Chekhov's Mistress

Current and Recent Reading

2009-07-03T18:55:07Z

I started writing about Roberto Bolaño’s The Skating Rink for this post and got carried away because it was turning into a book review and I haven’t even finished it. So I chucked that, but I’ll leave you with this: The structure is, at least superficially, Roshomon-like, and the characters are firmly in Bolaño territory: writers and ne’er-do-wells. There’s a crime. You can read what my friend A.M. Correa has to say about it and she links to some other articles as well.

I’m also reading Stephen Burt’s Close Calls With Nonsense, subtitled Reading New Poetry, but put more specifically in the title chapter, “How to Read, and Perhaps Enjoy, Very New Poetry.” While I’m repelled by anything that begins with “How to…” I like Burt’s writing very much because he’s not condescending, and he avoids the great crime of most poetry critics, pretending to know that he knows everything. He’s much more focused on championing new poetry than proving that he’s smart (which, in turn, proves it anyway). I love reading poetry criticism, but so much of it is about the critic and not the poetry, so Burt is a rare find and a candidate for the Chekhov’s Mistress Ardor Award.

The book’s title is fantastic, isn’t it. Close Calls with Nonsense is, according to the jacket, “for people who enjoy John Ashbery or Anne Carson, but aren’t sure why…” That’d be me, particularly since when I talk about Anne Carson I’m reduced to words like “magic” or “witchcraft.” But I’ve only read the first few chapters and I’m anxious to hear what he has to say about some of my other favorites like Paul Muldoon or poets I’ve wanted to get into but haven’t for whatever reason, like August Kleinzahler. If you want a hint about my take-away from the book so far, I’ll tell you what I’d name the review if I were to write it today: “Poems are People Too” or something like that.

I just read the first story in Brian Evenson’s collection Fugue State which just came out from my friends at Coffee House Press (they are, actually, my friends and I’ve built Websites for some of their authors, just so you know). Anyway, Fugue State seems right up my line, as paranoia is one of my favorite topics in literature.

I just finished two books that I took away from my recent visit to New Directions (about which I need to write a blog post). I met their editor Jeffrey Yang, among others, and he handed me a copy of Yoko Tawada’s The Naked Eye. I want to write a review, which I’ll post at Words Without Borders so I’ll leave you with my takeaway on that one. It’s a weird book, but if you’re comfortable with weird you’ll love it. Oh, and here’s a hint: it’s in no way required, but you’ll find yourself hitting netflix for some old Catherine Deneuve movies.

So, somehow or another it came to me that Jeffrey was a poet, so I picked up his first(?) collection, An Aquarium. I want to write about this one too, in fact my great goal with this blog has been for some time to write about poetry, but frankly I’m too intimidated by that idea, although maybe after I’ve finished with Stephen Burt’s book, I’ll see if I learned anything. Anyway, An Aquarium has one of the best blurbs I’ve ever read, by Kamau Brathwaite and the book will take your tongue for a trip if you read it aloud.

The aquatic conceit is interesting because it gives him a kind of undersea vernacular that is fun (with words like “zooxanthellae” and “Holothurian,” which remind me of Marianne Moore’s work), but it also grounds even the most pop-culture of these poems, which at times are almost too aphoristic. With his great use of language I felt like I wanted them to be more oblique, if that makes any sense. Still, I’m very fond of the book and find myself returning to it quite a bit.

The last thing to mention is Mark Halprin’s Digital Barbarism: A Writer’s Manfisto. This book is a collection of essays, or really one long essay broken into parts, on how dangerous times are for writers because the concept of copyright is being stripped away by ideas like Creative Commons. Early take-away: He has a lot of great points, but he’s much too condescending and angry to have much of a voice in what’s happening. The book is well written, as you’d expect, but indulgent at times. However, much of the reading I’ve done on the subject has been from the other side of the table, so I think, Chicken Little though may he seem, that books like this are important to make sure that we don’t get carried away in our brave new world.

Paul Auster Interview Video

2009-07-03T18:50:36Z

Paul Auster fans probably know already that his next novel, Invisible is coming out this fall. Here’s an interview with Auster from his home in Brooklyn by Granta’s editor John Freeman. There’s an extract from the book in the latest issue of Granta. It’s a fun conversation about writing as well as Auster’s novel.

Granta Paul Auster Interview from Granta magazine on Vimeo.

