DOCSLIB.ORG

Alison Gibbons, Brian Mchale, Joe Bray

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Alison Gibbons, Brian Mchale, Joe Bray Dr Wojciech Drąg MA Seminar: The Experiment in Contemporary Literature and Culture in English The subject of the proposed seminar is a broadly defined artistic experiment – with particular emphasis on literature – covering the formal and thematic layer of the work. Analytical tools will be taken from genre methodologies, narratology, visuality studies, multimodality and linguistics. Although the seminar will focus on unconventional texts, participants will have the opportunity to pursue a broader spectrum of topics according to their own interests. Experimental literature is a very capacious category. The authors of The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature note that it includes both spontaneous improvisation and a rigorous adherence to self-imposed rules, accidental composition and a meticulously planned construction, digital as well as hand-made production. In each variety, experimental literature poses questions about what literature is, what it can be, and what its limits are. It looks for new possibilities while rejecting conventions, schemes and clichés. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, we can observe a rise of experimental literature both in the United States and Great Britain, as evidenced by the popularity of such authors as David Mitchell, Ali Smith, Jonathan Safran-Foer and Dave Eggers. In recent years, experimental literature seems to be leaving the niche of the avant-garde and to be moving towards the mainstream, as exemplified by the success of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, which was made into a high-budget film by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski siblings, and of Safran-Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, whose film adaptation starred Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Experimental literature is developing rapidly thanks to the achievements of modern technology, which are the foundations of various kinds of digital and interactive fiction. Seminars classes will focus on the following aspects of experimentation in literature and film, from which participants will be able to choose the topics of their Master's theses: 1. Microfictions/flash fiction David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Dave Eggers, Short Short Stories Dan Rhodes, Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories Robert Olen Butler, Severance / Intercourse Lydia Davis, “Double Negative” and “Index Entry” 2. Metafiction Donald Barthelme, “Sentence” John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse B.S. Johnson, Albert Angelo Wes Anderson, The Royal Tenenbaums 3. Multimodality William H. Gass, Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife Steve Tomasula, VAS: An Opera in Flatland Jonathan Safran-Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and “A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease” Leanne Shapton, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris: Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad 4. Graphic novel Alison Bechdel, Fun Home Richard McGuire, Here Dave McKean, Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash 5. Collage Graham Rawle, Woman’s World Lance Olsen, Head in Flames Maggie Nelson, Bluets Christian Marclay, Telephones and The Clock György Pálfi, Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen 6. Altered fictions and poetry Ronald Johnson, Radi Os Jonathan Safran-Foer, The Tree of Codes Tom Phillips, Humument Jen Bervin, Nets 7. Conceptual writing Kenneth Goldsmith, Soliloquy and The Weather Angela Genusa, Spam Bibliography Sally Alatalo, Unforeseen Alliances Joseph Kosuth, Purloined: A Novel Robert Fitterman, “Metropolis 16” Emma Kay, Worldview Trisha Law, “Confessions” Brian Joseph Davis, “Three Laws of Ethan Hawke” Ara Shirinyan, Your Country Is Great 8. Constrained writing Walter Abish, Alphabetical Africa Paul Griffiths, Let Me Tell You 9. Fragmentary texts David Markson, Reader’s Block Will Eaves, The Absent Therapist Jenny Offill, The Dept. of Speculation Padgett Powell, The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? 