Patrick’s Comments (group member since Mar 05, 2009)

Patrick’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

Brian wrote: "Thanks for this Lara... Pennie is asking for the headcount though it doesn't have to be accurate down to the last arm or leg.

so we start...

1. Lara
2. Brian"
3. cookie patrick

i should be able to pick up a couple people. car isn't big- so 2 people for sure plus luggage and stuff would be comfy... if need be -we might be able to get a 3rd.

i have off the 31st and am happy to pick people up... but if you plan on staying somewhere close to the airport that night... a shuttle of some sort probably makes more sense. then i would come the next morning and pick you up.

Dan? Lara? still want a lift.

we'll make sure someone in my car this year has a cell phone...think it gave poor je a gray hair or two trying to coordinate marge and i last year. the only 2 people left on the planet without cell phones.

i've never made it through one of her novels, but i found this article fun.

http://www.thenation.com/article/garb...

"...this horseless carriage is never gonna work!!!"


i never owned a Laser Disc player but i wanted one desperately. instead i grew up watching many films on poorly dubbed 2nd generation vhs tapes. result is- to this day, i have a nostalgic reverence for glitchy tracking problems and warbley sound. (not to mention white subtitles that disappear into the image but it hardly matters cause most of them didn't fit on the screen anyway)

new technology is always going to outpace our ability to adapt and reconcile it.

Lara wrote: "booked flights!
i get to seatac at 20:55 on sat 31 july.
hope i can meet up with someone.
can't wait."

just look for the moose.

if it's roslyn, i'll get my moose costume ready.
i love that tiny town. it's adorable.

but i'll follow you guys anywhere.
can't wait.

i just want to sleep on that big porch. the place looks pretty.

ok. i'll be the lone duck here.

no, i don't advocate trading in to kill a mockingbird for captain underpants, that's extreme crazy. but that said, i can see where offering students more choice and flexibility with what they read could help encourage & inspire more reading. more active, engaged reading.

that old myer's article, just feels like so much hand-wringing to me. some interesting bits of argument, but it's all so glib and snarky. and not in a fun way. it's almost as wearisome as reading Delillo.

tons of responses to it out there... this is just one.
http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feat...

and forgive me, if this is veering things off course... this may speak more to rampant commercialization than it does specifically to any given stylistic choices ("hysterical realism") but, i grabbed this from david milch (creator of deadwood and john from cincinnati)

"... even soulless materialism, if willing to submit itself to the possibilities of the present moment, without distortion, can be an instrument of salvation. art can help materialism transcend that self."

kris, your post was interesting to me. a lot in there to unpack.
i don't think i agree with most of it, or at least, i don't share your distaste for the post-modern, or post-post-modern or whatever we want to call things now.

i guess i question, or take issue with, the idea that to seriously enjoy or engage with pop culture or to use "hysterical realism" as a means to tell a story is somehow a clear signal of "arrested" development, but yet a, sort of, puritanical reverence and nostalgia for "serious" literature (or the serious arts), that's just what?? high minded? sophisticated?? clearly, less "arrested"?

if i'm missing or misreading the crux of your argument i apologize but, i think Zadie had me at "broad church".

wanted to share another blog with everyone... daniel goldin runs Boswell Book Company in milwaukee. he's as passionate & enthusiastic about books as anyone i've ever met & his blog is pretty entertaining. the most recent post was by a friend of mine, john eklund, sharing his review (or the beginnings of a review) of the life of samuel johnson.

http://boswellandbooks.blogspot.com/2...

a few (of the many) things i gleaned from dorkapalooza '09

1. if i ever go birdwatching, bring patty. and her binoculars. and the poet.
2. whiskey and diet coke, apparently, isn't a good idea.
3. if you bring a cantaloupe to a party, you might get a chuckle out of ben.
4. i could sit for hours just listening to Lara say "car alarm".
5. sadly, there is a large gaggle of unemployed queer theorists in the world.
6. martha, aside from helping us put to rest some nagging spiritual questions,
has a way with noodles. delicious.
7. dork legend says, that i have an alter ego named cookie. a grizzled old
woodsman with a long grey beard that weaves tall tales, while turning logs
in the fire. maybe it's just the way i "owned" that stick.
8. dunkin donuts has the best coffee on the planet. end of discussion.
9. despite what i learned in gay 101 and advanced revisionist history, not all of
our literary heroes were gay. (this helps explain #5)
10. 4 am. watching the campfire fade. that pre-dawn hour, where light begins
to creep back in. graying up the night sky. i love it.

thanks all,
if i was already sad leaving early to come housesit, arriving in this heat, at a house with no air conditioning and two high strung cairn terriers both with diarrhea, only amplified said sadness.

i don't think i'd heard of him till i read this article the other day. from what i read, his publisher wasn't thrilled.

curious about his other work, i ran into this nice review of his book of short stories, "my girlfriend comes to the city and beats me up".

http://www.salon.com/books/review/200...

i have yet to read any calvino, but have long been curious... and this just feeds the curiousity... sounds great.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-07-2...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-bo...

i'll have room in my car too. if we trust my car. i trust my car, for the most part. so, anyway, any one who likes to live on the edge, or believes in prayer...your welcome to ride with me. but my car is small... so one or two people and luggage gets tight.

not sure this qualifies as a literary landmark, but... mary guterson, by her telling, wrote most of her first novel in the small conference room at the Bainbridge Island Library.

this is a beautiful thread, so many great photos... thanks everyone.