I’m very excited about the blog I’m writing for the online magazine Words Without Borders (http://www.wordswithoutborders.org). I met some of the editors (Dedi Felman, Rohan Kamicheril) earlier this month in New York and we decided I would focus on writers writing in Welsh to start with. My first blog will be about John K Bollard’s wonderful new translation of the Mabinogi that’s just come out, and later I will move to contemporary novelists and poets writing in Welsh.
Here’s a synopsis of things that caught my eye the past month:
i) The Jan/Feb edition of Poets And Writers had some great profiles of Susan Choi (American Woman, A Person of Interest), Manil Suri (a math professor turned writer whose second novel The Age of Shivra is out this month) and the London-based Tahmima Anam, whose first novel A Golden Age has just come out to huge attention in the US (it first came out in the UK a year ago). The book is “the first installment in an ambitious trilogy that will span the history of Bangladesh, from the sunset of colonial India to the present” (Nicole Pezold, PW). PW have also started a new series of interviews with “publishing’s heavy hitters” and the interview with agent Lynn Nesbit was very informative and candid.
ii) “Screams in Asia Echo in Hollywood” by Terrence Rafferty (Sunday NYTimes, Arts, Jan 27), about transplanting/remaking Japanese (and Korean to some extent) horror movies for a US audience. I liked Rafferty’s perception that “Horror is by its nature a good deal friendlier to a cross-cultural transplantation than most movie genres, because fear is universal in a way that, say, a sense of humor is not: what we dread is far less socially determined than what we laugh at. (If you had to choose between remaking a French romantic farce or a Japanese ghost story, the latter would be much the safer bet, as movie history pretty conclusively demonstrates.)”
iii) “Great Literature? Depends Whodunit” by Charles McGrath (Sunday NYTimes, Feb 3), about how genre writing is unfairly perceived as lower-brow than literary writing: “…is the assumption that genre fiction – mysteries, thrillers, romances, horror stories – is a form of literary slumming. These kinds of books are easier to read, we tend to think, and so they must be easier to write, and to the degree that they’re entertaining, they can’t possibly be serious. / The distinction between highbrow and lowbrow – between genre writing and literary writing – is actually fairly recent. Dickens…wrote mysteries and horror stories, only no one thought to call them that. Jane Austen wrote chick lit… What we look for in genre writing, [John] Updike suggested, is exactly what the critics sometimes complain about: the predictableness of a formula successfully executed. We know exactly what we’re going to get, and that’s a seductive part of the appeal…such books are reassuring in a way that some other novels are not./ Does that make them lesser, or just different? Probably both on occasion. But it doesn’t necessarily make them easier or less worthwhile to write.” I want to quote the whole article! It’s a very articulate piece.
iv) Penguin has just come out with a paperback edition of Robert Fagles’ translation of The Aeneid (with an introduction by Bernard Knox). Couldn’t resist slipping this news in as a Classicist. It’s a seriously brilliant, utterly magical text. Ever since I first started learning Latin at 11, I’ve been hooked.
Spring better be here soon. Otherwise the Polar Bears will be immigrating to Boston.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Oman, cellphone novels, Beyond the Burka, Carver and Lish, Gods Behaving Badly
We just returned from a week in [the Sultanate of] Oman, a very civilized desert kingdom on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Only recently opened up to tourism since the forward-looking Sultan Qaboos came to power in 1970, it has a fascinating history, striking, unspoilt landscapes and a remarkably modernized infrastructure. You can read more about our trip in the Spring edition of Town And Country Travel.
Here goes the articles which caught my eye the past month:
1.“Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular” - on the front page of today’s New York Times – about the super-burgeoning genre of 'cellphone novels', which are coming to dominate the best-seller list: “Of last year’s 10 best-selling novels [in Japan], five were originally cell-phone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels.”
