Sorry bloggy, it's been so long! Last we spoke (late, t.v. bound) I was stuck in a word mire that amounted to nothing but practice. But! I started a new story and wrote it in a week and now I'm waiting until I'm slightly less excited about it so I can make some wise revisioning happen. Am I good at structure? Hell no. My hook and push at plot needs work, as in, I don't even consider it. My structure is confusion and lists and terror towards the end and then confused calm, or some strange image that I woke and wrote in the middle of the night. Erratic. The other stuff so far in this story, I think I like.
I heard Mary Gaitskill read from "Don't Cry," her latest story collection, at the NYU Writer's House this evening and she used her eyes in this flashy way while she spoke that I liked, and she has really nice hands. People asked some moderately uninteresting questions and her answers were as unexpected and perceptive and usefully instructive as I had hoped they would be.
Does this reading log I have on the side here mean anything? Is it stupid? Does it seem pretentious? I can't tell. I'm actually a little embarrassed about it because I'm sure plenty of people read more interesting things than I do, and more of them more quickly, but I kind of like seeing it, to remember what I've been through, especially when I'm reading borrowed books. What if I started noting everything I ever read, like every lit journal or story or poem or article or blog post or manual or shampoo bottle or subway advisory? At least I'm not doing that.
I'm reading Chris Ware's graphic novel "Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth" but I only read it for a certain amount of time at home every day because 1) it's heavy and I don't want to lug it around in public and 2) it's so sad. So good, but I've already almost started crying twice and not because of what happened really (well, maybe that scene where the dad has to drop a cinder block and the mouse audience is watching...if that means something to you) but because of a small motion or subtle change between frames that was so striking in its simplicity and weight. Let's just say I'm a happily miserable Ware fan. I'm also reading some Lawrence Weschler essays, htmlgiant obsessively, daily, feedback from classmates on my story, and George Saunders's "Pastoralia." I'm working on a letter to Cameron in Korea and considering making him cookies, but I don't know if they'll make it. I wish I could go to Korea.
One of the Korean students I work with often at the writing center at FIT, this woman Damee who is an amazing artist and toy designer and makes the cutest friggin boards for her toys I have ever seen, told me that when she first came to New York from Korea for a visit, her purse was stolen and she had twenty dollars for one week. She couldn't ask anyone for help and she really wanted to see Van Gogh's "Starry Night" at MoMA so she spent that money to go see it and didn't eat for three days. It was so romantic, this story. I was gaping. I wanted to hold her hand. And then she said something like, "Being hungry is not fun. And the painting was so small." And then we talked about how Chuck Close is a cheater. Chew on that, next time you eat or don't eat, ignoring art. I guess I'd rather eat? People get weird when they're extremely hungry; I'd probably get too weird.
where is your story. I am ready and need to read it now.
ReplyDeleteReading lists are good, but only of books, and they are a bit "Look at me, world!" But they're also sort of "Fuck you, world! I'll read what I want and parade it about and I've probably read more than you."
ReplyDeleteThis leads me to you reading Matt Klam, which I never would have known if not for what I'm now calling this very useful and vital list to my right.
What did you think of that book? Is he a male writer? What the fuck is a male writer? I had a workshop with him.
Wow! What a great transition back into the gendered writer/reader discussion we had over Puerto Rican food at the place I lived by and never went to, like a total doofus. What I was not a doofus about however, was this argument that I basically owned. No need to expound upon that.
ReplyDeleteA male gave me that Mathew Klam book, but not because he thought I would like it necessarily (hm); he just sort of handed me a few books off his shelf and I started reading that one and liked it so I took it. I loved the first half then changed my mind towards the end. I gave the male book back to the male and he said, Yeah, I didn't really think you'd like it. But I did. I did and didn't. It is a man book that is interesting to a female for approximately 75 pages but he should never write about abortion again because he's not good at it, and he should never again mention the texture of a woman's hair because he's done it enough.
You had a workshop with him? Wow. What does he value? In life and writing.
Haha, yes, you destroyed any semblance of a retort on my end. I was mostly shocked that I was suddenly cast in this very stark, sexist light. In further news, I have conferenced with my closest male colleagues and the verdict is this:
ReplyDeleteI have not read enough female writers for me to nonchalantly discount your claims.
And
I have read far more female writers than any other guy I know. This wasn't even a close count. Also, most of the guys I know who are writers and read a lot said they only read female writers when assigned.
I realized I've also read an ass-ton of Woolf: Moments of Being. The Death of a Moth. Most of A Room of One's Own. Some of Jacob's Room. Some of To the Lighthouse. Some other essays and stories and background for a final paper I wrote on Moments of Being. I also started The Waves.
I've also read every story Katherine Anne Porter ever wrote, which, as far as pretentious reading lists go, is pretty impressive.
As for the Klam, I'd happily discuss that in person.