August 2008 Archives
August 29, 2008
Posted at 10:39 AM in Publish or Perish
"Ageing chimp's own story on list for Guardian first book prize," sez today's Guardian. (Haven't the Brits learned how to spell "aging" yet? Honestly.)
Me Cheeta: the Autobiography is billed as the true story of Cheeta the Chimp, star of Hollywood blockbusters, told "in his own words". The book documents the life and times of a chimpanzee who has outlived all his co-stars from the 1939 film "Tarzan" to reach the ripe old age of 75. He withdrew from the limelight in 1964 after biting his "Doctor Dolittle" co-star Rex Harrison, and has retired to an old chimps' home in Palm Springs, California.
Well, I'd have been tempted to bite Rex Harrison too.
Posted at 10:07 AM in Lost in the Stacks
Is there anybody who isn't covering the Democratic convention? Even the Library of Congress has a correspondent there. She's photog Carol M. Highsmith, and she's been filing images (copyright-free) from the Mile-High City. She'll be filing from Minneapolis-St. Paul, too.
Highsmith has already donated a large (also copyright-free) image archive to the LOC:
The online presentation of the Carol M. Highsmith Archive features photographs of landmark buildings and architectural renovation projects in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States. The first 23 groups of photographs contain more than 2,500 images and date from 1980 to 2005, with many views in color as well as black-and-white. Extensive coverage of the Library of Congress Jefferson Building was added in 2007. The archive is expected to grow to more than 100,000 photographs covering all of the United States.
August 27, 2008
Posted at 2:39 PM in The Way We Live Now
I don't know about you, but I have been underwhelmed by Twitter as a vehicle for political coverage. Just because everybody's doing it doesn't mean it's a good idea. Does "twittering" sound like serious reportage to you?
Twittered literature, however--now there's an idea with legs. Call it twitlit. Maud Newton notes that, so far, we have twittered versions of Moby-Dick, Paradise Lost, and William Blake. Others?
Posted at 7:11 AM in Adventurers
No, it's not a job in journalism. The Guardian reports that some intrepid Brits are looking for a hardy soul to accompany them to the South Pole in honor of the 100th anniversary of Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition:
A hundred years after the appearance of one of the strangest and least enticing advertisements in newspaper history - "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success" - a single brave soul is being sought to shuffle along in the heroic footsteps of Ernest Shackleton.
Shackleton's probably my favorite polar explorer, neither dour (Amundsen) nor doomed (Scott). The 2008 expedition includes Shackleton's great-grandson and other descendants of members of the original crew, and they're likely to have a slightly easier time of it than their predecessors did. Tempted? Apply here.
August 26, 2008
Posted at 12:58 PM in Lit Crit
During my stint as a contributing editor at Book World, the phrase "minor novelist" used to get thrown around once in a while. I always hated it: It's patronizing, and it's almost always used by people who will never get around to writing a novel at all. (Though of course if they did it would be anything but minor.)
After reading a review in the Aug. 1 TLS, though, I'd like to suggest that the phrase "minor memoirist" needs to go into wider circulation, given what the publishing industry has been dishing out. Here's A.N. Wilson (in no sense a minor writer) taking the lash to Jeremy Lewis's Grub Street Irregular:
But in this account of how the author "plumped" for publishing, worked in a minor capacity for a number of firms, and then helped out in an editorial capacity at several small magazines, the reader is left wondering whether anything interesting is going to happen and I may as well spoil it for you by saying that it doesn't. At one point, attending a seminar on the art of biography, the author is sharply upbraided by Roy Foster, who tells him, "I think, Jeremy, that we’ve had enough of this anecdotage."
Exactly.
August 25, 2008
Posted at 10:49 AM in Gotta Dance
The July 18 issue of the TLS has a report on the Fred Astaire Conference, held in June at Oriel College, Oxford. I've been to a fair number of academic conferences in the last couple of years--some more entertaining than others--and I wish this one had been in the travel budget. Thanks to my dad, I grew up on musicals, and I am delighted that scholars have seen fit to tackle the big questions:
A lively discussion evolved around the subject of Rogers's dresses, traditionally maligned for being 'in the way': a view that is now undergoing revision. Even the famous feather-shedding confection for "Cheek to Cheek" in Top Hat (a dress parodied by Judy Garland and Astaire in Easter Parade) found apologists.
