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Saturday, November 17, 2012

Junot Diaz at Porter Square Books




Porter Square Books is a bookstore in Cambridge that I’d never heard of until my fiction professor told me Junot Diaz was going to be reading there. Diaz is one of the most acclaimed writers of the present day. He was recently made a 2012 McArthur Fellow, was awarded three other fellowships including the Guggenheim Fellowship, which are amongst other awards. Seeing someone of his stature read his work aloud was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Diaz is currently teaching creative writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology making him a “local author.” For writers and readers, to be able to identify Junot Diaz as a part of the local talent added more excitement to the event. Diaz started the event by asking the audience to raise their hand if they were from New Jersey and the Dominican Republic, where he sets his stories.

The event was in promotion of Diaz’s new collection of short stories, “This is How you Lose Her,” which consists of nine stories all in regards to love and relationships. He even brings back his frequently used main characters, Yunior and his older brother, Rafa.The event started with the Q&A, in which Diaz described his belief in the arts and in his own work. “If you’re in this to make money,” Diaz said in response to a question by an audience member, “You’re probably not going to be able to write anything you believe in. If I write what I believe in, at the end of the day I feel like I can at least be proud of it.” One of the stories Diaz shared was describing his desire to read as a young child, and the librarian at his school. Diaz didn’t speak English and the librarian didn’t speak Spanish, but he expressed his awe of her determination to teach him how the library worked, just because she thought that everybody had a right to read books. Many of the questions were in regards to Diaz’s status as a Dominican-American author and he took the opportunity to share his thoughts on racism in the United States. “When you’re an immigrant, you’ll always be an immigrant. Every sentence I say I still double-check it in my head, and I’ve been here since I was six.”

After the Q&A, Diaz read from his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Oscar is a token nerd; he’s a fantasy writer who has written several novels by the time he leaves home for college, he’s overweight, he’s awkward, and guilty of the worst thing a Dominican man can be guilty of; he’s bad at playing women. The story also parallels with Oscar’s family’s past in the Dominican Republic and how it affects Oscar’s future. He tells the story through Yunior, who knew Oscar in college and later writes Oscar’s story. All of Diaz’s work has Spanish language and cultural references, which are all able to be understood with context.

Diaz’s belief in the arts came through in the second Q&A section, where he expressed that the purpose of art is to “rehumanize humanity.” He voiced something that I think we all feel as writers and artists; believe in what you do and other people will too.
Porter Square Books hosts readings and book events regularly; just the day before Diaz’s reading, they hosted the acclaimed children’s author Lois Lowry. Other events can be found at http://www.portersquarebooks.com/event.
By Carrie Cabral

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Journey of A Story: The Hobbit


“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” 

goodreads.com
The organizers of Boston Book Festival clearly also had The Hobbit in mind when planning their schedule of events. The Festival was hosted in Copley Square on Saturday October 27th and one of the first talks on the docket was titled “The Hobbit; There and Back Again”. The event featured a panel of three speakers Corey Olson (aka the Tolkien Professor) and, in particular, Wayne Hammond and Christine Scull, eminent Tolkien scholars and married couple who collaborated on the book they presented, The Art of The Hobbit, as well as several other books on the Tolkien canon.

The importance of art and the visual to Tolkien in his work is striking in comparison to the entirely visual retelling of his stories through Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and upcoming Hobbit trilogy. The Book Fest’s Hobbit presentation opened with a showing of the trailer for The Hobbit; An Unexpected Journey and then proceeded to Hammond and Ms. Scull telling The Hobbit in summary accompanied by a slideshow of corresponding sketches, illustrations and water colors. By comparison to a full scale movie, this kind of hurried retelling could probably be called coarse at best, but there was really something magical to it as well.


Victor Hugo


There are certain sensations that I will never get used to, no matter how often I experience them. Walking in the echoing footsteps of someone far greater than I will always remain a mystery to me. This past weekend, I visited the City of Lights. With its many brasseries and bridges reaching over the famous Seine, Paris is a city of romance and intrigue. It is a loadstone for writers, sucking them in and churning them over and over in the air of fresh baguettes and cigarette smoke, and tempting them to weave haunting tales. Victor Hugo was one of the great writers who looked through the smoggy air of Paris’ lower class and found literary gold.

Last month when I walked through the abandoned rooms of Anne Frank’s secret annex, I felt her presence as the girl who experienced the cruelty of European history. Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to walk through the sacred walls of the Notre Dame Cathedral and the private apartments of Victor Hugo.

Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace


To some, David Foster Wallace was an articulator of the seemingly ineffable, a man giving voice to the most pressing issues facing modern man. To others, he was a writer of overwrought prose all too willing to impress with postmodern pastiche. To many, he was an intellect who realized that his smartness was not enough to fulfill a reader and more importantly himself – that an equal helping of heart went a long way, and was even of paramount importance. And yet to others still, he was just the next logical step up from writers such as Barth and Pynchon, the satirist of today satirizing the satirists of yesterday. If he wasn’t the modern patron saint of depressives everywhere, he was just another unfortunate, disappointing statistic.

Whatever your opinion of Wallace and his writing, D.T. Max’s absorbing biography Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace is an absolute must read.

Bookstore Quests in the Netherlands


This semester, I’m studying abroad in the Netherlands through Emerson College. We’re allowed to travel every weekend and, for the most part, I’ve taken advantage of that arrangement. I’ve been to a Swedish autumn festival in Stockholm, taken a ride on The London Eye, wandered the alleys of Venice, and attempted to avoid death-by-bike in Amsterdam, among other adventures. There are a few things I wish I could do more of though. One of those things? Visit cool bookstores. 

