Friday, April 04, 2008
All's Phair in Love and War
As Kate Harding describes feeling that Liz Phair was speaking for her, when she was 18 years old and Exile in Guyville made its debut, I feel that Kate Harding is kind of doing likewise.
Like Kate, I was 18 in ‘93, and thought feminism was depressing and had already done its job. The resonance of “The Yellow Wallpaper” or “House of Mirth” made me feel like I would ultimately die alone, and be eaten by cats (they would come in off the fire escape of my inevitable studio apartment). At that age confusion made me sassy. I used to joke that I was saving myself for my second husband.
Unfortunately I can testify first-hand that Divorce Song was an excellent song when I was going through the separation at 26, and helped me feel more kindly, less angry once it was over (it was he who checked out; i cried uncle). Finding the album again, in my own independent-woman apartment, gave me something to rock out to; the album rang out my choices, frustrations, and personality in a way that echoed with strength and purpose, in a time when I questioned everything around me.
Gunshy was during, definitely during (funny story - I used my wiles to get him to sell the many guns in the house before telling him we had to talk). Help Me, Mary was for the period before we were married, when I should have realized he wasn’t partner material. Strange loop was for during (example: I wanted to go to grad school and he asked my why i had to make everything hard. hawhaw!) and after, and then not just for him anymore but for most guys who liked me at first and then became irritated that I wasn’t, in fact, simply a projection of qualities they applied to a pretty package. Mesmerizing was for a time and a person long after that (i’m happy you know me well and even happier i like it). What a funky catchy song with no aspirations of pop.
Hearing her last album I thought, “Oh no. She got happy.” But I was happy for her, willing even, to not have anything as good as Exile in Guyville again. Liz deserves to be happy. Maybe she’s proof and hope for all young women that painful love lessons are good things, the death of naivete is just a painful rebirth we’re meant to survive, and height is all about how you stand with yourself. And I’ve been standing 6’1” instead of 5’4”.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Editing for Content Delivery
Every morning since catching up on “pages” 2-7 of the emailed book Eastern Standard Tribe, I have eagerly read it every day. I feel like I’m really getting the hang of it, and that it takes even less time to keep up with than playing a move on Scrabulous.
I’m really impressed with how they broke the story into “pages.” I do not have a physical copy of the book but would bet the farm that the they don’t break up according to the physical pages of the last print run. What sense would that make anyway? The pieces, as they arrive, are sections of the story, parceled out into neat “scenes.” The segments are never broken up so as to disrupt a conversation, scene, mood, whatever.
Someone with a brain edited this, and I think that’s pretty cool. Have you ever watched a TV show on DVD, and you can see where the old commercial breaks are because the screen goes black and the fight scene is interrupted (Buffy!), that’s an example of content just being ported over and being delivered differently without any consideration for the experience. It’s not so bad, as we’re used to commercial breaks. I can understand why they don’t re-edit and blend the seems, but I wonder what the decision making process is like for books emailed from DailyLit, but I think it’s so far, super good.
Yesterday I got an email inviting me to an event about how OMG XML is totally going to change the way content is delivered. Maybe that email was lost for 10 years before it was delivered? Cuz XML hasn’t been news in as long. Part of me is sad for folks who aren’t as familiar as I am, but hey, they also probably worked at a cool publishing house for the last ten years, so it’s not like i’m bragging that I have the whole inside tip. The point of entry, or maybe convergence (my new fave thing) is the idea of editing with content delivery in mind. Maybe it means more editing jobs?
Another case that had me thinking about content and delivery is the audio story I have quoted all over this website - The Girl Detective by Kelly Link. I downloaded it years ago for free (and have since gone to her readings, bought her books, etc. yay go CC!). I don’t have the print version of this story, but I think the voice that reads the story does this thing where he whispers the italicized section titles or breaks, letting you know it’s a scene change and that this is the subtitle of the section, or the question introducing the segue. Like, on my current lazy about page which is entirely quotes that actually apply truthfully to me for the most part, (like being a natural blond who dyes her hair colors) the questions in bold are whispered by the narrator. I should prolly have italicized them, now that I think of it. heh
One day we’ll all get along, but so far, it seems the non-book version of the book is doing just fine.
OH! Speaking of doing fine, my travel-writing friend Erik Trinidad has won awards for his work. Yay!
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Feeling Stabby
I finished reading Solaris
Gross. and yes, embarrassing. Worse, it made it harder for me to separate the visuals in my head from having seen the movie (universally agreed to be horrible, but it’s probably better than a lot of movies in recent years).
