Author: John Winkelman

IWSG, October 2022: The Best Characteristics of a Genre

John Winkelman

Grand Rapids skyline from the 10th floor of the county court building

September 2022 was one of the busiest months I can remember of the past several years. Weddings, work, Zyra’s business, and late summer chores, errands and spontaneous events have left little time for writing. Fortunately, most of the business and busy-ness is behind me now, so I can get back to planning my November project.

It’s the first Wednesday of October, which means that it’s time for the new Insecure Writer’s Support Group post. This month’s IWSG question is:

What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre?

This is an interesting question, as it forces me, for the sake of this article, to choose a favorite genre. And that is…complicated. Looking at my bookshelf, I have roughly equal numbers of fantasy, science fiction, poetry and literary fiction. In each category I have my favorite authors, and my favorite books, which were not necessarily written by my favorite authors.

The books I find most compelling are those which sit in between more established genres, which are sometimes labeled as “magic realism,” or “slipstream,” or “the New Weird.” If the sense is closer to science fiction these are sometimes labeled as “cyberpunk.”

So I guess my favorite genre is whatever you call it when everything seems like it should be the current world, but things are just a little…off. Or maybe a lot off, but the off-ness starts out small. “This, only more-so.” Reducto not quite all the way to absurdum. For instance, William Gibson‘s Pattern Recognition,  Michelle Tea‘s Black Wave, Rita Indiana‘s Tentacle, or The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols. A case could also be made for Neal Stephenson‘s Baroque Trilogy. My current favorite of these fictions is Kim Stanley Robinson‘s The Ministry for the Future, which at this point feels more like precognition than speculation.

What I like about this very loosely-defined genre is that it allows us to explore riffs on the real world without changing the fundamental nature of the world. It’s less “What if magic existed?” and more of “What if Aunt Maggie could do magic?” What if cryptocurrency was treated like a currency instead of like a commodity? What if laws were ACTUALLY enforced equally across all regions, races, classes and genders? What if California seceded? What if all of Christianity were reduced down to the Golden Rule? What if someone developed a gene therapy which reduced the amount of sleep necessary down to one hour in 24?

This approach to storytelling can also accommodate changes in scope or scale. For instance, what if the War of the Roses, instead of being transposed to Westeros, took place in an apartment building in Dayton, Ohio? Or what if a couple of spoiled, entitled toddlers were fighting over who got the best toys, except it was expanded to a global scope and titled “All conflicts in the world where monied interests profit off of the misery of the downtrodden?”

(See? The stories we tell about ourselves CAN influence the world around us!)

Stories which explore the ramifications and outcomes of these subtle tweaks to the existing reality can be important cultural touchstones, and useful for driving the collective imagination.

How about you-all? What are the best facets of your favorite genre?

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Bottom of the Top #40

John Winkelman

The end of September and the beginning of October bring an odd combination of the routine of being in the middle of a semester and a sense of rapid change, as the light hours are noticeably shorter every day, the shadows just a little longer when leaving and returning to the house.

1977: Judy Collins, “Send In the Clowns”

I don’t know if I heard this song when it was released or at any time thereafter. What I DO remember is playing this song in marching band, though I don’t remember if it was in high school or college. Some of those details, thirty years in the past, are somewhat blurry. Then again I could have played it when I was in the Albion Community Band, the first couple of summers out of high school. All I know is that I could probably, over three decades on, still pick out the trombone part.

1982: Rick Springfield, “I Get Excited”

I don’t have any particular memory of “I Get Excited,” probably because the guitar sounds so much like the guitar for “Jessie’s Girl” and the one is completely drowning out the other in my memory. Of the two, “Jessie’s Girl” is better.

1987: Belinda Carlisle, “Heaven is a Place On Earth”

Yeah, I heard Belinda Carlisle a lot back in my first year of college. Heavy rotation on MTV and the local pop music stations, though likely not so much from stereos and boom boxes, as the people I hung out with weren’t into pop quite this, well, pop-ey. So if this song being back any memories, those memories are of the smell of the lounge room of third-floor Copeland (men’s side) at GVSC.

