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?'”
October 24, 2006
Dinner tonight
Tonight, I am commemorating the Hungarian Revolution by cooking a Hungarian meal for Stu, Curtis and Erin. Menu as follows: Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream (Tejfeles uborkasalata), Chicken Paprikas (Csirkepaprikas) with potato dumplings and Hungarian Apple Strudel (Almasetes) for dessert. Like most of my culinary escapades, if it’s good it will be very very good, and if it’s bad it will be horrible.
Quandary of the day: how did a package sent via surface mail by Stuart’s Mum and Dad in the Northwest of England posted on Friday October 20th appear in our mailbox on Monday October 23? The postal system has much in common with my culinary escapades, but is all the more capricious.
October 24, 2006
Board Games
Diane Setterfield is in The Globe today. Also, The Report on Business’s Board Games is out, which is particularly exciting as some of the research from the project I worked on this summer went toward it. Remember my corporate governance warrior alter-ego?
October 23, 2006
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
I think some of my insomnia last night could be attributed to the fact that I was on the cusp of finishing The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, which I’ve just got to the bottom of now. Remarkable before anything else is how positively bookish is The Thirteenth Tale. It’s such a pretty book with a pile of books gorgeously illustrated on the dustjacket, and wonderful old-school patterned endpapers. Story starts in an antiquarian bookshop, narrated by a biographer about the life of a famous writer. Numerous 19th century novels are alluded to throughout, which would be especially charming to fans to such novels. And here we’ve also got a good old-fashioned mystery, with something a bit genre about it. So Setterfield is basically appealing to dorks the world over, but the mainstream will also approve, which is probably why she’s has got herself a flying-off-the-shelves bestseller.
Now The Thirteenth Tale is not a flawless novel. It’s Setterfield’s first book, which is sometimes written all over its pages, and the prose was clunky in places. I get the sense that its charm is its greatest appeal; I certainly loved it for its bookishness. Amateur biographer Margaret Lea, raised in a bookshop, is summoned to write the biography of Vita Winter, “this century’s Dickens”. Winter doesn’t get fast to the point, and by her story, we are led round in circles. This is a story of twinship, dilapitated manor houses, incest, madwomen stowed in various parts of houses, ghosts, murderers, wayward governesses and foundlings. Setterfield plays her fairly conventional material in new and surprising ways, with excellent control as the circles begin to tighten and we zero in on all unsaid. With the sort of plot that has been twisted time and time again, Setterfield manages to twist hers in a new way and I admit that I didn’t see it coming.
I am curious to see what Setterfield will do next. How will she fare with a more conventional form of literary fiction? Will she pull off something similar in her next book? In terms of novelty, she will be hardpressed to out-do The Thirteenth Tale, and she could possibly produce something absolutely awful in an effort to do so. Her story is interesting- read her profile in The Guardian. Of course, we judge her by what she’s done, not by what she’s yet to do. Setterfield might just be a flash in the pan, but The Thirteenth Tale is still a pretty entertaining read.
October 23, 2006
According to the COED
curly-grass fern: n. a fern of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Jersey, schizaea pusilla, with wiry, grass-like fronds.
Is it not odd that this fern knows to only grow in places whose names start with some form of “new”, even though the places are pretty far apart and/or are separate landmasses?
October 22, 2006
Pickle Me This turns 6!
It’s a big week here in PickleTown. You’ve probably noticed that Pickle Me This has had a makeover. What you might not be aware of is that Pickle Me This turns six years old this week! Though this blog has only lived here since March 2005, we’ve have been around longer than I’ve known the word “blog”, in a variety of incarnations. Not that you’ll be able to find them easily. The last thing I need is someone airing out my filthy early-twenties-angst dirty laundry. No way. We’re all cleaner-than-clean here at Pickle Me This now, but even though our history is mostly inaccessible, it is loooong. So let us celebrate. All birthday greetings may be dropped in the comments box, of course.
