Writers [on Writing]: E.L. Doctorow

"That pictograms, whether corporately or privately produced, may eventually unseat linguistic composition as the major communicative act of our culture is a prospect I find only slightly less dire than global warming."
                                                                                                                                E. L. Doctorow

Brief Book Review: 'The Master of Ballantrae' by Robert Louis Stevenson

Brief Book Review: The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson (1889)

Robert Louis Stevenson suffered ill health throughout most of his short life. 

Not that alone: but the more deeply Mr Henry floundered in his brother’s toils, the more clownish he grew; and the more the Master enjoyed his spiteful entertainment, the more engagingly, the more smilingly, he went!

Henry Durie is dour, honest and straight,  he also lives deep within the shadows of his charming older brother, Master James Durie. When James leaves for adventure by joining the Scottish rebellion, Henry inherits the ancestral mansion and lands along with the title of Lord Durrisdeer, as well as Miss Alison (who was initially smitten with James).

After a life of piracy and mutiny and some savage deeds, Master James returns, seeking to usurp Lord Henry. What entails is the story of the devilish adventurer in battle with the domestic gentleman.

The novel is a heterogeneous mix of Stevenson. The brothers are polar opposites as in the hybrid Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and when James is on the high seas a reader may be reminded more of Treasure Island. Stevenson includes a dash of everything: history, tragedy and romance; buried treasure and pirates, the mystical and the unknown. Perhaps it spreads itself too thinly, not everything comes to fruition apart from observing the brothers’ descent:  the masterful fake, James, dueling with the steadfast, Henry. Both are obsessed with one another and Henry ultimately changes in the process. 

Makellar, the chief narrator and largely Lord Henry’s man, is truthful with his emotions yet incapable of action during critical moments of the story. Although not an unreliable narrator, it feels as if he is almost one, and this fuels and compels the underlying tension within the text. He both loathes and admires the Master for his performance and ability to cast a ‘glamour’ over others around him.

The Master of Ballantrae explores contrasting notions and ideas: the duty-bound family man versus the manipulative adventurer in perpetual motion; the old world versus the new world; the natural man versus the mystic. Despite the ever-present conflict, the novel is subtler than most of Stevenson’s works and tends not to have a tight narrative thread but meanders about, sometimes deliciously and sometimes unsure of itself.

While The Master of Ballantrae is not the superb and much tighter The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, it is an absorbing read in its own unique way. It successfully displays Stevenson’s mastery in terms of political and psychological intrigue, as well as his literary genius. 

'The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2011'

The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror, 2011

Aurealis judges recently stated that it was an epic year for Australian short fiction, so it's a privilege to have a story nestled among the wonderful writers listed in this Ticonderoga collection. I can't wait to read it myself! 

Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene should be congratulated on the challenging task of compiling 32 stories and poems.

The contents are:

