Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I will return after the New Year!


Happy Holidays!!

McEwan's Atonement

McEwan's large, class conscious drama investigates the impact of a child's imagination. Young Briony Tallis is fanciful; in her fancy, she creates worlds and characters that are as real to her as the distant adults that haunt the large beautiful house in which she lives. Briony is a child of the mind, and she has no understanding of empathy. To Briony, there is no other truth than the truth her imagination will allow her understand. When she witnesses a scene between her older sister, Cecilia and the housekeeper's son, Robbie, she sees anger, humiliation, and power. She does not understand that these three forces are firmly on Cecilia's side; rather she views Cecilia's near naked jump into the fountain as an act of submission to a supposed vile, sex-obsessed Robbie. Later, when she reads a letter she should not have seen, her ideas are fixed. A few more seemingly connected incidents prove her suspicions, and her innocence and desire to protect her sister turn into a rampaging evil.

Briony's mistake is understandable for her age and reading practices, (though the adults' blind belief of her observations are not), but it is too dire to be forgiven, and Cecilia and Robbie's lives are irrevocably changed. Briony's efforts to atone for her wrong ultimately takes the novel into the scope of analyzing the role of fiction. Briony grows up to become a writer, and the words and acts that are not realized in her life are woven into her fiction. The novel ends with a dramatic point, one that Briony intuitively knew when she was 13, that fiction, whether written or imagined, can change the world.

For a more in-depth analysis of this novel, see James Woods' review here.

Why Writers Write

I'm continually fascinated by this stuff. The Guardian (love it) has a list of authors who discuss their writing habits, give advice to young/new writers, and mention people/incidents that got them writing. Almost every person credits their parents, usually their mother, for getting them hooked on books early. My mom definitely did that for me.

Take a look at the article here.

Throw it to a vote

Thousands of manuscripts hit editors' desks monthly, and many of them end up in the trash. To combat the black hole issue of the 'slush pile', and the belief that occasionally editors misjudge a manuscript's merit, Johanna and Pascal Denize have started Slush Pile Reader, a unique website that allows writers to upload their unpublished manuscripts for readers to read them. If a reader thinks the manuscript is any good, they can vote on it. Enough votes and Slush Pile Reader will publish your work.

Advantages: Your work is read and may ultimately hit bookstores.

Disadvantage: Other big publishers probably won't pick up your novel if they want first publishing rights, but you may be able to work something out for the paperback. For readers: You're reading a lot of stuff that may have never been seen by another human. Eeek, grammar mistakes, bad dialogue, and flimsy characterization abound.

My verdict: Great for the writers, but will people really read this stuff?

On Bookblogs and Print

Critics have been described either as jackals, tearing apart high art they don’t understand, or as the helpers at the Gates, great minds who mete out gold stars to deserving creators. The book critic was historically considered to be the lowest form of journalist for most newspapers, and though some gained fame, they were largely considered lesser journalists and completely inferior literary scholars. Despite this, though, there were, and are, great critics who inspire readers to think about books in interesting ways. Some critics, Micheal Dirda, comes to mind, have gone so far as to make book criticism an art in its own right. Before the book blogs, the delineation between author, critic, and reader were clear: authors wrote books, critics critiqued them, if they were any good, and readers read both. Now the lines have blurred between critics and readers; readers are reading, having their own opinions, and writing about them on blogs. Now, everyone wants to have their say, jackal or gate helper, and the message from the print side is that bloggers aren’t up to the task of creating decent reviews.

There has been a massive outcry from print circles about the lack of substantive thought and the dirth of good writing on the web. In some respects, this is true; the web can be a sinkhole of inanity, but there are writers out there who are writing well. In addition, I find it amusing that many of these critics themselves have blogs, which would seem to indicate that they champion some aspects of the form. Regardless, a line is being drawn between print and blog, and it’s being drawn on intelligence and experience.

Print writers believe they are smarter and better than the bloggers. They feel that they should be given their due by the public more than the bloggers because they have worked hard, read a lot, had an editor, and been paid really poor wages. Bloggers, most of them moonlighters and hobbyists, couldn’t possible reach the standards of intelligence and sentence formation reached by print reviewers – it’s just not possible. Yet, great writing is produced everyday on blogs, and the fact that it is presented on a blog shouldn’t diminish its excellence.

