Brandywine Books
April is National Poetry Month
The Academy of American Poets is celebrating its tenth month-long literary celebration of poetry next month. They want us to remember
Emily Dickinson's words, "Nature is a haunted house - but Art - is a house that tries to be haunted."
During the month, ten poetry readings will be held in ten cities, the first being in Vancouver, BC. Why they couldn't find a tenth US city, I don't know; but maybe Vancouver is a would-be American city--an American-enough city. Probably they're just willing to have a reading. (Did they ask poets in Houston or Athens, TX? St. Louis, maybe?) New York will get involved with a light display on the Empire State Building. Pictured is the one from last year. They will also have a benefit gala at the Lincoln Center on April 5 with a handful of familiar faces and voices, including everyone's favorite former anchorman Dan Rather.
But the fundamental point of this celebration is for you and I to enjoy more poetry. What do you think of that? Do you enjoy poetry or do you return it to the shelf still hungry?
America, by Matthew Cummings
I learned this weekend that my brother-in-law, Matthew Cummings, had a poem published at the Brick & Mortar Review. It's long and modern, but it feels right in the end. "America, America, you have shown me the clean-cheeked face," he writes. I'll quote an early paragraph here.
Go to the B&M Review for the whole thing.
America, I have seen your gentle and antebellumed South, North Carolinian
jack pines, Virginia hawks, salt breezes and pine cones, smiling bank tellers
and pleasant gas attendants, the lakes and grills, cliffs, dirt roads, family
reunions and shirt-sleeved winters. Rockingchairs have creaked under
lavender skies; in the summer your pools have cooled my skin. I have
encountered the hostile southern police.
Non-excellence?
Deidre Donahue in a
review for USA Today of Ian McEwan's Saturday claims literary excellence is darn hard. "Few writers can sustain excellence, particularly if they publish more than one book a decade. The widely admired best-selling British writer Ian McEwan, author of the acclaimed
Amsterdam, which won the 1998 Booker prize, proves no exception. His new novel,
Saturday, can only be described as dull." The book is heartless, she says, written with skill, not feeling.
Many reviewers disagree, but what do you think about her opening claim on excellence? Has McEwan maintained a literary excellence over the past decade? Has anyone else, even if the measure of that excellence differs a bit (i.e. Terry Pratchett may be excellent, but not the same excellent as McEwan.)?
What Are Book Reviews For?
Kevin at Collected Misc. has
some good thoughts on a couple posts on other lit blogs about the nature of book reviewing. Should a book review advise you whether to buy the book or should it contribute to a larger body of criticism by holding the book in question to a high standard of excellence?
Also, Kevin follows that post with a warning that book reviews can land you in
an ugly, melodramic mess.
Happy Easter!
"Alas, and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sov'reign die?
Would He devote that sared head
For such a worm as I?
"Was it for crimes that I have done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!"
From a wonderful hymn by Isaac Watts. May we never forget it.
George Herbert's "Easter"
I got me flowers to straw Thy way,
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But Thou wast up by break of day,
And brought'st Thy sweets along with Thee.
Yet though my flowers be lost, they say
A heart can never come too late;
Teach it to sing Thy praise this day,
And then this day my life shall date.
Bloggin Ain't Good Fer Writtin
Maud is talking about an author discussion of blogging. In short: "Don't, don't start; it'll suck you into the screaming vortex of the blogosphere, and then you will never get out." I understand that and may not disagree (I'll have to consult myself on it), but what do you think about this statement by Ayelet Waldman: "I was taking all these things, these moments and thoughts and experiences, and just putting them right out there [by blogging]. And once they're out there, once they're expressed, they're gone -- I think. I think, for a writer, once you've put something down, it sort of both freezes it and expresses it, and you lose it from yourself."
I don't believe that's true for every writer. She may not be trying to say that anyway. It certainly true that blogging suck you in. Maud points out that author William Gibson rejected blogging because he decided that he wasn't writing a novel while he was blogging, so that wouldn't do. Can't argue with that. Except some writers or authors enjoy and can manage both.
Suburban Fairy Tale Poetry
Poet
Michael Paul Ladanyi, a Georgia resident, has collaborated with designer
Christine E. Laine, a Virginian, on a new book of poetry from Little Poem Press.