10. Generic hybridity Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot Cloud Atlas by Andy and Lana Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer 11. Experimental life writing Joe Brainard, I Remember Rick Moody, “Primary Sources” Tan Lin, BIB Dana Teen Lomax, Disclosure Alexandra Nemerov, “First My Motorola” 12. Unconventional narration Julian Barnes, “The Stowaway” (from A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters) Lorrie Moore, “How” Dave Eggers, “You Know How to Spell Elijah” Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body Rick Moody, “The Grid” Christopher Nolan, Memento 13. Experiments with time Robert Coover, “The Babysitter” Martin Amis, Time’s Arrow Richard Linklater, Before Sunrise trilogy and Boyhood 14. Interactive literature BS Johnson, The Unfortunates Robert Coover, “Heart Suit” Chris Ware, Building Stories Ali Smith, How to Be Both 15. Digital literature Sam Barlow, Aisle Nick Montfort, World Clock and “Flow my tears” Reif Larsen, Entrances & Exits David Clark, 88 Constellations for Wittgenstein 16. Autofiction Sheila Heti, How Should a Person Be Rachel Cusk, Outline 17. Literary hoaxes J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst, S. William Boyd, Nat Tate dr Wojciech Drąg Seminarium magisterskie: Eksperyment we współczesnej literaturze i kulturze w języku angielskim Przedmiotem proponowanego seminarium jest szeroko pojęty eksperyment artystyczny – ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem literatury – obejmujący warstwę formalną oraz tematyczną utworu. Narzędzia analityczne zostaną zaczerpnięte z metodologii gatunkowych, narratologii, badań nad wizualnością, multimodalnością oraz koncepcji językoznawczych. Choć seminarium koncentrować będzie się na niekonwencjonalnych tekstach kultury, uczestnicy będą mieli możliwość realizowania szerszego spektrum tematów wedle własnych zainteresowań. Literatura eksperymentalna to kategoria bardzo pojemna. Autorzy Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature zauważają, że obejmuje ona zarówno niczym nieskrępowaną improwizację jak również rygorystyczne przestrzeganie narzuconych sobie zasad, kompozycję przypadkową i zaplanowaną do ostatniego szczegółu, produkcję cyfrową i własnoręczną. W każdej odsłonie literatura eksperymentalna szuka odpowiedzi na pytania, czym jest literatura, czym może być, oraz jakie są jej granice. Szuka nowych dróg, odrzucając konwencje, schematy i klisze. W pierwszych dwóch dekadach XXI w. zaobserwować można wzrost zainteresowania literaturą eksperymentalną zarówno w Stanach Zjednoczonych jak i Wielkiej Brytanii, czego dowodem jest popularność takich autorów jak David Mitchell, Ali Smith, Jonathan Safran-Foer i Dave Eggers. W ostatnich latach literatura eksperymentalna wydaje się opuszczać niszę awangardy i przedzierać się do głównego nurtu, o czym świadczy chociażby sukces Atlasu Chmur Mitchella, który zekranizowany został przy pomocy gigantycznego budżetu przez Toma Tykwera i rodzeństwo Wachowskich, a także Strasznie głośno, niesamowicie blisko Safrana-Foera, które również doczekało się wysokobudżetowej i nominowanej do Oscarów ekranizacji. Literatura eksperymentalna rozwija się dziś bardzo prężnie, korzystając ze zdobyczy nowoczesnej technologii, czego najlepszym przykładem są teksty cyfrowe, interaktywne, multimodalne, a także teksty publikowane za pomocą mediów społecznościowych (m.in. Twitter fiction). Zajęcia seminaryjne i specjalistyczne będą się koncentrować na następujących aspektach eksperymentu w literaturze i filmie, w obrębie których seminarzyści będą mogli dokonać wyboru tematów prac magisterskich: 1. Mikroopowiadania David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Dave Eggers, Short Short Stories Dan Rhodes, Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories Robert Olen Butler, Severance / Intercourse Lydia Davis, “Double Negative” and “Index Entry” 2. Metafikcja Donald Barthelme, “Sentence” John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse B.S. Johnson, Albert Angelo Wes Anderson, The Royal Tenenbaums 3. Multimodalność William H. Gass, Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife Steve Tomasula, VAS: An Opera in Flatland Jonathan Safran-Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and “A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease” Leanne Shapton, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris: Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad 4. Powieść graficzna Alison Bechdel, Fun Home Richard McGuire, Here Dave McKean, Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash 5. Kolaż Graham Rawle, Woman’s World Lance Olsen, Head in Flames Maggie Nelson, Bluets Christian Marclay, Telephones and The Clock György Pálfi, Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen 6. Teksty przetworzone Ronald Johnson, Radi Os Jonathan Safran-Foer, The Tree of Codes Tom Phillips, Humument Jen Bervin, Nets 7. Pisarstwo konceptualne Kenneth Goldsmith, Soliloquy and The Weather Angela Genusa, Spam Bibliography Sally Alatalo, Unforeseen Alliances Joseph Kosuth, Purloined: A Novel Robert Fitterman, “Metropolis 16” Emma Kay, Worldview Trisha Law, “Confessions” Brian Joseph Davis, “Three Laws of Ethan Hawke” Ara Shirinyan, Your Country Is Great 8. Proceduralizm Walter Abish, Alphabetical Africa Paul Griffiths, Let Me Tell You 9. Literatura fragmentaryczna David Markson, Reader’s Block Will Eaves, The Absent Therapist Jenny Offill, The Dept. of Speculation Padgett Powell, The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? 