Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 35
July 9, 2011
July 7, 2011
handwriting is history
One might consider handwriting as a technology — a way to make letters — and conclude that the way of making them is of little moment. But handwriting is bound up with a host of associations and connotations that propel it beyond simply a fine-motor skill. We connect it to personal identity (handwriting signals something unique about each of us), intelligence (good handwriting reflects good thinking) and virtue (a civilized culture requires handwriting).
via miller-mccune.com
A fascinating look at the history of handwriting, social values about it, and erroneous assumptions. It made me think twice about how I approach my kids' schoolwork.
Filed under: Miscellany
July 6, 2011
true love acts as a painkiller
Supportive long-term relationships = less susceptibility to pain for women study http://ow.ly/5y32E
Filed under: Miscellany
Cakes and Ale: A Review
I read Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham for the Slaves of Golconda bookclub. Written in 1930, it is narrated by the midlist writer William Ashenden.
As a young man in the 1890′s, Ashenden knew the British literary icon, Edward Driffield (ostensibly based on Thomas Hardy, which Maugham denied). At that time Driffield was a little known working class writer married to Rosie, an earthy sexually promiscuous woman. Later in life, Driffield rose to fame and acclaim and a second wife. Now, after Driffield's death and being, himself, in middle-age, Ashenden has been approached by Alroy Kear to get the inside scoop on Driffield's life before his iconship was established.
Alroy Kear is a best-selling author and sychophant, who, in cahoots with Driffield's second wife wants to produce an autobiography suitable to the elevated and refined status of an icon.
I loved this book for its satirical take on the literary scene, which I found just as relevant in 2011 as in 1930:
I read The Craft of Fiction by Mr Percy Lubbock, from which I learned that the only way to write novels was like Henry James; after that I read Aspects of the Novel by Mr E M Forster, from which I learned that the only way to write novels was like Mr E M Forster; then I read The Structure of the Novel by Mr Edwin Muir, from which I learned nothing at all.
(I'm sorry I don't have a page reference for that–I finished the book a couple of weeks ago, then had to get my revision off to the editor and right after that my kids were off school.)
The character of Rosie, Driffield's first wife, is a weakness of the novel, being rather flat. She is unremittingly sexual and cheerful. But I find that generally Maugham is less successful portraying men's attractions to women than to other men, and that may be because he was primarily gay with a few ambivalent (and I have to wonder if somewhat forced) relationships with women in his life. These were brief and concurrent with his longstanding relationships with men: Maugham lived with his first partner for 30 years until his partner's death, and then with his second for the remaining 20 years of Maugham's life.
However for his time (1930), Rosie was a remarkable and disturbing character because of her happy sexual appetite and the lack of authorial criticism for it. The stock character of "the whore with a heart of gold" was supposed to realize her unworthiness and sacrifice herself for the hero. Instead Rosie outlives everyone and is entirely contented with herself.
What I loved about this book was its satirical portrayal of class and the literary scene. The sly cutting comments that Ashenden makes about Kear and his success made me laugh out loud. The conflict of class was vivid and so was the hilarious and yet sad manipulation of Driffield first by his patroness and then by his second wife to make him appear refined to the middle-class who read his books.
Poor Driffield rebelled in the only way he could, refusing to bathe at all in the last years of his life, and hiding out in the local pub as long as anyone would let him. But they didn't let him much–and that's the whole point. He wrote his best books while married to Rosie, everyone acknowledges that, and yet at the same time everyone around him believes that Rosie wasn't good enough for him. They're all virtuou and wants to make him so. And all he really wants to make him happy are cakes and ale. Rosie was the only one that got that.
The title of the novel comes from Twelfth Night. Sir Toby Belch (who would have been a pal to Driffield) says:
Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?
Cakes and Ale was reputedly Maugham's favourite of all his books, and I can understand that. This was such a fun read for me, as a writer, especially as I read it just when I was re-entering the publishing process and anticipating the public literary scene that he criticizes.
Filed under: Fun, Literary
July 5, 2011
July 4, 2011
Jackson Pollock, the science of art
At a glance, a painting by Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956) can look deceptively accidental: just a quick flick of color on a canvas.
A quantitative analysis of Pollock's streams, drips, and coils, by Harvard mathematician L. Mahadevan and collaborators at Boston College, reveals, however, that the artist had to be slow—he had to be deliberate—to exploit fluid dynamics in the way that he did.
via physorg.com
And by the date of the paintings studied, it turns out that Pollock was ahead of physicists in his discovery of the properties of flowing liquids.
