Talking White

Regular readers, to the extent that there are any, know that I have been amusing myself in recent months by writing about various skirmishes in America's on-going culture wars.

With respect to literature, the conflict is mainly an attack on the status of whites, and particularly white males, as being inappropriately in control of how writing should be crafted -- what is good, what is bad; what is noteworthy and what is not; what should be included in "the canon."

The other day, I stumbled on another skirmish, from which I will present an excerpt without comment.

The Purpose of Fiction -- Revisited

If asked, most people would probably say fiction is a form of entertainment -- in contrast to, say, non-fiction, which would probably be identified as a form of enlightenment.

But fiction is arguably other things as well.

Nugyen Should Reconsider What Thanksgiving Is For

In the wake of his 2016 Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Sympathizer," Viet Thanh Nugyen has donned the cloak of public intellectual, becoming a prominent voice in the intensifying U.S. culture wars. I previously wrote about his condemnation of alleged white-male domination of writers' workshops here.

But why stop there? Why not reform the Thanksgiving holiday as well?

In a recent piece in The New York Times, Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam, asks: "What is wrong with saying that Thanksgiving is about genocide as much as it is about gratitude?" That, in fact, is what he has been teaching his now four-year-old biracial son.

Fiction as Autobiography

Earlier this year, the New York Times Sunday Book Review ran a piece by Jami Attenberg entitled "It's My Fiction, Not My Life." I clipped it out when it ran and then lost it in a pile of papers.

Authors, Attenberg noted, are very frequently asked by readers how much of a story they have written is autobiographical. Some smile are willing to answer in one fashion or another, no matter how frequently they are asked. But many others are not so accommodating.

Getting Rid of Western Canonical Values

The literary canon -- essentially a list of books considered the most worthy of consideration -- has long been a pillar of Western culture even if there has been disagreement over exactly which works should be included.  But most have been written by white males and as diversity increases in the U.S. as a result of large-scale non-white immigration in the post-WWII period, that seems to be a growing problem: part of the "culture wars" I have increasingly been writing about.

What Sort of a Man was Odysseus?

Well, according to an article in the Nov. 5, 2017, New York Times Sunday Magazine, there is little agreement on that.

The article reports on University of Pennsylvania professor Emily Wilson whose recent translation of Homer's "Odyssey" is the first by a woman. And, according to Wyatt Mason, the author of the article, Wilson renders Homer's work in a radically new voice compared with all that has gone on before -- and there have apparently been about 60 previous English language translations.

Thinking About "The Long Goodbye"

"This sturdy belief system [that if one just tries hard enough, things will work out] has a sidecar in which superstition rides."

That's a sentence I like very much even if motorcycles with sidecars seem to be a rarity these days.

In fact, it may be the most memorable single sentence in "The Long Goodbye," a memoir poet Megan O'Rourke wrote about prolonged grief during and in the wake of her mother's death from cancer at age 55. I read the book because I liked a poem O'Rourke wrote that was recently published in The New York Times  Sunday Magazine.  In an earlier post, I wrote about the poem ("Self-Portrait as Myself") because it relates to my novella "Gina/Diane."

Trump's Tactics and The Two Narratives

The current flap over whether Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is in some way responsible for Tuesday's apparent terrorist attack that killed eight individuals in Manhattan is illustrative of two trends I have been writing about.

The most straight forward is a salient element of President Donald Trump's modus operandi and one that his supporters love: the best defense is a strong offensive.

Women and Identity Politics

With the degree of misogyny evident in the last U.S. presidential election and with the on-going Hollywood-led sexual harassment scandals, one would think that just being a woman would suffice to be a member of a political identity group.

But no, it apparently gets more finely sliced than that with white women under attack along with white men in the prevailing U.S. culture wars that may increasingly determine political outcomes.

Here's a Washington Post story about a recent conference in Detroit attended by about 4,000 women. What struck me about it was the following paragraph:

Identity issues were a theme of many of the convention events, which included a workshop titled “Confronting White Womanhood,” for “white women committed to being part of an intersectional feminist movement to unpack the ways white women uphold and benefit from white supremacy.”

Unpack? Then what?

Reed College and the Ongoing Culture Wars

Recently, I seem to be writing more about the fact that this is a country of two different narratives, and about the associated culture wars, than about fiction.

In brief, one narrative has it that as diversity increases, in large part due to continuing, significant, non-white immigration, the country is going to change significantly, and for the better as more voices are heard and new populations acquire power, money and command of culture.

The other narrative is that America is great because it is, in effect, the culmination of European culture that traces its values and intellectual notions to ancient Greece and Rome. Certain numbers of non-white, non-Europeans are welcome, but they should accept and adapt to the long-standing white culture and political power.

