Thursday, August 23, 2007
What Happened to Art Movements?
I'm reading a thoughtful book on the history of development in America called "The Geography of Nowhere" by James Howard Kunstler. It was recommended by an online acquaintance. (Thanks, M.N.!) I'll blog more specifically about the book later, but one thing that came up while reading is that there used to be all of these movements in art and architecture. Of course I remember studying various artistic movements while in college - cubism, the Renaissance, pointillism, impressionism, art deco, neoclassicism, modernism, pop art, post-modernism. This got me to wondering . . . what artistic movements are we in the middle of today? Certainly we have a whole new computer-generated movement led by our technological wonders. Has anyone bothered to name whatever we're in now?
Labels: america, art, book, college, development, james howard kunstler, technology
Monday, August 20, 2007
Saving Fish from Drowning
If you're looking for a great book, I've got a suggestion. Try Amy Tan's "Saving Fish from Drowning." Her book, which is fiction, starts with a note to the reader that explains the genesis for the story. Seems Amy was caught in a rain storm in Manhattan one day and ducked into the American Society for Psychical Research for protection. While there she did some research on automatic writing, finding that a woman named Karen from California had channeled a woman named Bibi Chen, someone Amy was actually familiar with. Amy interviewed Karen and read the writings Bibi had sent through her. Bibi mentioned within her writings the disappearance of eleven tourists in Burma. Just after the note to readers, Amy had placed an article from the newspaper into her book that concerns these tourists. From this ingenious premise, Amy constructed her story. She has written it so well (having done her research beyond that of talking to Karen and reading the channeled writings of Bibi) that it reads like nonfiction. I kept asking myself whether this or that part of the story was true. Where did Amy take artistic license? When you can't tell, that's the mark of an excellent writer.
P.S. The title of the book is from a small parable that appears after the copyright page.
P.S. The title of the book is from a small parable that appears after the copyright page.
Labels: amy tan, automatic writing, bibi chen, book, burma, fiction, fish, saving fish from drowning, tourists, writing
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Nothing Special
I'm reading "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" by Shunryu Suzuki a little at a time. You have to do that with Buddhist teachings or they don't stick. One of the sections is called "Nothing Special." Suzuki says,
"As long as we are alive, we are always doing something. But as long as you think, "I am doing this," or "I have to do this," or "I must attain something special," you are actually not doing anything. When you give up, when you no longer want something, then you do something. When there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something." (page 47)
Suzuki continues by saying that if you practice sitting zazen without any thought to reaching enlightenment, eventually you will reach enlightenment and it will be nothing special. "Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you obtain it, it is nothing special." (page 47)
A light bulb went on in my head when I read this. Have you noticed that really talented people seem to shrug off their talent? They have reached the place of "nothing special." When they wanted to acquire that talent, it was as if they wanted to get hold of a precious gem - a most special thing, but once they got it, huh! Big deal! Do you do this with your own talents, those things you know how to do so well you could practically do them in your sleep? (I'm not just speaking of an artistic talent here, but of any sort of talent - cooking, accounting, shopping for bargains, taking care of animals, etc.) Do you think they are "nothing special"? That is good, on the one hand. It means you have done something. And it is good on the other hand (all that is is good in Buddhism) because there are others who admire your talent as something special. Eventually, if they decide to practice whatever that something special is, they will come to a point where it is nothing special.
"As long as we are alive, we are always doing something. But as long as you think, "I am doing this," or "I have to do this," or "I must attain something special," you are actually not doing anything. When you give up, when you no longer want something, then you do something. When there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something." (page 47)
Suzuki continues by saying that if you practice sitting zazen without any thought to reaching enlightenment, eventually you will reach enlightenment and it will be nothing special. "Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you obtain it, it is nothing special." (page 47)
A light bulb went on in my head when I read this. Have you noticed that really talented people seem to shrug off their talent? They have reached the place of "nothing special." When they wanted to acquire that talent, it was as if they wanted to get hold of a precious gem - a most special thing, but once they got it, huh! Big deal! Do you do this with your own talents, those things you know how to do so well you could practically do them in your sleep? (I'm not just speaking of an artistic talent here, but of any sort of talent - cooking, accounting, shopping for bargains, taking care of animals, etc.) Do you think they are "nothing special"? That is good, on the one hand. It means you have done something. And it is good on the other hand (all that is is good in Buddhism) because there are others who admire your talent as something special. Eventually, if they decide to practice whatever that something special is, they will come to a point where it is nothing special.
