February 28, 2003

susan orlean in los angeles

Yesterday I received an invitation for a cocktail party with Susan Orlean, whose book The Orchid Thief inspired the Spike Jonze movie Adaptation, nominated for multiple Academy Awards this year. The New Yorker magazine is doing it and they're inviting subscribers... So I call the RSVP line, and there's a nice message to leave your name and number, and when it goes to the machine, it answers with "Sorry, this mailbox is full." I tried a couple of times, and then gave up. Oh well.

Addendum: I tried again around 10:30 and got through. I think.

February 27, 2003

oprah's book club back

Thank the lit marketing gods! Oprah's book club will return.

plagiarism in online fic

Yesterday afternoon, Maud posted a very interesting article about a weird case of plagiarism. The basics: According to an article in the Daily Princetonian, Seth Shafer wrote a story that won the Fictionline contest in 2001. A year later, an eerily similar story was presented by Princeton student Ung Lee to a SUNY Stonybrook contest, and it won. The story was part of an entire collection, which was written under the tutelage of Joyce Carol Oates, and which went on to win many awards. Within minutes, the article was being discussed on Zoetrope. Today, MobyLives posted a link to the same article, and even has an interview with the author. I think everyone would like to hear Ung Lee's side, but he hasn't popped in anywhere on the lit sites. The evidence is pretty damning, however: Seth's story vs. Ung's story.

February 25, 2003

crossfire

Why, oh why did I even bother watching 5 minutes of Crossfire on CNN? The snippet I saw featured Dave Bossie, of Citizens United, a man who was urging Americans to boycott French and German products. He said it was because he wanted the French and the Germans to understand that they were the only thing that stood between the liberation of the Ai-raqi people and the dictatorship of Saddam. Hint to Mr. Bossie: If you're going to "liberate" them, at least pronounce their name right.
And Tucker Carlson was egging him on, though he admitted he had no idea what Le Coq Sportif was. Hint to Mr. Carlson: In order to boycott, you'd have to be a consumer.
Why, oh why?

writers on writing

Joyce Maynard describes how the writing process works for her. I don't usually link to these kinds of articles, because I'm of the opinion that there are as many "ways" as there are writers, but she's very articulate. So it makes for a good read.

stupid white men wins book award

Michael Moore's book Stupid White Men has just won the British Book Award for Book of the Year. This was the first time that the public was allowed to vote on the award. I suppose it goes to show what's on people'd minds right now.

Link via MobyLives.

sold out

It's looking more and more like the Kurds will be sold out in Bush's efforts to invade Iraq. In exchange for using Turkey's bases, Turkey is most likely going to have the right to occupy what has been essentially a self-governing area of Iraq for 10 years.
Nice going. Bush's "liberators" are paving the way for a colonial enterprise on the part of Turkey. Isn't it surreal that we are going to go to war with Iraq over its violations of UN resolutions, and in so doing, will ease the way for Turkey, which has violated even more resolutions than Iraq? (FYI, the top violators are, in order, Israel (31), Turkey (23), Morocco (18), all of them U.S. allies). And who knows how will such a move affect Kurds in other nations? (Besides Iraq and Turkey, there are Kurds in neighboring Iraq and Syria.)
Get the duct tape out.

February 24, 2003

no dogs, no French, no Germans allowed

A Danish pizza place owner has put up a sign barring French and German nationals (in addition to dogs) from entering his restaurant. C'est beau, la democratie, non?

it's my birthday

It's my birthday today. And as if to confirm the fact that I am indeed older, I didn't know half of the performers mentioned at the Grammys last night. Who the hell is 50 cent? BigTymer? Remy Shand?
And I drank chamomille tea.
And I went to bed at 10:30.
So there.

Addendum: Alex and I went to Chaya for a quiet dinner tonight (but thanks to Neil, Candy, Irene, Drew, Sage, Maria, Keaver, and Carl for a fantastic dinner on Saturday). Ate entirely too much. Ran into an old friend I haven't seen in almost a year.

February 20, 2003

nonsense in a patriotism suit

In a continuing assault on our language for the sake of the "war on terra," some restaurant owner in North Carolina has decided to re-name french fries. The new monicker? Why, freedom fries, of course. And if ya don't like it, you're not patriotic.

best interview ever

This is the best author interview I've seen in years. The Washington Post's Gene Weingarten talks to Robert Burrow, author of the novel "Great American Parade." Here is the opener:

"I am on the phone with Robert Burrows, author of the recently published political novel Great American Parade. This book has sold only 400 copies nationwide, and Burrows seems flabbergasted to be hearing from me. The most prestigious newspaper to have shown any interest so far is the Daily Student at Indiana University.
I tell Burrows that if he is willing to submit to an interview, I am willing to review his book at length in The Washington Post. The only catch, I said, is that I am going to say that it is, in my professional judgment, the worst novel ever published in the English language.
Silence.
"My review will reach 2 million people," I said.
"Okay," he said. "

Read on....

