Faves from a Fan of the Canon

Prelude
I’m the type of person who walks into a restaurant and orders from the “Our Specialties” column. Then once I find something among the specialties I like, I seldom branch out and try a random menu item. Being interpreted, that means when I read, I usually try to invest my time in books that come highly recommended, mostly canonical literature. I seldom go looking for unknowns. So I readily admit that even my “non-canon” nominees are still popular and well-received by critics. I will have to take it upon myself as homework to discover a new, more unknown for next time.

Favorite Canon Writer
My estimation is that Harold Bloom has earned the honor of greatest literary critic of this generation (just because his name is everywhere if nothing else). I perused his archive of the Western Canon and was just overwhelmed. When you consider the wealth of literature, it’s hard to pick a “best.” Fortunately this is a “favorite,” so I can pick a writer based on mere personal preferences. And for me, it comes down to Faulkner.

William Faulkner
I’ve tried to look beyond my paradigm, but even so, there is something about Southern literature that will always be my first love. It’s as though all Southern readers and writers share the same bloodline. We’re related because of our shared history. However, Faulkner transcended a local color fiction label. So, here are my reasons:

1. Prolific body of work – 23 novels, 7 collections of poems, 11 plays/screenplays, and several short stories. Not to sound like those suspicious of Shakespearean authenticity, but really, how can one person accomplish all those works of such excellent caliber in one lifetime?

2. Earnest observer – For anyone from the South, even 80 years removed, there is a familiarity of experience, a kinship, that instantly kicks in when reading Faulkner. While the South has so many conspicuous, stereotyped traits that are conspicuous, it’s very hard to make that translate into art without turning the landscape into a zoo of aliens. Faulkner managed to bring out both the subtle and overt cultural touchstones and still preserve the spirit of the place.

3. Chronicles of the universal human experience – Faulkner grasped what was not just the defining issue of Southern literature, but American literature. Of all the questions American lit has examined, I submit that it has always and will always, for far further into the future than we can imagine, grapple with the same great issue: reconciling the evil of slavery. A union founded upon liberty yet splintered over slavery—what larger contradiction can any society ever face? Faulkner identified and exposed this issue in a post-emancipation world still far from liberated. This dead-on portrayal is a universal issue because the reconciliation of evil will always be a part of the human experience.

4. Personal experience – Even though I warn my students of the dangers of basing judgments on personal experience alone, there is a value to it. My story is that as a high school senior on a visit to a potential college, I toured Rowan Oak, Faulkner’s home in Oxford, Mississippi. We walked into his writing office, and across the white-washed walls were faint, awkward letters he’d penciled in as he story-boarded one of his later novels, A Fable. It was a humbling and powerful experience. Colliding with the Faulkner of the canon in my own personal world—standing in a room he’d stood in, carefully scrutinizing words he’d carefully scrutinized—made a huge impact.






Favorite Non-Canon Writer
I must cheat and say that with me it’s a draw—mainly because the two writers are from such different contexts, it’s near impossible to compare.

Evelyn Scott
Scott authored twenty books in the 1920s, however, all but two fell out of print until a campaign for reprints in the ’80s. Scott’s most famous novel, The Wave, is an incredible metaphor showing how a single—albeit enormous—event can radically affect so many lives. In this case, she takes as subject and setting the American Civil War and carries a huge span of characters through the “wave” of war. I remember it for its achievement in pulling off such an ambitious scope, the poignancy of the language, and the accessibility of the characters. Equally intriguing is the story of Scott’s rediscovery.

Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon is a (comparatively) young British writer most known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The narrator is a fifteen year-old autistic boy, and the voice is captivating. Haddon has us really invest in the novel. It’s not possible to read passively. On one page we’re chuckling, and on the next, crying. Not that emotional response is the grail, but there’s such an engaging quality to this work that I can’t mention favorites without it.

