Alex Kudera's Blog, page 143
April 30, 2012
April 30 (before it was Starbucks)
I enjoyed Mike Hampton's coffee and Kentucky over at Atticus Review.
April 30 (last blog unless i write one or two later today)
I was feeling completion anxiety over the whole final-blog-of-April thing, so I thought I'd punch this out quick and get it over with.
That feels better. A little better. Maybe.
Fight for Your Long May!
That feels better. A little better. Maybe.
Fight for Your Long May!
April 29, 2012
April 29 (John Warner On Failure)
I was doing some a.m. search and rescue for something I could share as the next-to-last blog of the month, unless I get inspired and overcome this morning's fatigue, and I found John Warner writing "On the Possibilities of Failure" at Inside Higher Ed. In a world where finishing second is often counted as such, you'd think this would be a 20,000-part essay, but in fact, he manages to make some good points in one piece of reasonable length. I've always found failure to be a positively inexhaustible topic, indeed the only topic of great literature or at least a primary topic of my literature, so it took me only a second to decide to share it with you.
Now, if I could only get this hyperlink function to work.
Now, if I could only get this hyperlink function to work.
April 28, 2012
April 28 (Meg Pokrass's impending fame)
The Less United States of Kudera is not doing nearly enough to advocate for Meg Pokrass, and all the Meg Pokrasses of the world, who could be delivering to us juicy, tell-all memoirs of their moderately famous authority figures, bosses in particular, with just a pinch of fiction to make it even more enticing and fun. Of course, instead, Meg chooses the high road and posts only about all things evangelical and Romnified as well as word lists we are to use to impress our own minions. Our peeps, as it were, or perhaps the Gud Christian youts we have opportunity to speechify in front of.
Here she is on full display:
And then here she is moving up in the world:
But for the most part, she tends to her own flock and generously gives back to the literary community by interviewing and being interviewed by various folks writing in the current moment. Writing now, as it were. What I should be doing as I'm almost certain that blogging doesn't count. Or maybe it does? I don't know. I never receive lashes.
And now it's time to buy Meg's microfiction!
But the amazon link is just so you can see the glowing reviews; if this is one you might like, then please do buy local from your favorite indy store. ( Fight for Your Long Day , of course, should only be purchased as the lowest "like new" copy available everywhere Jeff Bezos is selling us vacuum cleaners.)
Leave me alone. Please?
Okay, but not before I provide this sneak preview of what we've all been reading about.
Damn Sure Right!
Here she is on full display:
And then here she is moving up in the world:
But for the most part, she tends to her own flock and generously gives back to the literary community by interviewing and being interviewed by various folks writing in the current moment. Writing now, as it were. What I should be doing as I'm almost certain that blogging doesn't count. Or maybe it does? I don't know. I never receive lashes.
And now it's time to buy Meg's microfiction!
But the amazon link is just so you can see the glowing reviews; if this is one you might like, then please do buy local from your favorite indy store. ( Fight for Your Long Day , of course, should only be purchased as the lowest "like new" copy available everywhere Jeff Bezos is selling us vacuum cleaners.)
Leave me alone. Please?
Okay, but not before I provide this sneak preview of what we've all been reading about.
Damn Sure Right!
April 27, 2012
April 27 (Dow Mossman and Fred Exley)
This spring, for contemporary literature (after 1945), I'm finishing the semester with the documentary film The Stone Reader which connects so well to so many of the challenges faced by fiction and novelists in the current marketplace. It also provides an enthusiastic "talkie" look into some of the great literature from the 20th century that proves impossible to assign in bulk for general-education courses. It's also a look at the very real life of Dow Mossman, and how a big fat book from his young adult years almost killed him in order to get written, and then how he survived and endured the rest. To the best of my knowledge, he is still enduring.
