My My Ideal Bookshelf

My Ideal Bookshelf is an internet thing that turned into a book thing. I am starting a personal-type project based on this thing. Sort of. My "My Ideal Bookshelf" does not consist of the books I cannot do without; for me, it is a way:

1. to read books I have been meaning to read
2. to allow myself the freedom to read with abandon and without pressure to produce writing
3. to mentally seek solutions to some "problems" (the good kind of problem! like, a thought problem!) I have been thinking about in regards to writing
4. to become a better writer in terms of understanding approaches to large-scale structures
5. to begin the weeding-out process before I move this summer

I have a long-standing, weird, compulsive, love-with-abandon relationship to reading and purchasing books. Grad school has made my compulsion much, much worse. Not only do I check a million books out of the library at once (give or take), but I also buy books with abandon. "I got this," I say, doling out my meager wages. "I'll be able to read this book tomorrow. Plus I need it a) because I love the writer, b) for a thing I'm writing, c) for a "class" (this can include self-prescribed "supplemental" reading or research for a paper, in addition to books I actually buy for class), and/or d) because I have made a mental chain of associations that means me finding this book is a co-incidence and therefore I must have it."

I told you. Compulsion. (The Compulsion is something I'm also attempting to address re: this project; we shall see whether or not I'm successful on that front.)

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This Winter Break, my attention belongs only to this bookshelf (plus a few stray titles not pictured [look at that Compulsion go!]).

Pile One: my fairy tale pile, an ongoing love & obsession & thought project.

Pile Two: books by authors I love or who've been highly recommended to me, but which I haven't had time to read because a) graduate school and b) teaching and c) I have a Reading Problem, obviously.

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Amidst the craziness of writing my Final Seminar Paper Ever, I vowed that I would devote my Very Last Long Student Holiday to reading. Only to reading. I'd also just turned in a draft of my thesis, and I thought I needed a break.

After one weekend of slothful recovery, I'm Absolutely Bored and ready to work again. So I plan to write my way through this reading adventure, too.

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FIRST UP: 

Hollywood glamour meets Mediterranean Italy. Let's do this.

Some thoughts on Cloud Atlas

I should say impressions.

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I wish the filmmakers had trusted the audience more, trusted their story would do the work. The resonances they tried so hard to establish through narration would be there: in the repeated lines of dialogue, in the recycling of actors. The matching and crosshatching of storylines is rendered clearly enough (maybe? It's hard to tell, having read the book) without these devices.

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The risks of difficulty, of trying to build a bridge for your reader, when perhaps they have figured their way across without you.

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I am trying to understand if the film would mean as much to me without having read the novel, without having read the novel first and seen the film second. I can't unread the book; it is there, lodged deep in my imagination. It's worked on me for years, something my brain turns over and over again, always keeping an eye on it. At a reading in Boston a few years ago, David Mitchell discussed his own desires as a reader and how they informed the structure of Cloud Atlas. I'm pretty sure he said it was Calvino's If On A Winter's Night A Traveler that cinched things. That he was so taken with Calvino's playful form, but the book also left him feeling bereft as a reader, to have to leave the characters mid-scene and never come back to them. So he came back to them.

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Still struck by Mitchell's absolute commitment to deal with the effects of colonialism and global capitalism. At the risk of sounding like a vulgar liberal humanist, he makes my heart feel bigger and more determined about what art can do.

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Of course Ben Whishaw and Jim Broadbent win this contest. But then it never was one, for me.


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Also, where can I get Jim Broadbent's coat? Seriously, it's amazing.

All Hallow's in a Fairy Tale

Here is an exciting thing you should know about!

The delightful Kate Bernheimer, editor of The Fairy Tale Review, has been writing fairy tales and collaborating with various architects to imagine spaces and places for her characters.

Here's the latest edition: a spooky collage and schematics for your post-Halloween needs:

Collage by Bernheimer Architecture

Have Gun, Will Travel

Downton is back! And while it's early days, I'm hopeful that this season will be *slightly* less ridiculous than the last, which was so syrupy and saturated with hysterics, I could barely handle it (like many, I did my best to embrace the trashy qualities and implausibilities (Matthew's miracle recovery! The heir who had no face!) and roll with it. Excellent tumblr comic material just waiting to happen there.).

As the Crawleys convene for the much-anticipated Matthew-Mary nuptials, the usual snobbery and amazing outfittery commence as expected. And, discounting an unfortunate scene where poor Branson gets roofied by a snarky former suitor of Sybil's, we're off to a roaring good start:

1. MATTHEW CRAWLEY LEARNED HOW TO FLIRT

I can't decide if this is exciting or disturbing.

2. WHY IS THE DOWAGER COUNTESS' SCRIPTWRITER GIVING ALL HER LINES TO CARSON

Before you know it, we're going to have a Carson paper doll with his many priceless faces of disbelief and distaste to rotate at will, including why-can't-the-damn-chauffeur-dress-himself?, and the irreplaceable here-is-your-napkin-you-bumpkin! complete with disdainful wrist action.

3. BEST PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY/NATIONAL STEREOTYPE

"Don't worry about me; I'm an American. Have gun, will travel."

I love how pragmatic Cora is when she learns her husband's crap investment just ruined the family estate. Why didn't Robert ask for investment advice from his wife, who clearly has a grasp of, oh, I dunno, not putting all your eggs in one basket? Oh, right. Dumb women!

4. COCKTAILZZZ

5. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP EDITH

Maybe I should give Edith a break. She was unforgivably bitchy in Season One, but now she acts so downright desperate, I feel bad for her. It's easy to start believing you are who others want you to be. Come on, writers! Let's flesh out her character a little, shall we?

6. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP SYBIL

Just because you're poor and pregnant doesn't mean you have to dress like a bag lady. Well, maybe it does.

7. INTRODUCING...

Shirley McClaine as Cora's fast-talking, judgmental mother. LOVE IT. Mrs. Levinson's going to give Violet a run for her money.

8. STOP SOLVING ALL OF THE PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY BECOME PROBLEMS

We are out of money! Wait! Matthew might inherit a mountain of money! HOW CONVENIENT. Introduce insufferable Matthew-type moral quandary here.

9. BRANSON IN TAILS

Why are the clothes of the oppressor so hot?

10. HOW WILL THEY KNOW IF THEY GET THE RIGHT HAT BACK?

Is what I was thinking when Matthew and Branson tossed their top hats to an underling upon entering the church. 

And I guess the wedding was beautiful, etc. Now for what happens *after*!

Why do I have a tumblr?

I don't actually know.

Can you tell me?

Dear Internet,

I am become a hermit!

Here are my favorite and most recent reasons for not falling into your black hole until today:



Maybe I should start hanging out more...

Dear Internet,

Clearly, I am the biggest. liar. ever. Be shocked if you ever hear from me again.

                 Liar.