A Wellspring of Identity Culture and Politics

In a recent post that can be found here, I wrote about challenges to our traditional, northern-European-centric culture -- a culture critics argue enshrines what has become known as white privilege.

Americans of other racial and cultural backgrounds have found it hard to break through the barriers such a culture presents, but there have definitely been success stories, and they may be increasing in number. As that happens, will the country drift further and further into culture wars and identity politics?

Fertile New Ground for Fiction

Amazon just announced new devices and services that will allow the company to remotely open a locked door and deliver packages inside a person's house as opposed to leaving them outside.

But according to an article in The Seattle Times, there is much more to it than just that.

Cruelty and The Human Condition

My previous post reported on the latest annual "greats" issue of T, The New York Times Style Magazine,  in which one of the chosen seven was South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook.

According to T editor Hanya Yanagihara, "greats" are people who have made an impact so significant that the rest of us of us begin to categorize their field of art in terms of what came before them and what came afterward.

The Importance of Disruption in the Arts

When one hears the word "disruption" these days, it is generally in the economic context -- venture capitalists searching for the next big high-tech startup capable of upsetting traditional means of doing business and reaping billions of dollars in profits by so doing.

But according  the editor of T, the New York Times Style Magazine, disruption is just as important as a means of advancing the arts.  The Oct. 22, 2017 edition of T is devoted to "the greats" -- seven living persons chosen collectively by the publication's staff as being exceptional in their fields for arguably bringing about fundamental change.

Is Broadway Part of "The Problem?"

What is the problem?

In a slightly earlier post, I discussed the notion that America seems to be a nation of two narratives, and that has led to an extremely divisive political climate.

1) As a result of immigration and associated demographic shifts, whites appear to be heading toward minority status and as a result, power and culture will and should change.

2) White culture and white power should continue indefinitely, in part by curbing immigration, but also by getting rid of certain government programs and preferences for minorities such as affirmative action that are artificially and unfairly boosting such populations.

How does Broadway figure in this divide?

A Poem Pertinent to "Gina/Diane"

The other day, I came across a poem in the New York Times Sunday Magazine  entitled "Self-Portrait as Myself," which you can read by clicking on that title.

I found this particularly poignant because the sentiments expressed by the author, Meghan O'Rourke, are pertinent to my novella "Gina/Diane," which can be found in print at The Book Patch or as an e-book at Amazon.

I also like the manner in which the poem promotes additional thoughts.

For instance, one line talks in terms of "casting a lawyer of snow over our losses." This rather vividly brings to mind Gretta's sorrow and Gabriel's sense of inadequacy at the conclusion of James Joyce's story, "The Dead."

Later, the poem talks of "the propeller planes humming past."  One of the joys of sitting on our roof deck in the summer here in Seattle is watching float planes on their way to or from Lake Union. These are mostly De Havilland "Beavers," the last of which was built in 1967. Fortunately, they appear likely to keep flying more or less indefinitely.

The U.S.: A Nation of Competing Narratives?

Instead of talking about fiction, here's a brief word about society and politics.

Like a lot of people I have been puzzling over how we got where we are and in the course of doing so, I have been reading a lot more conservative commentary than I used to.

"The Little Foxes:" a Play for Our Time

I just saw the current Broadway revival of Lillian Hellman's play "The Little Foxes," first performed in 1939 and subsequently made into a film starting Bette Davis in 1941.

Hellman was a Southern, Jewish, ultra-liberal author and playwright (she was a member of the Communist Party for a couple of years) and "The Little Foxes" depicts how the rapacious pursuit of wealth in a capitalist environment crushes human values, destroying marriages and families in the process.

Pippa's dress; The Power of Attire; Manhattan Morning

A day or so ago, The New York Times felt compelled to publically agonize -- on page 2 of the printed edition -- over whether it should have covered the wedding of Pippa Middleton to James Mathews, which it described as "a private family event" as opposed to something of public significance.

Well, yes, the ceremony itself and ensuing festivities were for guests only, but the event wasn't entirely private. The new Mrs. Matthews was said by the paper to have "posed happily for waiting photographers" after the ceremony in her very charming, lace-bodiced wedding gown by British designer Giles Deacon.

Listening to Women Who Have Had Abortions

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, my second novella -- "Gina/Diane" -- is about a woman who has had an abortion.

With the abortion rights controversy heating up once again in the wake of the recent U.S. presidential election, those interested might want to take a look at the book. They can find it as an e-book on Amazon or as a paperback at The Book Patch.

Meanwhile, here is an opinion piece from the New York Times on the topic entitled "Who Should You Listen to on Abortion? People Who’ve Had Them."

Art and a Pineapple

What qualifies as a work of art?

That's not a new question, but rather an ever-present one, at least since around the turn of the 20th century when non-representational, or highly distorted images, came to dominate cutting edge artistic activity and when "found objects" became viewed as equally legitimate to a work that might have taken months to create and only with great skills of one sort or another.

