Tonight I’m rereading Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four for my Lit 111 course: “To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone-to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone: From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink-greetings!”
Spent the afternoon with D walking the aisles at Books on the Square in Virden, Illinois. Found some great old Conan paperbacks with classic Frank Frazetta cover art.
New Salinger documentary coming soon. Read this Daily Beast article years back, love the photograph, and it appears same film makers have an American Masters episode in the works. I’ve seen the A&E episode and watched some YouTube videos interviewing military academy folks on Salinger’s schooling but this looks interesting.
Woke to this article in the Chicago Tribune. And I remember a year or two ago reading an article comparing the state of record stores in the U.S. to book stores of the near future. You buy an album online and a record store dies. Now the same fate for chain stores. First Borders and now perhaps Barnes and Noble. Not sure how I feel about Barnes and Noble which feels more like a gift shop and coffee shop lately than a bookstore. I personally don’t own an e reader and my publisher has very strong opinions about how e readers kill book sales. I wonder: In the near future will we all have e readers and surf the internet for books instead of libraries or locally owned bookstores?
sunday morning philip k. dick segment on to the best of our knowledge
Spending time this Sunday afternoon listening to Philip K. Dick segment on To the Best of Our Knowledge. I was most struck by interview with Ann R. Dick, wife #5, and also David Gill interview on film adaptations of Dick’s work.
Love this quote: “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” — Philip K. Dick
big sur sundance trailer
I’m remembering how the novel deals with Duluoz’s alcoholism.
2013 top ten “new” latino authors to watch (and read)
Last night I received the news that Jose B. Gonzalez founder and editor of LatinoStories.com has named me on his Top Ten “New” Latino Authors to Watch (and Read) page. I could not be more pleased or honored. Grateful. Especially on a day when I couldn’t help but think “who’s listening” as I struggle with revising my novel project.
kerouac.net link to big sur trailer
Kerouc.net linked to a Vimeo preview of the Big Sur film trailer. Looks good. Can’t embed the video though I tried.
Big Sur from Michael Polish on Vimeo.
big sur film adaptation
This USA Today article is the first I’ve heard of a Big Sur film adaptation. This plus On the Road and Kill Your Darlings makes three Kerouac focused films coming out. I’m getting excited.
bless me, ultima website
I should be sleeping but I’ve been taking a look at the website for the adaptation of Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima out now in New Mexico.
I think I’ve been in this fiction workshop represented in the Bullet in the Brain short film:
I’ve had the film adaptation of Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus on my Netflix queue and always find it unavailable. Just found it on YouTube to rent for $2.99 and highlights from the film on YouTube for tomorrow nights Lit 113.
This Thanksgiving break I’ve finally made my way through Kerouac’s On the Road The Original Scroll. I’ve read excerpts and specific portions to compare to the novel/fiction version but never the entire book. I was most struck at the editor’s note in Book 4 that reveals a dog ate the last few feet of the work.
Reading Galarza’s book Barrio Boy I was amazed at the brilliant memoir of Galarza’s boyhood experience of the Mexican Revolution and segregation in American neighborhoods. I was interested to find a different definition of the term chicano and also I was interested to read about the struggle for work and how that struggle for work drove the family to head north to Sacramento, California. I delighted in the entirety of the literacy narrative and Galarza’s attention to detail and description of his boyhood village and the American colonia he later lived in with his family. I hope to add this book to my proposed Latino Lit course for the Spring 2013 term.
Last week–despite mountains of grading and student conferences–I spent time with Troncoso’s sweeping novel From This Wicked Patch of Dust and found so much to admire. I admired the form as well as the content. Told in a third person limited omniscient narration the story drops into the thoughts, feelings and questions of each member of a Mexican American family–the children and parents–working and struggling in Ysleta, Texas. The narration hovers above the family and drops from section to section into certain family members thoughts and feelings. I also admired how the story fragments and separates by jumping years in between chapters. Something I work on in my own writing. One week later and the story stays with me. Overall the narrative gave me such a realistic and positive representation of an American family and quite simply it spoke to me. And I’m happy to say I sent Troncoso a quick message on Goodreads stating that and he was prompt in responding a kindly thank you.
This week I’m spending time with Luis Alberto Urrea’s Six Kinds of Sky and hope to have some thoughts soon.