I thought I would easily find a few on my travels, but nothing ever caught my eye until I visited Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station in London. After being a typical tourist and taking my picture with the shopping cart halfway through the wall – positioned to look as if there really were a magical platform beyond – I wandered into the bookstore next door. The Casual Vacancy, J. K. Rowling’s new book, occupied a bookstand by the cash register. Yet I didn’t find what I really wanted until I moved to the back of the store. Harry Potter books occupied an entire wall, which I took a moment to appropriately stare at. It was amazing to see my favorite series in the country in which it was first conceived – in the very station that Harry began his journey to Hogwarts. Yet, besides its impressive collection of Harry Potter, the store was like any other.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Book Review: Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon


This review contains spoilers.

Though fast paced and filled with twists and turns, Michelle Gagnon’s Don’t Turn Around fails to meet the high standards it sets for itself. On Amazon, fans of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are told they will “devour the story of Noa.” Sadly, the characters fall flat, as does the plot, and a lack of plausibility takes us out of reading experience. 

The novel has a promising beginning, with the main character Noa waking up on a cold metal bed with an IV attached to her arm and no knowledge of how she got there.  Though it’s hard to believe someone with no fighting experience could escape this heavily guarded facility with no help, she does so through luck and her will to never give up.

Shelley Jackson’s Skin Project


ineradicablestain.com

Our culture’s fascination with body art has grown tremendously since it first crept its way into the mainstream. Until recently, tattoos were associated with foreign tribes, and in America, sailors and prisoners. Once considered a taboo subject, today they are common, considered an art form and a means of expression. Their acceptance continues to cultivate, especially among creative types—the same type who might enjoy a good story. Author Shelley Jackson saw the potential among this group. She came up with a project to combine her love for the literary and visual art, to get thousands of people involved and thousands more interested.

Book Review: "Who Could That Be at This Hour?" By Lemony Snicket


goodreads.com
On Saturday, October 27, I was fortunate enough to be able to almost meet Lemony Snicket. That's right. Almost.

You see, for those who are unfamiliar, Lemony Snicket is the pen name of author David Handler. He personifies Lemony Snicket as a man who is quite elusive, and, although he is scheduled to attend many events such as book signings, usually has an "unfortunate" circumstance that prevents him from attending.

I was, and still am, an avid fan of A Series of Unfortunate Events, the first series written by Lemony Snicket. I was thrilled to find out that he was publishing a new book in the same vein. I was even more thrilled to find out that he would be speaking at the Boston Book Festival held in Copley Square.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Two College Reads That Are Actually Entertaining


We all know the drill.

It’s the first day of class and the teacher flips through a power point, hands out a sheet of paper, directs us to a class web server—all to point out our class reading.

As if we could forget.

It doesn’t matter what the book is or what we’ve heard about it. As soon as it’s on the syllabus, we know we’re that going to hate it. Isn’t that the point of a “required text:” that it’s long, complicated, and about as entertaining as the time your grandma pulled out her cat-filled photo album?

I’ve had my fair share of terrible textbooks. I still cringe every time I see a calf (thanks, Beloved) and John Steinbeck makes me sob like a toddler. Still, in spite of all the painful page-turning, there is hope. There are a few books that, though required, are actually great reads.

Here’s two of them.

Books into Feature Films


Every year there are more and more movies with “based on the Novel by [in this case] Suzanne Collins” as an end credit. But, how many times after the movie has finished have you turned to your friends and said, “that is not what happened in the book—this movie sucked” and, maybe your friend never read the book, and they said “what are you talking about the movie was great”?

loavesofbread.livejournal.com

This summer I watched The Hunger Games on the big screen. I had not yet read the book when I went to see the movie, and I thought it was good.  I thought that the movie was a good portrayal of the book because I had understood the plot, and the characters, but I was curious to see what more the book had to offer, so I read it. I really enjoyed reading the book and when I finished it I still really liked the movie and felt it was a well played out movie. But, the truth is, like a lot of books that are turned into films, a lot of scenes were cut as well as characters. Then I understood something: books and movies are two different types of art. Books show you the story through words and you imagine it (I personally think of books as movies that play in my head), and movies show you the story through images. Since I consider both two different types of art, I should also consider this when I watch a movie that is based on a book. Books have many pages to tell you a story. The Hunger Games has 374 pages to tell you the story; the movie only has 142 minutes. Although 142 minutes is a lot of time, scenes must be chosen wisely to portray the basic ideas of the book.

DuoTrope



Since my last article was about upcoming contests and publications looking for submissions, I thought this would be a good follow-up, especially for keeping up with events throughout the year (and years to come). While I can recommend the Writers’ Market: Novelist and Short Story Market and Poet’s Market books (and Guide to Literary Agents, if any of you are that far along on your publishing endeavours), there’s a new literary database that can help you find publishers looking for submissions for magazines or contests. It’s not that well known, but once you check it out, you’ll be hooked forever.


www.zazzle.com
It’s called DuoTrope.  While when you get to the front page of the site it looks like nothing special at all, this really is a magical and helpful tool for all writers. Once you’ve signed up and activated your account via e-mail, you can browse through thousands of publishers that are currently holding contests and/or looking for submissions. But that’s not all it does. You can sort your publishers by fiction/non-fiction/poetry, what genres they take, if they publish electronically or in print, and if they allow material that has been published before or simultaneous and multiple submissions. You can also control what markets pop up under your settings for publishers based on how much they pay, what their acceptance rates are, and even how fast they respond to submissions. DuoTrope is the first online publisher guide that puts you in control.