Oh, Just $3,000,000

If you’re Yann Martel and you wrote Life of Pi, you can get a three million dollar book deal for your next novel.

Author Interviews: Junot Díaz, Robert Olen Butler

There’s an interview with Junot Díaz in Narrative.  Turns out it took him eleven years to write The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

In an unrelated note, read this excerpt from an old Powells interview with Robert Olen Butler:

Butler: I’m a bit of a heretic in this respect because I tell my writing students to cut back on their reading. Reading is a way out for them. It gives them the illusion of preparing themselves as writers when really they don’t have the courage yet to go into their own unconscious. Instead, they retreat into other people’s visions.

That’s the fundamental mistake almost every young writer makes, trying to write from ideas and influences instead of letting go and getting into that dreamspace. There’s a period in a writer’s life when you must stop reading as much. Except for my books. That’s always helpful, of course, to read my books!

Infinite Jest Update

As I mentioned earlier this summer, I’m participating in Infinite Summer, the sort of online reading group for David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.  I was beyond excited to see this project because I’ve attempted the 1079 page book multiple times without success.

To recap, the idea is to read the novel between late June and late September, averaging 75 pages a week.  I thought, no problem.  I wanted to finish early since I know I’ll have my hands full with this upcoming life change.  But now I’m somewhere around 150 pages behind their schedule.  I’m enjoying the book, but I tend to miss a day here and there and get behind.  Now it’s hard to read because I can’t find a comfortable position and propping up a large, heavy book only aggravates that.  I realize it’s not the worst thing to struggle to keep up with a reading schedule, but I wanted to read the blog updates that correspond with the pages and now I have to resist my temptation to check the website.

Miranda July: Film vs. Fiction

One of my favorite films is Me and You and Everyone We Know.  Naturally, when Miranda July’s collection of short stories came out a few years ago, I got my hands on a copy as soon as I could.  However, the stories in No One Belongs Here More Than You disappointed my expectations.  I suppose I could see how they could come from the same mind as the one who made the film, but somehow I did not like them yet loved the film.

When Me and You and Everyone We Know came out, I was in the middle of writing my honors thesis and I remember thinking that July had captured with that film almost exactly what I wanted to with my thesis (a collection of short stories).  It’s hard for me to describe where I was in life when the film came out and what it meant to me at the time.  So it was not just a regular disappointment when her fiction did not live up to my hope.  Then it was strange to see so many people praise the collection.  There are parts of it that I thought were interesting and maybe a story or two I liked, sort of, but not in any way that I could understand the literary world’s praise.

But now, in a blog post on Bookslut, Nina MacLaughlin ruminates on the collection and Madeleine L’Engle.  And finally someone else articulates what I couldn’t place, so I feel justified and understood, like, ah ha, I’m not the lone person who really wanted to like this collection but just did not.  I like the weird in Miranda July’s work, I like it when she pushes the edge of normal and comfortable, but I don’t like the line she crosses in her fiction.

The Curator and Synthesis

I have a new article up at The Curator today.  If you’re not familiar with this publication, let me say that it’s a fun one.  By that I mean that it brings together a lot of interesting topics that might not sit together on the bus, such as today’s articles on museums, banana split cake, and short stories.  It reminds me of a certain high school class where our papers had to synthesize material.  My favorite essays or other pieces of writing do just that–synthesize unlikely topics.

Lydia Peelle

Lydia Peelle, whose short story, “Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing,” appeared in One Story, published her first collection of short stories.  I’ve only read that story, but it ranks up in my top ten or 20 list of favorite short stories, so I’m sure the rest of the collection is fantastic.  You can read an interview with her on the One Story website (one of the many great things about One Story).

Cadences of Scripture

Read this lovely excerpt from Caroline Langston’s blog post over at Image:

What struck me then was something that I had forgotten in 13 years of being Orthodox, that the steady cadences of memorized Scripture could function, in a Protestant context, similarly to the mystical prayers in Orthodoxy (themselves drawn from Scripture). The reason that I had so wanted my son to attend was that I wanted him to be haunted by Scripture too, so that when he least expected it, the memorized verses could rise to his consciousness, indelible.

And perhaps startle him with their beauty.

I also find it interesting to catch even just the slightest glimpse of a life that crosses the denominational boundaries.  She’s Orthodox, her husband’s Catholic, and they took their son to a Methodist VBS.  I don’t think we can erase the reasons for divisions within Christianity, but it’s nice to see that there must be fundamental similarities, that when it comes down to the core beliefs, Christians on all ends of the spectrum can find unity.

Barefoot Running and Born to Run

It all started when I was about to wrap the book Born to Run to give to Ryan for his birthday.  I’d heard a lot about the book, but hadn’t read it myself, and all of a sudden I was nervous that I might be giving him something boring.  So I tested the first few pages.  The next thing I knew, I had to force myself to put it down because it was not a gift for me after all.  But after giving him the book, as much as I tried not to keep reading, I did, and finished it yesterday.