1992: k.d. lang, “Constant Craving”

I heard this song a lot in the early nineties, both in the odd hours on MTV and in my car listening to WYCE, the alternative music station here in Grand Rapids. I certainly didn’t hear it while working at the restaurant, though I probably also heard it a lot when I started working at the bookstore the year after “Constant Craving” was released. When listening to it again I feel emotional echoes of the uncertainty of being done with college without any definite or defined plans for what my life would look like, going forward.

1997: Monica, “For You I Will”

I like “For You I Will,” but I have no specific memory of having heard it before putting this post together. It does have that particular mid-1990s vibe which means it sounds similar to numerous other songs in its loosely-defined genre, so it may have simply gotten lost in my memory of a quarter-century past. Also, I never saw Space Jam.

Hello October Again

John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of September 25, 2022

Well that September just flew by, didn’t it? It wasn’t a bad month, just busy and barely any time to sit and relax. All I can say is that it was a hell of a lot better than September 2021.

Three new books and journals have been added to the library in the past week.

First up is the October 2022 issue of Poetry, which arrived on Wednesday and I read on Thursday, because I had a chunk of quiet time.

Next is Cathy Park Hong‘s Minor Feelings, which I added to my list after coming across some of her poetry online. Upon returning home from Books and Mortar, we discovered that my partner Zyra had picked up a copy some months ago and it was sitting on a shelf in plain sight. At least now, as the joke goes, I can read it more than once.

On the right is The Search for the Genuine, the new collection of Jim Harrison‘s nonfiction writing. I doubt there is much in here that I have not already read at some point, but Harrison’s nonfiction is just a pleasurable a read as his fiction and poetry so this is a welcome addition to the collection.

In reading news, in addition to the above I am on the first issue of 2021 of The Paris Review, which means I have only half a dozen remaining in my stack. I might get one more issue. As stated before, I am going to focus on this journal until I am caught up to present, then move on to the next stack of back issues of something.

One of the consequences of reading so many short stories by such a wide variety of writers is that, inevitably, I discover people who have recently died. This happened back in July with Duncan Hannah, whose book Twentieth-Century Boy was excerpted in The Paris Review in 2017. Hannah died this past June, aged 69, which no longer seems very old to me.

This past Friday I cracked open issue #236 (Spring 2021) of The Paris Review. The first item therein is the brilliant short story “Maly, Maly, Maly” by Anthony Veasna So. So died in December 2020 at the age of 28, just before his first book Afterparties: Stories was released.

In writing news, I am planning out my NaNoWriMo project, so while I am taking a lot of notes, I am not writing anything at the moment with a coherent narrative. This will be the first time I have planned out a project in advance, beyond the most basic outline of the order of events. At the moment, I feel optimistic that I will actually finish the first draft before the end of the year.

September 2022 Reading List

John Winkelman

What I read in September 2022

Despite the craziness of my schedule, this was a pretty good month for reading. I passed 100 volumes read for the year, and 150 pieces of short prose. I have even managed to retain most of what I have read, which is a bonus.

Books and Journals

  1. Mario Levrero, Empty Words [2022.09.04]
  2. The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.06]
  3. The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.11]
  4. T L Greylock and Bryce O’Connor, Shadows of Ivory [2022.09.13]
  5. Sara M. Harvey, The Convent of the Pure [2022.09.16]
  6. The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.16]
  7. Sara M. Harvey, Labyrinth of the Dead [2022.09.16]
  8. Marguerite Duras (Kazim Ali, translator), Abahn Sabana David [2022.09.18]
  9. The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.21]
  10. The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  11. The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.29]
  12. Poetry #221.1, October 2022 [2022.09.29]