Hat’s Off to Bruce Adolphe

2009-07-03T17:37:19Z

Wow, this is really great. My friend Bruce Adolphe, whom, sadly, we’ve not seen much of since the twins were born (which is why I’m only just seeing this), wrote what sounds like, based on Tommasini’s report in the New York Times a fantastic piece of music “inspired by the research and writings of the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio.” In his article Tommasini writes “Most composers would shy away from depicting the evolution of consciousness…Mr. Adolphe, who had already written two works based on Mr. Damasio’s writings, plunged right in.”

He goes on to say “The result was ‘Self Comes to Mind,’ a 30-minute work for cello and two percussionists, with video imagery based on brain scans and with texts by Mr. Damasio. The piece had its premiere on Sunday night at the American Museum of Natural History. The 900-seat LeFrak Theater was packed for the event, which included an hourlong discussion with the collaborators.”

Congratulations, Bruce!

You can listen to this podcast with Bruce on the Here on Earth (coincidentally, the same show that I was supposed to be on this week) show from WPR.

Steve Lehman

2009-07-01T15:47:32Z

Just discovered Steve Lehman today thanks to Elyssa East. Yes, it’s true I’ve spent most of my music listening energy the last few years trying to find stuff palatable to everyone in my family (although kids will listen to more crazy stuff than most give them credit for). But it’s nice, in a way, to know that I was actually missing something. Here’s a video from the Pi Recordings Website (where you’ll find lots of great music/vids, including Tom Waits’ guitarist Marc Ribot)

Muldoon on Colbert

2009-06-26T21:03:15Z

Paul Muldoon is unique among poets. First, he can “successfully” write poems about rock singers he has known (sadly, Warren Zevon) and secondly, he has the sense of humor to go through the verbal gauntlet that is the Colbert report. Here’s the very funny video (via, aptly named for this video, Close Calls with Nonesense):

The Colbert Report

Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Paul Muldoon

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Mark Sanford

Life on Mars, by Jean Thompson

2009-06-26T17:28:29Z

Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and I are exactly the same age, and though surely I must have spent some years growing up and learning to read, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know and love these stories. This may be a mild surprise for anybody who knows my own fiction; my territory is not science fiction or any sort of speculative writing. I’m pretty much a hopeless realist and have never felt the least impulse to write about space travel, alien races, or futuristic scenarios. But “The Martian Chronicles” grabbed me and never let go, as it has so many other readers over so many years.

Part of this, of course, is that Bradbury is a first-rate writer of prose, whether he’s describing the idyllic or the nightmarish, the nostalgia of a remembered Earth town (The Third Expedition), or the grim goings-on in Usher II, a kind of murderous Disneyland where censors and book-burners meet their fate at the hands of literary characters. He makes all the right narrative moves, setting scene and playing out action in ways that engage us and keep the story moving, yet also grounding us with gorgeous sensory description. We see the blue canals and glass-like Martian towers, shiver at the ghostly, deserted settlements, feel the heat of the unnatural rocket summer. It’s no accident that Bradbury wrote any number of classic episodes for “The Twilight Zone”, back when television employed actual writers, not just producers of reality TV. He appeals to some of our most common fears: abandonment, isolation, and the suspicion that much of human enterprise is a force bent on exploitation, ruination, and self-destruction. Witness the creepy sadness of the mechanical house in There Will Come Soft Rains, going about its business even after its human inhabitants have been obliterated by nuclear catastrophe.

It’s also reassuring, somehow, that the Martians, as imagined by Bradbury, are so, well, human. or at least, as human as golden-eyed, shape-shifting telepaths can be. By this I mean that their motivations and psychology are recognizable to us. Alien races as imagined by other writers are often more menacing, more in the mechanical-predator-giant insect mode. Bradbury’s Martians resist their invasion and colonization and ultimate extinction in ways that we can understand and sympathize with. Maybe it’s this instinct for empathy that appeals to even such an earthbound writer as myself. And even now that we’ve lived long enough to see the Mars Rover, and the pictures of the actual planet’s surface, it’s hard to let go of the notion that what we’re seeing are the ruins of that elegant, imaginary civilization.

Support Your Indie Press: Read Like a Pig

2009-06-25T14:32:09Z

From my friends at the excellent Two Dollar Radio. Buy it Here

The International Version…

2009-06-19T16:08:54Z

of my weekend reading suggestions is posted at Words Without Borders.

