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We're
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 Ex
Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne
Fadiman. “This witty collection of
essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language. For
Anne Fadiman, as for many passionate readers, the books she loves
have become chapters in her own life story. Writing with remarkable
grace, she revives the tradition of the well-crafted personal essay,
moving easily from anecdotes about Coleridge and Orwell to tales of
her own pathologically literary family. As someone who played at blocks
with her father's twenty-two-volume set of Trollope (“My Ancestral
Castles”) and who only really considered herself married when
she and her husband had merged collections (“Marrying Libraries”),
she is exquisitely well equipped to expand upon the art of inscriptions,
the perverse pleasures of compulsive proofreading, the allure of long
words, and the satisfactions of reading aloud. There is even a foray
into pure literary gluttony-Charles Lamb liked buttered muffin crumbs
between the leaves, and Fadiman knows of more than one reader who
literally consumes page corners. Perfectly balanced between humor and erudition, Ex Libris establishes Fadiman as one of our finest contemporary essayists.” - taken from here. OK. Well, let’s get one thing out of the way first, there is no questioning Fadiman’s scholarship. The only reason I am over halfway through this book is the wonderfull bounty of book-related information that she imparts. On the other hand I can’t remember another author I disliked so quickly and vividly without ever being introduced. As it turns out it isn’t just me as I read out various passages to my wife, she rolls her eyes and suggests I remove it from our library. On many occasions along the very bumpy read of this book I was tempted to do just that. But I keep remembering the glowing glowing reviews I’ve read of the book and I think “OK, one more chapter and I’m sure I’ll see what all the hype is about.” Another chapter passes, I learn a little more and dislike her more than that. I considered the fact that the reviews are all friends of hers and perhaps, among themselves in the privacy of thier own homes, they likewise roll thier eyes but for the paycheque and for Anne, they will toss a few good words her way. I’ve read somewhere that writers themselves are just characters, I just hate what she portrays of herself. In the end it doesn’t really matter how much I dislike this character Anne Fadiman. I would be willing to lay money on the fact that of all the books that I have ever read I probably wouldn’t get along with ninety percent of the authors that penned them. Of course, It doesn’t make those books any less great. Sadly, it does hurt Ex Libris. • Read Fadiman’s Uncommon Wisdom: On the Pleasures of Keeping a Commonplace Book • Interview with Anne Fadiman from National Public Radio. “All Things Considered,” Audio , 16 October 1998 (Requires Real Player plug-in) • Read a short interview with Fadiman here |
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 The
Dead Father by Donald
Barthelme. “The Dead Father’s head. The main thing is,
his eyes are open. Staring up into the sky. The eyes a two-valued
blue, the blues of the Gitanes cigarette pack. The head never moves.
Decades of staring. The brow is noble, good Christ, what else? Broad
and noble. And serene, of course, he's dead, what else if not serene?
From the tip of his finely shaped delicately nostriled nose to the
ground, fall of five and one half meters, figure obtained by triangulation.
The hair is gray but a young gray. Full, almost to the shoulder, it
is possible to admire the hair for a long time, many do, on a Sunday
or other holiday or in those sandwich hours neatly placed between
fattish slices of work. Jawline compares favorably to a rock formation.
Imposing, rugged, all that. The great jaw contains thirty-two teeth,
twenty-eight of the whiteness of standard bathroom fixtures and four
stained, the latter a consequence of addiction to tobacco, according
to legend, this beige quartet to be found in the center of the lower
jaw. He is not perfect, thank God for that. The full red lips drawn
back in a slight rictus, slight but not unpleasant rictus, disclosing
a bit of mackerel salad, lodged between two of the stained four. We
think it's mackerel salad. It appears to be mackerel salad. In the
sagas, it is mackerel salad.” -
taken from the opening sequence of the bookBarthelme links of note:
• jessamyn's site (great) • Scriptorium • The Barthelme Collection • Prism 2002 • Global Network of Dreams • Global Network of Dreams |
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 Men
in the Off Hours by Anne
Carson. “Anne Carson has been acclaimed
by her peers as the most imaginative poet writing today. In a recent
profile, The New York Times Magazine paid tribute to her amazing ability
to combine the classical and the modern, the mundane and the surreal,
in a body of work that is sure to endure.In Men in the Off Hours, Carson offers further proof of her tantalizing gifts. Reinventing figures as diverse as Oedipus, Emily Dickinson, and Audubon, Carson sets up startling juxtapositions: Lazarus among video paraphernalia, Virginia Woolf and Thucydides discussing war, Edward Hopper paintings illuminated by St. Augustine. And in a final prose poem, she meditates movingly on the recent death of her mother. With its quiet, acute spirituality and its fearless wit and sensuality, Men in the Off Hours shows us a fiercely individual poet at her best.” - taken from here. I am getting to the point in my reading that at this point in my reading life Anee Carson may well be one of my favourite (if not favourite) writers. Her lines are incandescent. I have read some reviews of her where a “critic” throws a target with a badly rendered drawing of Ms Carson on it and begins taking shots. The disparity between views makes it clear to me that she difficult to classify. All I can say is, as with other works of hers that I’ve read, I find myself completely drawn into the reality she creates. I believe I’ll search out her Plainwater next. • Read excerpts of some of her work here • Read an excerpt of Men in the Off Hours here • Read another excerpt of Men in the Off Hours here • Read a short interview with Carson here  Final
