Category Archives: books

books, quotes

We are now officially out of tech

and, feeling behind on all my other work, and attempting the rewrite again (the pages of the Greeks are scattered on the coffee table in front of me), here is an appropriate article about talking about books you haven’t really read, by Pierre Bayard – his book on the subject, “How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read,” came out Jan. 10th and is getting really popular.

“Non-reading goes far beyond the act of leaving a book unopened. To varying degrees, books we’ve skimmed, books we’ve heard about and books we have forgotten also fall into the rich category that is non-reading. Life, in its cruelty, presents us with a plethora of situations in which we might find ourselves talking about books we haven’t read.

To get to the heart of things, I believe we must significantly modify how we talk about books, even the specific words we use to describe them. Our relation to books is not the continuous and homogeneous process that certain critics would have us imagine, nor the site of some transparent self-knowledge. Our relation to books is a shadowy space haunted by the ghosts of memory, and the real value of books lies in their ability to conjure these spectres. “

And another article, on why authors want to be anonymous, by John Mullen, whose book on THAT subject, “Anoymity,” comes out on Jan. 17.

“Jonathan Swift arranged for a sample part of Gulliver’s Travels, transcribed in another man’s handwriting, to be dropped in secret by an intermediary at the house of publisher Benjamin Motte. It was accompanied by a letter from one “Richard Sympson”, supposedly Lemuel Gulliver’s cousin, offering the whole of the Travels for publication in return for £200. Motte was told that, within three days, he should either return the “Papers” or give the money “to the Hand from whence you receive this, who will come in the same manner exactly at 9 a clock [sic] at night on Thursday”. Motte bravely accepted the mysterious offer and a few nights later he duly got the rest of the book.”

Both of these are testing my resolve to not acquire more books until I have acquired a place to live. Now, if someone would just write an book on how to write plays you haven’t written.

All of this is via ArtsJournal and the Guardian.

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a propos of nothing, books, humor rhymes with tumor

If the names “Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Dawn” bring back memories of hiding these books inside less trashy kid’s books in the bookstore…

“First of all, huh? Little cowboy shoes? I don’t know what those are. Also, anyone who can imagine wearing these outfits should be taken out back and beaten with their little cowboy shoes.”

from one of the posts at Claudia’s Room, where Tiff blogs her way through the Baby-Sitters Club books. It’s so much fun making fun of the writing. (One of the actors in the show got a BSC book for Christmas, as a joke present, and the name of the blog.)

Using “books” as a category tag for this is stretching it.

“Dawn actually says, “People in California don’t have yard sales.” MY ASS! Come on Cali readers, back me up on this one! I refuse to believe that nowhere in Southern California has there never been a yard sale (or a more convoluted sentence).”

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books, quotes, style, writing

He was…elsewhere. “Il est ailleurs.”

“I am dying but the universe goes on. I can’t bear being separated from you. But if you are my soul and you live in me like a second body, my death will not be as inconsequential as a stranger’s.”
– from INEZ, by Carlos Fuentes

Sarah Rose and I were talking yesterday about dialogue and narration in fiction style. She read me a short story of hers which contained a dialogue scene without dialogue. The narrator told the story of the conversation without quoting any of the words.

It’s a device that I wouldn’t have thought of, being so stylistically geared towards plays and spoken words, but I’m curious to see if I can do it.

Reading INEZ this morning made me realize, too, that when the narrator’s voice is distinct, all narration is dialogue.

Off to a props meeting and first rehearsal for LYDIA.

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books

Three’s Company

I’ve been reading SHADOWS ON THE HUDSON, by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and have realized that many of his books, not just MAGICIAN OF LUBLIN, are about a man caught between his obligations to three different women. He makes it seem like the paranoia and despair in the post-WWII Jewish community, and the shrinking world (because of the vast numbers killed off) made this commonplace. As if there weren’t enough men to go around. These men are running around caught between their dead wives (who often turn up living), their living wives, and their mistresses. I picked up a third novel of his to test this, and it was ALSO about a man with three women.

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books, quotes, style

I do not wish to appear smug

“Then we were kissing – just like, I suppose, a couple on the cinema screen. It was almost exactly as I had always imagined it would be, except there was something oddly inelegant about our embrace, and I tried more than once to adjust my posture; but my right foot was hard against a heavy box and I could not quite negotiate the necessary turn without risking my balance.”

– from When We Were Orphans. One of the reviews on there called Ishiguro “emotionally strangulated” – for heaven’s sake- his precision, and especially his modifiers upon descriptions (“oddly inelegant”) have much emotion as anyone could want. There’s nothing minimalist about his adjectives. His characters feel more than any ten others.

“My feeling is that she is thinking of herself as much as of me when she talks of a sense of mission, and the futility of attempting to evade it. Perhaps there are those who are able to go about their lives unfettered by such concerns. For those like us, our fate is to face the world as orphans, chasing through long years the shadows of vanished parents. There is nothing for it but to try and see through our missions to the end, as best we can, for until we do so, we will be permitted no calm.”

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books, directing, interviews

Oedipus? Next!

I picked up Shiyan at SFO this morning, and we discussed the methods of getting hired in our very different fields. (Er: venture capitalism meets freelance directing…) Came back and dove right into more interviews. Just talked to Jason Loewith. Calling Michael Rohd in 5 minutes.

OEDIPUS is not for NEXT (thereby destroying my dream of OEDIPUS NEXT, a beautiful but short-lived paradise) but the projects he might be interested in include, but are not limited to:

Antigone
The Persons (I meant to type “The Persians.” But that’s a great title. I need to start a titles page.)
Imaginary Invalid
Volpone
The Alchemist
Aphra Benn’s The Rover

It was so great to talk with Jason about directing theory. He’s one of the most conversant people in the field today, after all those interviews for THE DIRECTOR’S VOICE. One of his anecdotes, about actors who won’t stop screaming, went directly to one of my (directly, Dara? You have to never use that adverb again. NEVER! ) greatest fears as a director. Screaming people.
It was nice to hear that it plagues others as well.

The boundary between the technical note and the psychological note. I remember talking with Jonathan Haugen about this.

Also read FUNNY IN FARSI, after years of watching it. I found it to be sad, but I’m finding every damn thing to be sad these days.

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