Labels: art, book, buddhism, nothing special, reading, shunryu suzuki, talent, writing, zazen, zen
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Divine Secrets
Call me late to the party. I just finished reading "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," which was all the rage a number of years back. I see from the copyright page that the hardcover version of this book, which is by Rebecca Wells, came out in 1996. Okay, so I'm over ten years too late, well beyond the major hoopla. So sue me.
For those who are in my same good company, the story is about the strained relationship between a mother, Vivi, and her daughter, Sidda. Vivi has a core group of friends, Caro, Necie, and Teensy (the stripper), all of whom make up a group called the Ya-Yas. The characters are well developed. There's nice suspense concerning the specific problems between Vivi and Sidda. The book opens with Sidda deciding that she can't get married to her fiance because she doesn't know how to love. She traces that inability back to Vivi, who sends her a scrapbook called the "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. " Cute title. The book lagged in a few spots. I sometimes found myself saying, "Get on with it. Get back to the problems between Vivi and Sidda." Other than that, it's worth the read to watch how the characters act and what they say. I have a sudden urge to say "yall" and "dahlin" from the book.
How long do you think it'll be before I get to the seventh Potter book? (Especially seeing as how I haven't read books five and six?)
For those who are in my same good company, the story is about the strained relationship between a mother, Vivi, and her daughter, Sidda. Vivi has a core group of friends, Caro, Necie, and Teensy (the stripper), all of whom make up a group called the Ya-Yas. The characters are well developed. There's nice suspense concerning the specific problems between Vivi and Sidda. The book opens with Sidda deciding that she can't get married to her fiance because she doesn't know how to love. She traces that inability back to Vivi, who sends her a scrapbook called the "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. " Cute title. The book lagged in a few spots. I sometimes found myself saying, "Get on with it. Get back to the problems between Vivi and Sidda." Other than that, it's worth the read to watch how the characters act and what they say. I have a sudden urge to say "yall" and "dahlin" from the book.
How long do you think it'll be before I get to the seventh Potter book? (Especially seeing as how I haven't read books five and six?)
Labels: book, divine secrets of the ya ya sisterhood, harry potter, rebecca wells, story
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
It's a Hoot!
Young Son Number Two and I went to the library last night. While there I found a book - well, duh! - rather, an unexpected book that's an absolute riot. I was laughing so hard while reading it that I was almost crying, except that I couldn't breathe. I had to walk away periodically so that I could regain my composure and catch my breath. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I won't keep you in suspense any longer. This knee-slapping guffaw of a book is called "The Museum of Kitschy Stitches: A Gallery of Notorious Knits" by Stitchy McYarnpants (a.k.a. Debbie Brisson). Stitchy collects all sorts of old fiber craft patterns, and boy has she found some doozies in her collection. We've all seen them . . . those godawful knitting or crocheting patterns, many in wacky colors and acrylic fibers, that no one would be caught dead wearing. In "The Museum of Kitschy Stitches," photos of a bunch of these loud fashion don'ts are featured with Stitchy's utterly smart and wickedly funny commentary. And the hilarity doesn't end there. Stitchy has a blog!
Labels: book, crocheting, debbie brisson, fiber arts, humor, kitsch, knitting, library, stitchy mcyarnpants, young son
Monday, July 16, 2007
Eastern Standard Tribe
Have you heard the song "You Made Me Love You"? The next line goes "I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to do it." The song has been going through my head in relation to a particular issue, only I'd say that love is too strong a word, here. Like is more like it.