Now comes the celebrated case of the Pineapple, which reopens the question for, one suspects, a lot of younger people who have never previously given the issue much thought.

Do Misfits Have More Insight on the Human Condition?

"I think anybody who has become an artist has learned to claim being a misfit as something that’s cool. Standing outside of the frame is part of what enables us to have insight," said Emily Raboteau, author of "The Professor's Daughter," a novel about a young woman trying to come to terms with a mixed-race background very similar to her own.

She was taking part in a roundtable discussion on what is sometimes called confessional writing published by Literary Hub.

When It Comes To What To Read, Are You a Sheep?

From time to time, I've told people that self-publishing a novel is one of the best ways to assure your anonymity in the ever-increasing surveillance society. Hardly anyone, it seems, makes their own decisions on what to read. Everyone wants to read what everyone else is already reading.

Further evidence of this all-too-human tendency -- essentially we are all sheep, hoping their is a leader around somewhere -- can be found in an article about declining book sales when best-seller lists are discontinued. It comes from an online publication called The Outline.

The Abortion Question: A Good Time to Read "Gina/Diane"

Ok, this is a plug for my latest novella, "Gina/Diane."

Abortion rights is a prominent political issue at the moment, not that it ever seems to go away. Here, for instance, is an article on the topic from The Washington Post and here is another from The New York Times. The Post article discusses how Democrats are wrestling over whether this should be a defining issue for the party. The NYT piece talks about how senior posts within the Department of Health and Human Services are being filled with people opposed to abortion rights.

"Gina/Diane" is not a story about abortion. It's a story about a woman who had one and how that event affected the rest of her life.

It's a good read in the current environment -- if I say so myself.

Quote of the Day: On The Rewards of Writing

"If you’re going to write, you’re going to have to find a reason to do it that has nothing to do with money or recognition or award."

That, says poet Hala Alyan in a Literary Hub article, is because publishers mostly say "no."

I also liked the following from the same article:

"We are living in an age of borders, a moment when people will either cling to those borders or try to dismantle them. A time when language matters more than ever, when words can be used to stoke or resist fear, as people try to criminalize words like 'immigrant' and 'trans' and 'Black.' Reclaim language. Allow writing to transcend those borders."

I don't agree with President Trump on much, but I do agree that political correctness has gone too far.

We Have Met The Enemy And He Is NOT "Us"

Those old enough to remember the cartoon strip "Pogo" (my personal all-time favorite) know that the headline of this post is a paraphrase of one of Walt Kelly's most famous lines and it came to mind most recently when I read Viet Thanh Nguyen's piece "Your Writing Tools Aren't Mine" in the April 30, 2017, New York Times Sunday Book Review section.

"Flâneuse": More About Women Than Walking

The first chapter of "Flâneuse," a recent book by Lauren Elkin, makes a case that women can, or at least should be able to, enjoy an activity traditionally associated with a certain type of man: walking about a city more or less aimlessly, soaking up its serendipitous sights, sounds, aromas and pleasures. In short, becoming a connoisseur of the urban experience.

The original term, flâneur, apparently dates back to 16th or 17th century France, but wasn't widely referenced until the 19th century when it became principally associated with a description of such activity by the French poet Charles Baudelaire.

An Important Anniversary for Self Publishing

This is an important anniversary for self-publishing: the Hogarth Press is 100 years old.

In March 1917, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, then living at Hogarth House in the London suburb of Richmond, purchased a hand-operated printing press and with it, first published "Two Stories" in July of the same year -- Leonard's mostly forgotten "Three Jews" and Virginia Woolf's experimental, modernist work entitled "The Mark on the Wall."

Obama's Wall Street Fee: I Wish It Were Fiction

I've taken a couple of whacks at Donald Trump in the course of writing this blog and now I'm going to have to take one at his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Obama's apparent decision to accept a fee of $400,000 from Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street investment banking and financial services firm, for making a speech at a healthcare conference this coming September is disgusting and disgraceful.

The Appeal of a Twist in Opera and Fiction

One well-known genre is the coming-of-age novel, represented perhaps most famously by J.D. Salinger's classic, Catcher in the Rye. The opposite might be called the fading-away novel, here represented by Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending.

First published in 2011, it won the coveted Man Booker Prize, but I just got around to reading it, and wasn't planning to write anything about it until I took a course from the Seattle Opera in how to write a libretto.

Apocalypse When?

Maybe it's global warming; maybe it's those mosquitos or the collapse of bee colonies; maybe it's Brexit, or maybe it's the election of Donald Trump, but apocalypse is in the air -- again.

