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Wed Reading Meme...
Jan. 28th, 2015 10:19 pm[I finally got my new ottoman/coffee table. It's dark brown - matches the file cabinet that is doubling as an end table at the moment. And is nicely cushioned, has lots of storage space and the cushions can be used as nifty trays. (ie, they are reversible.) But it's not quite as wide as I expected. So, I may look for a wider one and use this at the foot of my bed. Have not decided. Then again extra space is a good thing. Currently storing two book shelves worth of books and DVD's inside it. (All the Buffy and Angel, and Harry Potter DVDs.)]
1. What you just finished reading?
Eh, same thing as last time. Although I guess that The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler sort of count.
I've been reading them - for a V-Day production that I'm co-producing with three other women. Interesting play - it's basically a group of monologues, some ensemble, some not, with factual bit interspersed between them. The entire play is 90 minutes in length. And all of the monologues are either taken word by word from interviews with real women or interpretations of various interviews with these women. She's also updated the play, since she first compiled/wrote it - with a rather moving ensemble piece featuring transgender women - it's entitled "They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy".
The play is meant to be advocacy piece and the directors/producers are meant to act in part as activists for women's rights. So it's basically activism through performance art.
I should provide an example? Eh, warning, not work safe or kid safe.
( Not work safe or kid safe video )
2. What I'm currently reading?
The same one that I was last time. I'm 35% of the through. This is a dense book and I'm guessing more than 700 pages? Impossible to tell on the Kindle. Sort of wish I had it in hard copy, because it has a lot of nifty quotes and historical references.
The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle Over James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham
This book talks about a heck of a lot more than Ulysses and James Joyce, it also provides a snapshot of the literary writers and artists working at the time and how Ulysses and the battle to distribute and publish influenced their work, women's rights, censorship laws, and various other things.
Joyce has finally finished his novel. But, for any writer's out there? Joyce was still writing and revising it as it was being typset. And typsetting that book was a nightmare. He had five different typists. All women. And a couple want to throw their type-writers out the window while doing it. One woman's husband read what she was typing, and shredded the pages then burned them. Joyce frantically had to find his original copy which was with the publisher of The Little Review in the US. Joyce was living in Paris at the time.
Once it was typed - it was sent to the printer for type-setting. But the type-setter's didn't speak English ( I think they were French nuns, although it doesn't say, but I remember reading elsewhere that they were.). To make things worse, when the galleys were sent to Joyce - he'd revise them. No not just correct a few words here and there. He'd add paragraphs with little arrows. It got so bad that out of desperation, the type-setter would send him galleys with blank sections for him to write in. He was still writing his book.
Anyhow, Virgina Woolf - who forced herself to read it twice, mainly to figure out why her friend T.S. Eliot was raving about it being the best thing ever - ended up being influenced in spite of herself. She changed her writing style - and ended up writing a book in various points of view - Mrs. Dalloway. That's what Ulysses did. It changed how people wrote books. Joyce threw out the rule book regarding narrative style and language. He broke through barriers. He used words that no one used in novels - such as fuck, bollocks, shit, etc. Remember - that Dubliners got banned for the word "bloody". And he wrote a chapter without punctuation. He did away with quotation marks. He wrote in multiple points of view and changed point of view frequently - did not stick to one narrative voice. Today - this seems like nothing. But back then - it was a big deal. People wrote like Henry James back then. That was the style. James Joyce kicked that style in the proverbial teeth and wrote dirty.
The last chapter of the book is Penelope - which back then was considered the dirtiest piece of writing ever written. It was 1921. The chapter is told in first person by Molly Bloom as she sits on her chamber pot during her period. It's her thoughts, uncensored. Bawdy. And without punctuation.
So of course the US wanted to ban it. Getting Ulysses into NYC was a challenge. And they had to - since various subscribers and book sellers had spend 3,000 dollars on it. Ulysses was selling for upwards of $140 a copy. It was in high demand - mainly because of the hype and it was forbidden. Who do they decide to help them smuggle it into the US? Ernest Hemingway. Who is 22 years of age and just starting his writing career, Ezra Pound and Joyce as his mentors in Paris. He basically got drunk with Joyce and taught Pound how to box. Hemingway was highly influenced by Joyce - Dubliner's taught him to be subtle and less was more. Ulysses taught him to play with punctuation.