Link via Metafilter.

February 19, 2003

why poetry? why now?

Between the recent woes of Amiri Baraka and Tom Paulin, the White House cancellation of its February poetry event, and the resulting spate of anti-war poems, it does seem like poets are in the news a lot lately. Joshua Clover asks Why Poetry? Why now? in this Village Voice article. Clover's answer:
"We are now into the second year of a period when words are being policed with particular vigor, hemmed in by off-the-record advisories as much as by Patriot Acts and Total Information Awareness. But such measures can't help but suggest that words themselves matter, now more than ever. Poets have been saying that all along."

Link via Moby Lives.

Addendum: A review of the event "Poems Not Fit for the White House," by Kelefa Sanneh in today's New York Times.

arabamericana

Today's New York Times includes a piece on Arab American writers featuring, among the poets, the up and coming (Suheir Hammad) as well as the established (Naomi Shihab Nye). The article also mentions novels to look for this Spring by Diana Abu-Jaber and Laila Halaby. Oh, and it "outs" Arab American writers who don't directly address Arab American themes, like Mona Simpson. The future of labels is safe.

Thanks to Sami for the link.

February 18, 2003

snow lit

The East Coast blizzard prompted this piece in the Washington Post today, which looks at Snow Lit:
"Some of the most memorable works of fiction – from "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte to "The Shining" by Stephen King and "The Ice Storm" by Rick Moody – have been set against snowy backdrops. Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes of magical snow in his stories. Snow is important to Toni Morrison. Sigrid Undset's brooding sagas, set in shivery Norway, are strewn with sleighs and skis. So many of the Russian masterpieces are knee-deep in snow."
And so on. Fun to read while stuck indoors, for those of you on the East Coast.

harper's review

It's Tuesday and that means it's time for Harper's Weekly Review. Too many depressing items to quote (war, self-censorship, human rights abuses, etc.) but also lighter ones like: "The Thai government urged women to enlarge their breasts with exercises rather than plastic surgery; as part of a demonstration, dozens of women wearing shorts and T-shirts squeezed their breasts outside the health ministry in Bangkok."

February 17, 2003

say goodbye to salon.com

The end is near. Which is a shame. But then again, how does a content-provider rack up $81 million in debt?

rushdie in crosshairs again

I can't quite decide which piece of news is the most surreal: the fact that poor Salman Rushdie is again in the cross-hairs of the wacko Revolutionary Guards in Iran or the fact that Rushdie is reportedly wooing Sophie Dahl, the model/author who is also the granddaughter of Roald Dahl. And in an even more surreal way, the two stories connect in this quote, attributed to the children's author, that Rushdie "knew what he was doing and got what he was asking for."
Ay Carumba.

February 16, 2003

"the only bush I trust is mine"

That's what one girl wrote on her pink banner at yesterday's rally in Los Angeles.
Other signs included: Draft the Bush Twins, Stop the Bushit, How did Our Oil get under Their Soil, Saddam Hussein = Unelected dictator, Bush = Unelected dic, One Regime Change Deserves Another, etc.
The rally started at Hollywood and Vine and ended at the recruiting station on Sunset and La Brea. Pictures are available if you click on "More."

The Hollywood/Vine metro station.



This Bush effigy would later be at the very front of the rally. Notice the oil containers in his ears.



The march was supposed to start at 1, but didn't get going till about 1:30.



A few blocks down on Hollywood boulevard.



A cool sign.



This is Los Angeles after all, and a rally wouldn't be complete without something like this.



The Los Angeles Times said there were about 30,000 people. Judge for yourself (photo George Wilhelm).

February 14, 2003

it'll be over soon

Thank God it's the 14th already. That means only a few more hours before Valentine's Day is over and I don't have to sit through silly heart-shaped ads or hear any more about this forced celebration of (and concomitant gift-giving to) loved ones.

world press photo winner

This picture, by Los Angeles-based Eric Grigorian for Polaris Images, has just won the World Press 2002 award for picture of the year. It was taken on June 23 2002, after the earthquake in Iran that claimed the lives of 500 people. The boy is holding his father's trousers as he mourns over the freshly dug grave.