In addition to that I’d add this brief piece at the Christian Science Monitor bridging Twitter and Geoffrey Hill’s poetry:

Hill came to mind today while I reflected on the Internet response to the election crisis in Iran. In the confusion following the contest between incumbent Ahmadinejad and progressive Mousavi, the interconnected world of the social media has played a role whose ultimate force and effect have not yet been revealed. Dissidents in the country have used the Internet to rally the Web to their cause; in the West, users of Twitter and Facebook have flocked to the virtual scene, lending their energy through a confusing blend of cyberwarfare, rumor-mongering, and witness.

And this great bit by Ed Park at the LATimes Jacket Copy Blog that defies tidiness:

Last week, columnist Ed Park reviewed “A Monster’s Notes” by Laurie Sheck. This is his remixed, expanded, deconstructed/reconstructed remake of that review.

I.
“Good idea the repetition. Same thing with ads.” — Joyce, “Ulysses”

Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, died 10 days after giving birth to her.

“This is ordinary. I was a body coming out of another body that died. That died because of my body.” — Laurie Sheck, “A Monster’s Notes”

“This was scant said but all cried with one acclaim, nay, by our Virgin Mother, the wife should live and the babe to die.” — “Ulysses”

I don’t know which file contains my review in the form of notes and which contains my notes for the review in the form of notes.

Bloomsday now. Still writing this.

Sources for all of these are the good people of the Twittersphere. Except for this – check out the always excellent Triple Canopy’s pieces on Urbanisms – Model Cities

Have a great weekend!

Trib On Dalkey Archive

2009-06-17T01:32:46Z

The Chicago Tribune has a nice piece on Dalkey Archive Press:

In the past, Dalkey was known chiefly for its reprints of books that had gone out of print. But in the past five years, Riker notes, the company has begun to publish more original work, and now about 70 percent of Dalkey’s list is original. “All this good stuff kept coming to us,” he says.

Infinite Summer, Why Not?

2009-06-15T17:08:09Z

Next up, Infinite Summer, a reading of Infinite Jest from June 21st to Sept. 22nd with online guides and a discussion forum.

More Connections

2009-06-05T17:45:11Z

Besides being in my old neighborhood I’ve really been enjoying these videos by Open Book TV, as I mentioned yesterday, for their focus on storytelling and how well they’re produced. More cross-connections: For the last few years I’ve had these clients with whom I’ve also become friends and have worked with on various projects. The latest is “The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court” which you’ll be able to see next month on PBS and currently at various film festivals (these guys are Academy Award winning documentary filmmakers and their films are seen by people in every corner of the world).

So today I noticed that Pam, Skylight’s director, was interviewed in The Brooklyn Rail, which I think is great because I know that BR has a great audience of smart culturally aware people who might not necessarily be thinking about the International Criminal Court. To my mind, one of the best ways to raise awareness of issues – and the ICC needs greater awareness here so that the United States will join – is to find connections in people’s minds where they’re least expected. “The Reckoning” takes place in various war crimes hotspots around the world where the ICC is trying to make an impact. One of the things I like about the film is watching people at the ICC who are up against incredible odds and how they ultimately never forget that it’s about the victims, including child soldiers. So here’s a video from Open Book with Ishmael Beah, who was a child soldier in Sierra Leone and wrote A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier:

Open Book TV: Ishmael Beah from Open Book TV on Vimeo.

I should add that part of this video takes place in Madiba, one of my favorite restaurants in all of NYC.

Open Book TV

2009-06-04T14:28:21Z

I recently stumbled upon Open Book TV. I found it from stopping by the Greenlight Bookstore blog to see their new location in my former neighborhood Fort Greene (It looks like it’s going to be a great bookstore). So when I found Open Book’s site the first thing I noticed was this really excellent video of Bill Lee, who, aside from being Spike Lee’s father, is a jazz musician, composer and all around treasure trove of stories and history.

I met Bill and his wife when I lived two doors down from their brownstone in Fort Greene, where he’s lived I think for the past 40 years or so, long before it became the hood de jour. We had a crazed, literally crazed, crack-head on our stoop and Bill calmly walked us past him one day because we had our baby with us. He quietly turned the tide of how we were to deal with our new environment. Turns out Daniel, the crack-head, grew up in that neighborhood and was less of a threat than he might seem, although at one point he and I nearly came to blows (surprising everyone around, seeing me blow up at this guy!).

Soon after, I took a photograph of Bill and his wife on their stoop, which they liked enough to send to one of their kids who was away in college, and that opened the door to some great conversations. It was also about the time that Spike’s memoir came out, which I naively brought up and promptly got some backstory on that was, well, interesting. We didn’t end up living in Fort Greene for very long but the neighborhood, despite all its gentrification problems, left a great impression on me and the Lees were a big part of that. A guy from the suburbs of Kentucky doesn’t often get to mingle with true story tellers and Bill is the real deal.

