Perpetual Folly

VCCA Report, Day 7

2009-12-17T21:19:00.003-05:00

Today is, um, Thursday. It's hard to tell sometimes, but I know because I had to run home today to give my "final exam" at the college where I teach, and tonight I've been fiddling with grades.

But earlier today I got some work done on the book, although I won't finish this draft during the residency as I'd originally hoped. That's okay. New target is Christmas, and then I'll work on revisions after that.

Aside from a lovely drive over the mountain on a beautiful day, the highlight was the presentations after dinner. First up was composer Matthew Barnson who played a CD of two pieces--a string quartet and part of a longer work for percussion that just premiered in Chicago this week. I especially liked the percussion piece which also uses space in an intriguing way. And then we saw two short films by David Licata. The first was "8 1/2 x 11" which is about a guy interviewing for jobs and the second, "Tango Octogenario" is about an elderly couple dancing the tango.

Two treats right after dinner!

The Face in the Tree

2009-12-16T20:09:00.000-05:00

VCCA Report, Days 5 & 6

2009-12-16T19:24:00.002-05:00

Not much to report about Tuesday. I worked. I graded papers. I got a lot done but it wasn't a very exciting day.

Wednesday was pretty much the same. I worked. I did laundry. I took a walk in the woods. (Regarding the pictures: on the left is a picture called the Loch VCCA Otter--I saw a trio of otters playing in the lake on campus; on the right is Roadblock!--a large tree had fallen across the walking trail since I was here last year.) And now I'm working again.

To see more of the pictures I took on my walk today, go here: Today's VCCA Pictures on Facebook

Rain Taxi Benefit Auction

2009-12-16T15:21:00.002-05:00

Check out the cool stuff available at the Rain Taxi Benefit Auction. As you probably know, Rain Taxi Review of Books is a wonderful source of information and reviews about books -- especially underreviewed books. It's a worthy cause to support.

VCCA Report, Day 4

2009-12-15T19:30:00.003-05:00

Monday was a good day, with few distractions. It was very wet from the rainy weekend, so I didn't walk in the woods. Just worked . . .

In the evening after dinner I read (research for the novel: Shamans, Housewives, and Other Restless Spirits, by Laurel Kendall) until it was time for the day's main entertainment: Open Studios.

I love Open Studios because I'm fascinated by the work of the visual artists. This was a group effort, which made it extra interesting. The fellows who were showing joined together to have oysters and champagne available, which sets a pretty high standard! The artists showing their work were Kate McGraw, Christy Georg, Chuck Webster, Dan Talbot, Christopher Domenick, and Patrick Shoemaker. All very different from one another. Good stuff!

And when I left that (I gather it went for a good long time, with music and the rest of the oysters), I graded a few papers. How exciting!

VCCA Report, Day 3

2009-12-14T13:35:00.002-05:00

On Sunday morning we woke up to ice everywhere. Breakfast was limited--the kitchen regulars couldn't get in--and it was even tricky making the short walk out to the studios. After the sleet stopped, it rained. And rained. And rained. Which should have been conducive to work, but it just made me sleepy. Still, I got some work done.

In the evening we went over to Sweetbriar for the annual holiday dinner put on by the Dining Services there -- turkey, ham, all the fixings. We ate too much. Some of us did, anyway.

Although the rain had stopped, when we got back I didn't feel like going out to my studio to work so I graded papers. Made a lot of progress on that, so I feel like it's under control.

Now, if I can just keep the book moving forward . . .

VCCA Report, Day 2

2009-12-12T22:32:00.002-05:00

It was nice to see Chef Rhonda at dinner Friday night. She has made such a difference here! After dinner, there was a Fellows reading. First Ruth Kessler read some poems, including a couple of ekphrastic pieces, always appropriate when there are visual artists in the audience. And Patrick Somerville, author of the novel Cradle which came out this year, read from the new novel he's working on. People stayed around in the living room after that, but I headed back to my studio for more work.