The historical Jesus is generally described as an apocalyptic prophet who preached that the end -- the day of judgement -- was very near and all should be ready.  A couple thousand years later, we are still waiting. Those four horses we've been expecting -- self-driving electric vehicles instead?

Gender in Life and Fiction

Today's New York Times has an op-ed piece entitled "My Daughter Is Not Transgender. She’s a Tomboy." It's by Lisa Selin Davis,  author of a young adult novel called “Lost Stars,” and in the Times article, she describes how her seven-year-old daughter is constantly asked whether she wants to be identified as a boy because of the way she dresses and because of her shaggy, short hair.

This, of course, reflects America's current hypersensitivity about gender issues: the idea that gender is something one can choose, as opposed to something one is born with, and the idea that it is a violation of a person's civil rights if such choices -- perhaps not always obvious -- are not respected.

"Gina/Diane" -- Life After an Abortion

I recently published my second novella, entitled "Gina/Diane."  It is available as an e-book on Amazon and Smashwords, and as a printed paperback at The Book Patch. (Click on the names of those retailers to purchase the book.)

Here is what it is about:

When a younger man named Hartley encounters and older woman named Diane dancing with her dog on a lonely, out-of-season beach in North Carolina, he ends up unexpectedly spending the evening with her.  She's a shape-shifting cougar with a problematic pet, but she also has a poignant and disturbing story to tell about an abortion at age 17, and how that event impacted her subsequent life.

When Hartley inadvertently asks a question that opens Diane's floodgates, he finds that he has no way out of an exquisitely uncomfortable situation.  A bachelor who lives with a cat in Manhattan, empathy isn't Hartley's strongest suit and he has no prior dealing with what Diane has been through.

Thanks in part to a photo that helps him understand more about what Diane lost, he listens with increasing interest to her gritty account of how she clawed herself upward only to have her past rob her of her greatest success. Diane appreciates Hartley's willingness to listen and she's intrigued that he might be able to make good use of her story despite finding him lacking in certain important respects. Can the evening result in a rewarding outcome for them both -- and that pesky dog?

Fiction and What Woment Wear

Some readers of my novella "Manhattan Morning" have wondered why my protagonist, Dan, spends so much of his time thinking about attire -- mostly female but not entirely -- as he walks around midtown.

His excuse in the book, if he needs one, is that his former wife worked in the fashion industry and that as a result, clothes were a constant topic of consideration and conversation. He has been conditioned to be observant.

"The Sympathizer:" A Perspective on the Vietnam War

Much has already been written about "The Sympathizer," a Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen that takes a different slant on the Vietnam war.

It wasn't on my reading list, but it was given to me and I was going on a trip that promised long waits in airport lounges and long hours on airplanes so I thought, why not?

The Art of The Deal & The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight

Time out for some important news from our Nation's Capital, otherwise known as Washington D.C., or in the words of the incumbent President, "the swamp."

Well what's been going on?

"The Donald" (that's our president) and most Republican legislators campaigned on repealing and replacing Obamacare.  It was going to be all so simple and in the words of the President, "everyone" would end up "beautifully insured."

Today in Congress, this critical issue -- getting rid of Obamacare -- came to a head. When all was said and done, they couldn't do it.

The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight (that's the majority House Republicans) met "The Art of the Deal" (that's The Donald) and the result was a continuation of Obamacare.

As the old cartoon character Pogo famously put it: "we have met the enemy and it is us." That, in a nutshell, was what is was all about for Trump and the Republicans.

What next?

Magical Realism as Deus ex Machina at Lincoln Center

I've mentioned or  written about "How to Transcend a Happy Marriage," a current play by Sarah Ruhl, in a couple of previous posts, which you can find here and here.  But I want to touch on one more aspect of the piece before moving on.

When Greek playwrights spun out complicated and seemingly unresolvable plots, they would sometimes call upon divine intervention to sort things out. A god would be typically lowered onto the stage  from somewhere above (deus ex machine) and employing super-human powers, bring about a happy ending.

Danspace Project: The Sun God Apollo and The Higgs Boson

Is there a connection between Apollo, the Greek and Roman sun god, and the Higgs Boson, an elusive element or aspect of particle physics?

Most definitely in the view of dancer Emily Coates and physicist Sarah Demers who have for the past few years collaborated on connections between science and the arts, and are currently in the process of co-authoring a book on physics and dance.

Was Rome Founded on the Basis of Fake News?

Well, if you believe Henry Purcell's only opera, "Dido and Aeneas," the answer is yes. The foundation of Rome definitely stemmed from a serious incidence of fake news.

Why bring this up now?  Well, fake news is definitely in the news and equally to the point, the Mark Morris Dance Group is currently performing Purcell's  opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music along with a short opera by Benjamin Britten called "Curlew River."