The contrast between the happy elderly thesis advisor from Iowa and the nearly broken writer-student is not one to be taken lightly, and certainly connects to all the online chatter about the value of MFA degrees (a degree I don't have, but one the protagonist of Fight for Your Long Day does possess as his highest and doesn't think much of although it should be stated that Cyrus doesn't think much of most anything he has, so at least in that way he's consistent). I only wish we lived in a world where the tenured professors in such programs would do more to show they understand the extent to which they are complicit in "something of a Ponzi Scheme" that is the AWP hierarchy that leaves some writers reaping huge rewards and lifetime security while the Dow Mossmans of the world are lucky to find a night gig delivering newspapers.
But on the other hand, over half of all college degrees aren't leading to much of anything, at not by age 25 for recent grads, so perhaps we shouldn't isolate the MFA profs as so much more complicit in this economic problem faced by an entire generation (a sort of "damned if you go to college, damned if you don't," but it seems like the solution has to be to make college more affordable, not to discourage students from attending).
I, of course, would love to be a tenured professor of creative writing, but I also enjoy knowing that my general education courses are being taught to at least some students who will get a decent job (engineering, nursing, etc.). There's a Sam Lipsyte interview somewhere in cyberspace, where he pretty much concedes that the MFA isn't necessarily going to make any grads any money, and possibly it will lead to another chunk of student debt, but it is a degree that can help improve one's writing.
For this reason, and just for the general pressure a thesis deadline would provide as well as a chance to teach fewer courses for two or three years, I still consider applying to writing programs although I'd prefer to just publish a second award-winning novel (no doubt, a winner of a bigger, badder award), and become a Ron Rash or Pam Duncan, a tenured professor with nationally published novels whose highest degree is the MA, which to my mind can still be a fine degree, and for creative writing, can often expose students to more literary analysis than some MFAs do.
But also, filmmaker Mark Moskowitz includes Frederick Exley's A Fan's Notes as one of his top ten novels of the American 20th century, and it reminded me of my three interviews, all with debut novelists, on Frederick Exley and his best novel. Eleanor Henderson, John Warner, and Joseph Zeppetello were the authors who were kind enough to respond to my questions, and if I can ever find the time or ability to concentrate I hope to interview more writers about Exley.
And by the way, the first writer with whom I remember having that conversation about Exley would be Michael Leone, and he has placed some nice work recently, including this essay called "The Day I Realized My Mentor Was Crazy."
Okay, I hope you survived all this meandering and angst.
I can't wait to quit this month of blogging, finish the semester, and get into some sustained novel writing and revising.
Wish me luck. I'll need it.
The contrast between the happy elderly thesis advisor from Iowa and the nearly broken writer-student is not one to be taken lightly, and certainly connects to all the online chatter about the value of MFA degrees (a degree I don't have, but one the protagonist of Fight for Your Long Day does possess as his highest and doesn't think much of although it should be stated that Cyrus doesn't think much of most anything he has, so at least in that way he's consistent). I only wish we lived in a world where the tenured professors in such programs would do more to show they understand the extent to which they are complicit in "something of a Ponzi Scheme" that is the AWP hierarchy that leaves some writers reaping huge rewards and lifetime security while the Dow Mossmans of the world are lucky to find a night gig delivering newspapers.
But on the other hand, over half of all college degrees aren't leading to much of anything, at not by age 25 for recent grads, so perhaps we shouldn't isolate the MFA profs as so much more complicit in this economic problem faced by an entire generation (a sort of "damned if you go to college, damned if you don't," but it seems like the solution has to be to make college more affordable, not to discourage students from attending).
I, of course, would love to be a tenured professor of creative writing, but I also enjoy knowing that my general education courses are being taught to at least some students who will get a decent job (engineering, nursing, etc.). There's a Sam Lipsyte interview somewhere in cyberspace, where he pretty much concedes that the MFA isn't necessarily going to make any grads any money, and possibly it will lead to another chunk of student debt, but it is a degree that can help improve one's writing.