My task for the evening was to type up the changes I'd made on the manuscript during the day and also to grade some papers. I have to do a few each day if I'm going to get them done on time. That done, I came back to the residence and found that the party was still going on. But I was too beat, so I headed to bed.

Today, Saturday, started out clear and cold. I worked all morning and most of the afternoon, taking a break to walk on the trail in the woods. There is lots of deadfall this year, and not much in the way of new art that I noticed (except for a yellow wire sculpture that adorns a few trees). Still, it's a nice walk in the woods.

After dinner I went back to the studio to type and grade. Looks like that's going to be the pattern for this residency!

VCCA Report, Day 1

2009-12-11T16:12:00.002-05:00

I'm rewarding myself with a little internet break! I got here Thursday morning, after a beautiful drive over the mountain. I spent the afternoon organizing my studio and planning the work ahead. Some of those plans are just a schedule--how much progress I need to make each day--and some was a list of issues that I know I need to address in the current draft. (Name changes, tropes, inconsistencies, etc.) I should have had that done already, before coming to VCCA, but, well, I didn't. So I got it done.

After dinner, where I met many of the other current fellows, I came back to the studio to review some of the research I did some time ago. By then I was worn out.

Today I've been working steadily and got to the point I wanted to in editing, but will probably do more revision when I key those changes in tonight. (But, I hear we've got a reading tonight, so that might not all get done.) I was going to take a walk in the woods this afternoon, but the light is fading, so that's not going to happen either.

I did get to the office today to donate a copy of my book for the Fellows Library. I've been looking forward to that!

Do you know the way to VCCA?

2009-12-10T07:53:00.003-05:00

I'm off to VCCA today. That's the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, an incredible retreat for artists. "Retreat" never sounds right, though, because my visits there always provide me with a leap in productivity. No distractions--if I can keep my hands of the damn internet--and a wonderful, creative environment.

I'm near the end of my novel, and that's what I plan to work on there. I've got a complete draft--my fourth or so--and plans for what I do to complete it. Wish me luck!

NEA Literature Fellowships (Prose)

2009-12-09T08:50:00.002-05:00

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2010 Literature Fellowships (Prose), especially my friends on the list. It's a great honor (and also a tidy, helpful sum of money).

The New Yorker: "All That" by David Foster Wallace

2009-12-09T08:19:00.002-05:00

Is it safe to assume that this “story” is an excerpt from David Foster Wallace’s posthumous novel, The Pale King, due out in 2011? The voice seems consistent with other snippets of the novel I’ve seen, so even though The New Yorker doesn’t tell us this (they never do), that’s the theory I’m running with.

In which case, it doesn’t matter that this piece, as interesting as it is, doesn’t work as a story. Having said that, it’s enormously entertaining, in a David Foster Wallace sort of way. The narrator, an adult looking back at his childhood, is examining the source of his “reverence” for religion, and concludes that it derives from his parents’ tricking him into believing that his toy cement mixer was magic, that the giant mixing drum would turn but only when he wasn’t looking. The narrator relates his efforts to catch the truck off guard with stories his father told of trying to capture the tooth fairy. Except that he sees a difference – he didn’t want the magic to end, he only wanted to confirm its existence.

His belief in, or reverence for, the magic, is somehow connected to the voices he began hearing at about the same age, which he considers entirely normal:

“Nevertheless, the experience of the real but unobservable and unexplainable “voices” and the ecstatic feelings they often aroused doubtless contributed to my reverence for magic and my faith that magic not only permeated the everyday world but did so in a way that was thoroughly benign and altruistic and wished me well.”

Very nice, and makes the prospect of the novel all the more interesting.

December 14, 2009: “All That” by David Foster Wallace

Big Blend Magazine

2009-12-08T18:52:00.003-05:00

I am featured today in Big Blend Magazine, and if you scroll down to the bottom, just to the right of my picture, you can listen to me being interviewed by the hosts of Champagne Sundays (Big Blend Radio), Nancy and Lisa.