10. Hybrydyczność gatunkowa Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot Cloud Atlas by Andy and Lana Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer 11. Eksperymentalne życiopisanie Joe Brainard, I Remember Rick Moody, “Primary Sources” Tan Lin, BIB Dana Teen Lomax, Disclosure Alexandra Nemerov, “First My Motorola” 12. Niekonwencjonalne narracje Julian Barnes, “The Stowaway” (from
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Study on Jennifer Egan's Twitter Fiction Black
    Journal of Literature and Art Studies, October 2015, Vol. 5, No. 10, 820-829 doi: 10.17265/2159-5836/2015.10.002 D DAVID PUBLISHING Exploring Image Culture Through Narrative: A Study on Jennifer Egan’s Twitter Fiction Black Box NIE Bao-yu Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China Notable for the completeness with which it surrenders formally and artistically to the textual dictates of Twitter, Jennifer Egan’s 2012 short science fiction Black Box is one of the most triumphant and fully-fledged fictions written in the form of new media. This paper explores the Twitter narrative employed in Black Box, pointing out that the serialized tweeting format of the story released via computer, mobile phone, or other electronic equipments brings readers immediate reading experience, allowing readers to sense the same feelings as the protagonist does. Through the experimental serialization of “Twitter” narrative, Egan expresses her concerns and worries about the security of the American security as well as the whole world in the post-“9·11” period and at the same time she embraces the virtues and pleasures of traditional storytelling delivered through a wholly new digital format. This paper concludes that Black Box is perhaps one of the boldest experiments of narrative form and is direct exploration into the contemporary image culture. Keywords: Jennifer Egan, Black Box, Twitter narrative, image culture Introduction Jennifer Egan (1963- ), winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, is a contemporary American fiction writer with popular appeal and a novelist of ideas noted for the elegance of her style. Egan is the author of The Invisible Circus (1995); Emerald City and Other Stories (1997); Look at Me, a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction in 2001; The Keep (2006), a national bestseller after its publication; and A Visit From the Goon Squad (2010), the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Tour Diary: the Diviners, North America, 2005 by Rick Moody From
    Tour Diary: The Diviners, North America, 2005 by Rick Moody from Post Road 12 Selected by Elizabeth Searle, author of Celebrities in Disgrace, A Four-Sided Bed, and My Body to You. The Diviners, North America, 2005 is divine guilty pleasure: dark bitter chocolate I couldn't stop eating; a warpy funhouse mirror I couldn't stop staring into. Rick Moody's tour diary is (the 'three r's', each related to the other) relentless, rambling, real. It is (three 'h's too) harrowingly hilariously honest. It is LOL and damn depressing at once, like life. Picking it for this anthology makes me feel self-conscious and guilty in a Moody-esque manner-- which I mention as a high compliment, writing-wise. Rick Moody is a writer who gets into your head so his witty 'whiny' italicized and quotation-marked voice is your own inner voice after reading. Maybe/probably it was before, as well. An innate kindness and modesty shines through in all Rick Moody's works, even a seemingly casually composed 'diary,' meant perhaps as a letter to himself but speaking to the many selves out there who've ever tried to write and/or to engage in any ambitious/artistic/all- 1 out activity requiring one to be (in the words of, of all people, Angelina Jolie, but Rick would be OK with that) 'crazy-brave.' – ES. August 30, 2005 Rainy on Fishers Island, and even though it’s not the remnants of Katrina, it has that apocalyptic feeling to it. I bet we got two inches of rain last night.