Handel the Merciful: His Last Oratorio, "Jephtha"

Despite the fact he never married, or perhaps because of it, no one to my knowledge has ever accused the baroque composer George Frideric Handel of being a misogynist. Quite the contrary, he frequently re-wrote parts of The Messiah so that sopranos in particular and other soloists could appear at their best.

Handel was definitely a "singer's composer."

Idomeneo: The Story of Abraham With a Twist?

Attending Mozart's "Idomeneo" at the Met the other night got me thinking -- and I'm certainly not the first to have made this connection -- of the Biblical story of Abraham.

In both cases, a god requires a mortal to kill his first-born or at least most important son. That's perhaps the most difficult order a father could receive, in a patriarchal society at any rate.

The Met: Elza van den Heever's Mad Scene Steals the Show

When one thinks of operatic mad scenes, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor almost inevitably comes to mind first and foremost and not without reason. That, of course, is in the opera of the same name.

But last night at the Metropolitan Opera, South African-born soprano Elza van den Heever stole the show in Mozart's Idomeneo with a riveting performance of Elettra's meltdown when her long-shot hopes of marrying Prince Idamante are finally dashed by Neptune, god of the sea.

Van den Heever's performance was not only vocally splendid, her acting was captivating.

All You Need is Love, or How to Tanscend a Happy Marriage

In 1967, the Beatles released what was arguably their sappiest song: "All You Need Is Love." It became an anthem of the hippie era -- encapsulating the sentiment of the San Francisco Summer of Love -- much the way "We Shall Overcome" became an anthem of the slightly earlier civil rights movement.

The notion that love can conquer all is back, in the form of a play by Sarah Rhul called "How to transcend a happy marriage" that is currently playing in New York at Lincoln Center.

Identity Defined by Sexual Practices

In an earlier post, I talked about how Maggie Nelson, a current darling of intellectual feminism, defines herself by the nature of her sexual practices.

Today I saw "How to transcend a happy marriage" at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, a play by Sarah Ruhl where, among other things, the same theme arises.

A Mother's Judgement

When it comes to assessing success or failure in life, it's interesting how often individuals measure themselves against what their mothers believe -- even while often rebelling against them.

This is probably particularly true in cultures that are very family-focused, such that of the Chinese.

An example can be seen in a poem written by Chinese-American poet Chen Chen who is gay while his brothers apparently are not.

"I am a gay sipper [a cautious person], & my mother has placed what's left of her hopes on my brothers," says one line of Chen's poem "Self-Portrait as So Much Potential."

"Beautiful sons," the poem ends, referring to all but the poet himself.

By clicking on the name of the poem above, you can read the entire short piece as printed in a recent edition of the New York Times Sunday magazine.

I recommend it.

Lincoln in the Bardo: An American Chorale

In a previous post, I referred to George Sanders' first novel, "Lincoln in the Bardo" as the current "book of the moment."

What sort of a book is it?  Well, among many other things, it has been described as a cacophony of voices.

That may be most evident in the audio version for which Saunders rounded up 166 different people, one for each voice in the book.

"I love the way that the variety of contemporary voices mimics and underscores the feeling I tried to evoke in the book: a sort of American chorale," Saunders told Time Magazine.

George Saunders & Katie Kitamura: One Thing In Common

What do George Saunders and Katie Kitamura have in common apart from having just published highly regarded novels?  It turns out they both like a book called "The Argonauts" by Maggie Nelson which revolves around .... well, anal sex.

Saunders, whose debut novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" currently qualifies as Book-of-the-Moment, was asked in a recent "New York Times" interview "what's the last great book you have read?"

Another Answer to the Reader of "Manhattan Morning"

In a recent post on Italian novelist Elena Ferrante, I mentioned American artist Marilyn Minter and now I am going to quote her again.

"Fashion is one of the engines of culture. You see who your tribe is by the way they present themselves -- and even if you're someone who doesn't care what you look like or don't put yourself together, that's a tribe!"

So she said in a recent New York Times interview.

I mention that because a reader of my novella, "Manhattan Morning," expressed surprise over what she said was a focus in my book on women's clothing styles.

An Answer to a Reader of "Manhattan Morning"

In my last post about comments from readers of "Manhattan Morning," someone asked several questions that I didn't then answer. 

Here's the answer to one of them: "where did the story come from and how much of it is autobiographical?"

Elena Ferrante Seen as a Writer of "Competition"

I was scanning through the New York Times  Sunday Magazine today and came across an interview with Marilyn Minter, an artist who once painted women's public hair for "Playboy Magazine," only to have the magazine ultimately decide not to print the images.

Now they are hanging on a wall at the Brooklyn Museum as one part of a major retrospective of Minter's work entitled "Pretty/Dirty."