2.“Beyond the Burka. Muslim women are being heard. But which ones?” by Lorraine Adams in the excellent “Islam” edition of The New York Times Book Review (Jan 6) – about how perception of Muslim literature remains distorted since much of contemporary literature remains unpublished in English translation: “Literature in translation, regardless of origin, has trouble finding American publishers. The languages of Islam, unlike European languages… are not often spoken by American editors. “When you have a book proposal, you have to have at least two chapters and a synopsis in English,” explained Nahid Mozaffari, an Iranian historian… “But there’s no money to pay for translation…”” The piece concluded with a thought-provoking quote by Dedi Felman, a book editor in New York and an editor of Words Without Borders, an Internet magazine that publishes literature in translation (in fact I will be their guest blogger starting next month): “In essence, we are asking people to recognize the Other not for what they want it to be or anticipate it to be, but for what it is. And as with all attempts to negotiate divides, that is neither an easy not a simple place in which to put oneself.”
3. “Rough Crossing: Raymond Carver’s letters to Gordon Lish and unedited versions of Carver’s stories reveal an extraordinary battle of wills between an author and his editor.” by Paul Rudnick in The New Yorker ((Dec 24 and 31). This exposé was followed by the unedited version of Carver’s Story 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' (which Carver originally titled 'Beginners'). I drastically prefer Carver’s original version. I always thought 'What We Talk About' lacking in some way and Carver’s far longer, more developed version is so much richer and more moving. I particularly don’t understand why Lish chopped Carver’s original ending. It’s so wonderfully haunting and poignant: “…I stood at the window and waited. I knew I had to keep still a while longer, keep my eyes out there, outside the house, as long as there was something left to see.”
3. More briefly: “Guinea-Pigging: Healthy human subjects for drug-safety trials are in demand. But is it a living” by Carl Elliott in The New Yorker (Jan 7) – a disturbing chronicle of the risky tests many people subject their bodies too for the sake of quick and easy cash. “Gone Missing: ‘The Orphanage’” – Anthony Lane’s superbly-written review of the young Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona’s film. The review was a treat to read, with some wonderful similes eg “A team of paranormal inquirers come to the orphanage, led by a figure clad in black, as slender as a child’s stick drawing”, “Aurora’s pupils gleam hotly in the jungle-colored darkness, like those of a nocturnal leopard, caught by a naturalist’s camera as it slinks to a watering hole.” He also makes the astute point: “A scary movie...is meant to be infested with implausibilities, and what counts is whether we allow them to nip and needle us throughout or whether… we learn to relish their powers of suggestion”.
4. I’m keen to read Marie Phillips’ first novel 'Gods Behaving Badly', in which Greek Gods have taken up residence in modern-day London. It received a good review by Alexandra Jacobs in The New York Times Book Review (Jan 13): “But for the most part her nonchalant transposition of the ancients into post-postmodern life is seamless, amusing and blessedly unpretentious. It may not be ambrosia, but it’s some pretty good trail mix.”
See you soon!
Here goes the articles which caught my eye the past month:
1.“Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular” - on the front page of today’s New York Times – about the super-burgeoning genre of 'cellphone novels', which are coming to dominate the best-seller list: “Of last year’s 10 best-selling novels [in Japan], five were originally cell-phone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels.”
2.“Beyond the Burka. Muslim women are being heard. But which ones?” by Lorraine Adams in the excellent “Islam” edition of The New York Times Book Review (Jan 6) – about how perception of Muslim literature remains distorted since much of contemporary literature remains unpublished in English translation: “Literature in translation, regardless of origin, has trouble finding American publishers. The languages of Islam, unlike European languages… are not often spoken by American editors. “When you have a book proposal, you have to have at least two chapters and a synopsis in English,” explained Nahid Mozaffari, an Iranian historian… “But there’s no money to pay for translation…”” The piece concluded with a thought-provoking quote by Dedi Felman, a book editor in New York and an editor of Words Without Borders, an Internet magazine that publishes literature in translation (in fact I will be their guest blogger starting next month): “In essence, we are asking people to recognize the Other not for what they want it to be or anticipate it to be, but for what it is. And as with all attempts to negotiate divides, that is neither an easy not a simple place in which to put oneself.”