Short Prose

  1. Anuk Arudpragasam, “Last Rites”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.01]
  2. Diane Williams, “Garden Magic”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.02]
  3. Leigh Newman, “Howl Palace”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.02]
  4. William Styron, “From an Unfinished Novel”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.03]
  5. Olivia Clare, “Women and Men Made of Them”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.05]
  6. Matthew Baker, “Why Visit America”, The Paris Review #230 [2022.09.06]
  7. Emma Cline, “The Nanny”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.06]
  8. Willa C. Richards, “Failure to Thrive”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.07]
  9. Fernanda Melchor (Sophie Hughes, translator), “They Called Her the Witch”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.09]
  10. Kathryn Scanlan, “Yet You Turn to the Man”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.11]
  11. Taylor Koekkoek, “Dirtnap”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.11]
  12. Molly McCully Brown, “If You Are Permanently Lost”, The Paris Review #231 [2022.09.11]
  13. Clare Sestanovich, “By Design”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.12]
  14. Beth Nguyen, “Apparent”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.13]
  15. Jesse Ball, “Diary of a Country Mouse”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.13]
  16. Senaa Ahmad, “Let’s Play Dead”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.14]
  17. Rebecca Makkai, “A Story for Your Daughters, a Story for Your Sons”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.15]
  18. Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, “An Unspoken”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.15]
  19. Andrew Martin, “Childhood, Boyhood, Youth”, The Paris Review #232 [2022.09.16]
  20. Sarah Manguso, “Perfection”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.16]
  21. Emily Hunt Kivel, “The Juggler’s Wife”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.19]
  22. Ottessa Moshfegh, “I Was A Public Schooler”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.21]
  23. Jamel Brinkley, “Witness”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.21]
  24. Amy Silverberg, “The Duplex”, The Paris Review #233 [2022.09.21]
  25. Rabih Alameddine, “The July War”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.21]
  26. Shirley Hazzard, “An Unpublished Story”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.22]
  27. Shanteka Sigers, “A Way with Bea”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.22]
  28. Eloghosa Osunde, “Good Boy”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.24]
  29. Thomas McGuane, “Slant Six”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  30. Ayşegül Savaş, “Layover”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  31. Lydia Davis, “Six Stories”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  32. Patrick Barrett, “Saint Cuthbert’s Incorruptible Body”, The Paris Review #234 [2022.09.25]
  33. György Dragomán (Ottilie Mulzet, translator), “The Puppet Theater”, The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.26]
  34. Dantiel W. Moniz, “The Loss of Heaven”, The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.26]
  35. Melissa Febos, “The Mirror Test”, The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.26]
  36. Jack Livings, “River Crossing”, The Paris Review #235 [2022.09.29]
  37. Anthony Veasna So, “Maly, Maly, Maly”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.09.30]
  38. Mary Kuryla, “Hive”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.09.30]
  39. John Jeremiah Sullivan, “Uhtceare”, The Paris Revew #236 [2022.09.30]

Bottom of the Top #39

John Winkelman

At the start of Autumn, music transcends the boundaries of the senses and the right tune at the right time can taste like apple cider and smell like corn stalks and hay bales. And also the smell of brass instruments and dew on cold autumn mornings as we practiced our marching band routines.

1977: Linda Ronstadt, “Blue Bayou”

Oh my god, this song in her voice. I certainly heard it when it was first released, and regularly for many years thereafter. I probably haven’t heard it for at least a decade, and when I pulled it up in the process of writing this post, I was suddenly, immediately, in my aunt’s house on a small lake in West Michigan, hanging out with Dad and my brother, noodling around in a canoe and catching bluegills. I don’t think I will ever not love “Blue Bayou.”

1982: Willie Nelson, “Let It Be Me”

This is the third week in a row(!) that this song was #40 on the charts.