Suburban Fairy Tales of Brilliant Ash and Blue Sin can be obtained through the
Little Poem Press site.
I think Michael's poetry is interesting, but I don't have confidence in my judgment of poetry to say much more than whether or not a poem works for me. Here's a sample from a poem nominated for the
2005 Pushcart Prize for Best Small Press Poetry:
Angela sits mesh smoking, drinking lost
tea stains from her empty glass,
brown bird hands making ten
fingers seem like twenty-four.
A still child born in her every word,
she rattle-pops split-skirt letters,
ravenous fish statue words,
crimson bullet questions. I think about
vegetable soup and cannibals,
two hungers I should have already used
together in a war poem.
Continue on his site.
Gerard Manley Hopkins on Spring
NOTHING is so beautiful as spring—
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
Read the second half at Bartleby.com
In Pursuit of the Great American Novel
"Don't yearn for big important tasks that God didn't give to you while neglecting the small obvious ones that He did."
(from
Dry Creek Chronicles in a post on
busyness.)
Where is Heaven? or Two Ways to View Death
I read the Sherlock Holmes' case
"The Five Orange Pips" recently, and it struck me that a reader could view the conclusion as a success or failure according to his worldview. The story itself is a bit of a disappointment. The client appears with a dramatic story. Holmes talks through his initial observations, and the next day, he discusses some conclusions. The story occurs almost entirely within his apartment. The final words describe what Watson could ascertain about the suspected criminals at sea.
Once Holmes does the office work to pinpoint some likely suspects, he mails a letter to them and one to the American authorities in order to apprehend them for murder charges in Britain; but all they ever heard was "that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a shattered stern-post of the boat was seen swinging in the trough of a wave, with the letters 'L. S.' carved upon it." Watson could only assume the ship with the suspects was destroyed in the violent storms that day.
How does that strike you? Did the criminals escape justice through an accident which could have killed anyone? Did Holmes fail because he could see the murderers prosecuted? Or did a divine judge execute his own sentence on them through the storm?
In Dallas Willard's book,
The Divine Conspiracy, he writes about some of the words we use to describe our world. We used to use the word heaven to describe the atmosphere near us, the space between planets and stars, and the location of God, angels, and departed saints. We called them the first, second, and third heavens. Now we call them the first two sky or air and space. Do the words imply different things for you? Sky and space imply nothingness or an empty location. Heaven suggests something spiritual. Willard suggests that we hinder our viewpoint by thinking of God in heaven somewhere, removed from us, maybe--we hope--paying attention to us; but when the Bible was written, part of heaven was the air we breathed. The spirit of God was in the wind.
So when Holmes' prime suspect are lost at sea, are the victims of blind nature or the subjects of God's justice? And in our daily lives, are we accidentally alive, no more significant than the ants cued up over the garden stones, or do we benefit from divine provision in the strength we have to walk, to work, and to play?
Here's another language question based on the same worldview. If a disabled person cannot feed himself, would feeding him be "forcing him to continue living" and would starving him "letting him die?" If so, am I forcing my children to live by feeding them? I call it nurture, and I don't understand why
so many are arguing over it.
Lord of the Beans
Coming soon from
Big Idea, an epic adventure with an all-vegetable cast: Lord of the Beans. A little flobbit names Baggypants has been given the One Bean for safe harbor on a dreadful mission.
A guardian fellowship, including friends Ear-A-Corn and Leg-O-Lamb, help him while an angry army of sporks are on the prowl. Will they use their gifts wisely and save the world?
Tournament Blues?
If you're feeling down because your NCAA Tournament brackets aren't even as good as the premium, 20lb, bright white paper they're scribbled on, then order a jar of
Chalmers Chocolate, "an exquisite chocolate confection exploding with bold flavor." The 30-year-old company is based on Lookout Mountain, GA, just south of Chattanooga, TN. I believe you can call or email them directly to order a jar, but they are also available in a few locations around Chattanooga, such as Mountain Market, as well as stores in New York City, Chapel Hill and Charlotte, NC, Greenville, SC and other fine America cities.