February 13, 2003

writer's block

Every once in a while, you hear about how a hot young writer has "writer's block" and can't produce another work. This time is Alex ("The Beach") Garland who's being scrutinized by critics. What's wrong with taking a break? Especially if you've got nothing to say, which he (bravely) admits?
Link via Literary Saloon.

meet the new Iraqi viceroy

Well, what else should he be called? The Christian Science Monitor has a piece on who will be ruling Iraq "after it's over."

doonesbury on our reps

Garry Trudeau breaks down the extremely nuanced and principled position of our representatives on the mess with Iraq. It's particularly relevant for Democrats, I think.

February 12, 2003

brontes quiz

This one's for you, Alex. How well do you know your Brontes? Which one wrote Jane Eyre and which one Wuthering Heights? Find out in this lit quiz from the Guardian.

My score? "Acute Brontitis: You're the classic case - from the outside, no one would suspect you of any intellectual ill-health. But you can suddenly be struck, without warning, with an absolute and wholly erroneous conviction that Charlotte Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights. She's the famous one, right? And that's the famous book, so it must have been her. Mustn't it?"

Heh.

it's raining

in Los Angeles. Such a nice change of pace. Great weather for staying indoors and getting work done.

emergency preparedness

Someone posted a message on one of the boards I read about how we're all supposed to be prepared for an attack, have water, duct tape to seal windows, etc. I'm not sure there's much we can do if there is indeed a biological or chemical attack, though. Remember the days when schoolchildren were taught to hide under their desks in case of an atomic bomb? Or are there precautions worth taking?

damp gun

Yesterday, Powell told the Senate Budget Committee that a transcript of a new Bin Laden taped to be released by Al-Jazeera would demonstrate the link betwen Al-Qaeda and Iraq and that this link could no longer be "looked away from or ignored." The State Department spokesperson, Richard Boucher, declared to Al-Jazeera that the tape showed that the Iraqi president and the terrorist leader are "bound by a common hatred."
So the message is: Saddam and Bin Laden are old chums, and, really, we ought to do something about it. Simple enough for you?
Except that's not the whole story. On the tape, Bin Laden calls Saddam and his Baath party "infidels," a term we all thought was reserved for us Americans. Bin Laden is no friend of Saddam.
But did this bit make it on the news? I watched a local broadcast, and all that was mentioned was the threat of suicide attacks, Saddam and Osama's alliance, etc.

February 10, 2003

poetry and politics

The spate of articles, op-eds and interviews from poets and writers about the war on Iraq sparks the usual discussion about whether artists have anything valuable to add to the political debate. See this Boston Globe article for example.
Funny, I never read such discussions when writers were being used for a book put out by Bush's administration to promote an "American view" of the world.

intelligence gathering vs. plagiarism

I guess Downing Street didn't get the memo about what constitutes "intelligence," or information gathered on the ground by reliable sources. The "smoking gun" dossier put forth by Tony Blair apparently contains large portions plagiarized (typos and all) directly from one Ibrahim Al-Marashi, a grad student in California who was publishing his own research in a scholarly journal. In addition, some of Al-Marashi's words were changed in a way that makes the "Iraqi threat" more clear and imminent. Read about it here. And read about Tony Blair's admission here.

February 07, 2003

if judges don't read, why should reviewers?

Shocking! A reviewer who may not have read the book she was supposed to review. On a more serious note, if even the NY Times reviewers get this sloppy, what does that say about the rest of them? Here's the review in question.
Links via Mobylives.

pass the valium, brother

Edward Sorel, the illustrator (see some of his wonderful drawings in the Atlantic Monthly) has one thing to say with regard to the impending war in Iraq:
"Vietnam was a clear case of us being not only in the wrong place but on the wrong side. It was much easier than this. Here one group of religious fanatics represented by George Bush and Mr. Ashcroft is pitted against religious fanatics even more despotic than they are. I find the whole thing very confusing. So I take my tranquilizer and go to funny movies."
More of artists' responses to the war on Iraq in this article from the New York Times.

February 06, 2003

buy books now

There is talk of a push to charge sales tax on online book sales. The time may have come to clear our your shopping cart and wish lists from Amazon.com. Feel free to help me with mine. My birthday’s coming up (honest, it is.)
Link via MobyLives.

powell speech

Colin Powell’s speech, which had been promised to be an “Adlai Stevenson moment” can be read here.
So is it a smoking gun? I’m not convinced.
Powell’s claim is that Iraq is hiding weapons, and he showed some pictures and presented intercepts. That's great material to give to the inspectors, who under the aegis of the UN, can go verify them on the ground. At the moment, Iraq does not seem to represent as much of a clear and present danger because if there are weapons and if they are hidden, they would be very tough to deploy. So what is the rush for a pre-emptive war? And if the Administration has known all this about Iraq, why didn’t it come forward with them before September of 2002 (a conveniently close moment to the mid-term elections) and, crucially, why hasn’t it alerted the inspectors about this intelligence so that they could verify the claims? The lack of hard evidence seems to indicate not cageyness but … lack of hard evidence.

