Richard Seltzer's Blog: Richard Seltzer, page 8

A good day

Today, All Things that Matter Press, who recently published my novels Parallel Lives and Beyond the 4th Door, just accepted two more novels of mine, Breeze and To Gether Tales. They also have another novel of mine, Nevermind, under contract. That's five novels in a single year :-)

Beyond the 4th Door

Beyond The 4th Door by Richard Seltzer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm the author, so of course I think it's great.

This book had several lives. It began more than fifty years ago as Restless, a story fragment that wanted to become a novel. Later it grew to Say Uncle and still later to Sandcastles, incorporating short movie scripts that I had never filmed as well as a couple of short stories, but it had no ending. The old drafts and notes gathered dust for nearly forty years, then suddenly the characters came alive and started talking to me in my sleep and told me the new beginning, told me to throw away the second half and gave me a new ending, with a new concept of what may lie beyond death or instead of death.

Acknowledgements

This book had several lives. It began more than fifty years ago as Restless, a story fragment that wanted to become a novel. Later it grew to Say Uncle and still later to Sandcastles, incorporating short movie scripts that I had never filmed as well as a couple of short stories, but it had no ending. The old drafts and notes gathered dust for nearly forty years, then suddenly the characters came alive and started talking to me in my sleep and told me the new beginning, told me to throw away the second half and gave me a new ending, with a new concept of what may lie beyond death or instead of death.

I want to thank:
Robert Penn Warren who commented on Restless fifty years ago
Ed Trobec and Rex Sexton who knew it as Say Uncle.
My Uncle Paul who saw it as Sandcastles.
Jean Otis Freeman and my grandparents Leona Daly Seltzer and Warren Ray Seltzer who provided inspiration.
Rochelle Cohen, Rex's widow, who provided frequent helpful feedback and encouragement on the final version.
Gabi Coatsworth for her monthly Writers' Rendezvous meetup sessions and advice, which led me to find my terrific publisher, All Things That Matter Press.
My son Bob for his continuing support.




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What are the blind men dreaming? by Noemi Jaffe

The death camp diary of the mother is compelling, direct, extraordinary. But this isn't just an Anne Frank or Charlotte Salomon wantabe. These aren't the notes of a young girl who died young tragically. Through the commentary of her daughter and of her granddaughter we get a sense of the arc of Lili Stern's life after the death camps, the person she became and her echoing effect on her descendants.

Why was I driven to read this now? The inhumane political disaster happening today in the U.S., as Trump foments the chaos and destroys the foundations of democracy. For the first time since the end of Hitler and Nazism, it can happen here.

Review of David Mitchell's Utopia Avenue

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another masterpiece from Mitchell, this one with a very different set of voices.

Lovers of the pop music of fifty to sixty years ago and people familiar with the recording business will undoubtedly savor this book even more that I did. I know zilch about music, any kind of music. For me, this is a book about the magic and craziness of life.

Mitchell explains the name of the band and the title of the book: "'Utopia' means 'no place.' An avenue is a place. So is music. When we're playing well, I'm here, but elsewhere, too. That's the paradox. Utopia is unattainable. Avenues are everywhere." (p. 61)

He puts you inside the minds and emotions of five characters -- four band members and their manager. You know how they think and feel and talk and you come to care about them. They are all very different from one another and from anyone you are likely to have ever met. Yet they are very believable and sympathetic.

With the character of Jasper de Zoet, this novel echoes and interacts with Mitchell's earlier novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. You could say that several if not all of his novels are parts a single tale. So now I have to reread his other novels while this one is fresh in my mind.

He speculates on the nature of the soul and its ability to move from one body to another, from one time to another, themes I explore in my own fiction.
For me, one passage in particular stood out: "Jasper understood that death is a door; and asked himself, What does one do with a door?" (p. 367) I would have used that as an epigraph for my soon-to-be-published novel Beyond the Fourth Door, if I hadn't just finalized the galleys. In my novel, birth is the first door, death the second; and there are at least two more.

