Friday, June 09, 2006
Thus Concludes Saunders Week
Folks, I am so delighted about the way this week has gone, and I thank you heartily for participating. You have all helped me in my ongoing life mission to repopularize the short story, and I am so grateful. Please feel free to add more comments if you have them! I have to go bake cupcakes and clean my house for the party, which is on RAIN OR SHINE. We’ll just move it inside, if anyone’s wondering.
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7 comments:
what short stories are you reading next after Saunders - do you have some recommendations for us? I really loved "Mothers & Other Monsters" by Maureen McHugh last year...
Yeah, when are you going to do Book Club again?
You know what would be cool? If you picked Heavenly Glory or Hot to do. That would be interesting.
Thanks Betsy! I finally got to stay online long enough to read his interviews. He gave me the best laughs I've had all week! I'd like to finish with a quote from one that articulates why I read fiction and what I hope to achieve in my writing.
"Sometimes it seems like people talk about fiction as if its purpose were to document. But it's a transformative tool, really. The idea is that you go into this room called the short story and come out different. I don't really care what's in the room, as long as when you come out, you're 6% more aware, more happy to be alive, more appreciative, more curious, instead of closed down."
Folks: for sure there will be another book club, probably in August. We have some travels and such coming up precluding an exact time commitment. Dean: no can do on the Glory or the Hot. Too weird. But you can have at it!
Ellen - that quote is so good I am going to coopt it for my next workshop.
Late on the draw here in getting error messages while trying to log in to blogger. Thanks Betsy! Reading the forum has propelled me to revisit certain stories that I felt like I didn't get upon the initial read. And spent 6% less time in front of the tube.
Favorites: Jon and Bohemians. Nothing fancy; in Jon, I was rooting for him to ditch the sterile, consumer-programmed society for the woman he was in love with. And in doing so, his challenge was to lose his frame of reference of life (things or events that recalled a Dean Witter or a Lexus commercial) in favor of a clear and uncluttered perspective ("a paint chip is a paint chip").
Bohemians... I can't recall the characters' names, but I liked the tougher of the two older eastern European women, in her quote about the Catholic church being a vampire sucking the life blood from the impoverished (?), and in her compassion for the boy in the face of his shame over his bedwetting.
I Can Speak TM was funny, and I really liked the end of CommComm, spirits soaring into the "nothing-is-excluded"
i just finished 'glory.' yay!!!
and 'hot' is waiting for me at the library.
mmm cupcakes!
the word verification is oh aa sufi. (with no spaces.)
oh CRAP (underline underline underline) I took yesterday off to read IN PERSUASION NATION *deliberately avoiding this blog in the past few weeks so I wouldn't be reminded of my delinquency* and missed all the book-club fun. Of course, I also decided to allow the book to enter my life of its own accord, when it was ready to, which sometimes adds some weeks to my reading schedule.
Apologies!
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