New Year, Back to Blogging!

As you can see, it's been a silent 3+ months around Student: Revisited! Of course, I've been extremely busy--so much so that I decided to NOT worry about blogging for a bit.

Besides, I was head deep in teaching freshmen composition for the first time.

You would've been bored out of your mind (as opposed to before?) listening to me chat about teaching. Probably. As far as all of "my student" talk is concerned, I was just as bad (probably worse) as Kathie Lee Gifford talking about Cody on Live! with Regis & Kathie Lee...

(If you're too young to know who/what I am talking about, don't tell me)

As far as my student life is concerned, I've been submitting my tiny collection of fiction (here is a picture sample for you to look at):

Still no publications, but I'm okay with that...for now. I need to write more and I know it. My "thesis" is so bare bones right now, you'd want to take it out back and put it out of its misery.

Probably. And since this semester has MORE teaching (my favorite thing BY FAR of my MFA career), I'll be super busy again.

Although I will be checking in on a regular basis to talk about my student life. This semester I get to chose my "own text" for my Fiction Seminar. I have to pick "either a contemporary short story collection or a contemporary novel."

It doesn't HAVE to be new-to-me and so I'm somewhat flummoxed because I will be writing a series of annotations all semester long AND as my professor warned: "Be prepared to know this work inside out...You will own it and it will own you."

ACK! I have two ideas...

(1) Little Children by Tom Perrotta

(2) Georgia Under Water by Heather Sellers

(1) is a novel and my favorite "contemporary" work to come out (that I've read) in the last several years. I also got to hear Tom speak in September--which also means I met him briefly and have a cherished autographed copy of said book! Thematically speaking, this work is similar to my thesis (in my opinion).

(2) is the first short story collection that I read that made me say, "HEY! I WANNA DO THAT!" I haven't read it in YEARS, but I found my copy and since my thesis is to be a collection of related short stories, this would be a smart choice.

WHAT TO DO? I will let you know soon. In the meantime, I'm glad to be back!

~~J

get lucky

Finally!

Got my eyes on the latest novel by Houston-based writer, Katherine Center!

"latest" = published in 2010

(notice how I used the modifier "finally" to explain that I know this book isn't exactly "new" anymore)

But in the grand world of the written, it doesn't always matter when you come to a book -- but that you found your way in the first place...

Here is an excerpt from the FIRST CHAPTER.

It took no less than a day to finish (take that former-slow-reading-self)!

Here is a mini-synopsis via Publishers Weekly:

"Sarah Harper is on the New York fast track at a top advertising agency until she grows a conscience overnight and sends out a companywide e-mail debunking her popular bra campaign. Fired, she flies home to Houston, where she crashes with her older sister, Mackie, and Mackie's husband, Clive. Turns out Mackie has problems of her own: after years of trying to have a baby, she announces she's done. In an effort to do something good for a change, Sarah offers herself up as a surrogate."

Interested? My favorite parts include Sarah's struggles (what?) after the deed is done. There is turmoil and sincere doubt/fears, which lesser writers would've glossed over. It's not a traditional fairytale ending...

Or maybe it is? While carrying her sister's child, Sarah gets involved with saving "The Love Library" (bibliophile alert! bibliophile alert!). This aspect of the novel seemed to take center stage for a bit, and since I enjoyed it--I wasn't bothered.

Could a reader more interested in the "surrogate part" get upset?

I started wondering if Sarah Harper would've been a fantastic character to carry through in a format closer to a dozen related short stories as opposed to a novel. But that's just my own instincts talking (since the short story is my preferred method of madness).

OR I could see Sarah as a sitcom: drama with a sprinkling of comedy. She is someone I seem to know now, a friend. I want more of her!

All of Katherine Center's heroines do this to me, they come alive on the page!

~~J

related: Everyone is Beautiful from 2009 (also by Center)

Book(shelf) Porn!

