This is a little known movie by Christopher Guest master of the mockumentary genre. Guest also gave us Best in Show, and This is Spinal Tap among others.
A Mighty Wind is about a reunion concert of 1960s folk singers. A major figure in their careers (producers) dies and the family organizes a memorial concert with some of his favorite and most successful clients. These include The New Main Street Singers, The Folksmen, and Mitch and Mickey.
Keep in mind these artists haven't seen each other in thirty years, or that they weren't even on speaking terms with each other, or members of their own group for a few years.
Mitch and Mickey were the sweethearts of the folk scene, embodying love and romance, and sweetness. Then of course, the relationship exploded. They moved on. Mitch continued making music, but it took a dark turn and eventually Mitch experienced a mental break down. Mickey (a she) eventually got married, and left music behind her....
This is a film about reunions, about music, about friendships, about people. It's fun. And the music was all performed by the actors themselves. I find myself singing the songs throughout the day. The songs are genuinely good songs. It overflows with great writing, fantastic understated acting.
Here's a taste.
The Folksmen (one of them is Chrisopher Guest - both bald and having hair. Over Achiever.)
The New Main Street Singers - with Jane Lynch of Glee, and indie queen Parker Posey. (I just thought what else have I seen her in, oh yeah, Best in Show. She has one of those faces that you've seen somewhere but you don't know where..)
Mitch and Mickey - Eugene Levy of American Pie fame and Catherine O'Hara who everyone will probably recognize as Kevin's Mom in Home Alone.
One of the songs, A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow - a Mitch and Mickey tune - was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song. the Title song A Mighty wind won a Grammy.
I remember gathering around the tv watching PBS broadcast Peter, Paul and Mary concert. indeed every time they were on PBS we gathered around the tv and sang along with them. I remember this. Very vividly. Peter, Paul, and Mary performed at my university some years ago, and my parents were able to go see the trio before Mary died... The day she passed away was a sad day in my house hold.
Man I miss them.
If you watch more of Peter, Paul and Mary, and then watch some of Mitch and Mickey, you'll notice Catherine O'Hara does the Mary Head bob when she sings..... Imitation is the truest form of flattery... :)
Just some music for your to hot Wednesday.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
todays poem
I get the Writer's Almanac emailed to me every day. I love it. I send it on to my friend in Scotland who loves it and passes it on. It's a moment of sublimity. Except when it's Emily Dickinson who I really really hate (and so does my friend in Scotland...)
But I do love the Brontes. And today was a Bronte poem. So I am posting here, and then maybe in another post, I'll talk more about the Brontes, because really, what a fantastic group of liberated women for their time. Who all died of Consumption. And got more accomplished at their age than their current day counterparts.
So today's poem. in two formats - print and read aloud by a lovely Scottish actress from my old theater guild back in Glasgow. (I highly recommend checking out the rest of this blog pure dead brilliant. and cool.) Strathclyde Theatre Guild at the Ramshorn Theatre in Glasgow Scotland.
Bruce downie is the one who did the recording work, a true Jack of All Trades that one.
Radio Theatre Group: No Coward Soul is Mine. A poem by Emily Bronte. Pe...: "No Coward Soul is Mine A poem by Emily Bronte Performed by Frankie MacEachen"
No Coward Soul is Mine
by Emily Bronte
No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.
O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life—that in me has rest,
As I—undying Life—have Power in Thee!
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,
To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of immortality.
With wide-embracing love
Thy spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.
Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.
There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou—Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.
But I do love the Brontes. And today was a Bronte poem. So I am posting here, and then maybe in another post, I'll talk more about the Brontes, because really, what a fantastic group of liberated women for their time. Who all died of Consumption. And got more accomplished at their age than their current day counterparts.
So today's poem. in two formats - print and read aloud by a lovely Scottish actress from my old theater guild back in Glasgow. (I highly recommend checking out the rest of this blog pure dead brilliant. and cool.) Strathclyde Theatre Guild at the Ramshorn Theatre in Glasgow Scotland.