3. “Rough Crossing: Raymond Carver’s letters to Gordon Lish and unedited versions of Carver’s stories reveal an extraordinary battle of wills between an author and his editor.” by Paul Rudnick in The New Yorker ((Dec 24 and 31). This exposé was followed by the unedited version of Carver’s Story 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' (which Carver originally titled 'Beginners'). I drastically prefer Carver’s original version. I always thought 'What We Talk About' lacking in some way and Carver’s far longer, more developed version is so much richer and more moving. I particularly don’t understand why Lish chopped Carver’s original ending. It’s so wonderfully haunting and poignant: “…I stood at the window and waited. I knew I had to keep still a while longer, keep my eyes out there, outside the house, as long as there was something left to see.”
3. More briefly: “Guinea-Pigging: Healthy human subjects for drug-safety trials are in demand. But is it a living” by Carl Elliott in The New Yorker (Jan 7) – a disturbing chronicle of the risky tests many people subject their bodies too for the sake of quick and easy cash. “Gone Missing: ‘The Orphanage’” – Anthony Lane’s superbly-written review of the young Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona’s film. The review was a treat to read, with some wonderful similes eg “A team of paranormal inquirers come to the orphanage, led by a figure clad in black, as slender as a child’s stick drawing”, “Aurora’s pupils gleam hotly in the jungle-colored darkness, like those of a nocturnal leopard, caught by a naturalist’s camera as it slinks to a watering hole.” He also makes the astute point: “A scary movie...is meant to be infested with implausibilities, and what counts is whether we allow them to nip and needle us throughout or whether… we learn to relish their powers of suggestion”.
4. I’m keen to read Marie Phillips’ first novel 'Gods Behaving Badly', in which Greek Gods have taken up residence in modern-day London. It received a good review by Alexandra Jacobs in The New York Times Book Review (Jan 13): “But for the most part her nonchalant transposition of the ancients into post-postmodern life is seamless, amusing and blessedly unpretentious. It may not be ambrosia, but it’s some pretty good trail mix.”
See you soon!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
The Ghost of Christmas Past, Hilary Mantel, Aubrey Beardsley, Mince Pies
London is as freezing as Boston but it's wonderful to be back home seeing family and friends. There's also a mist lurking outside which makes me think of Dickens' The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
Having just about finished my present-shopping, I snuggled up and dug into the papers. I forgot how much I missed my British supplements. The articles and columns are so much more irreverent than in the States which is so refreshing and makes me feel even more at home.
As always, I feel compelled to make note of a few of them.
A) In The Review section of The Guardian (Sat 22.12.07) there was a fantastic commentary by Hilary Mantel arguing that "Journalism is as fast as the turnover in Topshop, but fiction should be couture." She starts by quoting Martin Amis, "who was pondering the balance that writers seek between journalism and fiction. "I think of writing journalism and criticism as writing left-handed," Amis said, "where the connection isn't to the part of me that novels come from."" I particularly liked the last paragraph of Mantel's article: "Fiction isn't made by scraping the bones of topicality for the last shreds and sinews, to be processed into mechanically recovered prose. Like journalism, it deals in ideas as well as facts, but also in metaphors, symbols and myths. It multiplies ambiguity. It's about the particular, which suggests the general: about inner meaning, seen with the inner eye, always glimpsed, always vanishing, always more or less baffling, and scuffled on to the page hesitantly, furtively, transgressively..."
B) In The Guardian Weekend magazine (22.12.07) there was a very moving, raw excerpt about old age by Diana Athill from her memoir Somewhere Towards The End, to be published by Granta next month. In this magazine there was also a profile of Tang Wei, the upcoming star of Ang Lee's acclaimed new erotic thriller, 'Lust, Caution' which I look forward to seeing. To quote the article: "Lee says the film is a companion piece to Brokeback Mountain. "That was about a lost paradise," he says, "and this is more like hell.""
C) In Times 2 (Nov 27 07), there was a fascinating article by Rachel Campbell-Johnston previewing The Age of Enchantment: Beardsley, Dulac and their contemporaries at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. The subheading reads "A new exhibition reveals how the erotic images from the imagination of Aubrey Beardsley were soon diluted into the tamer fantasies of children's fairytales," and the article goes on to describe how "at their strongest, the works in this show draw you ever more deeply into a peculiar imaginative place...Some have an almost dizzying force... The balance shifts from the disturbing to the decorative, the perverse to the pretty, the erotic to the merely coquettish... And all we can do is look back slightly giddily at that wierd world we have just walked through, and wonder."