Also discussed: Astaire as "the New Man of the post-First World War era," his "deep understanding" of jazz" ("Astaire was the only film dancer who danced to the Blues"--could that possibly be true?), and his close friendship with George Gershwin. As the TLS article notes, "Gershwin's songs were preternaturally difficult to dance to, and Astaire was probably the only performer who could properly dance to them." Amen to that.
August 22, 2008
Posted at 9:52 PM in Flora & Fauna
Everybody gets it wrong sometimes. (Via PlayShakespeare.com.)
Posted at 2:13 PM in Reading and Writing
Ever felt the impulse to whip out a red pen and go to town on a badly written menu or sign? Resist it. From the Arizona Republic:
Two self-anointed "grammar vigilantes" who toured the nation removing typos from public signs have been banned from national parks after vandalizing a historic marker at the Grand Canyon.
Jeff Michael Deck, 28, of Somerville, Mass., and Benjamin Douglas Herson, 28, of Virginia Beach, Va., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff after damaging a rare, hand-painted sign in Grand Canyon National Park....
According to court records, Deck and Herson toured the United States from March to May, wiping out errors on government and private signs. On March 28, while at Desert View Watchtower on the South Rim, they used a white-out product and a permanent marker to deface a sign painted more than 60 years ago by artist Mary Colter. The sign, a National Historic Landmark, was considered unique and irreplaceable, according to Sandy Raynor, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix.
I sympathize with them. I really do. My first real job was as a copy editor. Once you've been a copy editor, you see sins against language everywhere. Just remember: One man's typo is another man's "unique and irreplaceable" artifact.
(Via Language Log, which has previously noted the activities of Deck and Herson and the Typo Eradication Advancement League. Watch here for TEAL's statement on "the signage of our National Parks and public lands.")
Posted at 10:00 AM in Ink-Stained Wretches
As a working journalist (for the time being, anyway), I haven't said much about the seeming death spiral of the newspaper industry: the hemorrhage in subscriptions and ad revenue, the to-the-marrow cuts in newsrooms. (In management parlance, this is sometimes referred to as "rightsizing.") If I had a brilliant idea about how to save the biz, I'd be angling for Katherine Weymouth's job. What I can do is write stories that are useful and/or interesting to someone, beginning with me. Many of the journos I know, the good ones anyway, operate according to a philosophy that's half egotism, half altruism.
The folks over at the Columbia Journalism Review have launched a bittersweet new feature called "Parting Thoughts," in which they invite ex-journos to talk about what's wrong and what's right about what we do, and to share their accumulated wisdom (or bitterness). In the latest installment, Chris Ison, a former Minneapolis Star Tribune staffer who won a Pulitzer for investigative reporting in 1990, points out something that 1) nails the mindset and 2) should be read by the top editors at every paper that's still standing:
Many of the best journalists I know are driven in large part by ego. They claim an independent streak, but they'll do anything to please a boss who talks their language and challenges them to be great. They are energized by top editors who'll stop by their desk and talk about stories—not to fulfill an MBO, but passionately and informally. They want to be empowered to find the best story, not told what the story is by a manager who hasn't reported on the street in years. If reporters push deadlines to improve quality, they want to be seen as committed, not disruptive to the planning process.
In other words, they want leaders who share their values. Without that, more good journalists will go.
Management, please note this too: The workers have shown they'll change how they do the work; they just don't want to change what the work is for.
August 21, 2008
Posted at 2:32 PM in The Way We Live Now
That's conventional as in conventions, "stultifying media spectacles where no one expects anything to happen." So says Chris Lehmann in a Q&A posted today by Harper's. Chris is a senior editor at CQ, the nonfiction editor of Booforum, and a very sharp guy. (He's also a good friend of mine from my Book World days, but I would flag this even if I didn't know him.)