Beg, Borrow, Steal by Michael Greenberg

2009-12-08T09:27:00.003-05:00

Beg, Borrow, Steal – A Writer’s Life
Michael Greenberg
Other Press, 2009

Many readers are likely to come to this book having read the Michael Greenberg’s much-lauded Hurry Down Sunshine, a 2008 memoir about his daughter’s breakdown. I haven’t read that book, but now that I’ve read Beg, Borrow, Steal I almost certainly will. He’s an engaging writer, with a style and approach that admit the existence of other people and the world around him. In other words, he’s not, at least in this book, the self-absorbed memoirist who gazes no further than his navel. I like that.

This book also appeals to me because of its structure. It consists of 44 short essays, each only about five pages long, dealing with some incident in the author’s life, usually something involving his family members or other people he’s come into contact with. The reader gets to know something about the writer through these vignettes, but the “writer’s life” is the context in which the writer finds himself, and that’s fascinating. In one chapter he writes of the rat problem in his New York City neighborhood and how he and the tenants of his building coped. In another he writes about his “inheritance” from an uncle and what it revealed about his relationship with his father. Another, “Kill What You Eat,” reminded me of Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma in its approach to the subject of getting to know your dinner. I especially liked the title chapter, “Beg, Borrow, Steal,” in which he deals with the consequence of having used acquaintances as characters in his earlier book – having, in effect, stolen their souls. Common problem for writers. We can relate.

If there is one chapter that’s a bit self-absorbed it’s “The Writer’s Stock Exchange,” but again writers will relate. The title refers to a book’s rankings on Amazon.com. My own book isn’t selling so many copies that there’s much point in looking at these rankings, but of course I do anyway. I can tell, actually, from a movement in the rankings, when a copy has sold.

There’s a good deal more here, and it’s a book that is definitely worth the read.

The Literacy Site

2009-12-08T07:27:00.001-05:00

Do you click every day? I do. First thing in the morning, I go The Literacy Site and click and then click on its affiliated sites: The Hunger Site, The Breast Cancer Site, The Child Health Site, The Rainforest Site, and The Animal Rescue Site. The whole process takes less than a minute and at no other cost to me I've contributed to all six important causes. I even get a reminder by email each weekday, with a link that makes getting started easy.

Click on the logo above, or go here:

Click here for an easy and free way to help provide books for children at The Literacy Site!

Nice Words About In an Uncharted Country

2009-12-07T20:24:00.001-05:00

Author Jana McBurney-Lin has some nice things to say about In an Uncharted Country at her blog: My Half of the Sky (which is also the title of her terrific novel set in Southern China).

Champagne Sundays Radio Interview Today

2009-12-06T11:21:00.002-05:00

I'll probably hold off on the champagne until after the interview, but I will be a guest on today's edition of Big Blend Radio's Champagne Sundays. The show runs from 2 - 5:00pm ET and I expect to be on starting at around 4:00. But if you miss the live interview, the show will be archived, and I'll share the link to that later. I'm looking forward to talking about my book, In an Uncharted Country on the show!

New Books: Truth, Or Something Like It by Curtis Smith

2009-12-05T19:20:00.002-05:00

Just got an advance copy of Curtis Smith's new book, Truth or Something Like It, forthcoming in March 2010 from Casperian Books. Look for a review in this space . . . eventually.

Saturday Snow Storm

2009-12-05T17:28:00.003-05:00

This picture wasn't taken today, but it could have been. Lots of snow. It started at about dawn and it is still coming down (shortly after sunset). Normally, I wouldn't care. I'd relax, work or read, listen to music, and let the world spin. Couldn't do that today, though--too much going on.

First was the quarterly meeting of the Democratic Party of Virginia. I'm a member of the State Central Committee and since the committee doesn't often meet in Staunton I definitely wanted to be there. I also wanted to be there because I'm on the Resolutions Committee and we had put forward a resolution encouraging our Congressional Delegation to support the Public Option. And, finally, I wanted to be there because we were going to hear from Senators Warner and Webb and Governor Kaine as well as other elected officials. Unfortunately, the Senators were stuck in Washington, not by the snow but by the Senate Majority Leader who was keeping people in town to work on the health care legislation. Both of them spoke to us by video. Governor Kaine was there, though, and he gave a rousing talk, as did Congressman Tom Periello. Our health care resolution also passed, so it was a good meeting.