Bruce downie is the one who did the recording work, a true Jack of All Trades that one.
Radio Theatre Group: No Coward Soul is Mine. A poem by Emily Bronte. Pe...: "No Coward Soul is Mine A poem by Emily Bronte Performed by Frankie MacEachen"
No Coward Soul is Mine
by Emily Bronte
No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.
O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life—that in me has rest,
As I—undying Life—have Power in Thee!
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,
To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of immortality.
With wide-embracing love
Thy spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.
Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.
There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou—Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
the time traveler's wife film vs book
First off, I loved this book. Not as much as i loved Her Fearful Symmetry (by the same author - Audrey Niffenger). I loved that the book was told from Henry's point of view. I loved that we developed the relationship between this man and his future wife (Clare) (depending on his place in time). Sometimes she was a little girl and he helped her with her homework. Other days she was a grown up...
It was just so incredibly fascinating. And heartbreaking all at the same time to see him struggle with what he had to deal with, with never being there, with never being predictable in where he was going to go, or be. Except for the cheat sheet that said every time he showed up...
There were so many points in the book that showed the relationship between the two of them. So many incredible moments. Like their wedding, when Present Henry disappears and Older Henry shows up and marries Clare.
So when I saw that it was going ot be a movie, I was really hopeful. I looked forward to it. Even my husband sat through it.
Now...on to the movie.
That didn't show those moments. (They did show the wedding.)
That told the movie through her point of view, so we got a whiney chick flick with half the depth of the book.
The trailer looks awesome. But it still boils down to a chick flick, that lacks so much depth... There is still so much loveliness. So much beauty, but what made it so unique is diluted....
Rachel Macadams and Eric Bana did all they could with all their combined beauty to save the film. But beauty only goes so far.
i actually turned this off when we watiching it on the dvd. I couldn't make my husband watch it anymore, and I was so upset by what was missing in the film, I couldn't stand to watch it any longer.
This is an example of what could have been great.. and sadly wasn't.
Feel free to double check me.
It was just so incredibly fascinating. And heartbreaking all at the same time to see him struggle with what he had to deal with, with never being there, with never being predictable in where he was going to go, or be. Except for the cheat sheet that said every time he showed up...
There were so many points in the book that showed the relationship between the two of them. So many incredible moments. Like their wedding, when Present Henry disappears and Older Henry shows up and marries Clare.
So when I saw that it was going ot be a movie, I was really hopeful. I looked forward to it. Even my husband sat through it.
Now...on to the movie.
That didn't show those moments. (They did show the wedding.)
That told the movie through her point of view, so we got a whiney chick flick with half the depth of the book.
The trailer looks awesome. But it still boils down to a chick flick, that lacks so much depth... There is still so much loveliness. So much beauty, but what made it so unique is diluted....
Rachel Macadams and Eric Bana did all they could with all their combined beauty to save the film. But beauty only goes so far.
i actually turned this off when we watiching it on the dvd. I couldn't make my husband watch it anymore, and I was so upset by what was missing in the film, I couldn't stand to watch it any longer.
This is an example of what could have been great.. and sadly wasn't.
Feel free to double check me.
books into movies - LOTR
With the clock counting down the moments until Harry Potter takes the world by storm for the last time in theatres, thus closing a chapter of what has been ten years of films, and seven enormous books (largely credited with getting kids excited about reading again), I find myself thinking, wow they could have screwed this one up royally. This could have been a disaster.
(ala City of Ember although the trailer looks far more interesting than the book... sorry for that.)
But Harry Potter didn't drop the ball. Yes there were moments of what were they thinking, or complaining about what was left out of the films (Order of the Phoenix especially, but so many other times....), or things not in the books that showed up on screen (the I Killed Sirius Black! Scene in Half Blood Prince) But for the most part, they did a really great job.