Brand identity designed by
Widgets and Stone.
Shakespearean Limericks
It is well known among Shakespearean scholars that the bard first crafted his stories in the form of the serial limericks. Shakespeare invented the form, which is popularly assumed to have been crafted by
Edward Lear before the readers of the world were smart enough to call it a limerick. I tell you, the state of public education has been rotten ever since Socrates handed it down to George Washington.
Some of these classic poems have been discovered and preserved. "The Taming of the Shrew" begins this way:
There once was a lady named Kate
Her popular sis she did hate
Bianca, she knew
Was really the shrew
But twas she who could not get a date
Three men for Bianca did vie
For her love they did vow they would die
But their hopes they were buried
For till Katherine got married
Her sister must suitors deny
Read on. Much appreciation to scholar JM Downing for preserving this text. An equally strong scholar, DJ Downing (some relation), has preserved this Shakespearean limerick which was expanded into the classic "Romeo and Juliet." I have the honor to present it to you here in full.
In Verona a city so fair,
Two families were oft feuding there
In this mess we do find
Star crost lovers entwined
And I fear that they haven’t a prayer.
Young Romeo and family most rash,
A Capulet party did crash
‘Twas there that he met
The sweet Juliet
And he fell deep in love in a flash.
Poor Juliet felt rather blue;
Her love was a dread Montague.
Yet she loved just the same
Asking “What’s in a name”.
Still she didn’t know what she should do.
Then Romeo that lover so keen,
Climbed to her on vines, strong and green.
Together these two
Vowed they’d always be true,
In what’s known as the balcony scene.
But trouble in Verona did grow,
When Tybalt stabbed Mercutio.
Cried he “You’re all louses,
A plague on your houses!
I’m dead of a murderous blow.”
Wedded bliss just was not meant to be
For Romeo slew Tybalt you see.
As the Princes’ law writ
Romeo’s live was forfeit
So our hero had to pack up and flee.
A plan to fake death went awry,
When Rome thought Juliet did die –
So he killed himself then
She did herself in
And together in death they both lie.
Then the Prince scolded both families.
“Take a look at these two, if you please.
Because of your hate
Juliet and her mate
Are now one of the Bard’s tragedies.
Instant Reading
Here's a Twilight Zone question: If you could read a book in an instant and reflect on it clearly for an hour before things begin to grow murky, would you do it? Say there's a library where this could be done, and complications limit you to only one book per visit. Would that be your ideal reading fantasy or would it take the fun out of it?
Obsolete Skills?
Also from
Wittingshire, I learned I am the
obsolete skill of "regularly metric verse." Fitting.
What Do You Call, Linkage?
- Nextbook.org's current cover story is a divided audio piece with supporting imagery on Jewish veterans from Iraq.
- Earlier tonight, I blogged at Collected Misc. about new sales for Warren's Purpose-Driven Life, generated by the Atlanta courtroom-shooting story. I also linked to VidLit, book promotions done by animation. Be sure to watch the one for Yiddish with Dick and Jane, but don't ask me what I want on my hamburger, all right? Oy Vey!
- Occasionally, I think that humility should prevent me from posting links such as like those in #2, excessively speaking. I haven't yielded to humility in these cases, and I don't see the point of it. Almost every blog is a page of words, images, and links which interest the blogger, and since I am blogging on two blogs at the most present time currently, I want to point out the posts of interest-to-me on the other blog when I make them. Is that prideful?
- The Thinklings have launched a book club. Their first selection is The Bible and the Future by Anthony Hoekema. No, it appears to be a readable tome, despite the subject. I am looking forward to it. I should add it to my list on the right. If you are interested in The End Times or eschatology but don't want to wade into the book, watch Thinklings.org for the Monday morning discussions.
- Let me take this opportunity to mention that Jared has some cool (there's a better word than cool--what is it?) writing quotes which are popping up in some of his posts.
- And in other news, John Grisham is writing a non-fiction legal thriller for Doubleday Broadway to be released next year. The story will be on Ronald Keith Williamson, a death-row inmate formerly with the Oakland A's who was acquitted through DNA testing many years after his conviction and just prior to his scheduled execution.
