October 31, 2006
Landed!
Today Stuart became a permanent resident of Canada! Here is a photo of my beloved, looking a little goofy. Congratulations to him.
October 29, 2006
Nothing to do with rainfall
Today I found out about the origins of bridal showers. Maybe you knew already; I didn’t. It’s a Dutch tradition, when the bride’s father rejects the marriage and then the community rallies together to “shower” her with goods in place of a dowry.
October 29, 2006
Book Showers!
Goodbye Without Leaving was my favourite Laurie Colwin novel yet. I read it with delight, and it managed to talk about big things in a way that sat easily. Her writing is strong, and she writes narrators that confound me with their utter unclassifiability. You should read Laurie Colwin. I mean you. She’s pretty likeable. Finished Nixon in China, which was a fascinating reading. MacMillan is so clever that she gets to impart gossip and call it scholarship, but of course there is more than that. Apart from Nixon’s trip itself, I learned so many things about the history of Taiwan, Nixon and Kissenger, diplomacy in general (the word “obsequious” kept coming up), and appreciated the Asian lessons, especially considering how much the region has been in the news lately. Now reading Atwood’s Survival to fill that gap in my CanLit knowledge. It’s a delight, actually, and I’m out to embark on an Atwood kick for academic reasons, featuring (for nonacademic reasons) her latest Moral Disorder so stay tuned!
October 29, 2006
Wedding news…
Susannah, my dearest cousin/friend, is getting married! And to a boy who is wonderful no less! They announced it yesterday over deep-friend clam strips. In further nuptials news, plans for Bronwyn’s wedding on the moors are well underway. Further, tomorrow I am picking up my altered bridesmaid dress for Katie’s, and hopefully it will fit.
October 29, 2006
Writing Tunes
When I write, I require silence or else music to block unsilenceable outside noise. When I listen to music while writing, I can only listen to one song on repeat, or possibly an extremely seamless album. The top ten most played songs on my itunes are as follows:
Feel Flows: The Beach Boys
Turn Me On: Kevin Lyttle
Helpless: Buffy Saint-Marie
She’s a Rainbow: The Rolling Stones
Crazy English Summer: Faithless
More Than This: Roxy Music
Sweet Thing: Van Morrison
Get Along With You: Kelis
Clocks: Coldplay
Tangled Up in Blue: Bob Dylan
October 27, 2006
Fun Without Prairie Fiction
We had a grand old time last night at the echolocation Halloween Party, and we were truly humbled by the amazing costumes assembled there. We didn’t dress up. We are lame. I did, however, give my secret party trick the light of day (or night?) and composed two spontaneous folk songs- one about the Filthy Federlines and the other about robotic dogs (naturally). They were received warmly and I did so enjoy the night out. On the walk there, my mind was shouting to the beats of my feet, “Need drink. Need drink. etc.” Drink was had. Delicious.
In my previous entry, when I mentioned that The Diviners was one of “those books”, I meant that it is a book I intend to be revisiting as long as visiting hours are open. What I had neglected to realize, of course, is that it is also one of “those books” in the sense of the dreaded Prairie Fiction. Remember how Prairie Fiction nearly drove me to defenestration one month ago? Now, it is distinctly possible that my Prairie Fiction issues are linked to my menstrual cycle, but I think there is something further than that. I learned recently about certain types of fiction that cause post-traumatic stress disorder in readers, and I really think Prairie Fiction does that for me. I am not being completely dramatic. Books do tend to make their impressions upon me (ie when I read Fight Club and became psychotic?) I loved The Diviners, but it stirred something up in me that needs to be left alone in order me to be functional. I become overwrought. Sarah Harmer wrote “I’m a Mountain’; I’d love to hear “I’m a Prairie” and find out what it has to say, and then maybe I could get to the root of the problem.
I am now reading Laurie Colwin’s Goodbye Without Leaving which should calm me down a bit.
Two fabulous acquisitions in our house: Atwood’s The Penelopiad (which I read last winter and loved) and a pastry marble!
October 26, 2006
Stranger than Fiction
The Guardian has a books blog, which might turn out to be good. Or not. The movie Stranger than Fiction looks quite bookish, and I think I want to go see it. And I quite enjoyed the Guardian’s podcast on creative writing programs. No definitive answers, which is best really, but the exchange of some good ideas.
I’m now rereading The Diviners, one of “those” books. I will return to it again and again, and find something new every time. I am finding present-day Morag resonates with me if a way she never did when I read this book before. Pioneers, oh pioneers.
October 25, 2006
A great modifier
I’m sort of in love with the idea of a hyperbolic thesaurus. I don’t know if one exists, or what good it would really be if one did, but I want one all the same. “cold: freezing, burrr-y, 50 below zero, the North Pole, arctic, glacial, polar, Siberian; and if still at a loss, of course “fcking” always makes a great modifier. I think I would be well-qualified to write a hyperbolic thesaurus, if such a position ever became available.
In exciting news (and speaking of cold),Laura has arrived at the South Pole and her first blog entry about it is fascinating. Guardian Podcast: can creative writing be taught (blah blah blah)? I’ll give it a listen tonight o’er my knitting.
Back to work you.
October 25, 2006
Structure
From the Diane Setterfield piece in The Globe yesterday: “Then she began writing the first draft of The Thirteenth Tale over two years. “It was abominably bad when I reread it,” she said. ‘It didn’t make me think, can I write? It did make me think, can I structure a novel?'”