(Aside from the whole movie where EVERYONE needed a hair cut - movie four if you're interested.)
This could easily go the way of what was in the movies, and not in the books, and all of that. but I'm going to restrain myself. I promise.
Rather I got to thinking about what books have made the film adaptation jump and managed to live to tell the tale, and what other ones have fallen flat on their faces.
Of course we have Harry Potter...
Lord of the Rings
Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
Return of the King
But really, what about this moment. When Helm's Deep is about to fall. Completely fall. It's just this one group of men who are going to go up against the baddest of bad@$$es, and they're all waiting to die. Brave but scared witless. And a horn sounds. and suddenly, out of nowhere, come the elves - the impossible neutral elves, (like Switzerland or Belgium). But exceptional archers, fighters, and many of them, easily doubling or tripling the number there at Helm's Deep...
<"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl5tG3fRZhk">
Just what a moment....
Ahh, but do you remember this one?
Really. 1977 The Hobbit. Animated. This thing gave me nightmares. It's because of that movie that I had nightmares of Gollum hissing in the dark at me. People had the bogeyman at night. I had Gollum. (We were literary nerds from a young age.)
Even as I type, I remember this music.
But of course the new Hobbit is coming out in 2012 with Martin Freeman (who plays Watson the BBC Sherlock) as Bilbo. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchett, are all reprising their roles, Evangeline Lily (Kate Austen from LOST) is playing an elf as well. Along with Bennedict Cummerbatch (Sherlock Holmes from the BBC show Sherlock) is playing Smaug. So I have high hopes for it.
(ala City of Ember although the trailer looks far more interesting than the book... sorry for that.)
But Harry Potter didn't drop the ball. Yes there were moments of what were they thinking, or complaining about what was left out of the films (Order of the Phoenix especially, but so many other times....), or things not in the books that showed up on screen (the I Killed Sirius Black! Scene in Half Blood Prince) But for the most part, they did a really great job.
(Aside from the whole movie where EVERYONE needed a hair cut - movie four if you're interested.)
This could easily go the way of what was in the movies, and not in the books, and all of that. but I'm going to restrain myself. I promise.
Rather I got to thinking about what books have made the film adaptation jump and managed to live to tell the tale, and what other ones have fallen flat on their faces.
Of course we have Harry Potter...
Lord of the Rings
Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
Return of the King
But really, what about this moment. When Helm's Deep is about to fall. Completely fall. It's just this one group of men who are going to go up against the baddest of bad@$$es, and they're all waiting to die. Brave but scared witless. And a horn sounds. and suddenly, out of nowhere, come the elves - the impossible neutral elves, (like Switzerland or Belgium). But exceptional archers, fighters, and many of them, easily doubling or tripling the number there at Helm's Deep...
<"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl5tG3fRZhk">
Just what a moment....
Ahh, but do you remember this one?
Really. 1977 The Hobbit. Animated. This thing gave me nightmares. It's because of that movie that I had nightmares of Gollum hissing in the dark at me. People had the bogeyman at night. I had Gollum. (We were literary nerds from a young age.)
Even as I type, I remember this music.
But of course the new Hobbit is coming out in 2012 with Martin Freeman (who plays Watson the BBC Sherlock) as Bilbo. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchett, are all reprising their roles, Evangeline Lily (Kate Austen from LOST) is playing an elf as well. Along with Bennedict Cummerbatch (Sherlock Holmes from the BBC show Sherlock) is playing Smaug. So I have high hopes for it.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Required Reading Lists
As summer comes upon us, (terribly strange to think that summer is nearly here with all of these thunderstorms and rainy days....) the myth of lazy days with nothing to do float to the surface.
Of course, we know those are just myths and imaginations. Summer actually gets busier. And if you're a student, you have to do the required reading, in addition to the school term reading.
But the doom of the required reading list is that you are cursed to ahte the books. Why? Because you HAVE TO read them, and then listen to someone tear them apart and make them mean things that you have no idea how they go to that conclusion. Sometimes a book is just a book. Soemtimes it's a metaphor for everything. And sometimes it's whatever the teacher wants it to be. (Those are the most dangerous ones - teachers and books.)