For this reason, and just for the general pressure a thesis deadline would provide as well as a chance to teach fewer courses for two or three years, I still consider applying to writing programs although I'd prefer to just publish a second award-winning novel (no doubt, a winner of a bigger, badder award), and become a Ron Rash or Pam Duncan, a tenured professor with nationally published novels whose highest degree is the MA, which to my mind can still be a fine degree, and for creative writing, can often expose students to more literary analysis than some MFAs do.
But also, filmmaker Mark Moskowitz includes Frederick Exley's A Fan's Notes as one of his top ten novels of the American 20th century, and it reminded me of my three interviews, all with debut novelists, on Frederick Exley and his best novel. Eleanor Henderson, John Warner, and Joseph Zeppetello were the authors who were kind enough to respond to my questions, and if I can ever find the time or ability to concentrate I hope to interview more writers about Exley.
And by the way, the first writer with whom I remember having that conversation about Exley would be Michael Leone, and he has placed some nice work recently, including this essay called "The Day I Realized My Mentor Was Crazy."
Okay, I hope you survived all this meandering and angst.
I can't wait to quit this month of blogging, finish the semester, and get into some sustained novel writing and revising.
Wish me luck. I'll need it.
April 26, 2012
April 26 (Kelly Writers House)
It was a sad, slow, end-of-semester kind of evening, and then I stumbled upon this clip and felt that there was hope. Thank you, Alex Marcus, reading from
Fight for Your Long Day
for Mind of Winter 2011 at Kelly Writers House.
And now I'm tired again, and I can't blog anymore.
And now I'm tired again, and I can't blog anymore.
April 25, 2012
April 25 (To Have Not)
Last night, I finished Frances Lefkowitz's To Have Not, and although I'm still digesting it, I do recommend the book. I think it will resonate with anyone who can see their life in terms of being both a "Have" and a "Have Not"; for me, some points of comparison include:
1) being a "Have" at least compared to some citizens of the multicultural urban area we were both raised in (for me, Philly; for "Frankie" San Francisco) and then
2) feeling decidedly like a "Have Not" once financial aid sent us to an elite private university where we met the genuinely affluent and the filthy rich
3) divorced parents, and
4) one is Christian and one Jewish
and
5) some holidays where money was extremely tight although overall it sounds like my folks did a better job of remaining gainfully employed
I never knew that Hemingway's title To Have and Have Not must come from the Cervantes quotation at the beginning of Lefkowitz's book:
"There are only two families in the world, the haves and the have nots."
And it of course also reminds me of Tolstoy's "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." But until I just searched for it to get exact wording, I'd always attributed that quotation to Flaubert, not Tolstoy. (I should say I haven't read the major novels of either of these two.)
So now I know.
A little more.
Everyday.
Or less, if we're talking absolute value and accounting for the things I once knew but have since forgotten.
[image error]
1) being a "Have" at least compared to some citizens of the multicultural urban area we were both raised in (for me, Philly; for "Frankie" San Francisco) and then
2) feeling decidedly like a "Have Not" once financial aid sent us to an elite private university where we met the genuinely affluent and the filthy rich
3) divorced parents, and
4) one is Christian and one Jewish
and
5) some holidays where money was extremely tight although overall it sounds like my folks did a better job of remaining gainfully employed
I never knew that Hemingway's title To Have and Have Not must come from the Cervantes quotation at the beginning of Lefkowitz's book:
"There are only two families in the world, the haves and the have nots."
And it of course also reminds me of Tolstoy's "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." But until I just searched for it to get exact wording, I'd always attributed that quotation to Flaubert, not Tolstoy. (I should say I haven't read the major novels of either of these two.)
So now I know.
A little more.
Everyday.
Or less, if we're talking absolute value and accounting for the things I once knew but have since forgotten.
[image error]
April 24, 2012
April 24 (jazz guitar)
We take a break now from all literary contingencies as well as our yesterday's pandering to the publishing masses in order to bring you some jazz sounds from Chicago, Illinois. Sit back, relax, and enjoy Tuesday a.m. tunes brought to you with occasional accomplices by guitarist Andy Brown.[image error]
April 23, 2012
April 23 (free book!)
