Category: Literary Matters

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.

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.

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.

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.

IWSG, September 2022: The Worst Genre (for me to write in)

John Winkelman

So here we are at the end of the first week of September and my writing continues to be mostly journaling and the occasional edit of an old poem. Whereas in 2020 and 2021 I had time to write, but no energy, here in 2022 I have the energy, but no time. Al of the things we couldn’t do in the previous two years – all of the socializing, visiting, vacationing, partying, monstering, family events, etc., which were blocked by COVID restrictions and common sense, are no longer blocked by COVID restrictions. Every week there are more opportunities to meet with other human beings, face to face.

To sum up, this has been an exhausting summer.

On a lighter note, today is the first Wednesday of September, and that means it’s blog hop time! This month’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group question is:

What genre would be the worst one for you to tackle and why?

Short answer: Inspirational fiction.

Long answer:

Back in the 1990s I worked at a local independent bookstore. We had an excellent selection of books, though as with all brick-and-mortar stores, we had limited shelf space. Thus is was that philosophy, religious texts, and inspirational literature were all shelved in the same area of the store.

This being West Michigan, the inspirational literature, which was 100% Christian, took up more shelf space than religion and philosophy combined. And oh, the titles we carried. And oh, the customers who bought them.

What were the books like? Without going into too much egregious detail, Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind novels were among the best of them. While most weren’t as gleefully sadistic toward non-Christians as were LaHaye’s books, they were all tiresome, predictable, and not at all challenging to the reader. The very best of them (which, again, weren’t very good) invited the reader to a sort of self-reflection, as long as that self-reflection guided the reader to the Great Attractor of whichever sect of Christianity the author belonged. And invariably, more conservative, the better.

At the risk of looking like I am lumping every book in the genre of inspirational fiction into an undifferentiated mass, I agree that, for the purposes of this unapologetically subjective post, this is indeed the case. I allow that I am definitely not part of the target audience, so there may be nuances in the outer fringes of the genre which I have not encountered.

With that groundwork, what follows is the reason why I should not write in the Inspirational Literature genre.

I have had a running joke that for me, writing literary fiction is a doomed endeavor because at some point, despite my best efforts, Cthulhu shows up. When the Great Old Ones are concerned, the stories all end in madness, nihilism, and the inevitable destruction of the world and all the works of mankind. This opens the possibility that the books I might write would be mistaken for Christian-based inspirational literature, a la LaHaye. Just with, you know, the awakening of Cthulhu swapped in for the End Times/Second Coming. And at that point, really, what’s the difference?

However: Were I to write some inspirational fiction, and allowing for the inevitable drift in my writing into the cyclopean and squamous, I would keep the scope small and intimate, and focus specifically on people in the myriad out-groups who invariably bear the brunt of the decisions of those in the in-group. The world has never not been apocalyptic for one group or another, and the most inspirational stories are those which uplift the downtrodden without requiring them to either lick or don their oppressor’s boots.

(And yes, I know that not all inspirational literature involves the Apocalypse. Just the most popular works of the genre.)

(And lest ye comment that the Left Behind series is not “inspirational”, I invite you to take a good hard look at the messaging therein, and the target audience thereof.)

(Come to think of it, maybe LaHay’s books are more expirational than inspirational.)

Anyway, thanks for reading! This was a fun post.

 

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September Morn

John Winkelman

Poe, and E.D.E Bell's book Night Ivy

Woke up a couple of days ago and BAM! It was September. Downtown is full of students, and for the first time in over two years, Grand Rapids feels like a city. At least, as much as it ever did.

Only one new book arrived in the past week, the limited-edition hardcover Kickstarter version of E.D.E. Bell‘s Night Ivy.

In reading news, I am almost through 2019 in my back issues of The Paris Review, which means I am still on track to finish the lot of them by the end of November.

In writing news, the August Poetry and Pie event this past Tuesday provided a big boost of inspiration and I feel like I might be ready to tackle some writing projects again. This was the largest gathering we have had since I started attending back in March. And the sound system was not available, so we gathered in the back room of The Sparrows around a large table and just read poetry at each other. It was great, though brief. I could have happily stayed for another couple of hours.

The Long and the Short of August

John Winkelman

Pepper and the September 2022 issue of Poetry Magazine

Well here we are at the tail end of August, with every day obviously shorter than the previous. I didn’t read or write as much as I had hoped, but I did visit with my family and reconnect with some old(!) friends, so my head is more clear than it has been in some time. I guess I needed that breathing room.

The only new reading material to arrive in the past week was the September 2022 of Poetry, pictured above with Pepper.

In reading news, I am slowly working through Michael Marder’s Political Categories. It is quite good and informative, but also dense in a way that I have not read in a long time, and apparently those intellectual muscles are out of practice.

