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."