Filed under: Miscellany
July 2, 2011
library books on U.S. side, checked out Canadian
The Haskell Free Library and Opera House on the Canada-U.S. Border http://ow.ly/5vrsV
Filed under: Miscellany
June 30, 2011
Done! And What I've Learned About Writing
The revision is back with my intelligent and meticulous editor. She'll be reading through it and there may still be some tweaking to do, as well as the copy-edit, but the big work is really done. I'm excited…and scared!
This has been such a long project. I began, 8 years ago, with an entirely different novel when I had a baby and a pre-schooler. After a couple of years of floundering on that book, I decided to take a break and write something for fun. Fun became serious about a subject that I felt called to write. Otherwise I'd have given up because the call was demanding.
I wrote 2 complete books. My first concept was genre fiction–and when it was done, the fastest book I'd every written, it was a competent mystery of its sort. I was also in the process of looking for a new agent, and everyone I approached was taken aback by my change of genre. I wasn't expecting that. I thought I could do a one-off book and then back to whatever I felt like. Uh no. They explained to me that this would be a career change and publishers would expect a commitment to, not just the book, but more of the same. Who knew?
The alternative was to take the book I'd written and re-write it as literary fiction. Simple. I'd already written 2 books of L.F. Do what you do so well, I was advised. Easier said than done.
Looking back now, I can see that in attempting to do that, I was trying to imitate myself, to take elements from previous works and try to apply them to the very different story I was writing. It didn't work.
My first draft of the literary version, which took a year, was absolutely terrible. My agent tried to put it tactfully, but it's hard to be tactful when absolutely nothing in a manuscript is working. After the shock (I thought of giving up the book; I thought of giving up writing), I set out again from scratch because of that call to the story that I couldn't ignore.
Draft by draft, all my imitations of myself were cut, the last vestiges by my editor at Random House. What was left was everything that belongs to this story–to this book.
After every novel I've written, I've thought about the twisty process of it, and learned something I believed would make the next novel faster and easier, but it never was.
This time? I don't know. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.
What I can say is that it's natural for everyone to tell you that you should repeat what you've done before that's been successful, or to copy someone else's successful work. But they really don't mean it. They think they do–but editors, agent, readers who love good books know when they see good work and know when they don't.
So write in the way that is true for you. Will it get published or be widely read? I don't know. Nobody can say that one way or the other. That's the point. Every success that follows the conventional formula of its day can be matched by a success that diverges from the formula and breaks every rule.
But writing your own truth in your own way for that particular book is what will, in the end, make it a good one. That's the only thing in our control.
This is the only book my kids can remember me writing. My first novel came out when my oldest was a baby, the second when my youngest was. For years they've been asking, "Mom when will it get published? Will it get published?"
Now I can say yes. There is a summer ahead of us and I'm looking forward to spending time with my husband and my girls, now going into grade 8 and grade 5. There are other things to think about than writing: swim wear and jewelry making, for example. There are books to be read. Pools to swim in. Plays to watch. And that's just this week!
Filed under: Literary, Personal Tagged: writing advice
June 28, 2011
europe gives pedestrians and transit priority over cars!
ZURICH — While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.
via nytimes.com
Yes! We need that attitude here.
Filed under: Miscellany
babushkas: brave, bold singing grannies from the wilds of Russia
In Russian culture, one iconic image is the elderly woman — in Russian, she's called a "babushka" — sitting on a roadside, selling vegetables from her garden.
One group of babushkas from the village of Buranovo, 600 miles east of Moscow, is blowing up that stereotype.
The dozen or so women — mostly in their 70s and 80s — have become a musical sensation, charming audiences across Russia. They sing Beatles tunes and songs by iconic Russian rocker Viktor Tsoi. They fly around the country for concerts. They made it to the Russian finals of the Eurovision music contest. And they have a Facebook page.
These women have suffered the fates of many elderly women in the Russia, losing their husbands to accidents and alcoholism, or in one case leaving an alcoholic husband. But despite the hardships, music sustains them, and they convey their joy and zest for living in their singing. Click on the link above and read the whole article. It's heart-warming and inspiring.
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Filed under: Uplifting Tagged: Babushkas sing
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