1987: Bruce Springsteen, “Brilliant Disguise”

Getting a handle on being away from home for an extended period for the first time in my life, trying to sort out who I actually was, and who I could be, as an adult in college and well away from the unpleasantness of the hometown. “Brilliant Disguise” played often on MTV and on the stereos around campus. It’s a good one and I am happy to have been reminded that it exists.

1992: Babyface Featuring Toni Braxton, “Give U My Heart”

This is a repeat from a few weeks back, so please enjoy this live version of “Give U My Heart!”

1997: Coolio featuring 40 Thevz, “C U When U Get There”

I think I heard this one, once upon a time. It would have to have been on MTV and possibly lightly sampled on commercials for Nothing to Lose. I’ve always liked Coolio, and this song is most excellent.

[2022.09.29 UPDATE: Artis Leon Ivey, known to his fans as Coolio, died Wednesday, September 28, in Los Angeles. Rest in power, Mr. Ivey.]

So This is What Fall Feels Like

John Winkelman

New books for the week of September 18, 2022

A few days ago, after weeks of teasing, the first autumnal weather arrived here in West Michigan, heralded by rain and an abrupt drop in humidity which made the inside of my head feel like as gray and chaotic as the skies outside. While there have been summers with hotter specific days, and periods of higher humidity, I don’t remember experiencing, subjectively, such a long-lasting, uncomfortably hot-and-sticky summer as was Summer 2022.

Then again, maybe I am just getting old. I love summer, but I am ready for fall to do its thing.

The only new reading material to arrive in the past week was the latest issue of Boston Review, subtitled “The Politics of Pleasure,” which I anticipate will be a great read.

In reading news, I am concentrating on my pile of Paris Review back issues until that pile is gone. Switching between genre fiction, heavy philosophy, and literary fiction in rapid succession was doing no favors to any of these books. So Paris Review it is until I get to the end. As of today I am near the end of the Fall 2020 issue (#234) and should reach the end in short order.

And in writing news, still not much to report though I have done considerable world-building in my head. I just haven’t yet put it to paper or pixel.

Bottom of the Top #38

John Winkelman

 

1977: Brick, “Dusic”

I’m pretty sure the first time I heard “Dusic” was while compiling this post. It’s, well, funky! And O, that sax. And O, that flute!

1982: Willie Nelson, “Let It Be Me”

This is a repeat from last week, so here is Willie singing “Let It Be Me” with Cheryl Crow.

1987: Go West, “Don’t Look Down – The Sequel”

1992: The Cure, “Friday I’m In Love”

I listened to “Friday I’m in Love” on heavy repeat during a 10-day road trip to Denver and environs in May of 1992, between my fifth and sixth years at GVSU. “Friday I’m in Love” will forever be associated with college.

1997: Mack 10, “Backyard Boogie”

Things Feel Back To Normal, But Are They?

John Winkelman

Newly arrived reading material for the week of September 11, 2022

I don’t know if it is because of collective delusion, or that schools are back in session, or that the zeitgeist is one of collective acceptance/resignation, or simply that I have had a few good nights of sleep this month, but the overall vibe in my life is that things seem to be returning to normal, or at least normalizing around whatever *gestures around at everything* is. Which is to say, at least temporarily, I seem to have found my groove.

Three new books and book-ish things arrived at the house over the past week.

First up is the new issue of The Paris Review, which is likely the last issue I will receive as I continue to let all of my current subscriptions lapse.

Next up are two books from Two Lines Press. The first is Visible, an anthology of poetry and prose in translation, accompanied by some beautiful photographs and artwork. The second is Days Come and Go, written by Cameroon author Hemley Boum and translated from the French by Nchanji Njamnsi.

In reading news, I finished Shadows of Ivory by T L Greylook and Bryce O’Connor. It was good! I gave it 4 stars on the usual sites, though I though it more worthy of 3.5 stars, but when in the middle, always round up. Now I can hold my head up when next I encounter one of the authors and request a signature.

