Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 86
May 12, 2011
Viddy well, my brothers
It's hard to narrow it down to my favorite science fiction story. My first inclination is, of course, to name Star Wars -- by which I mean the original movie, which came out when I was 14. I was overwhelmed, absorbed, and inspired by that movie, to the point that nothing that followed could tarnish my love for it.But I feel I should talk about books and, in the clear light of my 40s, I have ...
May 10, 2011
A cemetery book for kids?
Corpses, Coffins and Crypts: A History Of Burial by Penny Colman My rating: 3 of 5 stars Although this book is a Junior Library Guild Selection—meaning that the text is written at a level suitable for children—the chapter headings seemed intriguing (Defining Death, Understanding Death, What Happens to Corpses, How to Contain the Remains, Where Corpses End Up). In her preface, though, Colman ...
A cemetery book for kids?
Corpses, Coffins and Crypts: A History Of Burial by Penny Colman My rating: 3 of 5 stars Although this book is a Junior Library Guild Selection—meaning that the text is written at a level suitable for children—the chapter headings seemed intriguing (Defining Death, Understanding Death, What Happens to Corpses, How to Contain the Remains, Where Corpses End Up). In her preface, though, Colman ...
May 6, 2011
Getting the word out
I published my first zine while I was in college. It collected original fiction and poetry written by my high school friends. I didn't have any idea what I was doing, but the process was insructive. We sold a couple of copies to our friends, then sold a few more through a local record store. In the end, I decided that writing was more fun than pushing zines, so I stopped after five ...
April 28, 2011
The Oldest Artwork on Earth
I have an issue with caves. I think it comes from touring a cave with my parents as a child. I'd been fascinated by the formations, the stalagtites, the waterfalls of stone. And then they turned the lights off, just to prove how dark a cave could be. That darkness haunts me.I've been caving since then, always in tame caves that were mapped and known. I've sandwiched myself between rock ...
April 22, 2011
The Worms Crawl In...
One of the things that really freaked me out as I read "Dead Men Do Tell Tales" was the chapter on the forensic study of insects. I remember sitting hunched on the L Taraval streetcar, reading about the bugs that come in clockwork order to feast on the unburied dead. The memory is so strong that I can still feel the reaction in my gut as I clenched into a smaller and smaller ball. My ...
April 17, 2011
Round-Trip to Deadsville
Round-Trip to Deadsville: A Year in the Funeral Underground by Tim Matson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Tim Matson had written on Earth Ponds and Pilobolus, but in middle age, he began to suffer anxiety about the end of his existence. The first thing that offered relief was a photograph of George "Ginseng" Willard standing shoulder to shoulder with his own coffin, recycled from a rosewood piano. ...
April 14, 2011
Country Churchyards
Country Churchyards by Eudora Welty My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a charming little book this is! It contains 90 black-and-white photographs, snapped by the grand dame of Southern literature in Mississippi churchyards during in the 1930s and 40s. "Mississippi," she said, "had no art except cemeteries."Miss Welty merely trained her lens on whatever interested her. Angels appear more often ...
April 7, 2011
Uncertain Ground
One thing people always ask -- when they find out I live in San Francisco -- is "Aren't you afraid of earthquakes?" Of course I am. But I was here for the 7.2 in 1989, which has given me endless enjoyment in retrospect. How many people can tell stories about living through natural disasters?First, the power went off. Everything dropped suddenly, a couple of inches straight down. ...