Ghost Stories and the Line Between the Living and the Dead

I was reading the New York Times Sunday magazine the other day and came across an interesting little item entitled "How to Tell A Ghost Story." If you've never written one, but would like to try your hand at it, the brief article is  definitely worth a read.

The tips contained in the article are attributed to Ruth Robbins, professor of Victorian Literature at Leeds Beckett University in England, and she makes several interesting points, among them that people tend to be possessed by their possessions.  That's a notion that authors of many genres of fiction might want to keep in mind.

The Role of the Dead in the Lives of the Living

The other night, I attended a performance of "Cinderella" by the Pacific Northwest Ballet.  This was not a conventional "Cinderella," such as that choreographed by Fredrick Ashton and performed by the American Ballet Theater, but rather a reinterpretation of the story by Jean-Christophe Maillot, of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.

The main difference: Cinderella's father is obsessed with his deceased former wife (Cinderella's mother), and dance connected with that relationship both opens and closes Maillot's ballet, leaving viewers as thinking as much about that as about Cinderella's successful conquest of the famous prince, which is of course pre-ordained and thus perhaps not as interesting.

Marriage as a Ménages à Trois

"Goodreads" just send out by email a February newsletter in which several authors suggest books to read within certain categories.

Katie Kitamura, author of the recent novel "A Separation," listed five of her favorite books on the topic of marriage.

Trump Seeks To Insulate Himself From Blame if Terrorits Attrack

"I, The Donald," our so-called President, has sought to insulate himself from any blame should terrorists attack the country.

You might think this strange since he is, after all, the Commander in Chief, but then the first notable military action during his regime was a complete fiasco.  The raid in Yemen killed many women and children, resulted in the death of a veteran U.S. special forces combatant and the loss of a $70 million U.S. helicopter.  Our forces retreated without achieving their objective.

Not a great start.

"Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk" by Kathleen Rooney

In an earlier post,  I wrote about Kathleen Rooney because she teaches a course entitled "The Writer as Urban Walker" at DePaul University in Chicago and my novella "Manhattan Morning" falls squarely into that genre.

To see how Ms Rooney handled the task, I just finished reading her novel "Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk," which fulfilled my expectations in most ways, but fell a bit short in one respect.

We Could Do Without Courts "I, The Donald" Suggests

So-called President Trump's authoritian tendencies were on display yet again as he railed on Twitter against the legal obstacles that have arisen to his intemperate immigration ban,

Remember that TV series about one of the worst Roman emperors, entitled "I, Claudius?" Well, how about "I, The Donald?"

Time and Distance as Devices of Literary Style

There is obviously a well-understood relationship between time and distance: it takes a certain amount of time to go a certain distance, and since we understand that, the notion that these two concepts go together is a comfortable one.  A character travels and time passes.

We're also familiar with the often circular nature of travel. A character sets off for a particular destination and then returns home. The end of the trip is also the end of the story. It's a satisfying relationship -- everything neatly tied up.

Another Tweet From Our So-Called President

First, let me say I wish I could identify what follows as fiction.  That's what this blog is supposed to be about, right?  But real life intrudes.

As most if not all readers already know, a federal judge appointed by former president George W. Bush, a Republican, and confirmed by the Senate without opposition, issued an order that has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's recent ban on entry into the U.S. by citizens of certain countries.

Or perhaps we should more accurately refer to him as "so-called President Trump."

Humpty Dumpty, Lewis Carroll and Donald Trump

In earlier posts, I've talked about how fiction can be used to predict the future, or perhaps foreshadow what is to come, citing George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty Four" as particularly noteworthy when it comes to trends in the United States and perhaps elsewhere.

Today, in the same context, I want to turn to another British author, who went by the pen name of Lewis Carroll.  When "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" proved to be overwhelmingly popular, Carroll wrote a sequel called "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There."

Silicon Valley Upset By Trump, But Partially Responsible

Ok, this post is not about fiction -- unfortunately.

But, as we are learning hour by hour, President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration has caused chaos, not just at airports and other points of entry into the U.S., but around the world.

The Novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is Increasingly Relevant

The photo above, taken at my local bookstore, reminded me of several earlier posts that, to be fair, should have received more attention than they did.

Back in October, when the recent U.S. presidential contest was in progress, there was this one: The Rise of Hitler and the Current U.S. Election. (Please click on that link to read the full posting.)

Could I Be a Guest Lecturer For Kathleen Rooney's Course?

Perusing Literary Hub the other day, I was immediately attracted to a headline reading: "To Love New York City is to Walk New York City."

And, one might add, to write about one's walks.

After all, that's what my novella "Manhattan Morning" is all about.  My protagonist, Dan Morrison, with time on his hands, decides to walk from the Warwick Hotel at the corner of 6th Ave. and 54th St. down to just beyond Grand Central Terminal in order to buy a ticket for a bus that will take him to the airport the next morning. That's a distance of about 13 blocks.