Following up that 400+ page doorstopper of a book, I started and finished the 130-page-long The Convent of the Pure by Sara M. Harvey. I received this a while back as part of my subscription to the catalog of Apex Book Company. It was a light but fun fantasy read. In fact, I finished it in a little over a day of reading, and then read the entirety of its sequel The Labyrinth of the Dead in a single day.

Now I am reading Abahn Sabana David, written by Marguerite Duras, and translated from the French by Kazim Ali. I received this book several years ago as part of my since-lapsed subscription to Open Letter Books. Though only a few pages in already it reminds me of Waiting for Godot, which makes sense as the cover blurb specifically calls out Samuel Beckett.

And my pile of unread issues of The Paris Review is down to the single digits, which means, unless things go sideways over the next two months, I will definitely finish the stack before the end of the year.

In writing news, I have started worldbuilding for two stories I wrote a while back, each of which will work better as full-length books. Each is in its own world and therefore I have two folders created and two sets of characters, histories, maps, names, descriptions, etc.

Bottom of the Top #37

John Winkelman

Well into September now, typically adjusting to the abrupt change in location, schedule, and possibly job, depending on the year.

1977: The Alan Parsons Project, “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You”

Since I was in third grade in this week of 1977 I am pretty sure that, if I heard this song, it was while visiting someone with more modern tastes in music than my parents. Therefore the first time I heard it where it stuck would likely have been in high school when I was listening to a rock station. when listening to this one I feel a faint deja vu for cold weather and apple cider.

1982: Willie Nelson, “Let It Be Me”

I would certainly have heard “Let it Be Me” when was released, given the realities and culture of living in rural Michigan in the early 1980s. I’ve always liked Willie Nelson, and this tune is just beautiful.

1987: Michael Jackson, “Bad”

I remember seeing this video (long version here) on MTV in the public lounge of third-floor Copeland at GVSC. A lot. I also remember several football player types and some of the more redneck-ey students bristling at the idea of Michael Jackson flexing. Like, they felt threatened by MJ being bad. The reaction was amusing back then, and the memory is hilarious now. I really like “Bad” but I have heard the Weird Al Yankovic parody a whole lot more than I have heard the original.

1992: Celine Dion, “If You Asked Me To”

Ah, Celine Dion in the nineties. All over MTV back in the day, so undoubtedly that is where I first heard Dion’s version of “If You Asked Me To.”  I am much more familiar with Patti LaBelle‘s version from 1989, which was on the soundtrack of License to Kill. Of the two, I much prefer LaBelle’s version.

1997: Hanson, “Mmmbop”

Despite its overwhelming popularity at the time, I don’t think I heard it until years later, as during the late nineties I was listening to The Pogues and Tom Waits. Having now heard it, “Mmmbop” is light and fun and kind of forgettable. So maybe I did hear it when it was first released.

The Long Tail of Summer

John Winkelman

Praying Mantis on Rose Bush

The evenings in the past week have been much cooler, and therefore more conducive to sleeping. My schedule, however, has been exceptionally full, so while the quality of my sleeping hours has improved, the quantity has not. Thus I am in an odd limbo state where, because I am finally sleeping deeply for the first time in months, the transition from being asleep to being awake (usually precipitated by a small orange cat laying down on me and purring in my ear) is more jarring than it would be with the previous insomnia.

And also I continually feel slightly stoned.

Since no new reading material arrived in the past week, here is a photo of a praying mantis lurking in our back yard.

In reading news, I just started Shadows of Ivory by T.L. Greylock and Bryce O’Conner. I picked this one up just before ConFusion this year, in the hopes that I could get it signed by Greylock. Alas, she did not attend, but that gave me the chance to actually read the book before getting it signed, which is the polite way to go about it.

I am well on my way to finishing my stack of back issues of The Paris Review, having just opened the Spring 2020 issue. About ten more to go!

And in writing news, still not much going on. I only have so much space in my brain, and am currently operating at maximum capacity.