Favorite Authors Curry-Style

The Author I Love Most Who is in the Canon – Leo Tolstoy

Alas, the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina often creates more admirers than readers due to the size of these classics. Except they both deserve top rank in the canon, as do at least two of his short stories (Master and Man, The Death of Ivan Ilych). Best of all, most of his later works are shot through with an overt Christianity (Father Sergius), when they’re not outright didactic (The Kreutzer Sonata, Resurrection).

The tortured author was masterful at distilling experiences into an amazing clarity, whether it be male lust (The Devil), the acceptance of sacrifice (Master and Man), or society’s hypocritical double standards (the two clasics). Plus, he never skimped on plot, so even the long monsters twist and turn in surprising manners

John Updike once wrote in a New Yorker review that Tolstoy still was the only author who could make happiness interesting. (Read the chapters of Natasha singing or the children playing in War and Peace and you’ll understand what he means.)

While his best known works are legendarily long (though worth their reputation), start with the short stories or novellas (The Cossacks was recently translated) if you don’t believe me. It’s likely you’ll read nothing better

Author I Love Who Will Never Be in the Canon—Grant Morrison

We didn’t have a TV when I was growing up (a decision I regret less and less), so my four color entertainment came from comic books. (Of course, now that every year churns forth another blockbuster superhero movie, that makes me a savant to the kid, since I know the back story to every character used, but that’s another story.) Among the most fascinating comic book authors today is Grant Morrison, a Scottish author and playwright who grew up loving the comic books I did.

Morrison’s trademark is to embed powerful metaphors and scientific craziness into straight-forward action-adventure stories (as they used to be called). He’s also got an uncanny grip on “the moment,” so you often get those “Of course!” moments while you’re wondering what will happen next. Then again, he feels like comics are for creating the future, so he does that in unusual-but accessible way.

Since graphic novels are cool now, reserve the following titles from your library and thank me later:

• All Star Superman—Especially Volume 1 (of 2). It’s funny, romantic (you'll say, "Ahhh" when you see where he takes Lois Lane for a kiss), challenging, and I cried at the end of the last chapter reading it to my 10 year-old.

• We3—What if the U.S. Military used animals with cybernetics embedded in them for war. An inspired mixture of Incredible Journey and the near-future. (Warning: Violence with related gore.)

• Marvel Boy—Science, adventure, and evil corporations mix in this thriller that simultaneously captures the now while hinting at a possible future.

• Seven Soldiers of Victory—A convoluted, but densely plotted Lord of the Rings saga for the second-class super hero set. What if there was a world crisis a team was fighting against it all over the world, but didn’t realize they were working together?

• Vimanarama—A romantic crisis develops when the Muslim version of the end of the world takes place in modern day Britain because Ali isn’t sure he’s ready for an arranged marriage. The first 2 chapters are quite funny.

Appendix A: Jane Austen, Flannery, Writing

• Love Jane Austen? Now she’s in comics!

• Most Britons have lied about the books they read—According to the survey, 65 percent of people have pretended to have read books, and of those, 42 percent singled out 1984. Next on the list came War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and in third place was James Joyce's Ulysses.

Kent here: Why do books continue to impress people, but so few other art forms are mentioned to “impress”? I mean, how many people lie about the classic films they've seen or Broadway musicals they've attended? Is it because persistence & dedication & understanding are required at an unusual depth for authoring books?

• Summer Writing: Going it by yourself is okay, but writing can be a solitary craft. Perfecting that craft w/strangers is often wiser than w/people who know us and place expectations upon us. So if you’re wanting to write, you need to attend a writing camp, convention, or class. Or, if you’re in the Midwest, try this festival. (You might see me there.)

• Janet Maslin at the New York Times states “Brad Gooch’s rapt, authoritative Flannery is the first major biography of a writer who died 44 years ago. Where is the flood of other biographical material about this mystical, ornery, ardently admired Southern writer?”