It's dark outside now. I'm off upstairs for some tea and mincepies.
Merry Christmas!
Having just about finished my present-shopping, I snuggled up and dug into the papers. I forgot how much I missed my British supplements. The articles and columns are so much more irreverent than in the States which is so refreshing and makes me feel even more at home.
As always, I feel compelled to make note of a few of them.
A) In The Review section of The Guardian (Sat 22.12.07) there was a fantastic commentary by Hilary Mantel arguing that "Journalism is as fast as the turnover in Topshop, but fiction should be couture." She starts by quoting Martin Amis, "who was pondering the balance that writers seek between journalism and fiction. "I think of writing journalism and criticism as writing left-handed," Amis said, "where the connection isn't to the part of me that novels come from."" I particularly liked the last paragraph of Mantel's article: "Fiction isn't made by scraping the bones of topicality for the last shreds and sinews, to be processed into mechanically recovered prose. Like journalism, it deals in ideas as well as facts, but also in metaphors, symbols and myths. It multiplies ambiguity. It's about the particular, which suggests the general: about inner meaning, seen with the inner eye, always glimpsed, always vanishing, always more or less baffling, and scuffled on to the page hesitantly, furtively, transgressively..."
B) In The Guardian Weekend magazine (22.12.07) there was a very moving, raw excerpt about old age by Diana Athill from her memoir Somewhere Towards The End, to be published by Granta next month. In this magazine there was also a profile of Tang Wei, the upcoming star of Ang Lee's acclaimed new erotic thriller, 'Lust, Caution' which I look forward to seeing. To quote the article: "Lee says the film is a companion piece to Brokeback Mountain. "That was about a lost paradise," he says, "and this is more like hell.""
C) In Times 2 (Nov 27 07), there was a fascinating article by Rachel Campbell-Johnston previewing The Age of Enchantment: Beardsley, Dulac and their contemporaries at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. The subheading reads "A new exhibition reveals how the erotic images from the imagination of Aubrey Beardsley were soon diluted into the tamer fantasies of children's fairytales," and the article goes on to describe how "at their strongest, the works in this show draw you ever more deeply into a peculiar imaginative place...Some have an almost dizzying force... The balance shifts from the disturbing to the decorative, the perverse to the pretty, the erotic to the merely coquettish... And all we can do is look back slightly giddily at that wierd world we have just walked through, and wonder."
It's dark outside now. I'm off upstairs for some tea and mincepies.
Merry Christmas!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Mount Snowdon, Diaz, Enchanted, Gawande
My study at home is like the Alps. I have so many white mountains of essays to look at that I might start needing a pair of skis. Still, the weather is so gloomy I don't mind being cosy inside sipping chamomile tea.
At least I cleared one mountain range in the living room. I had a Mount Snowdon of Sunday NYTimes newspapers and New Yorkers which I managed to munch through this week, procrastinating from marking. Articles of interest from the Sunday NYTimes were:
a) Movie Deals, an essay in the book review by Rachel Donadio highlighting how some publishers are partnering with film companies eg HarperCollins with Sharp Independent, Random House with Focus Features: "Now, Random House and HarperCollins will get a cut of the box office sales, as well as revenue from DVDs, cable TV and other media. And the authors involved will get more say in choosing screenwriters, actors and directors."
b) A Good Mystery: Why We Read, by Motoko Rich. I like the last paragraph: "But books have outlived many death knells, and are likely to keep doing so. 'I'm much more optimistic than I think most people are,' Mr [Junot] Diaz said. Reading suffers, he says, because it has to compete unfairly with movies, television shows and electronic gadgets whose marketing budgets far outstrip those of publishers. 'Books don't have billion-dollar publicity behind them,' Mr. Diaz said. 'Given the fact that books don't have that, they're not doing a bad job.'"
c) Friending, Ancient or Otherwise by Alex Wright describing how some academic researchers are "exploring the parallels between online social networks and tribal societies. In the collective patter of profile-surfing, messaging and 'friending', they see the resurgence of ancient patters of oral communication.... 'If you examine the Web through the lens of orality, you can't help but see it everywhere,' says Irwin Chen, a design instructor at Parsons..., 'Orality is participatory, interactive, communal and focused on the present. The Web is all of these things.'"
d) The Line Between Homage and Parody by Brooks Barnes, about the Walt Disney Musical Comedy 'Enchanted' - which I look forward to seeing: "Projects like 'Enchanted' indicate that Mr. Iger's [chief executive of Disney] team is trying to take a route down the middle: resisting adding modern touches but referencing them in fresh settings and winking at their old-fashioned charismas. 'It's a very smart approach,' said Robert K. Passikoff, a.. brand consultant in New York. 'Losing a bit of the preciousness keeps these franchises relevant and alive.'"