"Brandywine Books" Is a Great Name
Reactions like this from
Wittingshire remind me what a great name I have in Brandywine Books. "It's bookish and Tolkienish, which naturally means it must be good." Of course, it is. It also relates to
an area in Delaware and Pennsylvania, and has alcoholic overtones. All good attention grabbers, in my opinion.
Amanda at Wittingshire points out
Lars' second Incarnation post in response to her discovery of this new land. Also, she has been blogging
limericks this St. Patrick's week. I like
this one, which is probably as old as the hills, old as dirt, or old as yesterday's news, but I am unfamiliar with it.
A fly and a flea in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
"Let us flee," said the fly.
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
This reminds me that I've wanted to buy something akin to, if not precisely, the
Oxford Book of Light Verse.
Friends of Chattanooga's C.S. Lewis Lecture
If you live near Chattanooga, TN, you may wish to attend the Monday, April 4 lecture at UTC. "Genes as Resources: A New Image of Humanity" will be delivered by
Gilbert Meilaender of Valparaiso University as the 23rd Annual C.S. Lewis Lecture. It's free. Starts at 7:30 p.m in Benwood Auditorium. Mr. Meilaender is releasing a revision of
Bioethics: A Primer for Christians this year.
Wallace & Gromit, the Movie
I just learned from Will at
View from the Foothills that a movie of Wallace and Gromit will be released this October.
Here's a production trailer. I may have to take my sweet children to the theater for this one! But will the snack counter serve
wensleydale?
What if I wear the wrong trousers? Oh, dear.
From "The Rival Conceptions of God" by C.S. Lewis
If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole word is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest one, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic - there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong: but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others.
Taken from
Mere Christianity, quoted by a "fool" on
Into the Wardrobe.
Interview with Adam Fawer
First-time author Adam Fawer offered to write something for Brandywine Books several days ago, and I asked him a few questions in something that approached an interview, which I posted on
Collected Misc. Go there to read his answers to the handful of questions I asked, but here I'll give you what he said about the origin of his story,
Improbable:
I had a statistics professor in college who once said, "If you walked outside right now and jumped up into the air it's POSSIBLE that through a confluence of incredibly low probability events (a sudden typhoon carrying you up into the sky high enough to collide with the space shuttle) you could land on the moon. However, this is highly unlikely. Thus, the moral of the story is nothing is impossible, but certain things are infinitely improbable." This idea always stuck with me and eventually morphed into the premise for my book: a man who could understand all of the consequences for every improbable action in the universe.
Context for Debate
Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:13-17 ESV)
So, Christian Bloggers, how often do we couch the reason for the hope within us in gentleness and respect?
Why We Read
Betsy Childs in an article titled, "
In Praise of Rereading," talks about important books in her life and reasons for reading:
Several of the books that have had the greatest influence on my life are books that I've stumbled upon. I found them while browsing through a shelf. I had never heard of them and did not expect to impress anyone by reading them. I read them because they intrigued me or offered answers I was looking for, and I was not disappointed. But these examples stand out in contrast to the majority of the reading I've done, which is far too often motivated by intellectual fads, a high-brow idea of what will be considered literary, or the desire to be perceived as well-informed.
I'm guilty of prideful reading and book-buying as well; but I still want to read the books come home to every evening no matter why I bought them.
[As for my unplanned absence from the blog, I have been busy and will continue to be this month. I want to post every weekday with something meaningful, but I won't be able to. Thank you for continuing to check in. I have not given up blogging yet.]
God Gives Them Sleep
"OF all the thoughts of God that are
Borne inward into souls afar,
Along the Psalmist's music deep,
Now tell me if that any is
For gift or grace surpassing this—
"He giveth His beloved, sleep"?
What would we give to our beloved?
The hero's heart to be unmoved,
The poet's star-tun'd harp to sweep,
The patriot's voice to teach and rouse,
The monarch's crown to light the brows?—
He giveth His beloved, sleep."
From Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "
The Sleep"
New Book Blog
Here's a new book blog out of Britain which was kind enough to link to Brandywine Books, thus enabling me to find it through back-linking and the extensive research tools provided for my work in the CIA and Interpol. (Forget you read that last part.) The blog is
Book GluttonI would raise a dram to you, Maureen, for a good life and fulfilling blogging, reading and writing, if I drank things in drams. I'll raise my oversized mug of coffee to you instead.