“It’s a wonderful children’s book,” she said about the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird by her fellow Southern loner Harper Lee. When she inquired about films by “this man Ingmar Bergman,” she came unusually close to identifying a kindred spirit steeped in spiritual rigor. “They too are apparently medieval,” she said, considering common ground between his works and her own.

Kent here: Maslin should’ve read Paul Elie’s The Life You Save May Be Your Own, which highlights O’Conner with three other Catholic writers who spanned the 20th Century. It’s a majestic read on writing, authors, and putting the spiritual on the page in a believable way.

The Power of Speech to Stir Men's Blood and a God, Like Jazz, Who Doesn't Resolve

I must proceed with an apology for my tardiness. I think my tardiness, perhaps, may be excusable because I'm recovering from a week of comprehensive exams, the last of which was on Saturday. I had to regain at least a little bit of my sanity before even attempting to write anything else for public perusal. You'd thank me. Believe me.


Character that I love from the first rank of literature and why
There are many authors from the so-called A-list that I like, but there is only one character from that list that I love. Truly. Madly. Deeply. Who is the recipient of the most passionate of my literary affections? Marc Antony from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

I don't mean to wax wordy and nostalgic, but it's hard to describe my love for Antony without doing so. I was first introduced to Julius Caesar in 9th grade. You'd think a spacy ingenue like I was would more easily fall for the presentation of the original star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. But no. I was enraptured by the rhetoric, the classic lines, the unfettered loyalty of Brutus to Rome, the cunning deception of Cassius, the aloof arrogance of Caesar, and above all, the rhetorical genius and linguistic bravura of Marc Antony.


I know that "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" has become both the stuff of legend and, consequently, of parody, but think for a minute exactly what it was that Marc Antony did. Brutus and Co. had just pulled off the most famous assassination in world history, and Brutus had convinced the plebians that it was for their good. Caesar was ambitious and threatened the integrity of Rome, he told them. But my boy Antony took the "ambitious" bit and turned it on its head. Text: Okay, Caesar was "ambitious," and Brutus and Co. are "honorable men." Subtext: How could Caesar be ambitious when he refused the crown three times and left you all of this stuff in his will, and how can the conspirators be honorable in snuffing out a noble life? Who's really "ambitious" here?

Antony took the plebians from being glad that Caesar was dead to weeping for his life in mourning. He took them from praising the conspirators for their deed to wanting to kill them for their deed. Antony claimed: "For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,/ Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech/ To stir men's blood." But that's exactly what he had. And his speech, though manipulative, is captivating in its ability to show the power of words. Mere words.


Author that I love who will never be in the first rank of literature and why
This one was easy for me. Don Miller. Hands down. Though he topped the bestseller list with Blue Like Jazz for weeks on end, he'll never be in the canon of the literature of Western Civilization. Ever. But I adore him. I dream of running into him during a layover at the airport.

At first, I resisted his literary advances. It was during the time that Blue Like Jazz was ubiquitous and I refused to buy into the hype. But years later, out of pure residual curiosity, I bit down on Blue Like Jazz and commenced to devour it. And everything else Don Miller has ever penned.


Not only is his conversational style charming, but his raw, aching honesty about living the Christian life hit deep chords of recognition within me. His laments that Christianity had become a series of checkboxes, his feelings of alienation, his yearning for community and acceptance, and his caution against tearing the poetic out of the spiritual all resonated with me. I'll leave you with the opening lines of the first book of his I'd ever read:

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside Bagdad Theatre in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for 15 minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened."

Yoinks! I (Almost) Did It Again!

Lateness
Inexcusable.

Favorite "A-List" Character/Author
This was super difficult! Crime and Punishment is what immediately came to mind, but I am torn between picking Dostoevsky as the author or Raskolnikov as the character! The character could not exist without the author and I do like Fyodor's other works (Brothers K being in a definite top 20)...still, I'm going with Raskolnikov, favorite character.