As he walks, Dan is assailed by the sights and sounds of the city, which bring to mind a variety of topics thanks to a  process known as associative thinking. Ducking into St. Patrick's for a respite turns out to be anything but as the interior of a church brings to mind an incident Dan would like to put behind him, but still finds troubling.  Eventually, he has an unexpected encounter with a woman at lunch in Grand Central that gets him thinking about his future and his values.

You can read a free illustrated edition of "Manhattan Morning" by clicking on the name of the book.

A Book to Read After Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan Quartet

If you have read and enjoyed one or more books of Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan Quartet -- it starts with "My Brilliant Friend" -- you might also like to read "Eva Sleeps" by Francesca Melandri.

The books of both authors were originally written in Italian, but the English translations are of high quality.

Whereas Ferrante's four novels examine slices of Italian post-World War II history and society from the point of view of blue-collar southern Italians, often looking north, Melandri's book covers much the same time period, but from a different perspective.  "Eva Sleeps" is set deep in the history of an alpine Italian province known as Alto Adige that was once part of Austria, when it was known as South Tyrol. There, except for a brief period when Hitler essentially ruled Italy, the residents -- mostly German speaking -- look south, often warily if not with outright hostility.

More Themes of Young Adult Fiction

I've written several posts about Young Adult (YA) fiction, in large part because it is one of the fastest if not the fastest growing category of books in print -- at a time when most categories are flat or declining.

What's in these books?  Well, just about everything and especially, it seems, crest-of-the-wave social topics. If you are young, you want to be with it, right?

Next for Fiction: Trigger Warnings and Safe Pages?

I recently read an article on Literary Hub entitled "On the Use of Sensitivity Readers in Publishing" and it got me thinking: will we soon see novels with trigger warnings appearing at certain interior points, directing readers to "safe pages" within the book, where they can rest and suck on lollipops, certain that they won't encounter any micro aggressions before cautiously proceeding.

"Identity" is where it's at these days, in politics as well as in culture, and woe be it to anyone who offends, even inadvertently, a marginalized group to which they don't belong.  What is a marginalized group?  Well, pretty much any group other than white males, it seems.

Which brings me back to sensitivity reading, which Lit Hub  to its credit admits is a somewhat problematical activity. Is political and cultural correctness compatible with free literary expression and the role it has traditionally played in intellectual life?

The Lit Hub  article gives three views on sensitivity reading: that of a writer, that of a sensitivity reader and that of a publisher. Sadly, no effort appears to have been made to determine what the reading public thinks about this.

Is that important?  I don't know, but one could argue that a failure of certain elites to pay much attention to what was happening on the ground in significant areas of the country led to the election of Donald Trump -- for better or for worse. And one thing Trump repeatedly dismissed during his campaign was political correctness.

Most Debut Novelists Would Die For This -- Maybe

There are many, many novels written and not much space in The New York Times to review them. A debut novelist would just about die to get in there.

So how, one wonders, does a woman named Emily Fridlund get her first book, "History of Wolves," reviewed twice in the NYT over the course of three days -- and lengthy reviews at that, each with a picture of the author?  Do the journalists who write the daily paper talk to those who put out the Sunday edition? It appears not.

Hopefully, Ms Fridlund takes the view that anything said about her and her book is good publicity as long as the names are spelled correctly because the two reviews are not exactly in agreement.

On Thursday, Jan. 5, Jennifer Senior found "History of Wolves" disappointing. Fridlund withholds critical information from readers, leading them to believe they will be rewarded with something dramatic.  "Those thunderheads massing on the horizon let loose only a weak drizzle."

She also finds part of the story "disorienting" and "strained." 

In conclusion, Senior quotes the book's main protagonist, Linda, as saying: "It's not what you think but what you do that matters."  Fridlund, she says, "might have taken this to heart in a slightly different way. All the ideas in the world can't make a great novel. It's what you do with them that matters."

If Ms Fridlund was left a little downhearted by that assessment, the second review, by Megan, Hustad,  which appeared in the Jan. 8 Sunday book review section, turned out better.

She called the book "an artful story of sexual awakening and identity formation" that eventually turns more stomach-churning.

The overall result, Hustad said, "is a novel of ideas that reads like smart pulp, a page-turner of craft and calibration."

Well, which is it?  One could consult other reviewers, of course, but many (such as other authors) are too conflicted to be particularly objective. Or just take the plunge and maybe write one's own review.

Comments From Readers on Manhattan Morning (3)

"I did finally read 'Manhattan Morning' and it did revive my love of the city. But I was surprised by your focus on women's clothing styles -- I never would have guessed -- where does that come from? Where did the story come from and how much of it is autobiographical? And what was the impulse to write a novella?"
                                                                                                                        B.D.