Free of charge (!), no shipping costs (!!), in honor of world book day and all the good, if literate, capitalists who make trade paperbacks available across the globe, I'll send a free copy of
Fight for Your Long Day
to the first publisher who agrees to publish my second novel. We can open at AWP 2013 (Boston!!!) if you like it like that.
Cheers!!!!
Ugh.
Ouch.
Hey, stop that![image error]
Cheers!!!!
Ugh.
Ouch.
Hey, stop that![image error]
April 22, 2012
April 22 (Teju Cole on KONY 2012)
Teju Cole's essay on KONY 2012, published online at (in?) The Atlantic, is one that caught my eye this week.
I certainly remember my own, perhaps similar, cynical thoughts surrounding my experience at Wesleyan University and all of the seemingly affluent students intent on changing the world (or resisting locally or whatever Teach for America, the Peace Corps, or grad school in social work was supposed to be called). It felt like they all had automobiles and car insurance paid by their parents, and I vividly remember the brand-new SUVs a few of them drove off in at the end of their glorious four-years of somewhat radical undergrad.
But I never met one who ever called himself a "saviour" or wouldn't have acknowledged and appreciated at least some of the nuances and complexities to all the different kinds of hegemonies circulating throughout and within. There was one friend who would describe it all in matter-of-fact terms: "X's parents have dough, so he can change the world, but Y's parents are poor, so he'll go to law school and aim for corporate work." It's never that simple, of course, but even among the financial-aid students there were not many genuinely poor "Y"s.
Anyway, Cole's tweets and essay made me more interested in reading his novel Open City, and it made for a nice complement to this week's teaching of Roberto Bolano's Liberian section from The Savage Detectives along with "Mauricio ('The Eye') Silva." Cole is working on a nonfiction book about Lagos, Nigeria, and that reminded me of this Uwem Akpan story and this George Packer essay that I unfortunately dropped from the syllabus to make room for the more local concerns of Ron Rash's Saints at the River .
And for leisure reading, finally, I'm getting immersed in Frances Lefkowitz's To Have Not about her poor, white childhood in San Francisco and her subsequent attendance at Brown University on heaping helpings of financial aid. It was my own Wesleyan experience that brought me to this memoir, and there is a decent chance I'll ask Lefkowitz for an interview when I'm done.[image error]
I certainly remember my own, perhaps similar, cynical thoughts surrounding my experience at Wesleyan University and all of the seemingly affluent students intent on changing the world (or resisting locally or whatever Teach for America, the Peace Corps, or grad school in social work was supposed to be called). It felt like they all had automobiles and car insurance paid by their parents, and I vividly remember the brand-new SUVs a few of them drove off in at the end of their glorious four-years of somewhat radical undergrad.
But I never met one who ever called himself a "saviour" or wouldn't have acknowledged and appreciated at least some of the nuances and complexities to all the different kinds of hegemonies circulating throughout and within. There was one friend who would describe it all in matter-of-fact terms: "X's parents have dough, so he can change the world, but Y's parents are poor, so he'll go to law school and aim for corporate work." It's never that simple, of course, but even among the financial-aid students there were not many genuinely poor "Y"s.
Anyway, Cole's tweets and essay made me more interested in reading his novel Open City, and it made for a nice complement to this week's teaching of Roberto Bolano's Liberian section from The Savage Detectives along with "Mauricio ('The Eye') Silva." Cole is working on a nonfiction book about Lagos, Nigeria, and that reminded me of this Uwem Akpan story and this George Packer essay that I unfortunately dropped from the syllabus to make room for the more local concerns of Ron Rash's Saints at the River .
And for leisure reading, finally, I'm getting immersed in Frances Lefkowitz's To Have Not about her poor, white childhood in San Francisco and her subsequent attendance at Brown University on heaping helpings of financial aid. It was my own Wesleyan experience that brought me to this memoir, and there is a decent chance I'll ask Lefkowitz for an interview when I'm done.[image error]