    [Show full text]
  • A Conversation with Former FBI Director Mueller '62 Stockman Sisters Build Business and Community in India Rick Moody '
    Alumni Horae ST. PAUL’S SCHOOL SPRING 2015 A conversation with former FBI Director Mueller ’62 Stockman sisters build business and community in India Rick Moody ’79 on being censored Students in Darik Vélez’s Computer Programming: Dataset Creation for St. Paul’s School for the Science on a Sphere class look at a real-time dataset from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, depicting earthquake activity around the world over the last month. Their observations included focusing on the data from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25. St. Paul’s is one of only two high schools in the country with a Science on a Sphere, an animated globe that projects planetary data onto a six-foot-diameter space to help illustrate Earth system science to people of all ages. Photo by Karen Bobotas RECTOR A Deeper Kind of Learning It is a Wednesday with students anywhere in the race to the best afternoon and the colleges, whatever “the best” might mean to any PETER FINGER Schoolhouse is student in a given year. empty. Most of our But our calling as an Episcopal, fully residential students have piled school is for a deeper learning. In the introduction onto busses for away to his recent book, The Road to Character, David athletic contests, or Brooks draws a distinction between “résumé are donning home virtues” and “eulogy virtues.” He defines the red. Through the former as “the skills you bring to the job market open window comes and that contribute to external success.” By con- the hornet-like drone of what sounds like a fleet trast, Brooks describes “eulogy virtues” as those of lawnmowers cutting the grass between the “that get talked about at your funeral, the ones Chapel and the Schoolhouse.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to Publicity and Promotion, Which Includes Ten Articles Packed with Insider Tips and Informa- Tion to Help You Effectively Gain Attention for Tyour Work
    ABCThe Guide to Publicity Promotionand he essential guide from the authoritative source on everything you need to know about promot- ing your work, including a guide to the publicity business, how to capture the attention of literary Tjournalists, a look at websites and social media for authors, video and audio marketing, how to give readings that work, and more. The Only Low-Residency MFA IN FLORIDA Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry A low-residency program designed to deepen your understanding of writing as an ongoing engagement with discovery and transformation. Request more information at www.ut.edu/mfa or call (813) 258-7409. PAST AND PRESENT GUEST WRITERS AND EDITORS INCLUDE: Richard Bausch, Michael Connelly, Arthur Flowers, Nick Flynn, Roxane Gay, Hal Hartley, Amy Hill Hearth, Eli Horowitz, Denis Johnson, Miranda July, Ben Lerner, Susan Minot, Rick Moody, Francine Prose, Karen Russell, George Saunders, Heather Sellers, Wesley Stace, Deborah Treisman TEACHING FACULTY INCLUDE: Jessica Anthony, Sandra Beasley, John Capouya, Brock Clarke, Erica Dawson, Tony D’Souza, Mikhail Iossel, Stefan Kiesbye, Kevin Moffett, Donald Morrill, Josip Novakovich, Jason Ockert, Alan Michael Parker, Jeff Parker, Corinna Vallianatos, Jennifer Vanderbes The Only Low-Residency MFA IN FLORIDA Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry ABC HANK YOU FOR YOUR ORDER. We hope you enjoy The Poets & Writers Guide to Publicity and Promotion, which includes ten articles packed with insider tips and informa- tion to help you effectively gain attention for Tyour work. Please note that all the information contained in this docu- ment is copyrighted and is intended for your individual use only. Distributing this information, partially or in its entirety, in any way—including e-mailing it, posting it online, or photocopying it—is infringing on the copyright of Poets & Writers, Inc., and the authors of the articles.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Rick Moody for the New Yorker Magazine's 1999 Annual Double