Girl by Daphne
Gottlieb. “Titled for the last girld
left alive in the classic horror movie, Final Girl traces the history
of the history of the archetypal lone survivor and her counterpart,
the femme fatale.Sexy and tart, dark and comic, low-down and high-hearted, in poems such as ‘Slash,’ ‘Vamp,’ ‘Bride of the Reanimator,’ ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ and ‘The Babysitter,’ Gottlieb identifies and articulates the desires, fears, and traumas out of which pop culture is made -- and then feeds pop culture back to itself. Though the slasher flick is central, Gottlieb also spins resonances from sources as varied as early American captivity narratives, queer and feminist film theory, and the intimate pain of her own mother‘s death. Via her universal Final Girl and through such iconic American figures as Mary Rowlandson and Patty Hearst, Gottlieb explores the ways in which we’re betrayed by our cultural assumptions and fantasies about abduction gender, literature, pleasure, and transgression. In Final Girl, Gottlieb emerges as the survivor, but the reader also comes away with the sense that her words are spoken not by Gottlieb alone, but by an insistent and inclusive feminine chorus.” • Read Gottlieb’s poem Personal Ad • Read Gottlieb’s poem Her Submissive Streak • Read Gottlieb’s poem Somewhere, Over • Read three poems by Gottlieb • Read Gottlieb’s poem Nocturnal Missions • Read three poems by Gottlieb see other books I’ve read in 2003 |
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Current
sounds! The
Hospitals self-titled album has been enjoying regular airplay
around the Common for a couple of months now. Drummer/vocalist Adam
Stonehouse delivers his art at an evergy level rarely seen since the
first atomic tests at Alamogordo and John Dwyer (Pink and Brown, OCS,
Coachwhips) is a force equally as devastating. This album is a must
as is seeing them live. Sample tracks from the album are available
here
and here. Pärson
Sound. This is a previously unreleased 2 CD collection
by the band that eventually became International Harvester and then
Träd, Gräs och Stenar.
At this point though they were experimenting with the influences of
minimalist composer Terry Riley, who at the time was inventing a musical
aesthetic founded on repetition, and pop-art guru Andy Warhol, who,
at the time, was experimenting with the droning music of the Velvet
Underground. Check out more on this band here.
(Thanks to Andy for tuning me in) 
OCS's
first release of 2 discs of home recorded genius. OCS is John Dwyer
at his most internal. This is a wonderful journey of sound, one that
deepens the Dwyer story. His library is not all throbbing, head-bobbing,
cob-slobbering rock and roll. This is intelligent, expansive. Mixing
beautifully controlled guitaring (reminiscent of the early greats
Weaver & Beasley, Robert Johnson, Petway), field recordings from
home, and sound experiments creating a wonderful aural tapestry. Listen to a RealAudio clip: • Reason 1 Why Life Goes On Without You • Reason 2 Why Life Goes On Without You • Reason 1 To Love Your Hater To Death • Reason 1 To Love Your Hater To Death Above clips are from Aquarius Records. Go there and get some learnin'. Hip Lyric of the Moment!
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Splash
From The Past So you can check out what has gone before I've finally added a Splash Page Archive. When ever add a new cover I'll be sure to archive the old image. What I Want to Be When I Grow Up I've put together a new page to explore job options from a my inner child's point of view. Each month I'll add one or two new 'positions.' Painting is not dead. Critics have been trying to half-mast the flag on the plastic arts for a while now. Why is this? Let's go back. Once artists stopped working for the church and began exploring their own themes it's been a pluralist art society. Kazaa & Napster. Hello, my name is Proprietor, I like the music. There I've admitted it. I'm not a music geek or anything like that. Not that there's anything wrong with being a music geek. I just like having music play while I work. Silence is un-natural. Pornmalion: The Re-education of an Eliza Doolittle Is Natacha Merritt's Digital Diaries, as Benedikt Taschen and Eric Kroll would have us believe, "something from the new century?” When I began to read all the articles written about her, all the interviews, and the book itself; I started to wonder if she was what they claimed. The Correct Steps to a Sane and Orderly World A Barthelme-esque story avoiding the theories of Confucius and exploring the imagination as a medium of escape, stress-relief, hunger-suppressant, and various other uses. Sipton Groat's Measure of Tulse Luper in 92 Unrelated Entries An elaborate mixed list of weird facts and fiction with many subreferences to Tulse Luper and the writings of Peter Greenaway. The work studies Sipton Groat, analyzing his life in a series of entries documenting his desperate attempt to tie himself in some way with Tulse Luper. |
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