Reading about these literary giants doing everything possible to hoodwink the US Postal Service and government in order to distribute a book is hilarious. It also demonstrates that Ulysses was a team effort. It was not created and published by one person - but a community. Joyce had a lot of help.
What you are reading next?
No clue. I may take a break and read something lighter. Whatever the mood requires.
1. What you just finished reading?
Eh, same thing as last time. Although I guess that The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler sort of count.
I've been reading them - for a V-Day production that I'm co-producing with three other women. Interesting play - it's basically a group of monologues, some ensemble, some not, with factual bit interspersed between them. The entire play is 90 minutes in length. And all of the monologues are either taken word by word from interviews with real women or interpretations of various interviews with these women. She's also updated the play, since she first compiled/wrote it - with a rather moving ensemble piece featuring transgender women - it's entitled "They Beat the Girl Out of My Boy".
The play is meant to be advocacy piece and the directors/producers are meant to act in part as activists for women's rights. So it's basically activism through performance art.
I should provide an example? Eh, warning, not work safe or kid safe.
( Not work safe or kid safe video )
2. What I'm currently reading?
The same one that I was last time. I'm 35% of the through. This is a dense book and I'm guessing more than 700 pages? Impossible to tell on the Kindle. Sort of wish I had it in hard copy, because it has a lot of nifty quotes and historical references.
The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle Over James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham
This book talks about a heck of a lot more than Ulysses and James Joyce, it also provides a snapshot of the literary writers and artists working at the time and how Ulysses and the battle to distribute and publish influenced their work, women's rights, censorship laws, and various other things.
Joyce has finally finished his novel. But, for any writer's out there? Joyce was still writing and revising it as it was being typset. And typsetting that book was a nightmare. He had five different typists. All women. And a couple want to throw their type-writers out the window while doing it. One woman's husband read what she was typing, and shredded the pages then burned them. Joyce frantically had to find his original copy which was with the publisher of The Little Review in the US. Joyce was living in Paris at the time.
Once it was typed - it was sent to the printer for type-setting. But the type-setter's didn't speak English ( I think they were French nuns, although it doesn't say, but I remember reading elsewhere that they were.). To make things worse, when the galleys were sent to Joyce - he'd revise them. No not just correct a few words here and there. He'd add paragraphs with little arrows. It got so bad that out of desperation, the type-setter would send him galleys with blank sections for him to write in. He was still writing his book.
Anyhow, Virgina Woolf - who forced herself to read it twice, mainly to figure out why her friend T.S. Eliot was raving about it being the best thing ever - ended up being influenced in spite of herself. She changed her writing style - and ended up writing a book in various points of view - Mrs. Dalloway. That's what Ulysses did. It changed how people wrote books. Joyce threw out the rule book regarding narrative style and language. He broke through barriers. He used words that no one used in novels - such as fuck, bollocks, shit, etc. Remember - that Dubliners got banned for the word "bloody". And he wrote a chapter without punctuation. He did away with quotation marks. He wrote in multiple points of view and changed point of view frequently - did not stick to one narrative voice. Today - this seems like nothing. But back then - it was a big deal. People wrote like Henry James back then. That was the style. James Joyce kicked that style in the proverbial teeth and wrote dirty.
The last chapter of the book is Penelope - which back then was considered the dirtiest piece of writing ever written. It was 1921. The chapter is told in first person by Molly Bloom as she sits on her chamber pot during her period. It's her thoughts, uncensored. Bawdy. And without punctuation.
So of course the US wanted to ban it. Getting Ulysses into NYC was a challenge. And they had to - since various subscribers and book sellers had spend 3,000 dollars on it. Ulysses was selling for upwards of $140 a copy. It was in high demand - mainly because of the hype and it was forbidden. Who do they decide to help them smuggle it into the US? Ernest Hemingway. Who is 22 years of age and just starting his writing career, Ezra Pound and Joyce as his mentors in Paris. He basically got drunk with Joyce and taught Pound how to box. Hemingway was highly influenced by Joyce - Dubliner's taught him to be subtle and less was more. Ulysses taught him to play with punctuation.
Reading about these literary giants doing everything possible to hoodwink the US Postal Service and government in order to distribute a book is hilarious. It also demonstrates that Ulysses was a team effort. It was not created and published by one person - but a community. Joyce had a lot of help.
What you are reading next?
No clue. I may take a break and read something lighter. Whatever the mood requires.