I was having lunch with a couple friends earlier this week when BAM! I was knocked out by a ton of books? No, but I may as well have been...

I was directed to one of the greatest sites EVER in the history of the Internet: RIGHT HERE!

It's described as a photoblog "showcasing only the best photographs of bookshelves" created by Anthony Dever in Jan. 2009.

(bookshelf/door is from Book. Book. Book.)

I call it absolutely AMAZING.

Clicking through pictures and making sounds not normally associated with books is...FUN!

My own collection of books should be shuddering with excitement now that I have all of this...inspiration.

*rubs hands together and laughs maniacally"

~~J

The Orphan Sister

On top of being a graduate student, (studying creative writing) I am now a soon-to-be teaching fellow with my own freshmen composition class...

needless to say, reading strictly for pleasure is something I've forgotten how to do.

I read.

But there seems to be an ulterior motive now. A set of questions always linger not very far from the center of my brain, something like this:

What does this style reveal about the subject?

How are these sentences working together?

Could my class benefit from reading this?

So I was a little nervous when I got the latest novel by GWENDOLEN GROSS in the mail. Would I be able to turn off my student/teacher brain?

The answer is NO. BUT it didn't take away from the reading for pleasure aspect! In fact, reading a well-crafted book written by someone who knows (and teaches) the art of writing made my brain work overtime.

The Orphan Sister is not the first book I've read by GG (as I affectionately call her). In 2007, I blogged about one of her previous works, The Other Mother. She has published four novels altogether and I've had the pleasure of reading three. (I wrote pleasure!)

There is a lot of beauty within this book, through images and ways of communication. Triplets, Odette, Olivia, and Clementine provide a different sisterly atmosphere--because they are polyzygots--a set of twins from the same egg and a separate one, almost a spare.

The three often communicate through their thoughts, so we get to hear or witness internal dialogue, something I'm never come across while reading before--other than in monologues--but by definition a monologue is not necessarily known by another character.

My favorite part of the book is the background life of Clementine--the non-twin of the triplets. She is a bit of a free spirit or black sheep as far as the family dynamic is concerned. Instead of medical school, like her father and sisters, for example, she is interested in becoming a veterinarian.

Unlike her sisters, Clementine is single. Unlike her sisters Clementine is NOT pregnant. She didn't go to Harvard, but attended Oberlin. Instead of accepting her parents odd, mysterious relationship, she dissects it.

Her other-ness or orphan-ness makes her a character worth rooting for!

Other little "things" from the book:

• Adjective Sandwiches which combines two of my favorite things: Words & Food
• Alliteration, the artful arrangement of words containing the same beginning letter
• Surprises at least five--a few of which I did NOT see coming

So I recommend this novel, obviously. It's a relatively fast read, but deeper than your average summer book. There are even "book club" questions at the end and an interview with the author--perfect for sharing with sisters, biological or chosen.

~~J

The Ghost Belonged to Me

It was suggested that instead of rewatching (and maybe ruining) the Child of Glass, maybe I should get my hands on the book it was based on instead.

So I did.

Released in 1975, The Ghost Belonged to Me by Richard Peck was the first in the "Blossom Culp" series. News to me, because I've never heard of it.

Of course, I didn't know the book even existed until recently.

Even though it's written for the preteen set, I found a used copy on Amazon and ordered it alongside my books for the Fall semester.

It took me no time to finish it.

Instead of taking place in Louisiana in the 1970s (like the movie) the story occurs near the turn of the century (1913) in Missouri, close to the Mississippi river. Little spooky details that invoke thoughts about my current life.

I'm not sure how I feel about the prose in general though, it was a bit awkward and I think it just isn't because I'm probably three times older than the target audience. All of the books I read as a child were usually written by women. This one, is not.

Now that I've seen "where" the movie came from, it seems as if I should just go ahead and watch it.

Maybe.

~~J

Heritage.

In an abstract sense of the word.