This is slightly less gross and embarrassing but at least Solaris is a purple planet.
That’s construction paper, glue and scissors. This DIY project was a symptom of the space-crazies, or coming off days of solid marathon writing and I needed something silly to do. Don’t mock me today, I’m in a terrible mood because I hate people. I’d probably just stab someone with scissors or give them a spitefully bad haircut. You don’t want any of this, sucka.
Even Wil Wheaton is in a terrible mood today, and normally he’s pure sunshine.
[later]
My friend just sent this article to the class re Solaris, and I think it’s pretty cool.
Also more happy-making, my Marc Johns print arrived. Thanks for the tip, Kosta!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Lovely Distraction
This SXSW podcast might give you inspiration for your craft and technology projects. Panelists talk about their relationship to crafting, their work, discuss community, fashion, and hacking into cheap electronics.
High-Tech Craft: Why Sewing and Knitting Still Matter
One suggestion is to think about what you want to make first, then think about what the materials would be. Another is to focus on one project at a time, to become a specialist.
Afterwards, you might want to visit craftzine and instructables.
It’s what I’d be doing if I weren’t revising a piece for workshop. The other night my professor said, “It can go to sex, it can go to death; there are only four or five places literary narrative can go.” I thought that was super funny, though I think he meant it as plain old truth.
[upgrade]
I’m feeling all off because my eyes won’t focus. Normally (normal since the fall) it goes away by late morning, like it’s a sleep thing, but my eyes will not get better today. I worry I’m developing my mom’s eye problems (it’s not about needing to go get glasses). I could be a hypochondriac, but my eyes are still blurry.
Also getting sadder because Susan moves this weekend, and I was supposed to go see her today, but I can’t. I love school so much it’s been easy to say no to other things, but this is different. And it’s extra, extra hard.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Isn't This Boring Yet?
There’s always wacky journalism afoot. I’m mostly bored (though I guess still a little stabby) over all the super weird women-hating articles in big papers lately.
This article on Salon isn’t as close to all of those bra-ha-has, but I smiled at Osell’s parenthetical call-out “(Though their reporter, too, quotes Hoff Summers. Note to journalists: E-mail me if you need a quote from an actual feminist about feminist topics, OK?)” reminds me of a the recurring problem of including women on professional panels and lectures. Not that there aren’t any available, as proven by this list made a couple years ago on Personism.
Alas.
In more triumphant news, the Writopia Lab kids have been winning fabulously in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
Today I was good and read my one emailed page of Eastern Standard Tribe. I’m loving this book so much that if recreational reading weren’t so beyond the realms of possibility, I would buy all of Cory Doctorow
(actually, my thesis group next year is going to be called Death to All Who Oppose Us — guess i use that phrase a lot. it’s just so likable.)
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Eastern Standard Time
Current unread email in my inbox:
Books - Eastern Standard Tribe (page 6 of 70) by Cory Doctorow
Current pages actually ready by me: One.
Days I had page 2 of 70 open, for that two minutes it would take to read: Two.
Nothing like giving yourself one more thing to do, and then not doing it.
Touché, DailyLit.
[upgrade] Just finished reading all pages. Holy cow it’s great! I’m so glad to finally be reading this. You do have to be a huge nerd and/or not be thrown by jokes that involve search and replace syntax, for example.
Now that I’ve got some experience with both ways of reading, I might prefer to let a week stock up, then have at them. There were a few places where keeping the storyline in my head, or bearing the suspence, would have been counter to my brain-candy purposes.
Monday, March 24, 2008
References
Last week I was reading an article in Salon with the phrase, “even with an income and a room of her own....”
I thought, wow, they just made a reference to Virginia Woolf.
My little thrill as a reader came from Salon’s editors trusting I knew the reference. Side note: the article was in the Broadsheet section, and apologize for not having re-found the article. I read them all, so I don’t remember which one.
This morning I just about died laughing at a political article that included this: “Sixteen years ago, the last time the Democrats won back the White House, fewer than half the delegates had been selected by the end of March, with big-state primaries in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and California still on the docket. This campaign year the Democrats are already down to seeds and stems with 82 percent of the delegates having been chosen by March 11.”
Did you notice what just happened there? OMG did you just totally see it?! Seeds and stems. They’re talking about weed, dude.
There’s knowing your audience, and knowing that if they know what you’re talking about, they won’t be writing angry letters. They’ll just keep reading, with a chuckle, solid with the information that all the real stuff is gone, and this is what’s left. Yeah… what that says about the readers (me), about Salon, the Democratic Partaay… is um, not lost on me. I defend myself thusly. (damn skippy, thusly!). A writer has a duty to not be naive.