Possible Reasons Why
1. Raskolnikov's testimony (unresolved as it is) is the answer to all theodicy questions. Christian life is about owning the guilt we DO have and releasing the burdens we shouldn't carry. That is a more specific reiteration of a general theme I seem to be drawn to: the greatest punishment being when one is NOT held accountable (this used to make grace seem very wrong to me until I realized that grace is wrapped up in repentence and perpetuation of itself and in these ways is not purely a "get out of jail free" card).
2. I was never "required" to read this book. This isn't entirely what it may appear (many of my favorite books were read in school settings), but there is something to this. Maybe a level of ownership is involved?
3. Great name to say out loud. The same sound can connote dark depths of madness as well as tremedous freedom from fears.
4. The fact that I can love someone like Raskolnikov makes me want to love him all the more.

Favorite "non-A-list" author/character
This was a cinch! Easy! No problem! Favorite author: Gordon Korman and I'm talking about his classics here not this new Kidnapped series or whatever. Let's talk about Son of Interflux, My Semester in the Life of A Garbage Bag, Don't Care High, even the more recent, No More Dead Dogs.

Why?
1. His books are hysterical! Laugh out loud funny! Joy unspeakable!
2. Did I mention how funny I find these books?
3. Character development is fabulous! He always starts with the perfectly plausible except that one (or more) characters will have some kind of personality quirk (No More Dead Dogs features a protagonist who will not lie for any reason). The reactions and responses to this quirk will escalate into some grand scale comedy of unbelieveable proportions. I don't know how to describe it.
4. Read it and see!

Understanding Your Writing Process

Greetings fellow writers! Were you challenged by Ha Jin's advice for writers that Kent shared? I was. It brought to mind our ongoing discussion on the development of our craft. That is to say we are analyzing our own writing processes to see what we can tighten. It's one thing to write. It's another to study how you write and then use that information to become more effective.

Step 1 - Analysis

I have found that I write best in grocery stores. Funny? Yes. But true. The other day I wrote the first decent thing in months… at the Shop ‘N Save bread aisle.

I’m still not sure how it started. I was driving to the grocery store and from some untraceable train of random thoughts wound up at a particularly unique aspect of my upbringing. I was having a conversation with myself while trying to find the least-icy parking spot. During this challenge, one of the lines in my head really captured me: “Whoa. That would make a great opening line to a short story.”

And that’s how it started. I fished for an ink pen in my purse—I write best with the cheapest of cheap ballpoints (another part of my writing process)—and found a flat surface on the bread rack, right inside the first aisle of Shop ‘N Save. I can’t say everything poured out, but gradually I pieced together an opening first page to my story on the back of a fundraising letter I'd been working on. Not great, but after not having written anything in a long time, it was a breath of fresh air--to borrow from the cliche.

Studying Methodology
This is not the first time this has happened. I took a writing workshop class while in grad school. I honestly wouldn't have had the nerve to take a creative writing course (sounds so scary! What if I can't think of any ideas to write about?) but a friend wanted to take it badly and begged me to join her. It fit an elective, and the rest is history.

One huge assignment was to analyze our writing process and figure out where/when/how we wrote, what motivated us, and so on. For the first time, I had to keep a writing log. You're probably thinking what's the big deal? Isn't it just a journal? Not so. Instead of writing about a random topic, you write about your writing. Much like dieters keep a journal of the foods they eat and when, we had to log how much we wrote, when we did our writing, and what led us to our ideas, etc. And that's when I realized that if I have a big idea in mind I'm trying to process, it usually plays out when I'm wandering the aisles of a grocery store or Dollar Tree. I don't know why, but the point is I know that about myself and can use it to my advantage now.

Which leads to Step 2 - Putting Your Process to Work

In my case, I need to make more trips to the grocery store. When you discover what fertile fields best motivate and empower you to write, take advantage of it. While writing ultimately takes discipline, you also need to cater to what you know better motivates you to action.