Here's the school's summer reading list as copy and pasted from their page. How many have you read? How many of thenm did you like or dislike?
Tunkhannock Area High School English Department
Recommended Summer Reading List
AUTHOR TITLE
Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart
Agee, James A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot
Bellow, Saul The Adventures of Augie March
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert The Stranger
Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage
Dante Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dreiser, Theodore An American Tragedy
Dumas, Alexandre The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George The Mill on the Floss
Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man
Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry Tom Jones
Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox The Good Soldier
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Faust
Hardy, Thomas Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Heller, Joseph Catch-22
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms
Homer The Iliad
Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hurston, Zora Neale Their Eyes Were Watching God
James, Henry The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz The Metamorphosis
Kingston, Maxine Hong The Woman Warrior
Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt
Mann, Thomas The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel García One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman Moby Dick
Morrison, Toni Beloved
O'Neill, Eugene Long Day's Journey into Night
Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar
Proust, Marcel Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas The Crying of Lot 49
Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac
Roth, Henry Call It Sleep
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William Macbeth
Shakespeare, William A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shaw, George Bernard Pygmalion
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath
Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David Walden
Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace
Turgenev, Ivan Fathers and Sons
Voltaire Candide
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith The House of Mirth
Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie
Woolf, Virginia To the Lighthouse
Wright, Richard Native Son
I ask you this question:
What would your required reading list be for summer or for school? What books do you think ever student should read by the time they graduate with their diploma?
Are there any books you think inappropriate or that aren't worth reading? Perhaps the book is too 'old' for the student (meaning the students typically lack a maturity or experience level needed to fully appreciate or comprehend the book)? Were there any books that you absolutely loved? Why (for all the questions)?
Of course, we know those are just myths and imaginations. Summer actually gets busier. And if you're a student, you have to do the required reading, in addition to the school term reading.
But the doom of the required reading list is that you are cursed to ahte the books. Why? Because you HAVE TO read them, and then listen to someone tear them apart and make them mean things that you have no idea how they go to that conclusion. Sometimes a book is just a book. Soemtimes it's a metaphor for everything. And sometimes it's whatever the teacher wants it to be. (Those are the most dangerous ones - teachers and books.)
Here's the school's summer reading list as copy and pasted from their page. How many have you read? How many of thenm did you like or dislike?
Tunkhannock Area High School English Department
Recommended Summer Reading List
AUTHOR TITLE
Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart
Agee, James A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot
Bellow, Saul The Adventures of Augie March
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert The Stranger
Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage
Dante Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dreiser, Theodore An American Tragedy
Dumas, Alexandre The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George The Mill on the Floss
Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man
Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry Tom Jones
Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox The Good Soldier
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Faust
Hardy, Thomas Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Heller, Joseph Catch-22
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms
Homer The Iliad
Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hurston, Zora Neale Their Eyes Were Watching God
James, Henry The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz The Metamorphosis
Kingston, Maxine Hong The Woman Warrior
Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt
Mann, Thomas The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel García One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman Moby Dick
Morrison, Toni Beloved
O'Neill, Eugene Long Day's Journey into Night
Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar
Proust, Marcel Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas The Crying of Lot 49
Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac
Roth, Henry Call It Sleep
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William Macbeth
Shakespeare, William A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shaw, George Bernard Pygmalion
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath
Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David Walden
Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace
Turgenev, Ivan Fathers and Sons
Voltaire Candide
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith The House of Mirth
Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie
Woolf, Virginia To the Lighthouse
Wright, Richard Native Son
I ask you this question:
What would your required reading list be for summer or for school? What books do you think ever student should read by the time they graduate with their diploma?