From "Six Questions for Chris Lehmann on 'Moronic' Campaign Coverage and the 'Press Bubble' ":
6. But don't these narratives sometime become self-fulfilling prophecies?
Yes, and the distressing proof text of that argument is the 2000 election. It's not a stretch to say that the media largely defeated Al Gore. They burrowed in with these idiotic memes about him being uncomfortable in his own skin and about his claiming to have invented the Internet and Naomi Wolf advising him on how to be a he-man. Most of it wasn't even true, but that didn't matter because the press is so invested in its own narrative that it all becomes self-fulfilling; these things are repeated like mantras. In the same way, it never seems to matter that John McCain is the wealthier candidate and represents economic interests that are in many ways aristocratic; it's always Barack Obama who is the "elitist."
(Via Romanesko.)
August 19, 2008
Posted at 10:22 AM in Capital City
Sure, we've got SmartBikes here in D.C. (See previous post.) But can we really be a world-class city, as our fine mayor wants us to be, if we can't sustain our independent bookstores? Chad Post over at Three Percent has got me nervous:
A few years ago, Chapters: A Literary Bookstore in Washington, D.C. decided to become an nonprofit as well, in part by making the store part of a larger 501(3) organization called Wordfest that directed an international poetry festival. For a variety of reasons I don't even fully know, this relationship didn't work out, and Chapters was eventually forced to close. The remarkable Terri Merz is still looking for a space to reopen, which will hopefully happen soon, since D.C. needs a great indie store, especially since Olsson's is struggling.
I knew about Chapters, but the news about Olsson's is, yes, news to me. Like Politics and Prose--which, as far as I know, is doing just fine--Olsson's hosts some excellent readings, and it would be a real shame if they faded away. Get out there and shop indy, people.
August 18, 2008
Posted at 6:27 PM in Capital City
Yup, right here in D.C. I'm so proud.
"Declare the District's urban-cool inferiority complex officially over," the WaPo reported on Aug. 13, the day SmartBike D.C. went live. "Today the city joins the ranks of Paris and Barcelona with the launch of the first high-tech public bike-sharing program in the United States, forcing such cities as San Francisco and Chicago to look here to see chic alternative transportation in action in America.
I walk by a SmartBike stand on my way to work and it looks pretty cool--Zipcar for cyclists.
Posted at 3:22 PM in Publish or Perish
I interviewed the manager of a young DC-area singer-songwriter named Chelsea Lee today, and he was telling me how he got her stuff on iTunes via TuneCore. (There's also CD Baby, "a little online record store" that cuts out the middleman.) Artists pay a small fee up front but keep all the royalties and the rights. That got me wondering: Why not TuneCore for writers? We could call it ProseCore, maybe, or FictionWorks. Upload a short story and see your readership grow!
What do you think? Could it work?
August 15, 2008
Posted at 3:32 PM in Publish or Perish
The publisher of the distinguished Arden Shakespeare series has outraged many Shakespearians with its decision to terminate the contract of Patricia Parker, a senior scholar who has been working on a new Arden edition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for more than a decade. Why did Cengage, Arden's publisher, pull the plug on Parker's contract? Was she taking too long to finish? Is this the sinister hand of commerce at work, or is a scholars' battle to blame? Read more in the story I did for today's Chronicle (subscription, sorry).
Free links: Parker's supporters have created an online petition demanding her reinstatement, with 215 signatures and counting. On the website reinstatepatparker.com, you can read a copy of the Aug. 2 letter Parker wrote to Arden's publisher, telling her side of the story.
August 14, 2008
Posted at 4:14 PM in Publish or Perish
My kids know that I write articles and that I have an editor. Sometimes they even think it's cool. Lately my son, who's 4, has been scribbling on pieces of paper and saying that he has to finish his article by Christmas. (I like the way he pushes deadlines.) Of course, editing doesn't always go smoothly, especially when your editor is your 6-year-old sister. Here's an exchange my husband IM'd me this afternoon:
Lela just picked up one of Finn's pieces of paper and said, "Finn, I think we need some changes in your article." Finn replied, "No we don't! I don't want you to tell me that, you idiot!" Then Lela hit him.