Step 3 - Hold Yourself Accountable

So you understand your process, and you've vowed to put it to work. Now share it with someone else so they can ask you if you're doing it. I've confessed my grocery store adventures, so now when friends from the blog ask if I've been to the grocery store lately, that's my check-up on how diligently I've been writing.

Do the steps work? Well, I'm not there yet. But I know the path to follow. Shop 'N Save, here I come.

An Evening with Ha Jin: Writer as Immigrant

On Thursday, February 19, 2009, National Book Award-winner Ha Jin (Waiting) was in town, so I went to hear him speak. For a second-tier town, St. Louis has a strong rotation of literary and bestselling authors visit, with the excellent St. Louis County Library often providing shelter for these readings. There were 80ish people there, more Chinese than normal (not surprisingly), and the hard covers of his latest, A Free Life, sold out, while possible purchasers sneered at the paperbacks.

Jin immigrated to the United States from China and is a writing professor in Boston University’s well-regard creative writing program. Now in his 50s, his hair is graying, his accent is noticeable, but understandable, he laughs nervously throughout the evening, and, instead of pointing at questioners during the Q&A, he jabs the air toward their upraised hands. His topic of discussion was writing as an immigrant, which naturally led to many other thoughts on writing worth sharing.

Some Highlights

• The sooner an author can “hold a book in your mind,” the sooner it will be completed. It’s “basically a requirement. It really takes capacity to hold a novel in your mind.” Imagine doing that with War and Peace, he laughed. It’s this capacity that makes the novel a major art form.

• For A Free Life, he used European writing models as examples to follow, citing Anna Karenina, Fathers and Sons, and Madame Bovary. He didn’t use Chinese models because in China, “The poetry is stronger than (prose) literature.”

• He said there a small body of US novels helped, especially with the descriptions of landscapes (naming Willa Cather’s My Antonia, and O Pioneers! “When I arrived (in the U.S.), what struck me most was the American landscape,” he said, mentioning how people were feeding the ducks at a lake, not chasing them (to eat). Someone caught a big fish, and returned it to the water. Jin asked, “Can’t you eat it?” He added that he wrote to Chinese friends at home that, “Nature has been very generous to Americans,” while Chinese land is exhausted after generations of people using it.

• He also noted that early Asian-Americans didn’t write about landscape because they weren’t allowed to own land.

• He touched on other immigrant writers like Nabokov, who he said was discouraged by the great critic Edmund Wilson from punning. If I understood Jin correctly, he said this was because “jokes break rules” and foreigners are not allowed to do this. Natives can break the rules.

For Writers
• Writers should “find a body of great books to nourish you” as a “spiritual force.”

• The most talented don’t get published, the stubborn, persistent do.

• Among his favorite books are Anna Karenina, Chekov’s late stories, and Absalom! Absalom! Almost as an aside, he shared, Faulkner stands alone in modern literature. “Faulkner is a monument. You love him, but you can’t learn from him. You love him, but you can’t get close to him.”

• Writers must be in shape linguistically, which is why it’s so difficult to master two writing languages.

• All of his previous books were set in China, and he said, “I have to beware the English ear” so that English idioms and nuances are not portrayed by Chinese natives.

• Because it takes years to complete, you “can’t let (a novel) get cold. It’s like cooking.” Work on it every day, “even if it’s just 20 minutes.”

• He encourages young writers to write a book to become a movie because it often keeps them going.

Author Readings
I will go so far as to offend some of you by saying, if you are a writer, or want to be, and don’t attend local readings, you are not a writer. Readings give you intimate time with (often) world-class authors, usually for free. Where else are you going to get that type of experience? Plus, there’s so much to chew on afterwards, including writing tips, and—perhaps most importantly—it keeps your creative fire burning.

Most universities host them, chain superstores host them, libraries host them, cool indy bookstores host them. All you have to do is get in on their e-newsletter lists and you’re set. Don’t miss out on these great opportunities to improve your writing.