• Peter M Ball "Briar Day" (Moonlight Tuber)
• Lee Battersby "Europe After The Rain" (After the Rain, Fablecroft Press)
• Deborah Biancotti "Bad Power" (Bad Power, Twelfth Planet Press)
• Jenny Blackford "The Head in the Goatskin Bag" (Kaleidotrope)
• Simon Brown "Thin Air" (Dead Red Heart, Ticonderoga Publications)
• David Conyers and David Kernot "Winds Of Nzambi" (Midnight Echo #6, AHWA)
• Stephen Dedman "More Matter, Less Art" (Midnight Echo #6, AHWA)
• Sara Douglass & Angela Slatter "The Hall of Lost Footsteps" (The Hall of Lost Footsteps, Ticonderoga Publications)
• Felicity Dowker "Berries & Incense" (More Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)
• Terry Dowling "Dark Me, Night You" (Midnight Echo #5, AHWA)
• Jason Fischer "Hunting Rufus" (Midnight Echo #5, AHWA)
• Christopher Green "Letters Of Love From The Once And Newly Dead" (Midnight Echo #5, AHWA)
• Paul Haines "The Past Is A Bridge Best Left Burnt" (The Last Days of Kali Yuga, Brimstone Press)
• Lisa L Hannett "Forever, Miss Tapekwa County" (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
• Richard Harland "At The Top Of The Stairs" (Shadows and Tall Trees #2, Undertow Publications)
• John Harwood "Face To Face" (Ghosts by Gaslight, HarperCollins)
• Pete Kempshall "Someone Else To Play With" (Beauty Has Her Way, Dark Quest Books)
• Jo Langdon "Heaven" (After the Rain, Fablecroft Press)
• Maxine McArthur "The Soul of the Machine" (Winds of Change, CSFG)
• Ian McHugh "The Wishwriter's Wife" (Daily Science Fiction)
• Andrew J McKiernan "Love Death" (Aurealis #45, Chimaera Publications)
• Kirstyn McDermott "Frostbitten" (More Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)
• Margaret Mahy "Wolf Night" (The Wilful Eye - Tales From the Tower #1, Allen & Unwin)
• Anne Mok "Interview with the Jiangshi" (Dead Red Heart, Ticonderoga Publications)
• Jason Nahrung "Wraiths" (Winds of Change, CSFG)
• Anthony Panegyres "Reading Coffee" (Overland, OL Society)
• Tansy Rayner Roberts "The Patrician" (Love and Romanpunk, Twelfth Planet Press)
• Angela Rega "Love In the Atacama or the Poetry of Fleas" (Crossed Genres, CGP)
• Angela Slatter "The Coffin-Maker's Daughter" (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• Lucy Sussex "Thief of Lives" (Thief of Lies, Twelfth Planet Press)
• Kyla Ward "The Kite" (The Land of Bad Dreams, P'rea Press)
• Kaaron Warren "All You Can Do Is Breathe" (Blood and Other Cravings, Tor)

The volume will also include a review of 2011 and a list of recommended stories.

The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2011 is scheduled for publication in July 2012 and can be pre-ordered at indiebooksonline.com. The anthology will be available in hardcover, ebook and trade editions. 


I've been told that in Perth, both Planet Books and Crow Books will be stocking it too. 

Writers [on Writing]: Nicholas Delbanco

'Imitation is deeply rooted as a form of cultural transmission; we tell our old stories again and again.'

Nicholas Delbanco                                                                

Food, the Night Sky and the Aurealis Awards

Food, the Night Sky and the Aurealis Awards


Dinner in Sydney

In the movie A Touch of Spice the Pappou says to his grandson, Fanis, that in the word gastronomos (gastronome) is hidden the word astrononomos (astronomer). Well, stargazing is something I love—not in a scientific sense (ask me the zodiac signs and I'd fail you every time)—the glitter in the night sky for me is more of a whimsy, the same kind that lures me towards food. There's something fanciful about them both.

On my first night in Sydney, I enjoyed a sumptuous Greek dinner at Xanthi restaurant with my old childhood friend, Andrew Lui. The watermelon and manouri salad was a winner. I haven't eaten manouri cheese since my six month sojourn in Greece some eleven or so years ago (it's more subtle than feta). The pork belly baklava was an inventive success, the souzoukakia compared to my own father's 'special' recipe, and the tuna souvlakia were chunky and satisfying. The octopus was a little too well done and they served the baby kind that never seem to taste quite right, but the rest of the meal was 'five-times tasty' as they say in Greek.

The Aurealis Awards

The following night, after a starry walk from the hotel to the Independent Theatre, I saw some other stars—the literary kind—at The Aurealis Awards. My category was won by Thoraiya Dyer, who made a gracious speech. It's her second win running, which did not deter Margo Lanagan, DC White and me from having a fabulous time.

Winners in other categories can be found via the link. Once again, congrats to both them and all the finalists, especially Thoraiya.

http://www.aurealisawards.com/media-release_winners2011.pdf



Lunch

Nick Stathopoulos' portrait of  artist, Shaun Tan.

For lunch the next day we salivated over and then ate moussaka made by the talented artist, Nick Stathopoulos. With Nick's culinary magic, perhaps he also finds the stars above something to delight in.