Note to my editor: I won't call you an idiot. Promise.
Posted at 8:17 AM in Lit Critin Net Life
Not long ago, I wrote a story for the Chronicle Review on "literary geospaces," profiling two digital humanists who are using technologies like Google Earth to see literary history in fresh ways. One of the scholars I wrote about, Matthew Jockers of Stanford, has posted more about his work on his blog, describing the bigger picture--
As long ago as 1997, my research had shown that the Irish experience in America was largely determined by place. It's true, of course, that the time of immigration to the U.S. was important in coloring the Irish experience: were these pre-famine immigrants, famine refugees, or the 1980's so-called "commuter Irish." But I discovered that equally important to chronology was place and the business of where the immigrants settled. For my research, I divided the country up into a number of regions (Midwest, mountain, southwest, pacific. . .) and each one of these regions turned out to have a distinct "brand" of Irish-American writing. Generally speaking, though, the further west we go the more likely we are to find writers describing the Irish-American experience in positive terms.
--and how he built a bibliographic database of IA lit that he turned into a "Google Earth mash-up." You can catch a QuickTime video of the mash-up here.
August 12, 2008
Posted at 3:21 PM in Capital City
If you're a local or happen to be in town, you can catch George Pelecanos reading from his new novel this evening at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose. I can't make it tonight, so if you go, clap wildly and cheer loudly.
I'm hoping to make it to at least one of these readings in September, though, when D.C. Noir 2: The Classics appears.
Posted at 11:27 AM in Publish or Perish
One for the good guys: My friend Jim Hynes has found a publisher for his new novel, Next. Little, Brown is the house that had the good sense to snap up the book. Jim sez:
And Little, Brown, of course, is a legendary American publishing house, which, at one of the scale, published Emily Dickinson, and at the other end of the scale, is now publishing, well, me, Mr. Ghost-Cat-Office-Zombie-Magic-Finger Boy. Probably best not to dwell too long on that dialectic.
Jim's referring to some of the memorable themes of his previous books, which include Publish and Perish, The Lecturer's Tale, and Kings of Infinite Space. Buy! Read! Enjoy!
August 11, 2008
Posted at 9:20 PM in The Way We Live Now
From the cover of the September issue of Lucky: "Milla Jovovich gets sexier and sexier."
Hey, it's a living.
August 5, 2008
Posted at 2:23 PM in Lost in the Stacks
Greetings from the Blue Hill Public Library, which luckily for me has free wifi. (The inn where we're staying is a Net-free zone, and I had to file a book review that, in a moment of bad planning, I failed to turn in before we hit the road.) This may be the swankest public library I have ever been in. It even has a separate area for young adults, with signs posted asking grown-ups to make way for YAs. They have loaner laptops and so much polished wood everywhere I feel like I'm on board somebody's yacht. Fittingly, there's a piece of wood on the wall from the deck railing of Robert Peary's ship Roosevelt, built in Verona, Maine--so the sign says--for his Arctic explorations. Kind of great that it's hanging between shelves of YA fiction, like some talisman of boys-adventure books of yore. Peary to the Pole! We won't dwell on the frostbite etc, although it is chilly up here in the north.
August 1, 2008
Posted at 7:34 AM in The Way We Live Now
We're headed to Blueberries for Sal country--Maine, somewhere around here--for an actual vacation, so posting will be intermittent or possibly even nonexistent until Aug. 13, when we're back in swampy, mosquito-filled D.C. See you then!
Though the bear in Blueberries for Sal was imagined, the rest of the story was completely real. McCloskey has pictured his own daughter in Sal, and his late wife, Peggy, is the mother in the story. The kitchen illustrated in the endpapers is their own, although the fascinating old stove is like the one that was in Peggy McCloskey's mother's home in Hancock, Maine.