The Dec 10 edition of The New Yorker had an exceptional array of essays. I particularly enjoyed Alexandra Styron's Reading My Father and Atul Gawande's The Checklist: Intensive care can harm as well as heal, but there's a simple way of improving the odds. My eyes always light up when I see that Gawande has a new article. A surgeon and professor at Harvard Med, he's an exceptional, insightful, compassionate writer. Also, I really enjoyed Louis Menand's essay Woke Up This Morning: Why do we read diaries? There were some very well-articulated observations here eg "The memorializing of the mundane is part of the flattening of foreground-background contrast that makes diaries different from memoirs and other forms of historical narrative. It's also a sign of the diary's absolute fidelity to the present...The just-the-facts elimination of perspective, discrimination, and reflection, and the sense of bathos and non sequitur that sometimes results, fits certain personality types beautifully...", "...And the superego theory [about why people write diaries], of course, is the theory that diaries are really written for the eyes of others. They are exercises in self-justification." This article got me thinking about why I keep a blog. For me, it is a means not only of recording all the wonderful articles I have come across, but also to impose a [however illusory] sense of organization on my life. My life seems more organized if I can write about it, however occasionally and cursorily, if I can put some of my thoughts into neat sentences.
Well, the Alps are staring at me. Better tuck into those portfolios of student essays. I've also got my last class tomorrow for Creative Non Fiction, and we're going to be discussing The Beat Generation.
Happily holidays.
At least I cleared one mountain range in the living room. I had a Mount Snowdon of Sunday NYTimes newspapers and New Yorkers which I managed to munch through this week, procrastinating from marking. Articles of interest from the Sunday NYTimes were:
a) Movie Deals, an essay in the book review by Rachel Donadio highlighting how some publishers are partnering with film companies eg HarperCollins with Sharp Independent, Random House with Focus Features: "Now, Random House and HarperCollins will get a cut of the box office sales, as well as revenue from DVDs, cable TV and other media. And the authors involved will get more say in choosing screenwriters, actors and directors."
b) A Good Mystery: Why We Read, by Motoko Rich. I like the last paragraph: "But books have outlived many death knells, and are likely to keep doing so. 'I'm much more optimistic than I think most people are,' Mr [Junot] Diaz said. Reading suffers, he says, because it has to compete unfairly with movies, television shows and electronic gadgets whose marketing budgets far outstrip those of publishers. 'Books don't have billion-dollar publicity behind them,' Mr. Diaz said. 'Given the fact that books don't have that, they're not doing a bad job.'"
c) Friending, Ancient or Otherwise by Alex Wright describing how some academic researchers are "exploring the parallels between online social networks and tribal societies. In the collective patter of profile-surfing, messaging and 'friending', they see the resurgence of ancient patters of oral communication.... 'If you examine the Web through the lens of orality, you can't help but see it everywhere,' says Irwin Chen, a design instructor at Parsons..., 'Orality is participatory, interactive, communal and focused on the present. The Web is all of these things.'"
d) The Line Between Homage and Parody by Brooks Barnes, about the Walt Disney Musical Comedy 'Enchanted' - which I look forward to seeing: "Projects like 'Enchanted' indicate that Mr. Iger's [chief executive of Disney] team is trying to take a route down the middle: resisting adding modern touches but referencing them in fresh settings and winking at their old-fashioned charismas. 'It's a very smart approach,' said Robert K. Passikoff, a.. brand consultant in New York. 'Losing a bit of the preciousness keeps these franchises relevant and alive.'"