Born to Run is one of the most compelling running books I’ve ever read.  Christopher McDougall manages to wind several topics together in a cohesive narrative that’s simply fascinating.  I never thought I’d care to read about the Tarahumara of Mexico, but I did.  And the discussions of human evolution (whatever your beliefs), the skeleton, and the body’s development in general make science interesting.  I felt like the kid in me who loved science had returned.

Anyways, this book challenges a lot of my assumptions about running.  I had read about barefoot running in Runner’s World however many years back, thought it an interesting idea, but eventually dismissed it.  Now I don’t think I can ignore it.  Several months ago, Ryan found a DVD called Evolution Running, which details proper form, including landing on the forefoot and not the heel.  It sounds like a lot of the injury-free benefits of barefoot running come down to the way in which it forces the body into the correct form.

Yesterday I thought I’d test barefoot walking since I’ve reduced my running lately to a few minutes in the middle of my walks (imagine the looks on people’s faces if they saw someone with 36.5 weeks of an unborn baby out front and no shoes on below).  Big mistake.  The asphalt from our building to the mailbox (a seven minute walk) collects pebbles, rocks, and glass on its uneven surface.  Suffice it to say, my feet hurt a lot after that test.

Now I’m thinking about going to a park to run and walk on the grass for a few minutes at a time.  My running shoes have reached what I thought was their limit, but now I’m thinking they could work better than before.  I’d also love to get a pair of Vibram FiveFingers.  I figure the timing is great.  I can’t run that much for the next four weeks, and then I’ll have to take off probably four to six weeks, only to come back from scratch.  Why not gradually build in barefoot (or almost barefoot) running while I’m building up the miles?

I haven’t described the book that well, but I highly recommend reading it.  It’s about a lot more than barefoot running, but I also recommend learning more about that.  Here are some links to start:

• The RunColo website has an interview with Christopher McDougall, which is nice since I didn’t think much about the events when he was in town a few months ago.  Check out the book review and the product review of the Vibram FiveFingers while you’re there.
• Do running shoes cause injuries more than prevent them?
• An article (most of it was in the book) about ultra-marathoner Jenn Shelton
• A couple items from Runner’s World
• Go here and search “barefoot running”
• An article from today’s Denver Post

Eugenides Adaptations and the Coppolas

The Millions writes about an upcoming HBO series based on Jeffrey Eugendies’ Middlesex.  Oh, that makes me nervous.  I love, love, love Middlesex and would hate to see it ruined.  Although, I don’t have cable, let alone HBO, so maybe I’ll never know.

Thursday night I watched The Virgin Suicides for the first time.  I thought it was a decent adaptation of the book and it seemed to capture beauty in its own way.  Some novels feature technical aspects that can’t and shouldn’t translate on screen, so it’s nice to see a movie preserve what it can and take advantage of film’s techniques.

In this article about Sofia Coppola, there is a great description of what she does versus what her father does.  If you could apply either description to a book, story, or film, I’ll probably like it.

“Where her father’s great themes — the struggles of Man and Patriarchies in the Modern World — are vast and epic, Sofia’s themes, like the happenstance encounters and quiet epiphanies that can haunt the rest of your life, are more intimate, if no less profound. She doesn’t sweep across history or build to dramatic climaxes like her father but rather has her camera search out meaning in small details. She writes scripts that establish, sustain and then gently shift tone and atmosphere — not Tolstoy but Chekhov. Her films are sophisticated and plangently romantic, and the emotions she stirs up linger.”

June Books

I can’t believe June passed by so quickly.  I only finished two books and didn’t really make progress on the several that wait for me half-read.

Great with Child: Reflections on Faith, Fullness and Becoming a Mother – Debra Rienstra

I’m not sure I liked this book.  As a professor, Rienstra’s book is more scholarly than some, connecting her experiences to myths and stories from history, but not as seamless as it could be.  Her story doesn’t cast the most positive light on becoming a mother, though the title is misleading–the book chronicles her third pregnancy, not her first.  Her experience makes pregnancy and parenthood sound daunting, overwhelming, and unbearable.  But maybe some people can relate.  I hope for a better experience.

Girl with Curious Hair – David Foster Wallace

A fantastic collection.  I had read a few of the stories years ago, then started reading through the collection a few years ago, so I just finished the last half this year.  Some of my favorites include “My Appearance,” “Say Never,” and “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way.”  The latter might classify as a novella, though.  These stories remind me that a story can inspire, relate to life, provide new perspective, etc. and take an innovative shape.  Lately I’ve been torn between traditional and experimental stories.  The traditional ones don’t do much in the way of form though they do capture beauty.  But I’m left wondering a lot of times, why this story, what makes this one any different or better than the next.  And then the experimental ones show that they’re different but I don’t always enjoy them and they don’t resonate with me as much.  So this collection seems to bring the meaning and beauty of traditional stories to new forms.

I’m still not finished with 2666.  I lack the motivation to finish it, but there’s no way I’m going to read 700 pages and not finish the last 200.  And I’ve started (once again) Infinite Jest, but I’m behind in the reading schedule for Infinite Summer.  I’ve felt too panicked by all the work I need to do by the end of this month to concentrate much on reading.  I hope that will change.