February 05, 2003

world opinions

Take a look at what the rest of the world is saying about Iraq.
Link via Maud.

divine intervention

Saw this in Time magazine at the bookstore yesterday and it intrigued me:
"Heard any good Palestinian jokes lately? In TV news clips, the inhabitants of the occupied territories don't seem to be a laughing people. That's one reason Elia Suleiman's Divine Intervention is a cure for nagging ethnic generalities. This Palestinian sort-of-comedy has a sly wit that amuses and disturbs in equal, salubrious measure. From the Santa Claus who gets a cleaver in his chest to the Israeli cop who relies on a blindfolded Arab prisoner to give directions to a stranger, the film mixes the deadpan delight of Buster Keaton's classics with the elegant image framing of a Robert Bresson tragedy.
And here's the best joke. The film, which won the Jury and Critics' prizes at Cannes, is not eligible in the foreign-language Oscar category. The apparent reason? Each film has to be nominated by its home nation — and Palestine is not a nation. (Neither is Hong Kong, but that region does get to choose an Oscar candidate.)"
But there's more to life than Oscar. Read more about Elia Suleiman's movie: Ninja Babe in Jerusalem.

should the space shuttle program be stopped?

That's what Gregg Easterbrook argues in this Time Magazine article (link via adnan.) His position is that "unfortunately, the core problem that lay at the heart of the Challenger tragedy applies to the Columbia tragedy as well," namely the following engineering nightmares: the spacecraft used for the space shuttle is much too large for the way in which it is used; the design is therefore too risky for the flights taken (the design is three decades old); and, due to the spacecraft size, the flights are extremely expensive. Based on this, he suggests using astronauts only when absolutely necessary (which may not always be the case on the space shuttle.)
There are at least two problems with his (otherwise well-wrought) argument. One: the use of an international crew of astronauts is a major PR boost for NASA and, by extension, the US, so there's a huge political motivation to keep the flights coming. Two: there are powerful (i.e. lobbying) contractors who benefit from the continued used of the space shuttle, and it's unlikely that their clout is going to be ignored by folks on Capitol Hill. Read the article here.

February 04, 2003

harper's roundup

It's Tuesday, so it's time for Harper's weekly review.

controversial books

The always sharp and caustically funny A.L. Kennedy picks ten controversial books for you lucky readers to ponder:
"Taking offence at books is a centuries old tradition. This may concern a question of personal taste, political expediency, or a desire to guard the malleable from dreadful things that they might take to. Plato wanted Homer kept from immature readers, Caligula was keen to suppress The Odyssey in case the Greek style freedoms it suggested caught on. What follows is a list of books which trouble, which are awkward, and many of which have offended at some point - although, Lord knows, not one of them leaped into an unwilling reader's hand and forced them to study every line. My aim is not to offend but to illustrate that freedom of the imagination is something we sacrifice only at great risk and that sometimes we may be prepared to resist real evil by meeting its fictional self."
See her list here. And what would you have picked?

edward said's cambridge fellowship

The Guardian has an article about a proposed King's College honorary fellowship for Edward Said, which is polarizing opinions between his supporters and those critical of him due to his (well-known, and non-literary related) position on the government of Israel. I suppose they won't be conferring a fellowship on Noam Chomsky anytime soon!

February 03, 2003

plath pains

Sylvia Plath's daughter is none too thrilled with the new movie on her mum, produced by the BBC, with Gwyneth Paltrow in the role of the gifted yet suicidal poet. As a result, none of Sylvia Plath's poetry will actually be used in the film. I was mildly interested in the movie, but not anymore since, if the poetry is banned, the movie will inevitably focus on two things: Plath's relationship with Ted Hughes, and the suicide. In other words, Plath will get the same treatment that Frida Kahlo received in the Salma Hayek movie (more about her stormy relationship with Rivera than about her art.) And it sounds as though that's how the movie will be marketed: love affair between two great minds. Yawn.

the speculations begin

There is a report today that NASA removed some advisers who had warned on safety of space shuttles and that more money was needed. (It was long known that budgets had been tight for the last few years at NASA.) Given the disaster, any space shuttle flights will probably be postponed for a long while, but I wonder if NASA's budget needs will be addressed or sacrificed (again) for other expenses (like defense.)

February 02, 2003

shuttle columbia disaster

The Columbia disaster hit pretty close to home for me--in one of my previous incarnations, I worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a NASA contractor. It's very saddening. And it's also kind of upsetting when, in death, the astronauts don't get the same coverage or are not treated with equal respect. Stan has a little blurb about it.

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