I've been thinking about the evolution of reading in my life. WHEN exactly did I start leaning toward the fabulous form known as the short story?

(really good definition of the form at *shock* Wikipedia)

Having read short stories in high school (and college before), when I started reading them outside of class aka for "fun" I realized I was hooked on this form...this idea of a story focused on a very precise moment, event, or situation.

In the Gloaming (Alice Elliot Dark)

Drawn in by the title story...which was made into a short film by HBO (circa 1997), my copy of the book via Ebay (my very first item online) arrived sometime in 1998. Unfortunately it seems to have disappeared. Maybe it's in storage? Maybe it will be found one day in a box in the garage? Either way, I want to revisit the collection now and see it with a set of "semi-trained" eyes.

Soft Maniacs (Maggie Estep)

Hearing Maggie read from her collection (alongside her poetry) early in 1999 was memorable. Not only was she brash and bold, she had a certain "I know who I am and what I'm doing" air about her. I quickly became obsessed. I also began writing "real" poetry using "real" words AND a short story about a stuffed tiger named Lorenzo. How embarrassing.

Georgia Under Water (Heather Sellers)

Lovely. I remember seeing the cover along the aisles of Barnes & Noble and stopping cold. I picked it up, brought it home (after paying), and promptly devoured it within two or so days. Again, I was in love with another collection of short stories. People would ask, "What are you reading?" I would reply, "Short stories." Never any follow-up questions after that.

I think these thoughts are important, because I write short stories, short fiction, short narrative...whatever you want to call it. And despite the use of the word "short" to describe the structure--they say it's harder than writing a novel.

And I know I've said something along the same lines on more than one occasion. But after a year of graduate-level learning (and attempts at writing more), I can't say it enough. So difficult.

~~J

The Reading Hour(s)

With the semester over (first year of grad school DONE!), I can move into the "traditional" Summer phase of life.

You know, a "vacation/break" phase.

Since my seventeenth year, I have had a full-time job.

Not a summer job, but a every season/month/week of the year, filled with life/death responsibility job.

This summer is a bit different.

I'm still working on the (very academic) Flannery O'Connor Review for the next few weeks, but the hours are flexible. It just HAS to get done. I'm not confined to a singular location for nine hour stretches. I can "move" around and create/schedule as I go.

Basically, I need to take advantage of this time as much as possible.

Last night began the "reading hour." But really HOURS--where I "just" read/completed a "short novel" of my OWN choosing. It wasn't assigned--it was what I wanted to read.

Despite being free from academic parameters, I realize now that I read as a "writer" or as a "professor" (both books by Francine Prose). I can't get away from that part of me now, which is nothing to really complain about (yet).

So I read the "short novel" Rare & Endangered Species by Richard Bausch...which "demonstrates how a wife and mother's suicide reverberates in the small community where she lived, and affects the lives of people who don't even know her."

(so says the blurb on the back of Wives & Lovers, the collection it appears in and which won the PEN/Malamud Award)

So there are people who "don't even know her" in the story (they are closely connected), but the story really focuses on Andrea's two adult children (James and Maizie) shortly after she commits suicide. Because she didn't leave a note, they are both left to wonder WHY and do whatever they can to comfort their grieving father.

It is divided into sections: Single/Patiently/Penance/Desire/Good-Byes/Diurnal and reads as a "classic" American short story. Nothing fancy per se, but the families aren't fancy. They're everyday people dealing with the loss in their own way. Honest.

I calculated that I read at a rate of 56 pages per hour. (Is that fast? Is that slow?) In other words, it took me about 3 hours to finish it. Tonight I am going to tackle another "short" novel or novella, the relatively famous Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote.

~~J

Janet (tries) to Read.

Once upon a time, I started a reading project.

It didn't last.

Nevertheless, I've tried to modify it.

Ironically, the reason things went array, has given me a chance to finish reading an author's complete volume of work.