And in the afternoon I was headed over to Stone Soup Books in Waynesboro for the first annual Holiday Book Fair. Stone Soup is a bookstore and cafe spread throughout an old house, and in its short life it has become quite popular. This event, which was very nicely planned an publicized, brought together quite a few local authors. The idea was that we'd be scattered around the store with our books and that visitors would pass through and chat. And that's what happened, although the turnout (of both authors and visitors) was low because of the snow. (I had no trouble getting over there, but as I pulled in to park I skidded into the curb. The only damage, as far I've been able to tell, is that the hubcap popped off, but retrieved it so it isn't a real problem.) Despite the weather, I applaud the store for putting on this event--it's just the kind of outreach independent stores need to be doing. Thank you, Stone Soup!

From Winesburg, Ohio to Olive Kittteridge

2009-12-04T13:19:00.002-05:00

This is a talk I gave on December 1, 2009 at Blue Ridge Community College, and, as you'll see if you watch it, it should really be called "From Dubliners to In an Uncharted Country," but I thought the other title sounded better.

HTML Giant Secret Santa

2009-12-04T08:25:00.002-05:00

Ho Ho Ho. Last year, the "internet literature magazine of the future" HTML Giant organized a literary Secret Santa gift exchange. It seemed like a good idea, fun, promoted indie lit, etc. So I played, got assigned my giftee, sent something off (ordered from Dzanc Books, as I recall), and waited for my own Santa's gift to arrive. And waited. And waited. And waited. Finally I contacted HTML Giant's Ryan to see what went wrong, and he sent me some books as a backup to Santa (Good little elf!). Just a couple of days ago I got an email from my Secret Santa from last year, telling me that she'd just come across the package she'd been supposed to mail me a year ago! So that's finally on it's way--pretty funny, really--and I owe Ryan some books.

So, HTML Secret Santa is up and running again this year (using Elfster) and especially with the amusing ending to last year's mixup, I've signed on again. Join the holiday spirit! Support independent literature by gifting a small press book (or three) or a subscription to a lit mag! It's fun, it's easy.

If you sign up and want to order a signed copy of my book for your giftee, visit my website: CliffordGarstang.com.

Champagne Sundays

2009-12-03T09:32:00.004-05:00

Please tune into Big Blend Radio's Champagne Sundays this Sunday, December 6. I will be interviewed (around 4pm ET, I think) about my book, In an Uncharted Country.

The New Yorker: "The Use of Poetry" by Ian McEwan

2009-12-02T21:42:00.002-05:00

The contributor notes for this issue tell us that McEwan has a new novel, Solar, due out in the spring. And while once again the editors don’t tell us this, the fiction appears to be not a short story but an excerpt, or perhaps an extraction, from that novel. The “story” deals with a Physics Nobel Laureate whom we first see as an infant, although the events in these pages cover the time when he is an undergraduate at Oxford first becoming interested in the “physics of light.” Through a lot of exposition—there’s very little scene in the story—the reader learns about Michael Beard’s parents (he’s an only child, his parents’ marriage was loveless, his mother, who died of cancer, had a series of affairs), and then his arrival at Oxford. He meets Maisie—the first in a string of wives—and pursues and ultimately seduces her by digesting the work of Milton, the subject of her own studies. Unconventionally, for the time, they marry, but are already drifting apart and by the end of this excerpt she leaves him and the reader is a left with a flash forward to Michael attending her funeral.

So, this is decidedly not a short story, and although the book seems appealing (more than McEwan’s last book, On Chesil Beach), there isn’t much point to this excerpt. Having said that, the quotations from Milton seem far more relevant to the protagonist’s study of the “physics of light” than he seems to realize, and so the piece is interesting for that: “thou Celestial light/Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers/Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence/Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell/Of things invisible to mortal sight.”