The Dec 10 edition of The New Yorker had an exceptional array of essays. I particularly enjoyed Alexandra Styron's Reading My Father and Atul Gawande's The Checklist: Intensive care can harm as well as heal, but there's a simple way of improving the odds. My eyes always light up when I see that Gawande has a new article. A surgeon and professor at Harvard Med, he's an exceptional, insightful, compassionate writer. Also, I really enjoyed Louis Menand's essay Woke Up This Morning: Why do we read diaries? There were some very well-articulated observations here eg "The memorializing of the mundane is part of the flattening of foreground-background contrast that makes diaries different from memoirs and other forms of historical narrative. It's also a sign of the diary's absolute fidelity to the present...The just-the-facts elimination of perspective, discrimination, and reflection, and the sense of bathos and non sequitur that sometimes results, fits certain personality types beautifully...", "...And the superego theory [about why people write diaries], of course, is the theory that diaries are really written for the eyes of others. They are exercises in self-justification." This article got me thinking about why I keep a blog. For me, it is a means not only of recording all the wonderful articles I have come across, but also to impose a [however illusory] sense of organization on my life. My life seems more organized if I can write about it, however occasionally and cursorily, if I can put some of my thoughts into neat sentences.
Well, the Alps are staring at me. Better tuck into those portfolios of student essays. I've also got my last class tomorrow for Creative Non Fiction, and we're going to be discussing The Beat Generation.
Happily holidays.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Mabinogion, False Unicorn, Frankincense, Troy
It’s been a misty, wet week but at least we’ve got a turkey in the fridge ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow, and I did manage to get a batch of writing and research done. My novel research took me from Apuleius’ The Golden Ass to the medieval Mabinogion to a revisitation of The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (which I studied at university). I also learnt all about The Akashic records and some super names of herbs of which I was only half familiar eg False Unicorn, Cat’s Foot, Shepherd’s Purse.
For a travel magazine assignment, I also looked into Omani Frankincense. Oman was at the center of Arabia’s famous frankincense trade. This aromatic resin is now mainly used in aromatherapy and perfumery, but in the ancient world it was more important than gold. Every major civilization bought frankincense from the region, Omani frankincense being the best in the world. It was among the three gifts the Magi bought the infant Jesus, as everyone knows.
Other notes: I’m eager to read Peter Ackroyd’s new novel The Fall of Troy, which was favorably reviewed in last week’s New York Times Book Review. The novel fictionalizes the story of the obsessive 19th-century archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann.
I also picked up the free women's magazine "Skirt" in Blockbusters, of all places, and was pleasantly surprised. It's published in a few cities around the US and it was packed full of uplifting pieces - many of them very thoughtful and surprising. Perfect for snuggling up with in bed on a weeknight, after a bubble bath. You can also read it online: http://www.skirt.com.
Happy Thanksgiving.
For a travel magazine assignment, I also looked into Omani Frankincense. Oman was at the center of Arabia’s famous frankincense trade. This aromatic resin is now mainly used in aromatherapy and perfumery, but in the ancient world it was more important than gold. Every major civilization bought frankincense from the region, Omani frankincense being the best in the world. It was among the three gifts the Magi bought the infant Jesus, as everyone knows.
Other notes: I’m eager to read Peter Ackroyd’s new novel The Fall of Troy, which was favorably reviewed in last week’s New York Times Book Review. The novel fictionalizes the story of the obsessive 19th-century archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann.
I also picked up the free women's magazine "Skirt" in Blockbusters, of all places, and was pleasantly surprised. It's published in a few cities around the US and it was packed full of uplifting pieces - many of them very thoughtful and surprising. Perfect for snuggling up with in bed on a weeknight, after a bubble bath. You can also read it online: http://www.skirt.com.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Eisteddfod NY 2007, Andrei Platonov
If any of you are in New York this weekend, do check out the NY Eisteddfod - a showcase of folkmusic from around the world. Unlike the famous annual National Eisteddfod of Wales, there won't be a strong druidic flavor, but they've got an impressive scope of talented folk artists including the "Karelian Ensemble", a trio from the Russian-Finnish border that performs old shepherd melodies on wooden trumpet and local dance tunes on accordians. You can view the preview I wrote for Time Out NY here:
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/article/music/24196/eisteddfod-ny-2007
As for Andrei Platonov, I recently discovered him in the New Yorker. They published his recently translated story "Among Animals And Plants." I'm definitely going to read more of his work. I love the line in the opening paragraph: "At this time of year, a whiff of mist hung in the forest - from the warmth and moisture of the air, the breath of developing plants, and the decay of leaves that had perished long ago."