    Rick Moody For the New Yorker magazine’s 1999 annual double fiction summer issue, fiction editor Bill Buford introduced a section called “Fiction Under 40: The Future of American Fiction”, in which the New Yorker fiction staff selected 20 writers under -- or as it turned out, not above – 40 years of age who constituted “the future of American fiction”. The list was eminent, and, I think, prescient, one hell of a list of authors, almost (but not quite) any one of whom I’d be thrilled to have here tonight, -- and, as it happens, we do have one, Rick Moody…. and I am thrilled. Let me point out one extraordinary thing about that list: Of the twenty authors listed, three of them (15%), Donald Antrim, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Moody, went to the same college, Brown University, at the same time; there these three amigos studied with an older trio of cutting-edge fiction writers -- Angela Carter, John Hawkes, and Robert Coover -- and, by the time of the 1999 award, some 18 years after graduation, each had demonstrated extraordinary writing chops and significant publishing successes. Of this Brown trio, it might have seemed at that time that Antrim and Eugenides, both brilliant writers, were the more adventurous with language, while Moody, particularly in the aftermath of his elegant and poignant second novel, Ice Storm, set in small town Connecticut (and propelled into real fame by Ang Lee’s movie of the same name), might settle for being the new generation’s master novelist of the suburbs, appropriating Cheever and Updike’s turf, though with a much more biting, satirical, and witty take.
    [Show full text]
  • Production Notes
    An Ang Lee Film A Focus Features Release PRODUCTION NOTES International Press Contacts: In Cannes Sarah Wilby Creative Publicity (44) 207 580 0222 London Office (33) 06 24 34 73 08 Sarah Wilby in Cannes (33) 06 10 91 43 31 Suhan Razzaque in Cannes [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected] ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Remember Woodstock? Well, if you do, as the saying SYNOPSIS goes, then – you probably weren’t there. While Woodstock itself is a great subject, it’s one not readily able to be captured in a film – and, furthermore, Taking Woodstock is the new film from Academy Award- it’s been done definitively; Michael Wadleigh’s three-hour winning director Ang Lee – and it’s a trip! 1970 documentary feature Woodstock won an Academy Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Award. Taking Woodstock producer James Schamus, Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in who adapted the film’s script from Taking Woodstock: making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, A True Story of a Riot, A Concert, and A Life, written by and songs from a score of ‘60s musical icons including The Elliot Tiber with Tom Monte, explains, “What we’re do- Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe ing is telling a tiny piece of that story, from a little corner and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie of unexpected joy that happened almost by accident and Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment which helped this incredible event take place.” in time when everything seemed possible.
    [Show full text]
  • The Writer's Chronicle
    February 2005 • The Writer’s Chronicle • 21 An Interview with Helen Epstein by Amy Yelin elen Epstein, a former journalist and writer of literary nonfiction, is best known for her groundbreaking work Children of the Holocaust, published in 1979. In 1998, Hshe published Where She Came From: A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History, a family memoir and social history of 200 years of Czech Jewish life which was also a New York Times Book Review Notable Book. She started her memoir while a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Minda de Gunzburg Center of European Studies in 1982. She is also the author of Music Talks (1987) and Joe Papp: An American Life (1994). She received her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, has worked as a freelance cultural reporter for the Sunday New York Times and other national publications, and was the first tenured woman professor in New York University’s Department of Journalism. Today, she is affiliated with Harvard Helen Epstein University’s Center for European Studies, and she teaches in Western Michigan University’s MFA writing foreshadowing your desire to write memoir? To give program in Prague. thinking about doing something with music, but had these invisible characters a voice? discovered that I wasn’t a brilliant musician. Then, in Amy Yelin: In Children of the Holocaust, you write, “I Helen Epstein: Probably, although I didn’t recognize 1968, I happened to be trapped in the Russian invasion would wander off into the woods by myself, moody, it at the time. In high school, my teachers discouraged of Czechoslovakia.