Thanks, graduate school!

I realize Flannery O'Connor was "only" able to finish two novels and 32 short stories before she died from complications of lupus. But I'm still determined to read all the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald (my original attempt).

EDIT: I have read all of Laura Zigman's novels (that should count for something because they're fabulous).

And I've even added a more contemporary writer on my list: Richard Bausch. The picture only shows nine books/collections--he has twenty. I've received another since this photograph was taken, which means I now have ten.

It is easy to be inspired to read (and write) when you're surrounded by others who do both.

Case in point, last month my MFA program hosted Julie Marie Wade. She won the 2010 Arts & Letters/Susan Atefat Prize in Creative Nonfiction. Not only did she read her winning essay, she also participated in an enlightening Q&A session.

I was lucky enough to spend a decent amount of time with her (dinners, coffee, and ghost hunting). What do writers talk about when they get together? Sometimes writing, learning, reading, teaching...

And I didn't feel like an Über Nerd. In fact, I felt quite the opposite.
----------------------

NOW (today) I can say that I've finished her book--Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures as well as one by Bausch These Extremes. They were both so wonderful! It's just slow-going when you're writing scholarly papers and trying to write your own work as well (excuses, excuses).
.
.
.
~~J

The Plan.

Although I don't exactly look like what Van Gogh painted in 1888 (which apparently sold late last year for more than three million dollars)... this is somewhat how I imagine myself to look as I read, read, read, read (you get the point) all of the assignments I need to finish before classes next week.

I am seventy-nine pages away from finishing Wise Blood (Flannery O'Connor). Then I've got seven "short" stories to read (three of those are submissions, as I am part of an editorial staff)...

remember that comprehension is implied when I'm talking about reading--which is evident up there too, because Van Gogh's reader is obviously paying close attention. Reading and annotating (I should've originally written)--but in my world they naturally go together.

I'm happy to be in submerged in the world of words right now, they are comforting--like a heavy mug of tea for the brain.

I'll worry about the writing, scheduling, and shopping later.

~~J

Literary Autobiography (2)

Mitchell.

Andrews.

Pascal.

(Pre-teen Reading)

Only 13, I remember having to check Gone With the Wind out from the library over a couple 6-week periods in order to finish it. It was the longest book I had read at the time.

V.C. Andrews (and her mystery formula) captured my attention when I was around 10. I got most of her books from a neighbor's "yard sale" bin. I continued to read these books until a few years ago.

The Sweet Valley Twins seemed like the coolest girls. I identified with Elizabeth, the "nerdy" sister who worked on the school newspaper. We even had a version of their "club" the Unicorns.

~~J

Literary Autobiography

Silverstein.

Cleary.
Blume.

Childhood.

(these are even the correct book covers!)

~~J

2.0.1.1

It's taken two weeks, coupled with a sudden cold (that just won't quit) to drive me back between the pages of a book.

Of course, it's something I didn't expect to read over break--nor is it very long (less than 200 pgs), but you have to start somewhere.

As someone without ambitions to write a novel (just yet), I'm happy to find a shorter novel that was a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.

With "new year" reading begun, I am also happy to announce some writing too. The previously mentioned four days spent knocking on death's door may mean that what I've managed to get down may not be too thrilling.

But words are words are words.

Both (reading and writing) are "resolutions" I plan to keep. I want to read a certain number (25 books in 52 weeks) as well as finishing ten pages per week (or 520 pages for the year).

NEW pages? I haven't decided whether or not to include "edited pages" in that number or not. But I don't need to over think it. I got that number from my "old" professor Richard Bausch (thank goodness for Facebook):

If you can craft two pages a day, two pages, and keep to the daily schedule--averaging two a day, so if you miss Sunday and Monday, you write four on Tuesday and Four on Wednesday. If you can keep to it, put your ass in the chair and keep to it--that's 730 pages in a year.