I recently read Cory Doctorow's book "Eastern Standard Tribe" and tried very hard not to like it. Very hard. I was predisposing myself not to like it because of something Doctorow wrote in his BoingBoing blog. He was talking about the National Spy Museum's no-photography policy and said:
"Christ this stuff bugs me, especially from museums. These places are supposed to be about preserving and disseminating human culture -- but no taking any pictures or we might not be able to sell as many picture postcards!"
Having worked in a museum for eleven years, I took umbrage with the statement and wrote to Doctorow to explain exactly why museums have no-photography policies. The short version is that we can't expose our collections to the flash of multiple cameras. Some museums allow for the use of cameras with the flash off, but I can understand a no-photography-period policy, as well. If you give some people an inch, they'll take a mile and if you read the BoingBoing post linked above, you'll see that someone took photos at the National Spy Museum with a camera phone. There's another reason for the no-photo policy. Museums collect items that are still under copyright. By law, we are supposed to uphold that copyright. From Doctorow's response back to me, it's obvious that he sees any explanation of museum restrictions to be nothing more than wimpy excuses. We're to give everything away, by golly, and that's that.
That's the short version of why I was predisposed not to like Doctorow's book. Childish, yes. But, I had wanted to read something of Doctorow's prior to the little tiff and decided it was time to get another view of the man. I checked out "Eastern Standard Tribe" and thought, "Well, mister, just show me what you've got." Despite my best intentions, I liked the book. It's got a great premise. With the digital age, people start grouping up with those of similar interest, no matter where they are, no matter what the time zone. Art, the main character, is from the Eastern Standard Tribe, and it's his job to screw up the inner workings of companies in other time zones. The tale swings around, battering poor Art with treachery. The opening scene is of him stuck on a roof with a pencil in his nose, ready to push it into his brain. The story is a bit choppy at first, but stick with it. It's part of the overall flow and it'll make sense after a while. Once in a while I found myself fogging off after some new tech idea was introduced, thinking how could this be pushed further? That's probably just me, though.
So, then, this was the thing I was waffling about. Liked the book, didn't care for the blog statement. Had to think about how to delicately tie the two together. Now the chips can fall where they may.
I recently read Cory Doctorow's book "Eastern Standard Tribe" and tried very hard not to like it. Very hard. I was predisposing myself not to like it because of something Doctorow wrote in his BoingBoing blog. He was talking about the National Spy Museum's no-photography policy and said:
"Christ this stuff bugs me, especially from museums. These places are supposed to be about preserving and disseminating human culture -- but no taking any pictures or we might not be able to sell as many picture postcards!"
Having worked in a museum for eleven years, I took umbrage with the statement and wrote to Doctorow to explain exactly why museums have no-photography policies. The short version is that we can't expose our collections to the flash of multiple cameras. Some museums allow for the use of cameras with the flash off, but I can understand a no-photography-period policy, as well. If you give some people an inch, they'll take a mile and if you read the BoingBoing post linked above, you'll see that someone took photos at the National Spy Museum with a camera phone. There's another reason for the no-photo policy. Museums collect items that are still under copyright. By law, we are supposed to uphold that copyright. From Doctorow's response back to me, it's obvious that he sees any explanation of museum restrictions to be nothing more than wimpy excuses. We're to give everything away, by golly, and that's that.
That's the short version of why I was predisposed not to like Doctorow's book. Childish, yes. But, I had wanted to read something of Doctorow's prior to the little tiff and decided it was time to get another view of the man. I checked out "Eastern Standard Tribe" and thought, "Well, mister, just show me what you've got." Despite my best intentions, I liked the book. It's got a great premise. With the digital age, people start grouping up with those of similar interest, no matter where they are, no matter what the time zone. Art, the main character, is from the Eastern Standard Tribe, and it's his job to screw up the inner workings of companies in other time zones. The tale swings around, battering poor Art with treachery. The opening scene is of him stuck on a roof with a pencil in his nose, ready to push it into his brain. The story is a bit choppy at first, but stick with it. It's part of the overall flow and it'll make sense after a while. Once in a while I found myself fogging off after some new tech idea was introduced, thinking how could this be pushed further? That's probably just me, though.
