Sunday, September 28, 2008

 

Singing in the rain

The hurricane took a right turn a few hours ago over toward Nova Scotia and is only going to glance our way, with rain and maybe 30-40 mph winds tonight. The tarps should hold. Knock on wood. We're staying up late just to be sure.

I re-read much of David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men last night and remembered how much I intensely dislike many of the stories found therein. Regarding the subject matter, not the telling. I'm a modest person, and my face turns red if I read certain kinds of things, even if no one else is around. Well, as readers we don't get to pick and choose what our favorite authors want to write about, or are compelled to write about, do we. We have to take what they give us, and try to understand why they are telling us what they are telling us. I read on, red-faced.

I also re-read his short story Good Old Neon. I first came across it in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2002 and hadn't forgotten it six years later. Still so good I wanted to cry.

So many true geniuses died early - Jack London, van Gogh, etc - after tremendous creative output in a relatively short time, and truly unique manifestations of their inner workings. But no getting maudlin, now. Plenty of geniuses live long and healthy lives. Must get back to tarp duty.

Comments:
Sarah,

Congratulations on, apparently, ducking the worst of the blow and the wet and not having to play ducks in the attic.

Lots of rain- day after day after day- in Massachusetts, south of you.

Good luck at Weir Farm. It sounds like a great program. We hope to hear stories when you return.

Dan
 
Hey there Dan, hope your fall semester is not too hectic, but, being a dropout from the fringe of academia, I say that with tongue firmly in cheek. Or foot in mouth, or something like that.

Looking forward to a sunny stretch of weather to be able to paint outside right away, at Weir Farm. We'll see. The carpenter James is working hard to enclose the dormer at home - we were really lucky last weekend.

I'll have my computer with me and may be blogging from CT. Depends on whether or not I find I have anything to say...
 
Dear Sarah,

I just found a copy of The Christmas Bookman, 1925. I'm looking for more information on it. It's a beautiful book on great condition. Your blog is the only place on the web that mentions it.
I'm curious as to how rare it is.
Hope you can give me some clues.
Maria
 
Rare is something you see once in a lifetime, twice if you're very lucky.

I think the issues of "The Christmas Bookman" that I have, I may have paid a few bucks each for. They mean a lot to me. I don't think they would mean a lot to a whole lot of other people. It was a trade magazine.

That doesn't answer your question, I realize. Try eBay, if you want to sell it. The great leveller.

Here I am, back from a month in the Connecticut woods, by the way. Report to follow, soon...
 
Welcome back. Time to settle in for winter?

Dan
 
I am so sorry. So very sorry...but not so sorry not to inflict this upon you, too. Please consider yourself "tagged":

You have been tagged.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

This is all Chris Lowenstein's fault...she told me that my liver would be eaten by rats if I did not do it and pass it on. Enjoy *g*...
 
Thanks, Ian. Thanks a lot. No, really!

Dan, it took four of us one afternoon to stack three cords of wood. That sounds like the beginning to a complicated word problem, doesn't it?

:O)

I love winter.
 
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