Are there any books you think inappropriate or that aren't worth reading? Perhaps the book is too 'old' for the student (meaning the students typically lack a maturity or experience level needed to fully appreciate or comprehend the book)? Were there any books that you absolutely loved? Why (for all the questions)?
old favorites
I have found myself in between adult fiction books of late. I finished the Cookbook Collector recently, and for as lovely as it was, it wasn't what I was looking for. it was a good story, beautifully written, and deserving of the Jane Austen comparisons. Yet it wasn't something I would sneak away to bed early to cuddle up with in my mass of covers and quilts. (Yes it is late May, and I still have two quilts on the bed, and a wool blanket.) My palate still craved something else.
So I began scanning my shelves, and came upon Laurie R. King's The Game.
It's another of the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series. I loved it before, so I tried it again. It fit perfectly. It even spent the better part of ten hours in the hospital waiting room with me.
I am close to finishing it again. The second time so far. I am sure there will be more.
Next on the adult fiction reading list: The Radleys by Matt Haig. I have high hopes for it.
What are the books you can read again and again?
So I began scanning my shelves, and came upon Laurie R. King's The Game.
It's another of the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series. I loved it before, so I tried it again. It fit perfectly. It even spent the better part of ten hours in the hospital waiting room with me.
I am close to finishing it again. The second time so far. I am sure there will be more.
Next on the adult fiction reading list: The Radleys by Matt Haig. I have high hopes for it.
What are the books you can read again and again?
Monday, May 2, 2011
Homer, Langley, Doctorow, and Literary..
Kristin and I have this bet going... Not a bet per se, but a "won't it be interesting to see what happens" thing. The Book in question: E. L. Doctorow's Homer & Langley.
What never heard of it?
I'm not surprised. Sadly. Though if you've been reading the Reviews, you should have read one other review of a Doctorow Book: The March (the one that way nominated for the Pulitzer).
Doctorow has name recognition. His publishing history is extensive and well acclaimed. There's been one Broadway musical based off his book (Ragtime!), along with multiple movies, including Ragtime! He's won numerous awards, and has been an esteemed member of the NYU community. If you google his name, or his name +reviews, you find a mind boggling amounts of hits. If you go to Amazon.com, you find the same thing.
So why haven't you ever heard of him? Probably because he's 'literary.' Well, what does that mean? It means he makes his readers work. some of his books, by his own admission, are more difficult to read (City of God being one of them). His pieces can be grand in scope, detailed, and weave in a thousand different elements like a tapestry. The March does this. Or they can be intimate, quiet little things that pull you into the mind of the narrator. Homer &Langley is a great example of that.
It's like this: Pop fiction = McDonalds, Dennys, or Chinese Buffets. You can get the same stuff anywhere you go, and it will taste the same way. There will be variations if you ask for it, but that's it. You come away having read it, and you might find yourself hungry in about an hour. And if you take home leftovers, you better eat them that day or the next because after that, they just get minging. That's pop fiction.
There's nothing wrong with that. I like a good pile of lo-mein, and cheese won tons on my plate as much as the next person. And heaven help me do I love a good chocolate frosty from Wendy's.
Literary is different. Literary fiction is like eating at one of those restraunts, where they put your leftovers in the tin foil swan, or some hole in the wall where the menu changes every other week. There the dining experience is different. It's longer, it's more involved. It may involve different courses, or it may involve having no idea what you're ordering but finding something brand new, that only this one establishment makes. And when you're done with your meal, you leave, with your little tin foil swan, and look forward to warming it up. Or you remember that meal and that experience, and long to go back to that establishment (maybe you do).
That's Literary fiction. Its diverse. It's challenging sometimes. It's going to be different from the run of the mill, and often even with the same author, you may not get the same style every time. But the experience will leave you satisfied, full, and wanting to return again and again to that book, and to that author.
But it has that word Literary attached to it. That snobbish stigma that only the overly educated elite read it, or are allowed to read it, or would want to read it. Dumb stigma.