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/article/music/24196/eisteddfod-ny-2007
As for Andrei Platonov, I recently discovered him in the New Yorker. They published his recently translated story "Among Animals And Plants." I'm definitely going to read more of his work. I love the line in the opening paragraph: "At this time of year, a whiff of mist hung in the forest - from the warmth and moisture of the air, the breath of developing plants, and the decay of leaves that had perished long ago."
Friday, November 9, 2007
Hansel and Gretel/Dark Chocolate/Manga/Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work
Well, the gloves and scarfs are out. Winter definitely sharpened its claws in Boston this week. But the sun's shining, and the sky's a smooth swish of blue, so I'm not complaining - yet.
Last night I snuggled up on the sofa and munched through the pile of newspapers/magazines which I hadn't got around to reading properly the past fortnight. I particularly enjoyed Bill Buford's profile in the Oct 29 edition of The New Yorker: "Extreme Chocolate: Searching for the perfect bean, in Bahia", about Frederick Schilling who opened a chocolate factory and founded Dagoba Organic Chocolate. It's a great story, which includes a description of how Schilling was convinced he was visited by Xochiquetzal, the Aztec goddess of cacao. Other note-worthy articles I happened upon were "How Manga [comics/print cartoons] Conquered The US: A graphic guide to Japan's coolest export" by Jason Thompson in Wired magazine, and, in the Nov 5 edition of The New Yorker, a superb portfolio of evocative pictures inspired by the fairytale Hansel and Gretel: seventeen artists were asked by the Metropolitan Opera to offer their own interpretations of the story to mark the new production of Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" (the original artworks can be viewed at the Metropolitan Opera House's Gallery Met).
I've also discovered a new writer - Jason Brown. His short story collection "Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work" caught my eye in Barnes and Noble and when I started reading his story "Trees", I couldn't put it down. His voice is very distinct - haunting, raw, unexpected. One of his stories ends "He turned around and looked up, as if at a mountain peak or a descending plane, but there was nothing above except a line of high white clouds pulling up over the valley like a cold sheet."
Well, I'm off to write now. I've been a bit stuck on one section of the novel for a couple of days and I talked it over with Christian who came up with some magical ideas within seconds. I got incredibly excited. Anyway, I'm all set to go back to the lake and forest again now.
Last night I snuggled up on the sofa and munched through the pile of newspapers/magazines which I hadn't got around to reading properly the past fortnight. I particularly enjoyed Bill Buford's profile in the Oct 29 edition of The New Yorker: "Extreme Chocolate: Searching for the perfect bean, in Bahia", about Frederick Schilling who opened a chocolate factory and founded Dagoba Organic Chocolate. It's a great story, which includes a description of how Schilling was convinced he was visited by Xochiquetzal, the Aztec goddess of cacao. Other note-worthy articles I happened upon were "How Manga [comics/print cartoons] Conquered The US: A graphic guide to Japan's coolest export" by Jason Thompson in Wired magazine, and, in the Nov 5 edition of The New Yorker, a superb portfolio of evocative pictures inspired by the fairytale Hansel and Gretel: seventeen artists were asked by the Metropolitan Opera to offer their own interpretations of the story to mark the new production of Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" (the original artworks can be viewed at the Metropolitan Opera House's Gallery Met).
I've also discovered a new writer - Jason Brown. His short story collection "Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work" caught my eye in Barnes and Noble and when I started reading his story "Trees", I couldn't put it down. His voice is very distinct - haunting, raw, unexpected. One of his stories ends "He turned around and looked up, as if at a mountain peak or a descending plane, but there was nothing above except a line of high white clouds pulling up over the valley like a cold sheet."
Well, I'm off to write now. I've been a bit stuck on one section of the novel for a couple of days and I talked it over with Christian who came up with some magical ideas within seconds. I got incredibly excited. Anyway, I'm all set to go back to the lake and forest again now.
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