So, then, this was the thing I was waffling about. Liked the book, didn't care for the blog statement. Had to think about how to delicately tie the two together. Now the chips can fall where they may.
Labels: book, cory doctorow, eastern standard tribe, museum, photography, songs, spy museum
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Waffling & Writing
I'm waffling. Waffling, waffling. There's something I want to blog about, but I'm trying to decide if I want to put up with the potential ramifications. Therefore, I must think on it some more.
How's that for leaving you hanging?
So, here's what I'll talk about instead. I'm reading Sol Stein's "Stein on Writing" book, flipping through and randomly reading chapters. I've read plenty of how-to writing books during my existence on earth, yet no matter how many I read, each one teaches me a new trick or two. Sol's book is no different.
Chapter 7 - a short chapter - is called "The Actors Studio Method for Developing Drama in Plots." In short, when writing, pretend that each of your characters got a different script for the story and have them "act" from the script they've been given. This is actually the way life works. We're all running around with our own mental scripts that have been built from our personalities, life events, and etc., and conflict comes when our script doesn't mesh with someone else's.
In Sol's chapter on writing love scenes (chapter 18), he says, "It's the author's job to keep [lovers] apart as long as possible." (pg. 169) This creates tension in the story for the reader. Don't make the love scene inevitable, or straight-forward, or mechanical. That's boring. Shoot for arousing the head rather than the genitals (especially for your female readers).
An exercise that Sol suggest, which is more lengthy in the book than I'll present here, is the shouting from the rooftop exercise. (pg. 210-211) Pretend you're on a rooftop and you've got enough time to say only one thing to the rest of the world. What would you say? It can only be one sentence. Sol continues the exercise by having writers rework their original statement, but I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'll tell you what I wrote:
"Do not forget to wonder."
Now it's your turn. What would you say? What would your last words be in shouting from a rooftop?
How's that for leaving you hanging?
So, here's what I'll talk about instead. I'm reading Sol Stein's "Stein on Writing" book, flipping through and randomly reading chapters. I've read plenty of how-to writing books during my existence on earth, yet no matter how many I read, each one teaches me a new trick or two. Sol's book is no different.
Chapter 7 - a short chapter - is called "The Actors Studio Method for Developing Drama in Plots." In short, when writing, pretend that each of your characters got a different script for the story and have them "act" from the script they've been given. This is actually the way life works. We're all running around with our own mental scripts that have been built from our personalities, life events, and etc., and conflict comes when our script doesn't mesh with someone else's.
In Sol's chapter on writing love scenes (chapter 18), he says, "It's the author's job to keep [lovers] apart as long as possible." (pg. 169) This creates tension in the story for the reader. Don't make the love scene inevitable, or straight-forward, or mechanical. That's boring. Shoot for arousing the head rather than the genitals (especially for your female readers).
An exercise that Sol suggest, which is more lengthy in the book than I'll present here, is the shouting from the rooftop exercise. (pg. 210-211) Pretend you're on a rooftop and you've got enough time to say only one thing to the rest of the world. What would you say? It can only be one sentence. Sol continues the exercise by having writers rework their original statement, but I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'll tell you what I wrote:
"Do not forget to wonder."
Now it's your turn. What would you say? What would your last words be in shouting from a rooftop?
Labels: book, last words, love, reading, rooftop, sol stein, waffling, writing
Monday, June 18, 2007
Story Eight Finished
I'm thrilled, thrilled, thrilled. I just finished writing story # 8 out of the 10 I'm working on for a book. Yippeeeee! Only two left. Whoop, whoop, victory dance!
Labels: book, happy happy joy joy, short story