Reading is like watching a classical symphony concert, and especially watching the Maestro. To most people, the Maestro is someone who just stands up in front of the orchestra and waves his arms around.
But to the more astute eye, the Maestro controls the entire orchestra. He or she expresses what he wants, hat he needs the orchestra to do through this hands, through his facial expressions, through his body posture. A sloppy Maestro will lead the orchestra, and they'll get the job done, but it will be nothing spectacular. They may have to 'pound' out what they want the orchestra to do, they may not e in sync with the different sections. The Maestro may also be so full of himself that he just stands up and looks pretty while the real work is done by the concertmaster, and the orchestra basically plays and leads itself. These are all bad signs.
Then there are the Maestros who are so in tune with their orchestra that they can just give the musicians a look, or a glance, a raised eyebrow, a facial expression, or maybe a tiny hand gesture, and they will eek out of the musicians exactly what is needed. An excellent Maestro should make it look effortless.
The same can be said for writers. The writers who make it look effortless, who are so in tune with their musicians (the characters the writing craft,) those are the ones you want to read. Doctorow makes this look simple. He is one of the ones who can give a look, a tiny finger twitch, and make the words go dancing into line with practiced ease. He may take you through a symphony you don't know, or through many different movements, some dark, some spry, some unfamiliar. It may make you stretch your opinions of what you like. But by the time it's done, you should feel like you've gone on a journey, that you have come out on the other side, and that you have been enlightened and enriched for having listened to it. (Think of Beethoven's 9th symphony. Can you ever listen to that and feel bored, or not find your spirit soaring? Or Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, a piece that stretched the norms of classical and jazz and fused them together?)
Doctorow is like that. LIterary fiction is like that.
Homer &Langley, is probably one of the most approachable of Doctorow's works, up there with Ragtime! The scope is much smaller, the focus is on the two brothers with one consistent narrator, rather than it spanning several characters in multiple, simultaneous locations. The book is written in first person, with an intended audience (the narrator has someone in mind that he's writing to though we don't find out who until the end, and it's not really pivotal. We've gotten through most of the book without knowing who it is, so there you go.....) But what we do get is a narrator who is the brother to someone whose mind is not intact, yet the narration is biased by his brotherly love for him. So while an outsider would just say, so and so is just an all out nutter, we have another view that may or may not be able or willing to admit the depth of the eccentricities that may lead to madness, until it is too late.
It is beautiful. There are parts that I just want to read again and again they are so exquisitely written. The story humanizes two men of folk hero/urban legend status and gives them breath, and life, and sympathy. If you like history, or weird psychology, or the tv show Hoarders..... or just all out great writing.
It's not a popcorn book (like popcorn movies that just blow things up, have fast car chases, and really, really pretty people). It is far more satisfying.
That's how it is with literary fiction. So don't be scared. I'll hold your hand
What never heard of it?
I'm not surprised. Sadly. Though if you've been reading the Reviews, you should have read one other review of a Doctorow Book: The March (the one that way nominated for the Pulitzer).
Doctorow has name recognition. His publishing history is extensive and well acclaimed. There's been one Broadway musical based off his book (Ragtime!), along with multiple movies, including Ragtime! He's won numerous awards, and has been an esteemed member of the NYU community. If you google his name, or his name +reviews, you find a mind boggling amounts of hits. If you go to Amazon.com, you find the same thing.
So why haven't you ever heard of him? Probably because he's 'literary.' Well, what does that mean? It means he makes his readers work. some of his books, by his own admission, are more difficult to read (City of God being one of them). His pieces can be grand in scope, detailed, and weave in a thousand different elements like a tapestry. The March does this. Or they can be intimate, quiet little things that pull you into the mind of the narrator. Homer &Langley is a great example of that.
It's like this: Pop fiction = McDonalds, Dennys, or Chinese Buffets. You can get the same stuff anywhere you go, and it will taste the same way. There will be variations if you ask for it, but that's it. You come away having read it, and you might find yourself hungry in about an hour. And if you take home leftovers, you better eat them that day or the next because after that, they just get minging. That's pop fiction.
