Category: Writing

  • New Tom Stoppard Bio, And Personal Reflections

    In a quest to look for things in the news that are not political, I saw today in the New York Times a review of a new biography on Tom Stoppard. The book is entitled “Tom Stoppard: A Life” by Hermione Lee, which feels rather blunt for a subject as witty as Stoppard. The review seemed to be lukewarm to the biography, but the article does illustrate that this book contains new insights into the subject, as this is the second biography on the famed playwright and screenwriter. I have a feeling a will read it.

    In college, Stoppard was a favorite of several professors, and his works were taught extensively. In fact, my department presented “The Real Thing” and I was lucky enough to take on the lead role of Henry. I spent a great amount of time going over Stoppard’s words, not only in that play, but many of his others. I remember many late nights, over beers with friends, debating what aspect of his plays were autobiographical, and what role does philosophy play as character motivation, or is it just used as a joke?

    When I was doing my research on Stoppard, I took a trip down to Austin to visit the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas. The Center is great because they will let you handle original papers and manuscripts for research purposes. There are a few hoops to jump through, but nothing detrimental to one’s ambition. (I still keep my Ransom Center card in my wallet.) I went to the reading room having requested the earliest draft the Center had of “The Real Thing,” and I was given a manila folder that contained a typed draft of the play. And there, on the first page of the draft, was coffee/tea ring stain on the paper. There was a thrill in me, knowing that I was holding the same paper that Stoppard put his mug down on. It wasn’t exactly bridging time, but it was a nice reminder that he wasn’t the “god” I was taught in school, but just a guy who is sloppy with a beverage.

  • Personal Review: “Casting Shadows” by Jhumpa Lahiri

    In a very strange twist, we had a relaxing weekend. I say this because there was a holiday, Valentine’s Day, which I completely forgot about. I thought of myself as the type of dutiful husband that never misses important dates, but I want to say that this was Covid’s fault. Either way, the wife was on top of it, made sure the kid and I had a good day. For me, that meant I got time on the couch to listen to music and read.

    I decided that I wanted to catch up on the latest issue of The New Yorker, which is the February 15th & 22nd issue. I particularly enjoyed the short story in the issue “Casting Shadows” by Jhumpa Lahiri. She might not like this comparison, but I found the narrator’s tone reminiscent of Rachel Cusk’s protagonist in The Outline Trilogy, if the protagonist talked more about herself, and wasn’t letting the other people she came in contact speak. Lahiri’s narrator in her short work observes the people and the city she lives in, through never mentioned it feels very much like Rome, which creates a melancholic optimism of the small encounters and how they slowly affect her.

    Personally, I have an issue with first person past tense narration in fiction, as it never feels realistic to me. First person past tense is clearly a reflection, and will always break in the narrator’s favor, thus it always has the potential of being untruthful. But with Lahiri’s narrator, I felt that she was a person who has come to enjoy her own honesty and truth. There was no judgement, but still an ethic she was holding too.

    It was a story that reminded me that good fiction can be very inspiring.  

  • Monetize This Blog!

    First of all, I have fun writing this blog. It’s a weekday writing exercise for me, and something that I can easily dedicate 30 minutes to. I have written before about why I do this, so I won’t go down that road again.

    But, this morning, I was reminded of a goal that I had set for myself; I wanted to earn enough money from writing to buy a new Mac Mini for the family to use as a hub computer. That would be about $800 to $1,000.

    Well, the update on that goal is, to be honest, I sort of forgot about it. At the same time, in six months, I have gained 100+ followers, and average 25 views/visitors a week. It took me 26 months to get 60 followers, and in that time, I averaged 2 views/visitors a week. That’s an improvement. Now, if the goal was to generate enough traffic to earn some money, those numbers just aren’t cutting it.

    I have read, and also follow, blogs that talk about how to improve traffic to earn money off your blog/writing. Most of them say pretty much the same thing, which is writing about something you are passionate about makes things easier. (Check! As I like to write about a lot of different subjects that excite me.) The next thing most of these blogs say is that you either need to be the “best” at what you blog about, or the “only” person who blogs about whatever it is you are writing about. (Check! As I am the only person who writes about me!) Then the third thing that most of the advice bloggers say is that you either need to write about a topic that is already popular/in-demand, or you need to convince people to care about your subject matter. (Ung… well… that’s the trick, isn’t it?) If you can’t answer point three, then they say to go back to step one, and start over.

    And they aren’t wrong. It’s business 101, to be honest.

    So… Do I start putting ads on my page? Expand my social media footprint? Move from the free page to the paid one? Do I want to make this a job?

  • Ghost Locations of Creativity

    Do you know who Donald Barthelme is?

    I had no idea who he was until 2003. That was the year I was directing “Six Degrees of Separation” as my senior project in college. There is a line towards the end of the play where the character Paul references Donald Barthelme’s obituary in the New York Times, saying;

    Paul: Did you see Donald Barthelme’s obituary? He said collage was the art form of the 20th century.

    As a dutiful director, I researched Donald Barthelme and his stories, all the while spending time thinking how Paul, who was running from the police, still took the time to read the obituary section of The Times, and contemplate art and collage, and how that affects the meaning of his life.

    A few years later, I read a review in The Times book section about a new biography on Donald Barthelme, titled “Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme.” The review intrigued me, so I went out and bought a copy of the book. Sadly, it sat on my shelf for about six years. I know this because, when I did pick the biography up, it was right after the birth of my daughter, and I would read it as I rocked her to sleep. I then went out and got a copy of “Sixty Stories,” to keep my envelopment in his work.

    I recommend the biography, clearly. There are many great insights, and Tracy Daugherty does a very good job of setting up the context of the world around Donald; the art world of the early 60’s, how The New Yorker treated their writers, and what The Village used to be like – overflowing with writers and eccentric people. The book, even gave Barthelme’s address off of 11th Street, which happened to be seven blocks from where I worked at the time. I took an extended lunch break from work one day, and walked down to Donald’s old block. It had only been about 25 years since his death, and the neighborhood was nothing like it used to be in his day, at least what I learned from his biography. I stood across the street looking at his old building that housed his apartment, feeling a little like the stalker of a ghost. I don’t know what I was expecting to feeling by being out front, but I was curious to see a place of creation; The location where stories I loved were first pounded out on a typewriter. Maybe it was a pilgrimage, but it felt like I was trying to say hello to a friend.

  • Creative Workout

    A long time ago, I read this profile on artist Chris Ofili in The New Yorker, way back in 2014. There is a lot of great stuff in it, but for some reason, I latched on to a paragraph where it describes how the artist does a sketch in 15 minutes every morning as a sort of warm up as he starts his day painting. That resonated with me, as I thought it showed an insight into how Ofili starts his process of being creative. It doesn’t just “happen” but has to be worked up to.

    I found it similar to a story I heard about John Steinbeck and his process. Somewhere between his second divorce and third marriage, when he was raising his two sons alone, he had a process of waking early, writing in his journal and composing letters, then getting his sons ready for school. Once the boys were off, he was ready to start working, until the boys came home.

    I have been thinking about these two artist lately, about their process, and how they “get started” each day. I have been trying to write a blog at the beginning of the day, or at least when the kid is in a remote class. I have even adopted doing a sketch, with the kid most days, to allow my head to think creatively, but in a different way. I sort of think of it as getting into shape; Training myself to think creatively. Since I cannot work on a project every day, I need to stretch creative muscles routinely.