The debate about blogs versus print points to a deeper issue: we’ve reached an uncertain point in our reading lives. Some wonder if books will even be around in their present format in 20 years, while others worry that no one will be able to read them if they are. The print writers bemoan the loss of the great critic, one that could call readers to the bookshelf merely by the strength of his/her own words, yet all is not lost. In my opinion, the fact that the web is nearly glutted with book blogs is a tremendous testament to the public’s love of reading. As people read books and book blogs, they will also find their way to printed reviews.

Print writers should welcome the vibrant life of the book blog world, rather than shun it; it means there are readers. Perhaps a way can be found for print reviewers to embrace the book blog, to raise it up from the puddles of passing thought, to a height more literary. In the long run, this might be a smarter option, rather than railing about stupidity and the loss of standards.

The Freedom of Words

Fun words that aren't in the dictionary, or will soon be in the dictionary: blogosphere, bookosphere, vanity sizing, idea-ating, grass station, and a myriad others.

Another one: Plutoed (to demote or devalue something, as was done to the former planet, Pluto)

As our culture changes, we will invent words to articulate our activities, feelings, and lives. The dictionary should no longer be seen as a constricting force, but more as a guidebook. Rather than feeling weird that a word you use isn't in the dictionary, start feeling cutting edge.

Now, I'm off to runercise.

Background for Nathan McCall's Them

A few nights ago, I had the privilege of listening to a reading and lecture by Nathan McCall, a professor at Emory University, former journalist, and bestselling author. His new book, Them, describes the interaction of whites and blacks in a historic black neighborhood, The Old Fourth Ward, in Atlanta, GA.

Nathan McCall started to write the novel because he was interested in explaining a phenomenon happening in American cities: white inflight. After integration started in the 1950s, white people left the inner city to create all white suburbs outside the perimeters. Now, due to burdensome traffic and a desire for closer access to the commercial core, white people are moving back into the inner city. Though this is happening everywhere, from Harlem to Oakland, CA, Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward is an interesting case, as this neighborhood has historically been an all black neighborhood. Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up in the Old Fourth Ward on Auburn Avenue, and Auburn Avenue, once known as the 'richest negro street in the world' was the center of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta.

Though the book deals mainly with the white-monied/black-poor dichotomy, McCall does admit that the gentrification in inner cities is not happening solely as a result of 'white' inflight. Wealthy blacks are also moving into these areas, and are, according to McCall received in the much the same way that whites are.

McCall's real message, both in the book and from his lecture stand, is one of maintaining diversity. As inner cities become wealthier, aspects of in-town life will improve for everyone: better schools, cleaner,safer streets, more diversions, but McCall believes that this doesn't have to happen at the expense of the poor people. It is not necessary for poor people to move in order for the inner city to improve, which, he argues, many people believe. McCall urges city planners and city politicians to make a commitment to including low income housing in their development plans.

Winterson's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

Jeannette Winterson's first novel illustrates one girl's emergence from a troubled home. The main character, Jeannette, has a mother with a Jesus complex, and Jeannette grows up believing that school is the place for heathen and deafness could easily be the Rapture. The story grips and entertains, but the style and narrative structure prompted the most interest for me.

Jeannette learns to read by reading the bible, yet bible stories are not overt in her first-person tale, though the chapters are named after books of the bible. Rather, she creates a mythical world of her own to make sense of the strange reality she lives in. As she grows older and realizes that the girls are more attractive than the boys, she becomes more and more isolated from the fictive world her mother has created around her. The bible can no longer answer her questions, and the people who used to provide guidance and safety are estranged from her. However, the 'real' world of school and the streets doesn't make sense either, so Jeannette explains her existence through her own stories.

The inclusion of these tales creates a whimsical, fantastical quality, that, though bizarre, nonetheless provide clear, reasoned insight into her mother's behavior. Her mother's obsession with Godly perfection, which is alluded to in the title, is sifted through a story about a prince who wants a perfect princess. The princess has an unlikely ending, but Jeannette doesn't; she comes through the telling of the story rejuvenated, clearer, and in a better state to understand the emotional chaos of her mother's house. Her stories, just as the bible does for others, helps her to understand and except her world.

Ultimately, we as readers don't worry about Jeannette. The tone of the story stays light, at moments comical, but always accepting, never bitter, of her life with her mother. Her stories allow us to see Jeannette's coping mechanism. Like her mother, she turns to stories and things beyond our ken, but unlike her mother, she uses them to understand human kind rather than condemn it, to find peace with life's vicissitudes, rather than damn them.