Lastly, from a classmate--check out this link Readers by Authors by Lauren Leto. It had me laughing so hard snot was running out of my nose. Great image, right?

~~J

Hello Dali!

For the love of high art
I am going to the High Art
to see the "late work"
Salvador Dali exhibit.

There are a few rare
painting, including a couple
that haven't been seen
in public (or the U.S.)
in over 50 years!

This will be the first time
I've visited a museum in
Atlanta--okay, not true.

I did visit the
Margaret Mitchell
house about ten years ago.

But this will be my "last" Georgia adventure of 2010 because then it's off to Memphis...(after I go back through Alabama and Mississippi).

To-Read Over Break list:
(finish) Where I'm Calling From (stories) by Raymond Carver
Runaway (stories) by Alice Munro
The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf
All Aunt Hagar's Children (stories) by Edward P. Jones
The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Jones and Diaz will be at AWP in February, so that's the big motivation there. The other three have just been calling out to me lately.


I also plan on knitting up a storm. Needles and yarn, beware! I hope you're cold because I see a lot of scarves in your very near future.


~~J

P.S. Click here for information about Dali's "Meditative Rose."

The Classic Bibliophile:

A couple years ago I got on a F. Scott kick.

(still love him to pieces)

Now it's time to make room for Virginia.

I've been "collecting" her works from the used bookstore, and now I feel I have a decent selection to read from...

Mrs. Dalloway

A Room of One's Own (reading now)

To The Lighthouse

The Voyage Out

Orlando

and today I picked up the Complete Shorter Fiction, which really helps me out (since I write short fiction). I'll finish this selection (she called these sketches) of 45 works before I get back to reading her novels.

Anything in stream of consciousness requires extra care when reading...and depending on your "state of mind" at the time, the story can read differently.

I know there is a lot more out there (I always look for her at the used bookstore), but I have more than enough to keep me busy for now.

Speaking of BUSY, I found another first edition John Updike today (now I have two)--S. and Museum & Women...this just adds to all the books I have "to read." According to my profile over at Goodreads.com, I have more than 90 books just waiting to be devoured.

What's a girl to do?

Keep reading and writing and buying books (used). They are my big, grand comfort in the world. As a writer (according to the IRS, to be a writer means to have sent out at least one manuscript in hopes of publication)...and a would-be professor (which I'll be qualified to do once I finish my MFA), books are more than my hobby.

They are my profession, my scholarly obsession.

~~J

Say It Ain' So:

I found out some horrible news this past week. One of my favorite places in Memphis is closing at the end of January.

My personal history with Bookstar began sometime in the Fall of 1996. I went there to find a book for a class I was taking at the University of Memphis...

I fell in love with the atmosphere, the quirky feel the building possessed....

(hence the not-so great black/white photos taken with my first digital camera)

But the space has a larger history, outside of myself. It used to be the Plaza Theater from 1952 until it closed in September 1989.

The renovation for a Bookstar kept a lot of the relics from the old movie theater, including the ticket booth outside the entrance, which helped to preserve the fun feel:

"Except for the leveled floor, the main room has the shape and feel of a large theater. A movie screen hangs over the magazine racks on one end of the room, and small projection windows overlook the room from the opposite wall." (commercial appeal article)

It's might seem strange to talk about the bathrooms, especially if you've never been to Bookstar...

BUT bathrooms seem to be known by everyone. I've had more than one conversation about them while discussing the sad, sad news.

(I took this photo of the retro lighting with my first digital camera too)

The best "part" is the sitting room attached to the main attraction.

From my best memory, I'd say the carpet is a dark giraffe print and the vinyl seats are a pale pink--I will be visiting a lot during Winter break.

If I could count all the papers I've worked on in the cafe' while looking out the windows onto Poplar Ave,


Or tell you about the poetry I've read in the aisles,

Or the magazines I've purchased (specifically The Oxford American),

Coffee I've drank, books I've ordered, time spent sitting on the floor in front of the craft section (yarn/knitting)...