That brings me back to Open Book TV. What I think makes it different is their focus on “storytellers living and working in a different spot on the planet each week.” The videos are beautifully produced and have an emphasis on storytelling instead of the dry authorish talking-head stories that are usually the focus of these sorts of things. I haven’t seen the entire show on the boobtube yet, but they are also making segments available online. Here’s the beautiful Bill Lee video on “The Eight P’s”:

Open Book TV: Bill Lee on The Eight P’s from Open Book TV on Vimeo.

New Words Without Borders: Writing from Pakistan

2009-06-03T17:21:33Z

As always, Words Without Borders is a place for the unexpected, a place to flex your brain past the usual Brooklyn-based writer (not that there’s anything wrong with Brooklyn based writers!). This month’s issue is Writing from Pakistan. (did I mention that I’m the blog editor at Words Without Borders?)

Here’s an excerpt from the guest editor Basharat Peer’s introduction:

In the past few years, a wave of brilliant Pakistani short-story writers and novelists writing in English have earned great acclaim across the world, telling the stories of their land and people in different genres and voices. Daniyal Moeenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is an exquisite collection of short stories, bringing to life feudal Pakistan, its seductions and struggles; Mohammad Hanif’s Case of Exploding Mangoes is a savage satire on life in the military and on the late dictator General Zia-ul-Haq; Mohsin Hameed’s Moth Smoke gave us the subcultures of the young, upper-middle class Lahore, and his Reluctant Fundamentalist grappled with questions of terror, suspicion, and fundamentalism.

Me and You and Everyone We Don’t Know: Twitter Notes from BEA

2009-05-31T17:59:00Z

Craig Morgan Teicher (@cteicher), whom I briefly met at the Coffee House Press (@Coffee_House_) booth at #BEA09, wrote a piece on Twitter (I’m at @budparr) for Publishers Weekly. Besides knowing some of the people in the article, I was surprised/not surprised to learn that there’s going to be a book published by an undisclosed HarperCollins imprint of clever tweets, Twitter Wit. Why Why Why does that need to be a book? By the way, if you’re interested in all the less-than clever tweets out there, then check out Tweeting Too Hard a site that compiles “self-important” tweets.

I got a rash of follows while I was away at BEA and I have no idea why. Maybe it was my mention (along with @geoffwisner) and photo (in which I’m only identifiable to myself because I know where I was standing) in the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle”, which probably has a circulation of less than what some people have in Twitter followers.

I did go to a Twitter party, the #BEATweetup, which was fun until I ordered two drinks – seconds after the open bar was over – and got charged $25, ouch. Actually the whole of BEA kind of felt like a party (with panels no less). I couldn’t possibly begin to namecheck all the great people I got to hang out with over the two days I was there, but I would venture to guess that nearly every single person I met has a Twitter account: @chapmanchapman @ami_with_an_i @muckster @pablod @mcnallyjackson @FredRamey @drmabuse @AkashicBooks @asheresque @melvillehouse @sarahw @paperhaus @luxlotus @52projects @R_Nash @dediaf @jasonboog @nyrbclassics @oupblog @colsonwhitehead @geoffwisner @NewDirections @Coffee_House, and many more.

Carolyn said of the tweetup at the L.A. Times Jacket Copy blog “Although one industrious planner had printed badges with Twitter handles, it seems every one of us, myself included, is a bit fatter than our Twitter pictures would have you believe.” Maybe it’s those concave lenses they’ve started using in cameras.

Twitter was probably the word I heard and spoke most at BookExpo. I think the most memorable line was from Richard Nash speaking in the fabulous 7×20×21 panel (7xBEA) put on by @ami_with_an_i and @chapmanchapman. If you’ve been watching lately how everyone is discussing Twitter in the publishing business ad nauseum, putting on Twitter how-to’s and so forth, his words will seem particularly salient: “Twitter will not save us.” That may be true, but the things that will are never so fun. I should have a non-tweetified report soon over at Words Without Borders.

As it Should Be…

2009-05-04T17:56:35Z

From a brief interview with John Ashbery at Boston.com

Q. Your poetry has been described as difficult. How much work should poetry require of the reader?

A. I intend my poetry to be read without head scratching. I think of it as something very immediate like music, which embraces one without having anything to do about it. Of course, that’s not the opinion of many critics of my work, but that’s the way I see it.