A Partial Inventory of Gustave Flaubert’s Personal Effects
Macabre but fun!
A Partial Inventory of Gustave Flaubert’s Personal Effects
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Author Archives: maedez
[19 August 2012] This Week’s Lessons in Reading and Writing
What I’ve (re)learned in the last week.
- The rush that comes with writing fiction is like nothing else in the world. It feels entirely different from writing reviews or essays; not better, just different.
- Liking writers, artists or performers is one thing. Enjoying fictionalized accounts of their lives is another. Some of these books are wonderful; others are boring or just plain bad. I am currently reading one of the former and one of the middle. The disparity in levels of enjoyment is huge.
- Outlining an entire story and writing the opening 3 paragraphs in your head whilst still in bed is the best way to start a day.
- I feel sexiest while tapping away at my keyboard, trying to bang out everything that is in my head before it dissolves into nothingness. Even though I am usually wearing yoga pants, a tee, too much moisturizer and a baker’s dozen of hairpins.
- Taking five books and three magazines (and my Nook) on a road trip lasting 60 hours, start to finish, somehow does not seem excessive.
- The WordPress community is just that: a community of supportive, wonderful, mostly awesome people. Some of them even allow you to write short stories based on their photographs. Thank you, lovelies.
- Even when crazy shit happens (like this), reading a book makes it better.
A Year in Books/Day 194: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era
Lon Chaney Sr., still from The Miracle Man (1919) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Title: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era
- Text: Frank Miller/Foreword by Robert Osborne/Introduction by Molly Haskell
- Year Published: 2006 (Chronicle Books)
- Year Purchased: 2010
- Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
- About: This book is a TMC Film Guide. It is straightforward but well-done, with each actor receiving a short bio, complete with vital statistics; a breakdown of their ‘essential’ films; and behind-the-scenes trivia. It’s best for classic film neophytes or fanatics-anyone in-between will likely be bored. Among the fabulous fifty, you’ll find: Barrymore, Chaney, Colman, Garfield, Gilbert, Keaton, Kelly, Ladd, Lloyd, Muni, Poitier, Powell, Taylor, and Valentino.
- Motivation: I’m running out of ways to say that I write about classic (especially silent) cinema and really love old movies. I even buy books that I know I am not going to learn anything from; it’s an addiction (see above).
- Times Read: 1
- Random Excerpt/Page 41: “What amazes audiences discovering Lon Chaney’s work for the first time, along with his impressive ability to transform his face and body, is the humanity shining through even the thickest makeup. Chaney was one of the screen’s greatest pantomime artists, a skill he developed as a child in order to communicate with his parents, both of whom were deaf.”
- Happiness Scale: 10
A Year in Books/Day 193: Elegy for Iris
- Title: Elegy for Iris
- Author: John Bayley
- Year Published: 1999 (St. Martin’s Press)
- Year Purchased: 2001?
- Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
- About: I get it, I really do: Iris Murdoch is one of those love them or hate them writers. The Sea, The Sea is one of my favourite novels of the later years of the 20th century, but I understand why her work isn’t for everyone. I don’t care where you stand on the subject of Iris-as-writer, if you aren’t affected to the point of tears whilst reading her husband’s memoir it can mean only one thing. You are dead inside. Continue reading
A Year in Books/Day 192: The Right Word II
- Title: The Right Word II A Concise Thesaurus Based on the New American Heritage Dictionary
- Staff: Houghton Mifflin Company Reference Division
- Year Published: 1983 (Houghton Mifflin Company)
- Year Purchased: 1980s
- Source: My lovely mother
- About: Concise is the key here. The Right Word II is the sparest thesaurus I’ve ever read. Although not meant or marketed as such, I think it is ideal for a bright child’s use: tiny, portable, informative and easy to navigate. I relied on it for countless elementary age writing projects. I was a budding playwright then, before switching to short stories and essays in middle school. During the genre shift, I upgraded to a thicker, wordier thesaurus. I still own both of them, and every other reference book I have ever used. Even though I have not consulted this one in years, there is so much nostalgia attached to it that I cannot throw or give it away. It reminds me of why I wanted to be a writer in the first place, so it will live forever on a shelf in my studio.
- Motivation: I didn’t need this for school, as one might assume given my age. I’ve always loved reference books, and have been collecting them since I was 5.