It would equal a large number. Geez, so sad.

~~J

Home Again!

Does it surprise anyone that the first place I "visited" after coming home for break was a bookstore?

& I don't mean a chain bookstore or bookseller.

Of course, I went relatively early on Friday morning--because I got in late on Thursday night.

(but really, I went to the bank to deposit my very first grad school pay check FIRST)

So I was outside the main library...breathing in the October Memphis air, basking in the glorious sunshine, and getting a large tote bag out of the trunk of my car--

Finally I wandered through the doors and into the corner on the first floor where my most favorite used bookstore is located.

I thought about all the authors and titles I had heard mentioned in class or by my classmates. I was ready to scan shelves and browse 'til my heart burst with happiness.

And I did.

Somehow I ended up with two first edition E.L. Doctorow hardbacks. He is coming to campus as part of the Flannery O'Connor conference in April.

There was another first edition by Edward P. Jones I found, he will be at AWP in February.

(apparently I've become a name-dropper)

Annie Proulx, Tobias Wolff, T.C. Boyle, Anne Lamott, Carson McCullars...

The books I found were amazing. More Ian McEwan and Sylvia Plath. I grabbed the complete poetry collection of Dorothy Parker and a memoir by Augusten Burroughs. PLUS more.

After my book buying extravaganza, I called a former classmate (friend) and we met for lunch at Fino's.

This is where I had a great conversation with the new owner. We've had a running conversation on Facebook & he knew I was coming into town and would be circling his deli like a starving buzzard.

Conversations and Realizations. It's been a wonderful trip. A jarring but welcomed step back into the "outside" of grad school world.

I'm even staying any extra day.

~~J

Strange Bedfellow, Strange

I've found my self snugglin' up to a lot of...er...people...er...lately.
.
.
.
In the form of books
& papers
& handouts
& submissions
.
.
.

The other night I fell asleep with Raymond Carver. He was telling me stories and the next thing I knew I was face down with a trail of drool connecting me to my pillow.

Usually it's handouts though...pedagogical nuggets of wisdom that may be seeping into my brain by osmosis. Teaching theories from two separate classes, even. Whew!

(There is a binder labeled "Composition Theory" always on the corner of my bed.)

I haven't been able to spend too much time (or practically any time) with my canon of favorites though, F. Scott...THIS MEANS YOU! But really, the idea of "reading for pleasure" doesn't seem to exist anymore for me.

(I know classmates who still find time though.)

This weekend there was a new addition to my...snugglin' circle. Twenty-eight new additions to be exact. I'm getting around...but one of the honors of being a first-year MFA student means I get to read for the (undergraduate) Margaret Harvin Wilson writing award.

(Practice for grading papers next year, I suppose. Another "thing" for the curriculum vitae.)

I wonder if my brain resembles this ever-present pile of papers I chose to surround myself with...like stacks and stacks of pages filled with XX years of words and thoughts.

Is that the visual we have of Derrida's idea that Writing came before Speech?

Think of the "writing" that occurs when you are burning a CD. Now think of your brain as the biggest CD you can ever imagine...always working, always being written upon.

See. Writing before Speech. I think I picked that up via osmosis, it sounds vaguely (very) familiar to a concept discussed in class and I slept with that handout too.

~~J

In sickness and...

I have survived the great "MFA illness," which has swept through the program...

"survived" means
"still struggling with"

"swept" means
"affected about 30%"





So in reality, I still seem to be struggling with the great MFA illness, which has infected about 1/3 of the program.

(I nearly made references to the plague or consumption, but decided against it)

We're troopers though--boxes of tissue and bags of cough drops are being shared. Maybe if we stopped sharing we wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place?

Oh! And tea (again) has been ruling my life. Mostly at home (my roommate has a hot tea maker) --but I may have gone to class with a cup o'tea yesterday. And since it wasn't planned, a classmate may have happened to have an extra tea bag with her...

