Anyone think I should send this to the Guardian in protest? Anyone see any significant holes in it? Germaine Greer recently wrote: The latest sensation to galvanise the torpid lit-hist-crit establishment is the “discovery” by market research analyst John Lauritsen that Mary Shelley did not write Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus (to give the novel its full title). Who is Lauritsen? Apparently, some market-research-analyst gay-rights activist who’s mostly known for arguing that the kaposy’s sarcoma common among AIDS patients is caused not by AIDS itself, by a certain drug in vogue among gay clubbers, and that HIV doesn’t really lead …
Category: REVIEWS
They Didn’t React As Expected
In this fascinating piece titled Pearls Before Breakfast is discussed an experiment conducted by the Washington post regarding how people perceive music in public spaces. What happens when one of the best classical musicians in America puts on a baseball cap and goes busking in Washington, D.C.? The article raises some really interesting questions about American culture, about art, about contexts for art. It brings to mind a question that’s been bugging me: is the blog a good context for writing to be presented? I’m beginning to think it isn’t.
All in a Day
I finished reading a really good book today. Happy happy.But you need to wait for my end-of-April reviews to hear more. I am finally deep into reworking my Korean superheroes story. So far, it’s just small edits and collating the comments from my crit group — the comments I happen to agree with, anyway — but much of tomorrow and Sunday will be taken up with shoulder/digital-grindstone interfacing. After that, we’ll see. I spent an hour this evening with a tiny class of mine, discussing the first page-and-a-half of the graphic novel V for Vendetta with my students, kind of …
Classmate News
My classmates/mates (in the British/Australian sense of the word, mind you) have had some good news of late. I don’t remember whether I announced Guy making a sale to Postscripts, but he did. Tinatsu sold a Clarion West story — from the first week, I think — to Shimmer. Caroline‘s sold another story (a Clarion West story, in fact) to Fantasy. Now, go and read Tina‘s excellent poem “Rehydrated”, which is online at Strange Horizons. Here’s to many more stories in print. I’m hoping to have some news to add to that list, soon.
Dear Mr. Vonnegut,
Bye, and thanks for everything.
Night Music, With David Sanborn?
Remember that show? Man, I was so into that show, but I never saw Bill Frisell on it. Damn! You know, for all that the 80s were a sad, embarrassing joke of a decade, you couldn’t have a TV show like Night Music anymore… when it’s all just about having music shows on TV. Of course, you shouldn’t need it in a vibrant culture — there’d be interesting live music everywhere — but living in Saskatchewan, and being into this kind of stuff, being crazy about saxophone and creative music — different music! — and never getting to hear much …
Perfume (the movie)
I finally saw Perfume today, and feel inspired to reread the book, and to start writing an essay about it. I actually read the book, on the recommendation of my friend Young Ja, a few years ago, but I can’t remember it all that clearly, and if I am to write on the subject, I’ll have to review it. In fact, I feel inspired to write a whole book of criticism of the kind I’d like to see, because I haven’t seen anything of the kind before. You see, I want to read a book of literary criticism which starts …
March Readings, Part 1(.5)
Since my last post about readings was February/March, this one is March, Part 1.5. It’s been a busy month, and I’ve also been switching back and forth between a lot of different things, so I hardly read as much as I would like to be able to say I had. However, it’s been a month of very good, worthwhile reading. Picking up from where I left off, I tore through Small Beer Press’ LCRW No. 11, which was sent to me by the lovely and (enviably) talented Tina Connolly. My suspicion that it might be a worthwhile zine to subscribe …
House Concert
Went to a concert last weekend. It was a show at which Kang Tae Hwan and Park Chang-soo performed. “How did you know about him?” my girlfriend asked me, after the show. I had to be honest and admit that I have no idea how I first learned of Kang, but I know that anyone who’s searching for local free jazz in Korea is finally going to encounter his name. His name, but not his CDs. They’re very hard to find (more about that later). Kang’s approach to the saxophone reminds me of nobody else, really. Imagine taking the amount …
Writing Up a Storm
My progress bar plugin congratulated me today for writing up a storm, but I accept no responsibility for the downpour that’s been falling off-and-on over the last few days. I have been writing a lot, though. I just polished off a 2nd redraft (meaning a 4th draft total) of a story that’s still being called Solvjaynghi’s Christmas Wish. It’s an 8200-word seasonal beast that’s next in line for criticisms with my regular crit group. Aside from this story, everything else has been light work. The light work hasn’t been that light, however: a couple of drafts ago, I had a …