- Times Read: Unknown
- Random Excerpt/Page vi: “Discriminated Synonymies. The foundation of The Right Word II is a block of synonym paragraphs in which the meaning shared by all the words is supplemented by additional material that discriminates the various shades of meaning for each word.”
- Happiness Scale: 10 (as a child)
Daily Diversion #35: Not Every Diversion is a Good Diversion
As of 6:00 PM Wednesday, this was the photograph I was going to post for my 35th Daily Diversion.
Yum! Tacos!
Last week, a friend opened an eclectic little taco shop in the neighborhood behind ours. We missed the official opening because we were out-of-state attending a family wedding/staring at the Toronto skyline. We’re hardcore devotees, though, so we made up for it by walking 3 miles round trip just to eat a few heaven-stuffed tortillas. Afterwards, when we rounded the side of our building, instead of seeing an empty street…we saw a police cruiser and a wrecker hoisting up a strange car. Then, this pitiful sight:
Innocent bystander
Our parked Durango was just collateral damage in the broad daylight shenanigans of a random heroin addict, who decided to shoot up whilst careening down the street in a too-fast car with her baby strapped in the back seat. RHA is in the county lock-up, the unharmed baby is with his/her Grandma and our (only) vehicle is likely headed to the great scrap pile in the sky. It was hit with enough force to move it 4 feet forward and 2 feet to the side from where my husband left it last night.
I haven’t trotted out Millais’ Ophelia for a while, but she is perfect for so many situations.
Until the insurance adjusters have come and gone-for good or ill-this is how you will find me.
[15th August Inspiration Board] Visually Inclined
My writer’s brain requires a lot of different stimuli to keep on churning fast enough to function. A slowed down thought process is detrimental to my creativity. If you jumped out on the obvious limb and guessed that I probably have a hard time meditating, you were correct. Although I relish being alone, I do not handle quiet well. I need noise: a slightly too-loud television, a wide-faced Labrador crunching on a bone, a cat scratching on a door frame, low but audible music (The Clash or Patti Smith) pulsing from my laptop, discordantly lovely street noise breaking in through a few open windows, dogs racing and barking down the halls. Sirens. Car alarms. Screaming, skittering children. The sound of my bare feet beating against a table leg. A bus breaking to a stop. I could write with a baby squawking in my face. Noise. It’s beautiful. Continue reading
A Year in Books/Day 191: Laurence Olivier On Acting
- Title: Laurence Olivier On Acting From Hamlet and Heathcliff to “Brideshead” and Marathon Man, Our Greatest Actor Candidly Discusses His Triumphant Career in an Extraordinary Examination of His Profession and Craft
- Author: Laurence Olivier
- Year Published: 1986 (A TOUCHSTONE BOOK)
- Year Purchased: 1992
- Source: A bookstore at an outlet mall.
- About: Every actor, young or old, has
somethingmany things to learn from Olivier. If they say otherwise, they’re just in denial. Or ignorant. Perhaps I should strike a line through that as well and replace it with the (softer?) word naive. Nah. I’ll stand by my original assessment. Let’s move on to the good stuff. Even if you don’t care about the craft of acting (and have never been silly enough to work in or, sanity forbid, train for the theatre), On Acting is really entertaining. Part autobiography, part theatre/film history, and part textbook, it is a mixture that works. He exposes the thought processes behind his roles, but dishes enough behind-the-scenes stories to keep most people interested. It is superior to his traditional memoir, Confessions of an Actor. - Motivation: I was an acting student then; the cover blurb was an excellent sales person.
- Times Read: 2 or 3
- Random Excerpt/Page 65: “New actors, new waves, new ideas-it’s all been done before. What we forget is that every new generation is the modern man. We are only watching things repeated with different costumes, new settings, original surrounds. However we look at it, it is still the same jewel, shining from the crown, that was mined between 1564 and 1616.”
- Happiness Scale: 10+++
Laurence Olivier, June 17, 1939 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Quote
“It seems to me it cannot be wrong to read good poetry an entire morning if you happen to be particularly receptive in that respect, because when you are poetically receptive you see so much of life behind the words.”-Wanda Gág
Voices from the Grave #32: Edward Gorey Interview
Edward Gorey* talking about his influences.
*I’m a huge Edward Gorey fangirl.
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 