In other news: I got books in the mail. Of course, the titles include:

Preparing College Teachers of Writing:

Histories, Theories, Programs, Practices

Teaching with The Bedford Guide for College Writers:

Background Readings

(a little different from the E.L. Doctorow and Alice Friman I got a couple weeks ago)

I know you want to borrow these JUST as soon as I'm finished. Too bad. But really, I'm excited about them (I think). Unfortunately, they are just two of WAY TOO MANY that I'm working with for one class...

This is the life of an MFA student. We are studying/learning on at least three different levels...our craft (genre), literature, and teaching (theory).

Oy! But I did manage to catch a campus performance of To Kill A Mockingbird last night. And I still haven't talked about the AJC DBF yet either. I will, I will.

~~J

Past? Meet Future.

As much as I LOVE books, they can be a little bit intimidating.

Today, I was in an office where every scholarly volume dealing with Flannery seems to be housed.

(or seems to be housed)

Shelf after shelf after shelf.

SEE?

This is just a minuscule example snapped by my little camera in my BlackBerry. It doesn't do the collection any sort of justice.

Included in this amazing collection are several shelves of other great Southern Writers. Eudora Welty. Katherine Anne Porter. Alice Walker...

I'm reminded of one of my favorite episodes of the Golden Girls in which Blanche has decided to become a writer, more specifically a great Southern novelist:

"I'm too tired to sleep, I may never sleep again. My body is limp with exhaustion, all the greats know what this feels like." (Blanche)

Dorothy asks her to expand on the other great Southern writers, but Blanche can't--it sends me into giggles, of course.

I regress. THIS is what it all looks like...books on two novels, 32 short stories, personal letters, and some prose. They are obsessed with Flannery O'Connor.

THEY being THEM. Scholars. Students. Academia.

Which is what WE do. We write. We study. We take apart and analyze every facet of not only the author's work, but the author's life.

The intimidation comes two fold (or three, or four).

These books represent what I do NOT know nor what I own. They represent all the work that is always being done. Universities (research) is a place of flux.

And they could also represent what a library representing studies on any one of the writers in this MFA program (students and faculty alike) may look like at some point in the future.

~~J

Obscenus!

“I never knew a girl who was ruined by a book."
--James Walker

I watched an interesting documentary via Netflix tonight entitled Obscene (2007).

It follows Barney Rosset of Grove Press, who published several alternative/literary classics in the U.S. when no one else would:

D.H. Lawrence (Lady Chatterley's Lover)
Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer)
Allen Ginsberg (Howl)
William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch)

It's a long documentary (as far as documentaries go)--more than an hour and a half in length. Some of it is a bit boring, while other parts are interesting. There is a lot about the Evergreen Review, a literary journal also published by Rosset from 1957-1973...(is now back Online) exciting!

I found out Grove Press is the exclusive U.S. publisher of the unabridged complete works of the Marquis de Sade....I own Justine as well as Lady Chatterley's Lover--but I have only scanned/skimmed through them...I haven't made it cover to cover yet.

Of course, I own four volumes of Anaïs Nin's journals and her Delta of Venus (related because of her famous relationship with Henry Miller).

Five of the authors Rosset had the nerve to publish have even gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature!

If none of these titles mean anything to you, here is a selection from the top 100 Banned/Challenged Books last decade (2000-2009) according to the American Library Association:

1 Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
5 Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
10 The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
14 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

15 The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16 Forever, by Judy Blume
17 The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
19 Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
21 To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

26 Beloved, by Toni Morrison
28 Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
29 The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
33 Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
36 Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

43 Blubber, by Judy Blume
46 Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
49 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50 The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
55 Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green

65 The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
67 A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
69 Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
72 Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
74 The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

81 Black Boy, by Richard Wright
87 Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
88 The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
89 Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
90 A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle

Do you feel like READING? I feel like writing!

~~J