There's nothing wrong with that. I like a good pile of lo-mein, and cheese won tons on my plate as much as the next person. And heaven help me do I love a good chocolate frosty from Wendy's.
Literary is different. Literary fiction is like eating at one of those restraunts, where they put your leftovers in the tin foil swan, or some hole in the wall where the menu changes every other week. There the dining experience is different. It's longer, it's more involved. It may involve different courses, or it may involve having no idea what you're ordering but finding something brand new, that only this one establishment makes. And when you're done with your meal, you leave, with your little tin foil swan, and look forward to warming it up. Or you remember that meal and that experience, and long to go back to that establishment (maybe you do).
That's Literary fiction. Its diverse. It's challenging sometimes. It's going to be different from the run of the mill, and often even with the same author, you may not get the same style every time. But the experience will leave you satisfied, full, and wanting to return again and again to that book, and to that author.
But it has that word Literary attached to it. That snobbish stigma that only the overly educated elite read it, or are allowed to read it, or would want to read it. Dumb stigma.
Reading is like watching a classical symphony concert, and especially watching the Maestro. To most people, the Maestro is someone who just stands up in front of the orchestra and waves his arms around.
But to the more astute eye, the Maestro controls the entire orchestra. He or she expresses what he wants, hat he needs the orchestra to do through this hands, through his facial expressions, through his body posture. A sloppy Maestro will lead the orchestra, and they'll get the job done, but it will be nothing spectacular. They may have to 'pound' out what they want the orchestra to do, they may not e in sync with the different sections. The Maestro may also be so full of himself that he just stands up and looks pretty while the real work is done by the concertmaster, and the orchestra basically plays and leads itself. These are all bad signs.
Then there are the Maestros who are so in tune with their orchestra that they can just give the musicians a look, or a glance, a raised eyebrow, a facial expression, or maybe a tiny hand gesture, and they will eek out of the musicians exactly what is needed. An excellent Maestro should make it look effortless.
The same can be said for writers. The writers who make it look effortless, who are so in tune with their musicians (the characters the writing craft,) those are the ones you want to read. Doctorow makes this look simple. He is one of the ones who can give a look, a tiny finger twitch, and make the words go dancing into line with practiced ease. He may take you through a symphony you don't know, or through many different movements, some dark, some spry, some unfamiliar. It may make you stretch your opinions of what you like. But by the time it's done, you should feel like you've gone on a journey, that you have come out on the other side, and that you have been enlightened and enriched for having listened to it. (Think of Beethoven's 9th symphony. Can you ever listen to that and feel bored, or not find your spirit soaring? Or Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, a piece that stretched the norms of classical and jazz and fused them together?)
Doctorow is like that. LIterary fiction is like that.
Homer &Langley, is probably one of the most approachable of Doctorow's works, up there with Ragtime! The scope is much smaller, the focus is on the two brothers with one consistent narrator, rather than it spanning several characters in multiple, simultaneous locations. The book is written in first person, with an intended audience (the narrator has someone in mind that he's writing to though we don't find out who until the end, and it's not really pivotal. We've gotten through most of the book without knowing who it is, so there you go.....) But what we do get is a narrator who is the brother to someone whose mind is not intact, yet the narration is biased by his brotherly love for him. So while an outsider would just say, so and so is just an all out nutter, we have another view that may or may not be able or willing to admit the depth of the eccentricities that may lead to madness, until it is too late.
It is beautiful. There are parts that I just want to read again and again they are so exquisitely written. The story humanizes two men of folk hero/urban legend status and gives them breath, and life, and sympathy. If you like history, or weird psychology, or the tv show Hoarders..... or just all out great writing.
It's not a popcorn book (like popcorn movies that just blow things up, have fast car chases, and really, really pretty people). It is far more satisfying.
That's how it is with literary fiction. So don't be scared. I'll hold your hand
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