    [Show full text]
  • The National Book Critics Circle Campaign to Save Book Reviewing, 2007
    The National Book Critics Circle Campaign to Save Book Reviewing, 2007 The National Book Critics Circle 2007 “Campaign to Save Book Reviewing,” launched April 23, 2007 as an initiative at the NBCC March 2007 board meeting, included more than 100 original blog posts from authors, critics, librarians, booksellers, passionate readers. The posts on Critical Mass over the first five weeks of the campaign offer a snapshot of American literary culture circa spring 2007, which was evolving faster than many readers, authors and book critics could absorb. Solicited from authors, editors, journalists, book critics and others involved with books and literature, the posts offered a diverse and wide‐ranging set of viewpoints‐‐as might be expected from a group of critics and passionate writers and readers. Among them: Richard Powers, George Saunders, Rick Moody, Lee Smith, Andrei Codrescu, Roxana Robinson, AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) president Catherine Brady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Richard Ford, Nadine Gordimer, Sara Paretsky, Stewart O'Nan, Nicholas Christopher, Bill Roorbach; book editors from the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Pittsburgh Post‐ Gazette, the American Book Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New Orleans Times Picayune, the Jewish Forward, as well as Bob Mong, editor of the Dallas Morning News, Mark Sarvas, who writes the literary blog The Elegant Variation, and Carrie Kania, who described an inclusive approach to getting the word out about books she publishes: print, radio, television, online, including MySpace pages, literary blogs, bookstore websites. (Read the blog and the comments for the flavor of the sometimes heated discourse.) The campaign also included a series of related op ed pieces, editorials, interviews, literary blog posts, reports and reactions.
    [Show full text]
  • “It's All About the Sentences. It's About the Way the Sentences
    NEWS | FALL 2018 “It’s all about the sentences. It’s about the way the sentences move in the paragraphs. It’s about rhythm. It’s about ambiguity. It’s about the way emotion, in difficult circumstances, gets captured in language. It’s about instances of consciousness. It’s about besieged consciousness. It’s about love trouble. It’s about death. It’s about suicide. It’s about the body. It’s about skepticism. It’s against sentimentality. It’s against cheap sentiment. It’s about regret. It’s about survival. It’s about the sentences used to enact and defend survival.” − Rick Moody VICKI TOPAZ VICKI INSIDE: The Year of Yaddo Firsts Connections: Artists on Artists Top 5 Yaddo Firsts Spotlight on Screen On Amy Hempel (above); Jonathan Lethem From expanding our community to Tamara Jenkins, Matthew Weiner, and Sylvia Plath, among others, in our special launching new initiatives, this has been an A’Lelia Bundles, Jason Reitman feature on admiration and influence extraordinary year and more THE YEAR OF YADDO FIRSTS From first-time guests to new initiatives and partnerships, we’re celebrating a banner year. resh off the Yaddo Artist Reunion, where we found old (and and continue the multimillion-dollar stabilization and restoration new!) friends, danced to the Dog House Band, and ignited of our historic Mansion. Bolstered by our community, we’re ready another Renaissance in Harlem, plus bestowed the 2018 to meet the challenges ahead. Our outstanding board leadership Yaddo Artist Medal upon the incomparable Amy Hempel, we has inspired us to make like the Trasks and tinker with all the Fare entering into the spirit of the season and reflecting on gratitude.