I won't answer those questions here because readers should, in the first instance, experience the story as written. But I am happy to answer any questions individually.

For earlier reaction, start here.

Story Lines for Teenage Fiction

Are you interested in writing fiction for or about teenagers? If so, you might want to take a look at an article in the Jan. 15 New York Times  entitled "Social Media Rules, Created by Kids."

Nominally, it's all about what kids should and shouldn't post online and how parents might help them avoid mistakes, but it also contains material suggestive of story lines.

"Middle school can be an especially complicated time for girls. They are experimenting with social identity, even as their always-on digital world intensifies the scrutiny. Many want to be seen as pretty (even sexy, in some ways), but also as innocent and as 'nice.' This is an impossible balancing act," the article says.

How might that play out in fiction?

It's OK, one girl told the article's author, to post a photo of yourself in a bikini if you are depicted with other family members, but not alone. Be careful about posting photos of vacations in fancy locations. You might offend friends whose families can't afford them.

If you don't want to spend time with someone, don't claim you have too much homework. Just say you have other plans because a photo of you posted by someone else of you with that person could appear shortly.

Since a recent Pew Research Center survey found that about 24% of teenagers are online "almost constantly," behavioral risks loom large. And so, one might argue, do story possibilities.

Why would a young girl post a problematic photo?

"In a study published last summer, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that the pleasure centers in teenagers’ brains respond to the reward of getting 'likes' on Instagram exactly as they do to thoughts of sex or money," the NYT article said.

"I knew I shouldn't have done it,  but I just couldn't stop," she wailed.

Conventional Publishing: In This Case, a Two-Year Process

In my previous post, I provided a link to an interview in which an author told how he had self-published a photo-intensive book on the 1970s Punk music era by means of a surprisingly successful Kickstarter campaign.  He went that way because commercial publishers wanted things done their way -- not his way.

Today I am providing a link to a different interview in which an author of a novel about teenagers describes her ultimately successful experience dealing with "Big Book" -- the conventional publishing industry.

A Book Self-Published With a Kickstarter Campaign

"The Ramones were not a bunch of dumb people making dumb songs, they thought about how to make dumb songs."

Ah -- the Punk era, last referenced here in my previous post.

The quote is from an illuminating interview of successful self-published author David Godlis by The Brooklyn Rail, a monthly on arts, politics and culture. Godlis' book, "History is Made at Night," is built around a series of photographs illuminating the 1970s punk scene.

After frustrating interactions with conventional publishers, who couldn't decide if it was a book about art or about music and didn't want to deal with something that didn't fit into one of their pre-determined categories, Godlis finally launched a Kickstarter campaign with the aim of raising $30,000.

At the end of a 40-day effort, he ended up with about $110,000 and 850 pre-sales of his book, which is currently priced at $40 a copy. Getting the book into conventional bookstores is another matter, however, since bookstores, even those that are independent, are closely tied in to the marketing apparatus of "Big Book" as one might call the mainline publishers.

Godlis' explanation of how this all happened is well worth reading.

Writing About the Use of Drugs

Why write about drug use in a blog about fiction -- other than the fact that drugs figure in many stories and not always in a convincing fashion? Many authors seem have characters taking drugs because transgressive behavior appeals to readers looking for vicarious thrills or an escape from ordinary, presumably boring life.

But at the same time it is a serious real-life issue, particularly at present with the opioid crisis. Today, The New York Times ran a feature story about what seems to be an growing epidemic in largely white middle class America --among the folks who used to be thought of as the bedrock of U.S. society.

The Challenges of Writing About Sex

As we all know well, sex sells and that as much as anything else is probably why it looms as large as it does in a lot of fiction.

But how exactly to write about it, or even more difficult, how to depict it, is a challenge for writers.

Early last year, Literary Hub, staged a single-elimination style tournament for "literary sex writing."  Such prose, I observed at the time, evidently stands in sharp contrast to ordinary old sex writing and as such, may be considered a high-minded, as opposed to a prurient, activity.

Comments From Readers On Manhattan Morning (2)

"When I read the book, I realized anew that I have never been interested in New York."

                                                                                                                                        D.C.

For earlier reaction, please click on this link.

Writing in the Internet Age: Quantify Yor Skills

Want to get a job as a writer in the Internet Age?

Katherine Power

Here's what one potential employer, Katherine Power, chief executive of Clique Media Group, a media and marketing agency, wants to see:

"I look for people who can quantify their value, who can really think like an entrepreneur and put a value around their skill set and growth. So if you look at a resume of someone who was a lifestyle writer for XYZ publication, I like to see that they wrote 16 pieces of content per week resulting in X percent growth in page views over three months," she told The New York Times in a "Business Day" interview.

There you have it: ever-increasing page views -- a metric that would leave me, well, unemployable!