I practically think in allusions. They’re a pretty shorthand, like a gesture waving at something larger, telling you to take in all [that] while applying it to what we’re saying about [this]. It’s a picture with a thousand words, done in a few words.
Course, just dropping a reference that doesn’t create that picture is a quick way to annoy a reader. I could write, “we’re down to seeds and stems” and even if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can infer something like, “yeah, there’s no fruit in there… or something, so that’s not so good, should we be planting?”
The trick is, I can only put an image in your head with my own words, but if I reference something out in the world, I’m actually pinging your brain to see if you have that picture already in there. If you do, we get a nice little moment, you and me. If you don’t, I have to work harder to help you see what I see.
Writing on your own web site is different. Any time I make a reference, I can find a link to help us out. The problem though, is if you have to follow a link, it distracts you. It takes you out of the flow. But if you get it and want to cozy up on that other web page for a second, it’s still nice between us, since I sent you there. Formal, article-type sites don’t send you off in this way, because they don’t want you to leave. A less business, more editorial reason is that an editor would probably not let a reference that did all the heavy lifting stay in an article.
That heavy lifting is why Dennis Miller annoys people. I can’t just say that the 6 train pulling out sounds like the opening bars of the old HBO theme song, and expect you to hear and feel what I’m talking about. It’s a lot more work to begin to describe the poignant sound and the curious tilt of the train as it pulls itself screeching through the tight curve of the station. How the train seems sad and repressed, the jarring volume of the tones contrasting with the memory the chords evoke, of being small, expectant. I’m not even doing a good job. It’s hard, this using of words to get to a place deeper than language. Bah.
I have a nagging problem. As we lose culture, and replace culture (included in that is religion), what sorts of references will be lost, and what will we have to work with? Why is it alright to use the word “upgrade” everywhere all the time now, and how much longer before historical and mythological allusions fall on deaf ears (or ping empty minds)? What’s it say when they change? How cool would it be if we could map this change?
Now if only I could find a better way to describe my ex-stepmom than referencing her cheeky doppelganger Ursa in Superman II, I’d earn my freaking MFA.
Kneel before Zod!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Net Work
I’m still reading Moby Dick. It’s not about a whale, but it does actually contain a lot of lines like “Oh ye be, be ye?!” So that’s fun, even if the reading is one that requires almost constant vernacular translation. It gets really meta when Ishmael talks about how the people of Nantucket sound strange to him, with their “thous” and “thees.”
My most delicious moment was coming across an instance of the word(s) “network” — hyphenated as “net-work." Used to describe wrinkles around the eyes, the distinct meanings and originations (and seafaring and net-weaving!) were all just right there, and it felt like looking at the evolution of man.
Is it just me?
I was ignorant of the depth of friendship between Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy, a small kinship in relation to my writer friends. It’s not a tradition so much as a necessary phenomenon. It’s funny, we think of Legend and Greatness, meanwhile, Nate and Hermy were writers trying to find the best way to tell the stories they had.
If you want to read some Moby Dick yourself, you can do it a page a day (believe me that’s about how slow i’m going, which is not remotely normal) with DailyLit. There are a lot of good and/or classic books available for free, and tons of trashy brain-candy books for a low price. You sign up for what you want, and every day (you pick what days, and you can even pick the time the email hits your inbox, which is genius) they email you one “page”. Because the books are sent in this way, you know how many days it’ll take you to read.
You can also pretend to be working while you’re reading totally normal looking “email” at work. Score.
Maybe you always wanted to read War and Peace. (and who hasn’t?! hah totally!) Instead of spending twenty years saying that, you can have it read in 675 days.
Moby Dick on Daily Lit is free, and sent in 252 parts. This book in front of me has 594 pages, badly printed and poorly formatted (never has a shallow page gutter so frustrated me). Oof. I shoulda signed up about 250 days ago. ‘Specially since I’ll be damned if I don’t make time to work a little paper craft, star wars style, or maybe I’ll use these instructions as inspiration for bunnies and Ts.
p.s. Yesterday I made a little book for Susan, who is moving away to Philly with Josh. The wee book was trying to be brave, and requested “no photographs” with a quivering lip and downcast eyes. For additional courage, we all got tipsy. I’ll keep teaching her about the internet, and she’ll teach me to use a phone. Philly’s closer than Queens anyway. I just hope she doesn’t start twittering while the color wars are going on. She’d be so confused.