There isn’t much point in analyzing the story further, since it isn’t a story, but it is fun to see this glimpse into the forthcoming novel.

December 7, 2009: “The Use of Poetry” by Ian McEwan

Stone Soup Holiday Book Fair

2009-12-01T09:37:00.002-05:00

Come out to Stone Soup Books this Saturday, December 5, from 2 - 5 pm to meet lots of local authors (including me!), buy their books, get their autographs, etc. It's going to be fun, and the bookstore is a great place to hang out.

Read Literary Magazines

2009-11-30T09:01:00.002-05:00

That's good advice for everybody, but it's especially good advice for writers who want to publish work in those magazines--or anywhere else for that matter. It's even good advice for the writer with a chip on her shoulder who commented on this blog that the Pushcart Prize Anthology (and the rankings of magazines that I derive from that Anthology) is "meaningless" because . . . because . . . because her outrage was lost in a fog of incoherence.

And now here's Dan Chaon on what writers can learn from young rock stars. I recommend the whole piece, but in a nutshell: if you want to publish your work in literary magazines, you have to be reading literary magazines.

The writing community is full of lame-o people who want to be published in journals even though they don’t read the magazines that they want to be published in. These people deserve the rejections that they will undoubtedly receive, and no one should feel sorry for them when they cry about how they can’t get anyone to accept their stories.

Exactly. And he goes on to recommend two relatively small, excellent magazines to start with: Hobart and Avery Anthology. There are many more he could have named, but that's a great beginning.

The New Yorker: "Midnight in Dostoevsky" by Don DeLillo

2009-11-30T08:49:00.003-05:00

This story is going directly onto my top-ten list for the year. I enjoyed this more than any DeLillo I’ve read, and I’m going to assume that it’s not excerpted from a novel. (Readers will remember “The Falling Man,” a DeLillo “story” in The New Yorker that was, in fact, a single story line extracted from his novel of the same name; DeLillo himself didn’t even do the extracting.) Although I have some qualms about the ending, the rest of the story is completely engaging.

Two college students, Todd and Robby, take long walks in their college town where there is little else to distract them. On these walks they engage in verbal battles, the point of which seems to be to sound as plausible as possible while making up explanations for things, or naming them. The narrator, Robby, for example, points to a tree and pronounces, “Norway maple,” although he’s not sure that it’s even a maple, much less the variety, but adds the specific to build credibility (like a fiction writer!). An ongoing discussion they have involves what kind of coat a man they see sometimes is wearing. Is it an anorak? A parka? Or something else?
Meanwhile, they are in a logic class with Professor Ilgauskas, who is wonderfully odd. Jenna, a girl in the class whom the narrator seems to like, tells Robby she’s seen Ilgauskas in the town diner, reading Doestoevsky. Jenna reports that she quoted a line of poetry to him, “like midnight in Dostoevsky,” but that the professor didn’t answer. (The line is from "Meditations in an Emergency" by Frank O’Hara.

The story feeds the boys’ ongoing debate about the man in the parka, and Robby now constructs an elaborate explanation for him—he’s from Russia, Ilgauskas is his son, etc. Because they are competitive, and because Todd seems to be a bit brighter (a “determined thinker”) and looks odd (“tall and sprawling, all bony framework”). In the end, Todd decides to test the explanation by speaking to the man, but Robby protests that this will spoil everything. What he really means by that, I think, is that it will end their discussions by exposing their fiction to the truth. And this conflict brings the boys to blows, in an awkward sort of way.

There is so much going on in this story! The character of Todd is fascinating and, it seems to me, Robby is taken with him, not in a sexual way—he seems interested in Jenna—but in a hero-worship way. After all, his parents are absent (Dad’s in Beijing and mom is off somewhere with her exotic boyfriend) and all he really has is the connection to Todd. This is threatened by what Todd proposes to do. And so Robby, who is still a boy, lashes out.

More thoughts?

November 30, 2009: “Midnight in Dostoevsky” by Don DeLillo