Utopia Avenue is punctuated with quips -- terse and memorable phrases, that resonate even when read out of context. Here is a sampling of passages that I underlined while reading:
Many an anonymous Soho doorway, Jasper is learning, is a portal to another time and place. (pp. 55-56)
Writing is a forest of faint paths, of dead ends, hidden pits, unresolved chords, words that won't rhyme. (p. 64)
...ears don't have earlids. (p. 67)
As Our Savior said, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is to change music into money." (p. 70)
TV aerials sieving the dirty air for signals (p. 71)
He feels what you feel when you've lost something, but before you've worked out what it is. (p. 73)
... enters the dual darkrooms of Jasper's eyeballs. (p. 115)
Time is what stops everything happening at once. (p. 123)
Painted by the candle's brush upon the living dark (p. 143)
He thinks of his younger selves, gazing up the same tracks toward a formless future. (pp. 150-151)
Suffering is the one promise life always keeps. (p. 225)
To pianists like Bill Evans, what matters is less the melody itself and more what the melody evokes. (p. 251)
Wisdom is platitudes gussied up. (p. 255)
Music frees the soul from the cage of the body. Music transforms the Many to a One. (p. 296)
He wondered if identity is drawn not in indelible ink, but by a light 5H pencil. (p. 315)
We think we are a One, but you and I know an 'I' is a 'Many.' (p. 376)
With that he slips off, like a man in a story. (p. 406)
Manhattan floats on glassy dark, a raft laden with skyscrapers. (p. 409)
... an honest manager in show business is as rare as rocking-horse shit. (p. 417)
An American moon is wedged between two skyscrapers, like a nickel fallen down a crack. (p. 428)
I'm a mind without a body of my own. (p. 439)
An approaching train howls out of the tunnel and stops to disgorge and load up with more carcasses-in-waiting. (p. 448)
... if ethics aren't gray, they aren't really ethics. (p. 488)
... death is postponeable (p. 489)
... run through the line once, in your mind's ear (p. 534)
Clouds are few, high, and puffy, like dragon smoke. (p. 548)





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Scared to Life

(excerpt from Lenses, a book-length collection of short essays, in search of a publisher)

One night, I saw three hoodlums with machetes walk through the outside wall of my second-floor bedroom. I screamed. I had seen this vision while awake.

It took a while for my breathing and heart rate to slow down. In the process, it occurred to me that I had come close to being scared to death. Then I realized that I had been scared to life.

A dream like that ---- not an ordinary dream composed of images from everyday life, and not a recurring dream heavy with symbolism, but one that comes out of nowhere and that you see while semi-awake − must serve a purpose.

That vision was a wakeup call for me, like a near-death experience. It was a reminder of my mortality, a warning that if there was anything I really wanted to do, I'd better do it. If the obvious physical signs of health issues or aging aren't enough to get me going, then my unconscious will take over and scare me into life.

That's what led me to start this series of essays, trying to make sense of questions I've left unexamined for too long.

The experience of that dream was an affirmation of a basic belief of mine − that as individuals and as a species, self-regulating mechanisms come into play, pushing us toward balance and reason and compassion. And in that context, our worst experiences and our worst fears help nudge us in the right direction, as if some force were trying to navigate a huge ship down a river, with the crudest of controls − a push this way, then a push that way. Toward what goal?

The Mushroom Man by Sophie Powell

The Mushroom Man by Sophie Powell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A quick, fun read.

Lily, a six-year-old girl, hears and believes a story about fairies and a magical figure named "The Mushroom Man." Her disappearance then triggers panic in her parents, her aunt, and her cousins. After a low-key delightful set of misunderstandings and well-meaning efforts, she is found. And in the process her parents, who had been on the brink of divorce, are reunited; her widowed aunt finds a romantic connection; and the aunt and mother, who had been at odds with one another for many years are reconciled. Lily's entire family is transformed in just a few days, as if by magic.

(The author mentored me through Grub Street about ten years ago, on a novel of mine (now called Breeze) that should be published soon.)



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Truth and Consequences

(excerpt from Lenses, a book-length collection of essays, in search of a publisher)

We should not judge the merit of our efforts based on their immediate consequences. Over time, our perspective will change. What we are proud of today, one day we may regret. And what we regret today, one day we may be proud of.

We should do what we feel is right and do it to the best of our ability. If each person behaves that way − given the diverse mix of what people believe is right and of what they are capable of − human endeavor will advance over the long haul, regardless of temporary ups and downs.

In many cases, if we knew beforehand the long-term effects of what we were about to do, we wouldn't do it. But looking even further ahead, the effects could be the reverse, and what we now would dread might then be deemed good and necessary, because the context and hence the meaning will have changed. As Heraclitus observed, you can never cross the same river twice. If you could relive any moment of your life, it wouldn't be the same moment, because your knowledge, your perspective, and your motivation would be different.

When my Dad was 86, he had trouble sleeping. In his dreams, he revisited the decision points in his life and wondered why the consequences of his decisions turned out one way rather than another. He wondered whether he had made the right choices, and what could have happened if he had acted otherwise. He was heavy with regret.

I told him that I believe that we have natural proclivities, and that what seem like decisions often aren't decisions at all. In our guts, we know what we have to do because we are who we are. The reasons we give for our actions are often rationalizations we cobble together afterwards. Yes, random events affect our lives. But, in many cases, such events only knock us off track temporarily, and then we continue toward the same goal by a different path.

There's a shape to the landscape in which we live our lives, with mountains and valleys. As we approach a decision-point, if we go in one direction everything gets more difficult and painful − we trip over ourselves; we can't find the words; we forget things that we have to remember; we are at odds with ourselves. And in another direction the path feels right. If we go the first way despite the obstacles, soon there's another choice and another. And sooner or later we find our way back to what is natural for us.

