that since Buffalo is so close it was worthwhile for me to go as well, to see Jessica & get in some poetry at the same time.
photo by jessica smith
I had a fantastic time. Buffalo is a beautiful city, with much old & interesting architecture. It helped to have Jessica, who took me to several of her favorite spots (Including Spot) - bookstores, cafes, restaurants. I met many great and interesting people, so many I can't mention them all and many who I wish I had been able to spend more time with. Luckily I have Oh One Arrow, an anthology from Flim Forum press featuring many of these poets.
cuttlefish & photo by self
I took many photos while there - they are available here.
To Adam, Matt, Jessica, Chris, Eric and everyone else - I look forward to seeing you at the next Buffalo Small Press Fair (because there will be one), if not sooner than that. Drop me a line if you're ever in town. Drop me a line anyway.
I did, interestingly enough, recieve an unexpected book in the mail today.
I'll have to give it some time, but I think I will soon know what to do with it.
a) the Golden Compass, Philip Pullman;
b) the Wave Theory of Angels, Alison MacLeod;
c) Her Absense this Wanderer, Rachel Zolf;
d) Handwriting, Michael Ondaatje;
e) Searoad the Chronicles of Klatsand, Ursula Le Guin;
f) High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
a), b) and f) are novels
c) and d) are poetry
e) is a collection of short stories
f) is also my favorite movie
I own one copy of each of these, excepting c) and a).
as for c): L. owns a copy, which I have read. I keep meaning to aquire one, but I am attached to the copy I read originally. In fact, the copies of each of these books which I own are the copies I read originally, except a).
as for a): the copy I read orginally was a hardcover from the library, having the Eric Rohmann cover. I later bought a box set of the trilogy in softcover, illustrated by Rohmann (I also have a french language copy with this same cover). The first copy of a) I owned was soft cover, illustrated by Eric Peterson. I also own copies with covers by:
Steven Rawlings (I managed to get the whole trilogy by him, actually, second hand.)
Erika Meltzer O'Rourke (Lettering by Lilly Lee)
"Black Sheep" (I'm especially proud of getting my hands on this copy, as it is titled "Northern Lights" and is from the UK. I would like one of these or these)
congratulations, you read the whole post. or skimmed to the end.
- my watch, which has been missing for a week, turned up in the bottom of the laundry machine. it says "30M WATER RESIST" so hopefully it will be ok.
I had a cursory look at the poetry section in the Bookstore here. It was very cursory so I cannot properly rank it against the one in W., but I did see a number of familiar titles - Wide Slumber, Lemon Hound, and Nerve Squall to name a few. No sign of Aislinn Hunter though. - I've been keping my eye open for her.
The Dragon Riders of Pern (series) // Anne McCaffrey
read during elementary school, 1997ish
I enjoyed these so much that I decided I wanted to be a writer. I suppose this is because if one enjoys looking in from the outside, it is natural to want to participate.
The link I provided gives the entire list. I've read all of them except those that take place during the Third Pass.
~
Her Absence, This Wanderer (poetry)// Rachel Zolf
around the weekend of May 9th? 2005
It was actually later, upon rereading that I really took in this book. It would be better placed third on the list, in some ways.
Rachel's work was the first 'contemporary poetry' I really read. Her Absence made me more aware of the range of ways a poem can be put together. I started to think more consciously about how I could give each poem I wrote an individual feel. One of the aspects of the book that is so great is that each poem is drastically different from the next, in style and appearance, yet they all come together to form a whole.
~
Raise High the Roof Beams Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction (two not-so-short stories)// J.D. Salinger
read almost immediately after high school, early summer 2005
Though I never did finish reading it, the second story, Seymour..., probably had the biggest influence my poetry of any book listed here. It's almost impossible to say how. The examined character, Seymour Glass, is a poet; however, he writes double-haikus that are completely unlike what I went on to write. It wasn't his poetry, or his process (also unlike mine) that changed my poetry. It was something about the manner in which the narrator, Buddy Glass, described Seymour's poetry that made something shift in my perception of poetry. I was sitting on the curb at the time, in cabbage town (after having done brickwork on Griffon Ondaatje's house, incidently) and partway through the story I just put the book down on the sidewalk and wrote a poem. Starting with that poem & from then on I have been working at what I consider to be a "professional" level.
~
Handwriting (poetry)// Michael Ondaatje
Around the 9th of november, 2005
With most poetry I had read before this, I would read along and not expect to understand the poem until the last line. It seemed that the last line of the poem always put the whole of the poem in context. After that, I could go back and start over with a better grip on what the poem was about. With Handwriting it didn't work that way. The ending never put the body into context. Not with the first poem, not with any of the poems. As each piece drew to a close, Ondaatje left me with no explanation. It blew my mind. It completely changed the way I looked at poetry.
Anything since then is perhaps too recent to see the results of.
- Mood:
contemplative
Last night (and by the time you read thisit will be the night before last) I said to myself: Okay, tommorow you are allowed to buy two books. In the morning I woke and felt *so good* because I knew that at some point during the next 24 hours I would be two books richer.
So my two sisters, jamezburling and I had a nice walk down to book city where I spent an absolute age in the poetry section. They have a great poetry section. I was very overwhelmed and wrote down many titles to be aquired in the future, but finally settled on two which I am very exited about (and added up to under $25 to top that off) - one which was on my list previously and one which I discovered on location.
So I have officially added the following to my collection:
Maps of our Bodies & the Borders We Have Agreed Upon // Taien Ng-Chan (cumulus press)
wipe.under.a.love // Margaret Christakos (mansfield press)
(also, a few days ago, I came across Dionne Brand's No Language is Neutral at the Great Escape, my favorite second hand store)
- Mood:
elated
When I have stated my dislike for a book I have often been told that I have to think about what it meant at the time in which it was written. I have been told I should think about how it affected literature as whole.
I admit that the Homo Erectus was an important evolutionary step. But I wouldn't necessarily want to live in the body of one. Nor should I be expected to be attracted to one.
Also, from time to time, I read a book that I dislike that was written in this time. At least one of these books will later be deemed important. How many people couldn't get through the English Patient? (I did, and enjoyed it. But not as much as I enjoyed the Golden Compass.) I don't have to like everything that's important. In fact, I shouldn't be told what is important. Or maybe I should be. Maybe I don't know.
I have been influenced by certain books. Those books were, I can assume, influenced by other books - so those influential books are important to me. That doesn't mean I'll like them.
Clearly I didn't plan this post out before I started writing it.
The real question is, why is there so much pressure on me to like certain literary works? It makes me want to stop reading and get into fist fights.
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