And of course I am still working my way through the stack of The Paris Review. I have caught up to the beginning of 2019, which means roughly three months until I reach parity with my subscription, at which point said subscription will probably end. So it goes.

Not much to report on the writing front. Doing a lot of journaling, in more detail than I have over the past couple of years, which is practice of a sort for more formal writing projects. I am slowly transcribing the poetry from April, and I just set up all of the daily writing files for NaNoWriMo 2022, which starts in (egads!) just over two months.

The Weight of Shorter Days

John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of August 14, 2021

Now that I am walking to work again I notice how the length of daylight changes from day to day. This is measured by how long my shadow stretches on the ground ahead of me – and it is always ahead of me, as I walk west to work in the morning, and east back home in the afternoon. Here, almost two months after midsummer, the days are noticeably shorter every week and 17:00 no longer feels like the middle of the afternoon. In another month the nights will be longer than the days, which in theory means more time for sitting around and reading, but since I no longer spend all of my free daylight time on the trails and at the beach, I don’t expect much of anything will change.

First up is Age of Antiquity, a d20 RPG supplement from a Kickstarter I backed in June of 2020. The printing and fulfillment process immediately fell afoul of the COVID-19 lockdowns and supply chain disruption, but the team persevered and finally, almost 18 months after the original fulfillment date, I have the book in my hands, and it is beautiful. This is also something of a relic of the beginning of the lockdown in 2020, when I thought I would have time to indulge in playing some RPGs, or at least reading manuals and designing adventures. That, of course, turned out to NOT be the case, but I do have several beautiful d20 rulebooks which I otherwise would never have considered.

Next is issue 18 of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, which was a pleasant surprise as I thought I had let my subscription lapse. Apparently there are still a couple more issues to go before I am done with this one.

In reading news, my Paris Review project continues apace. I am caught up to Winter 2019, and have about fifteen issues left, which should last me through November. Then on to something else. Maybe Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.

I am also slowly working my way through Michael Marder’s Political Categories. I am taking this one slow, as I want to be able to discuss the concepts therein with my reading group when we eventually meet. This is not to say that I don’t retain what I read generally, but this one in particular I am treating as a class assignment for a teacher with high expectations.

August Inertia

John Winkelman

Fake Eyelash Abandoned on the Blue Bridge

As I finish off this post, we are in the middle of the first cool, gloomy day in months. A little thunder, a little lightning, and some of the very few cool, comfortable nights of the summer.

It’s blissful. Comfortable and quiet.

Nothing new arrived at the house this week, so here is a photo of a fake eyelash someone lost on the Blue Bridge. I first saw it on Monday, and it was still there on Friday. I guess nobody wants to claim it.

In reading news, I just finished J.M. McDermott’s Maze, published by Apex Book Company and received here at the Library back in May 2021. And I am still working my way through my stack of The Paris Review, and still quite enjoying it.

I have just started reading Michael Marder‘s Political Categories: Thinking Beyond Concepts. It is too early to offer thoughts or opinions on the text, but it feels good to be reading philosophy, and I am very happy to be reading this book with a group of friends

In writing news, still not a lot to report. My brain is just tired.

Already August Again

John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of July 31, 2022

While objective time chugs along at a steady page, subjective time starts and stops and lurches and grinds like an old pizza joint animatronic playing freeform jazz.  The slow months and short days have become fast months and short days,  which is far from the summertime ideal of slow months and slow days. Thus the frantic scramble to complete everything ahead of the end-of-summer deadline, which for me hasn’t been a real deadline for about thirty years.

Several new books and such made their way into the library this past week.

First up is the Kickstarter edition of The Alchemy of Sorrow, an anthology of grief and hope edited by Sarah Chorn & Virginia McClain.

Next is an interesting one; Political Categories: Thinking Beyond Concepts by philosopher Michael Marder. I had not heard of Marder before a friend recommended a few of us from Back In The Day pick up this book and put together a discussion group as we read it.

On the top right is the new issue of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, published by Small Beer Press.

The bottom three are the new anthologies from the 2021 Kickstarter by Zombies Need Brains – Shattering the Giass Slipper, Noir, and Brave New Worlds. ZNB consistently turns out quality anthologies (I now have 12 of them!) so I look forward to diving into the books this autumn.

In reading news, I am about halfway through J.M. McDermott’s Maze, published by Apex Books. So far, I like it! The story is odd and disjointed in a way which I find appealing, and I am eager to discover how McDermott ties everything together.

In writing news, not much to report. I cam out of July even more tired and burned out that I was going in, and that’s saying something. I didn’t have any meaningful down time and every area of my life is beginning to seriously suffer from that state of being. And this is particular frustrating because Zombies Need Brains just announced the themes for their four(!) anthologies which will be published as part of their 2022 Kickstarter campaign, which launches next week.

I want to submit stories for these anthologies. In order to do that, I need to have the mental energy to do some writing.

And that is, right now, in short supply.