Hence, we shouldn't judge what we do based on what we believe will be the long-term consequences. Rather, we should do what we feel is best for now and do it to the best of our ability.

Our lives aren't as subject to random occurrences as at first appears, nor are we as much in control of our lives as at first appears. I believe there is more to our lives than we are ever likely to realize, and that that should inspire wonder, curiosity, and reverence.

The Stages of Man by Richard Seltzer

(excerpt from Lenses, a book-length collection of essays, in search of a publisher)

The history of man is typically described in three stages: hunting/gathering, farming, and industrial.

Consider an alternative grouping: hunting/gathering, farming/industrial, and techno-global. In this way of viewing human history, each stage has a different value system learned through the struggle for survival; the industrial stage is an extension of the farming stage; and we now find ourselves at the beginning of a new stage.

Let's take a closer look at these three stages.

Stage one — hunting/gathering, pre-history
physical strength and personal survival skills matter
man vs. beast/the elements
knowledge, skill, and experience are necessary for survival in a world over which you have no control

Stage two — farming/industrialization, from pre-history to the end of the 20th century
domesticating and controlling animals/beasts of burden
substituting machines for animals, with the advance of technology
controlling workers
substituting machines for workers, with the advance of technology
central authority dominates in government and business
man as owner and controller of land, beasts, and other men
man performing machine-like tasks until machines can do them
weeding, killing off runts, and eliminating the weak and handicapped
values learned from farming support industrialization and nationalization

Stage three — techno-global, now
global interdependence
global communication and global economy
values of knowledge, skill, and experience
technology makes possible new ways of working together and living together
technology enables group action and coordination without central control
the weak and handicapped deserve equal rights
our responsibilities extend beyond our family and our local district
we are all citizens of the entire planet
technology extends human knowledge and capabilities.

From this perspective, farming and industrialization were different aspects of the same control-based value system, which lasted more than 10,000 years. And we are now at the beginning of a new stage, characterized by cooperation, compassion, and interdependence.

Friends and Other Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I chanced upon the author back in 2013, by accident. I was biking in Brewster, Mass., on Cape Cod and happened to stop at a book store when she was there doing a book signing for her first, Engagements. I bought it, read it, loved it. And since then I've bought and read her subsequent four novels. Engagements is still my favorite. Saints for All Occasions my second favorite. At this point, I'm addicted. She has a knack for making ordinary people in ordinary situations interesting and bringing them to life in a way to sheds light on my own life experiences.

In Friends and Strangers, the two main characters are Elizabeth a successful author in her thirties and Sam a college student who babysits for Elizabeth's infant son, becomes a friend of Elizabeth's and in some ways is Elizabeth's younger self. There's some chatter about social injustice along the way, but mostly this is the tale of the loves and aspirations and frustrations of these two young women, with the occasional well-stated insight into human nature (e.g., as Sam says, "Have you ever been shocked by your own reaction to something? Like maybe you don't know yourself at all?")

It's a good read, a fun read, and I look forward to her next.




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Coming Soon -- Beyond the Fourth Door by Richard Seltzer

The publisher, All Things that Matter Press, says this novel should be out in a couple weeks.

Summary:

Without knowing why or how, a pair of college students wake up 50 years older than they were when they went to sleep and with no memory of what has happened in between.

Trying to figure out what has happened to them, they read a novel that Frank wrote about them and his family before the missing years. This novel within the novel is a coming-of-age family saga with
Charlie, an amateur movie maker;
Sarah his insightful bible-believing mother;
Irene, his creative and uninhibited wife;
Frank, his nephew, the author of the novel; and
Marge, who loves and hates both Frank and Charlie.

Trying to sort truth from fiction, when perception and action are often shaped by lies, Frank and Marge bond with one another as they find ways to slip through cracks in time and space.

The first door is birth. The second is death. Frank and Marge go through the fourth door.

Dedication
To my wife Barbara (1950-2012)

Acknowledgements

This book had several lives. It began more than fifty years ago as Restless, a story fragment that wanted to become a novel. Later it grew to Say Uncle and still later to Sandcastles, incorporating short movie scripts that I had never filmed as well as a couple of short stories, but it had no ending. The old drafts and notes gathered dust for nearly forty years, then suddenly the characters came alive and started talking to me in my sleep and told me the new beginning, told me to throw away the second half and gave me a new ending, with a new concept of what may lie beyond death or instead of death.

I want to thank:
Robert Penn Warren who commented on Restless fifty years ago
Ed Trobec and Rex Sexton who knew it as Say Uncle.
My Uncle Paul who saw it as Sandcastles.
Jean Otis Freeman and my grandparents Leona Daly Seltzer and Warren Ray Seltzer who provided inspiration.
Rochelle Cohen, Rex's widow, who provided frequent helpful feedback and encouragement on the final version.
Gabi Coatsworth for her monthly Writers' Rendezvous meetup sessions and advice, which led me to find my terrific publisher, All Things That Matter Press.
My son Bob for his continuing support.