Nick and renowned movie critic, David Stratton. That's Gloria Swanson from Sunset Boulevard in the background.

And finally, scientific proof that food in stories makes reading a sensual experience (see the attachment below). I'm sure that someone will soon discover a similar link between reading and writing and the night sky...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html?pagewanted=all

Currently Reading and off to Sydney

Currently Reading 

I've just finished The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, a novella made up of poetic vignettes set in a crowded and predominantly Latino street; the dystopian classic Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; and the comical parody Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

In addition, I've also read the short story 'Fossil Figures' by Joyce Carol Oates from the anthology Stories (ed. Michael Gaiman and Al Sorrentino).  I regard Oates as the ultimate writers' writer, and as such, I'm in fearful awe of her work. 'Fossil Figures' was a deserved winner of the World Fantasy Award and I can already say that it's one of the better stories I've read. My preferred works are often those that blur 'literature' and 'genre' and Joyce Carol Oates is an exceptional exponent of this. 

Currently, I'm reading the anthology Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates. Each story so far has impressed me, so much so, that I think Yates is comparable to John Cheever in terms of accomplished and assured narratives. Richard Yates' writing is both humorous and poignant and he successfully encapsulated the hopes and failures of 'everyday' Americans.

Richard Yates                         

Afterwards, I'll read The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Stevenson is a favourite of mine. Vladimir Nabokov aptly described it as 'delightfully winey'. I think I enjoyed an abstemious red or two while reading it..

And after that it will be my newly arrived secondhand novel The Midnight Examiner by William Kotzwinkle. I discovered The Midnight Examiner in ABC's 1001 BOOKS YOU MUST READ BEFORE YOU DIE. The Fan Man is also listed there and it's the funniest novel I've read; I also devoured  Kotzwinkle's The Bear went over the Mountain, so you can see why I've been keen to read The Midnight Examiner for a while now. 

Sadly, despite being widely praised for The Fan Man, Doctor Rat, The Midnight Examiner and a number of short stories (including an O'Henry Award), Kotzwinkle is most recognised for his novelisation of ET. Mind you, Steven Spielberg specifically requested Kotzwinkle as he loved his work.

On the Personal Side

Off to Sydney for the Aurealis Awards where I'm honoured to be a short story finalist alongside Margo Lanagan, Thoraiya Dyer and DC White. I've never been to Australia's version of the 'big smoke' so it should be fun. I hope to go to a Greek restaurant, see some sites and generally celebrate the occasion. I'm also catching up with an old friend, Andrew Lui. I have been in contact with Andrew since kindegarten where I wore a yellow Popeye t-shirt and he a t-shirt with stripes. Both of us were terrified of kiss-chasey.

Books Out of Print

Books Out of Print

I am not supposed to walk much—I do a little—but sport has become more of the seated viewer variety. And as for the cathartic 'zeimbekiko' dance, I've been forced to civilise my  inner-Dionysos. On the bright side, my traitorous knee has freed me up some time for reading and writing.

It is the reading, or more specifically the publishing, that vexes me. So many great books are out of print - or were when I bought them. I have a quirk that if an author is alive I like to pay them (buy their book). It's my way of giving thanks for the privilege of reading their work. Recently however,  I ordered four secondhand books, two by a living writer: Doctor Rat and The Midnight Examiner both by William Kotzwinkle. And although Roger Zelazny passed away in 1995, I still would have bought a new copy of This Immortal over the tattered copy I ordered in, the same applies to Folktales of Greece by the Greek literary scholar, Georgios Megas. Why the orders? Because they are (or were at the time) all out of print.