    [Show full text]
  • Rick Moody About Rick Moody
    The Transom Review Volume 5/Issue 3 Rick Moody About Rick Moody Rick Moody was born in New York City. He attended Brown and Columbia universities. His first novel, Garden State, was the winner of the 1991 Editor's Choice Award from the Pushcart Press and was published in 1992. The Ice Storm was published in May 1994 by Little, Brown & Co. Foreign editions have been published in twenty countries. (A film version, directed by Ang Lee, was released by Fox Searchlight in 1997.) A collection of short fiction, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven was also published by Little, Brown in August 1995. The title story was the winner of the 1994 Aga Khan Award from The Paris Review. Moody's third novel, Purple America, was published in April 1997. Foreign editions have appeared widely. An anthology, edited with Darcey Steinke, Joyful Noise: The New Testament Revisited, appeared in November 1997. Rick Moody In 1998, Moody received the Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2000, he received a Guggenheim fellowship. In 2001, he published a collection of short fiction, Demonology, also published in Spain, France, Brazil, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. In May of 2002, Little, Brown & Co issued The Black Veil: A Memoir with Digressions, which was a winner of the NAMI/Ken Book Award, and the PEN Martha Albrand prize for excellence in the memoir. His short fiction and journalism have been anthologized in Best American Stories 2001, Best American Essays 2004, Year’s Best Science Fiction #9, and, multiply, in the Pushcart Prize anthology.
    [Show full text]
  • Although of Course You End up Becoming Yourself: a Road Trip With
    Also by David Lipsky: Three Thousand Dollars The Art Fair Absolutely American For Lydia and Sally James And for their mother and grandparents introduction If writing had a logo, it’d be the anchor, the quicksand easy chair, but from the minute I shook David’s hand we didn’t stop. We hit his class, then rolled into the car keys, sodas, strangers, and hotel rooms of a road-trip movie. Airports and taxis and the eerie sensation of knowing your feet have stood in different cities in the morning and afternoon. This introduction is the Commentary track—which nobody goes in for until they’ve loved the DVD—so I’d recommend a quick select back to Main Menu and Play Movie. The road trip was the end of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest book tour, when, as a reporter, I asked and he told me the story of his life. David had a caffeine social gift: He was charmingly, vividly, overwhelmingly awake—he acted on other people like a slug of coffee—so they’re the five most sleepless days I ever spent with anyone. (The last day, we crossed three states by air, shot down another 140 miles of highway, and I thought it was still midnight. “That’s what your watch says?” David snorted. “It’s two twenty, dickbrain.”) Then it was over, and we were standing still again, and it was hard and sad to leave. And you’ll see me trying to cook up reporting jobs in order to hang around. It has the feel of a highway conversation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Democratization of Cultural Criticism
    The Chronicle Review Home Opinion & Ideas The Chronicle Review July 2, 2004 The Democratization of Cultural Criticism By GEORGE COTKIN Wallace Shawn's play The Designated Mourner is in part a lament for the death of serious cultural criticism and intellectual community. Cultural barbarians have vanquished the life of the mind. But the genius of his play is in its refusal to leave unexamined this state of affairs. Not all of what has been lost is to be mourned. The designated mourner gleefully bids adieu to "all that endless posturing, the seriousness, the weightiness" of culture. Recently, the line of true designated mourners pining for the glory days of criticism has grown longer. After praising the high seriousness and sense of purpose of reviewers during the salad days of the Partisan Review, Sven Birkerts, in a recent article in Bookforum, finds that the literary world has been wounded by the "seemingly gratuitous negativity" of many reviews. Without a cohesive sense of community, without a set of high ideals, and with sensationalism and publicity paramount, critics such as Dale Peck are all too eager to resort to the bludgeon in their reviews, Birkerts says. Peck's reputation as a literary hatchet man (see his new collection of published essays, Hatchet Jobs) was canonized when he opened a New Republic review of Rick Moody's The Black Veil: A Memoir With Digressions with the line: "Rick Moody is the worst writer of his generation." If literary criticism is marked by vicious prose and petty bickering, then art criticism exists without firm judgments.
    [Show full text]