I have also noticed a lit blog which is older than this one and yet Kate links here under the heading "
She recently read The Good Earth and
enjoyed a group discussion on it. "
Wang Lung's love of the land and simple desire to prosper and provide for his family particularly resonate for me right now as I yearn to be away from this life-in-limbo, to be steward of my own good earth."
I should also mention, though I am late to do so, that I appreciate the kind recommendation from Mental Multivitamin. Thank you very much. May we all meet at a book-signing and be surrounded by hundreds of fans who murmur into their tote bags, "Who are these people again?"
Talking It Up
Yesterday was
World Book Day for the UK and Ireland. No, I don't know why it isn't the UK and Ireland Book Day or why it isn't Book Day in the rest of the world. Stop thinking about it.
This year's theme was "
Spread the Word." A survey, conducted for
The Booksellers Association (I believe), shows that sales are highly influence by personal recommendations.
BBC News reports, "Other factors which are said to influence readers' book choices are the synopsis on the back cover, the jacket design - but much fewer people are swayed by advertising campaigns." These factors as well as reader faithfulness to an author or "author loyalty" are the meat and potatoes of bookselling.
[Enter The Lit-Blogger, stage right]
The Poseur Is the One Who Killed Himself
"It's the Sandra Dee's that create room for the Hunter Thompson's" -
BreakPoint"Hunter S. Thompson was, shall we say, the
real fake in this accidental duo. His 'authenticity' was just a pose. Reporters, young and old, who compulsively imitate him are poseurs squared.
Dee, on the other hand, got help, kept up appearances, died of natural causes. The normal, boring stuff of real life. . . . Sanda Dee is Hunter S. Thompson's superior because her artifice was grounded in the real." -
Kathy Shaidle
Book Lover Complaints
I found an article on
The American Reporter, dated February 21, 2005, about the BookExpo America on April 2003. It's an old article, recently published online. It reports that there are about 1000 bookstores in the States now, down by half from ten years ago. Then it says, "Wilkie's Bookstore & Cafe, the oldest bookstore in Ohio, is closing its successful operation after more than a century of bookselling so that the Dayton school board can expand its offices."
I throw that out to introduce a post I put on
Collected Misc. this morning:
I don't understand why some of us, book lovers I mean, champion independent bookshops. Are they supposed to combine retail trade with bibliophilia? BookAngst writes, "We LOVE to love independent booksellers, and much of the applause they receive for hand-selling is indeed well-deserved. On the other hand, for all of the hand-wringing that goes on about the big chains driving the independents out of business, for most of my authors on book tour, it's the Indie stores that draw the smallest crowds." So do some book lovers dislike chain booksellers (not chain media-sellers, there's a difference) because they dislike big?
Are the same people the ones who complain about publisher-owned bookshop? Is there really anything to fear in a bookshop owned by HarperCollins or Little, Brown, & Co? I think "The Little Brown Book Shoppe" is a great name, though I guess it would be a Time-Warner store now. Some publishers already sell their books directly through their websites, and Barnes & Noble, a retailers, publishes their own line. I don't understand why such a store would be a bad thing. If the publisher sold only his books, he would limit his resale market. If he sold his books with everyone else's, becoming simply a good store with perhaps less overhead for his stock of books and maybe a better avenue for selling damaged merchandise or unpopular selections, then what's to complain about? Is it that some book lovers have it in their heads that corporations are bad, that business is ugly and the bane of decent society, so chains and publisher-owned bookshops are perversion of the pure, liberating bookseller?
A Floating Bookstore
[by way of
Rare Book News] Did you know that the oldest active passenger ship is also a huge bookstore? The
MV Doulos, built in 1914, sails from port to port, "
supplying vital literature resources, encouraging inter-cultural understanding, training young people for more effective life and service, promoting greater global awareness, providing practical aid and sharing a message of hope in God wherever there is opportunity." The ship carries 500,000 books, sold well below retail. Most recently, it is harboring in Port Said, Egypt.