With the exception of the more obscure Megas book, the others are still written about and discussed - at least in my circle of friends. I'll forgive the publishing world regarding Megas (it's a highly specific text) but not for William Kotzwinkle; Doctor Rat won a World Fantasy Award (WFA) and Kotzwinkle still has quite a name for himself. The Fan Man's (Kotzwinkle's cult-classic) first chapter was released before the novel and immediately became a critically acclaimed short story ('A Fugue in A Minor') -  a well-merited selection by Richard Ford in The GRANTA BOOK of the AMERICAN SHORT STORIES .  ABC Books also have The Midnight Examiner (along with The Fan Man) in their 1001 BOOKS YOU MUST READ BEFORE YOU DIE . With two novels in the ABC's book of recommendations you'd think some publisher out there would make them available.

And Roger Zelazny's This Immortal (originally a two part serial called ...And Call me Conrad in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) was a Hugo winner. Whether past WFA and Hugo Awards are dated is not the issue here. People still want to read them - if I do (along with some of my friends) then other readers out there must be curious too.

Reprint, publishers! Reprint!

Writers [on Writing], Carolyn Chute

Writers [on Writing], Carolyn Chute

"I am not much of a reader. No time."

After I simmered down I began to value Chute's honesty, realising that it's a frank and courageous (although still disappointing) confession for any writer to make.

Ben Payne and 'Reading Coffee'

I've read that Ben Payne has been editor at ASIM and Aurealis, and co-editor (with Alisa Krasonstein) of the Ditmar Award winning 2012 (from the multiple award winning Twelfth Planet Press), so it was nice to see him highly commend 'Reading Coffee'. 

My name is spelt wrong here but that's a frequent and forgivable occurrence. There are two separate posts:

http://benpayne.livejournal.com/58389.html

and 

http://benpayne.livejournal.com/58121.html

Congratulations to all the other names mentioned -  especially Margo Lanagan, Thoraiya Dyer and DC White who are fellow Aurealis finalists for the same short story category as 'Reading Coffee'. I am eager to read their stories. Margo Lanagan is a superb voice in not only Australian fiction but also world fiction, Throraiya Dyer is a multiple award winner and DC White's story has been published by Ticonderoga Pubublications. I bought two Ticonderoga collections recently: Angela Slatter's The Girl with no Hands and Kaaron Waaren's Dead Sea Fruit, and if they are anything to go by then DC White is in fine company.

And yes - I feel terribly ostentatious posting this. My finger lingered over 'publish' far longer than usual. 

Writers [on Writing], Rosellen Brown

Writers on Writing [Rosellen Brown]

On characters:

"... our first obligation is to create interesting, suggestive, realistic, possibly even challenging situations, set our character down in them and see where they go."

Writers [on Writing], Anne Bernays

Writers [on Writing]: Anne Bernays

"No one wants to read polite. It puts them to sleep."

Writers [on Writing] Saul Bellow

Writers [on Writing]: Saul Bellow


On reading literary novels in the electronic age:

‘The little evidence we have suggests that they are glad to find us, they are grateful. They want more than they are getting. Ingenious technology has failed to give them what they so badly need.'                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                             Saul Bellow

Writers [on Writing], Rick Bass

Writers [on Writing]: Rick Bass

"The wild landscape becomes the widened boundaries of my life."

Aurealis Award Finalist: 'Reading Coffee'

Aurealis Award Finalist: 'Reading Coffee'

Euphoric? Gracious? Humbled?

A 'yes' to all three on being announced a finalist for the short story award. I wish Margo Lanagan, Thoraiya Dyer and DC White the very best. I look forward to reading White and Dyer's work - and I already admire Margo's prose (more of a fan really).

I think that the nominations signal a win for 'longer' short stories over flash as well as 'literary' genre over pulp.

Regarding the award, its nice that you're not required to attend some prior function or have to be affiliated with some group. The fact that there is no mass-voting system prevents populist politics. Basically, the fiction editor at Overland, Jane Gleeson-White, kindly submitted the story and the rest was history.

For finalists in all categories, see the press release below. Congrats to all: http://www.aurealisawards.com/finalists2011.pdf

Writers [on Writing], Russell Banks

Writers [on Writing]: Russell Banks

In his comical essay, Russell Banks uses a personal anecdote to convey the idea that we spin fiction all the time, even within our own memories.

"When you witness your distant past, your memory tends to improve."