As a child, did I somehow miss all the mentions of this well-regarded book or has it become that obscure here in the US? Whatever the case, Charlotte Sometimes still felt magical to me as I read it years after my childhood. That has to do in part with the fantastical premise of two girls switching places in time, but more so is due to Penelope Farmer’s novel being a fascinating exploration of identity, friendship, sibling love and more.
The main plot device at work is a combination of time traveling and identity swapping. The main character Charlotte is transported back to 1918 into Clare’s life, and Clare takes Charlotte’s place. This swap is unknown to those around Charlotte and Clare, until Clare’s sister Emily suspects that something strange is going on. It’s a little reminiscent of the recent young adult novel Every Day by David Levithan.
The closest analogy in real life might be like you temping in or full-on taking over someone’s job; your situation is shaped by the previous employee’s responsibilities and legacy, but Continue reading
What would otherwise have been a blank bit of wall at Philz Coffee becomes a delightful jaunt into the realm of magical realism with mini-missives from human qualities and abstractions. Awesome.
Whenever I can catch a screening of the British Arrows, it’s always a real treat, reminding me that the medium of the TV commercial, at its best, can be astoundingly effective at capturing or at least touching on fundamental facets of humanity.
Below are some of my favorites. You can still catch the full collection of award-winning UK television ads on the big screen at ICA Boston.
Fantastic. Epic, gorgeous counterpoint to the Sagan Series.
NHK (roughly speaking, the BBC/PBS of Japan) is dazzling me once again with its ability to craft endearing, engrossing drama series. This time, it’s got me charmed and delighted with Yesterday’s Curry. Today’s Bread (昨夜のカレー。明日のパン), a 7-episode series which follows a young widow living with her father in law, a co-worker smitten with her, an ex-flight attendant who can no longer smile and several other characters.
There’s a bittersweet feeling to the descriptions of and flashbacks to (especially at the end of the episodes) the past. They convey this sense that the good times—those comparatively halcyon days—are over and the present wasn’t supposed to turn out the way it is, so now what do we do? Can we just loiter in this present, which though not great, has at least become pleasant enough?
As the protagonist Tetsuko puts it in the first episode, “Everyone says to move on, but is pausing here so unacceptable? I don’t want to move forward yet.”
But over the course of the series, the characters find that in the present, there are still Continue reading
Almost every autumn, I facilitate a two-hour workshop for high school students that explores and encourages the writing of extremely short fiction. Through nearly a decade of iterations, this workshop has evolved, expanded to encompass Mac vs. PC commercials and Ben Loory’s “The Girl in the Storm”, while contracting to only mention rather than consider the stories of Alan Lightman and David Eagleman. But even with all the exciting new developments in short-form media (the advent of hint fiction, resurgence of interest in short films, etc.), I always have my students read and discuss work by Barry Yourgrau, a pioneer of flash fiction who excels at telling adventures in mere pages or even paragraphs and is a master at mixing the mundane with the magical. Maybe you’ve never heard of him. He seems to be often overlooked, and if it weren’t for one evening over ten years ago, I too might never have heard of him.
I don’t remember how I ended up there; it was probably mentioned by my creative writing instructor. But what matters is that I did end up there, at a most delightful and extraordinary event for his book The Haunted Traveler in the MIT Media Lab building, where Barry Yourgrau embarked us upon a safari into a realm of literature I’d only glimpsed, acquainting me with a place so enchanting I have never since left. Throughout that evening, over and over, mere minutes with his words would bring me deeply into, through and, before I knew it, out of some strikingly peculiar situation, perhaps humorous, definitely relatable. A man stalking a woman with Cupid in tow, the relationship between a ghost and the music teacher he comes to love, the strife ensuing from furtively watching the dreams of sleeping lover. These stories were uniquely, marvelously enthralling, only roughly characterizable from past experiences as something and nothing like Roald Dahl meets Edward Gorey meets O. Henry. And I was hooked. There was then little choice but to become a denizen of Barry Yourgrau’s universe of mini-worlds that foray into varied topics from familial relationships and perilous travel to romantic affairs and monsters. So many of their scenes and escapades are too good not to share with avid readers and aspiring writers. Continue reading
James Benning meets David Lynch?
Earlier this week, I caught a Balagan Film Series event compiling a variety of Japanese experimental films spanning several decades. Among the films shown was Shiho Kano‘s “Rocking Chair” which so intrigued me with it’s evocative sense of mono no aware that I had then look for more of Kano’s work on the Internet. Unhurriedly observational, mundane yet subtly evocative or suggestive, some of Kano’s films, like “Rocking Chair” and “Rosecolored Flower”, seem to have an understated mindfulness or even Continue reading
Love the epic feel of Melodysheep’s work. “A Glorious Dawn” and “Ode to the Brain” still dazzle my auditory cortex.
After enjoying David Morley’s fantastic Writing Challenges podcast, I decided to take a look at the book David Morley co-edited with Philip Neilsen, The Cambridge Companion to Creative Writing. Overall, this collection of articles offers some helpful perspectives (ranging from philosophical to practical) and exercises for creative writers. Here are a some lines that resonated with me.
What are you challenging yourself to do that makes it worthwhile for the reader to join you?—Kári Gíslason, “Travel Writing”
Is it not the point of art, both the production and the experience of it,
to transcend your own reality, your own autobiography?—Jewell Parker Rhodes, “Imaginative crossings: trans-global and transcultural narratives”…to “write what you know” fosters provincialism. —Jewell Parker Rhodes, “Imaginative crossings: trans-global and transcultural narratives”
My admonition is to write what you can dream… write what you wish to discover… write what you need to about human nature. Stories, for me, have always been a wish fulfilment — an opportunity to make my life larger by stimulating my intellect, deepening my empathy, and connecting rather than distancing my self from others.—Jewell Parker Rhodes, “Imaginative crossings: trans-global and transcultural narratives”
…the writing workshop isn’t about being published… it is about being more deeply alive.—A.L. Kennedy, “Does that make sense?”
I currently believe that writing is a way of life, that it is a massively demanding discipline, that it is an almost irresistible source of enrichment, expression and change.—A.L. Kennedy, “Does that make sense?”
Writing consists of a multitude of individual decisions, massive and complex control of language in depth and considerable personal responsibility…—A.L. Kennedy, “Does that make sense?”
A Contemplative Compilation 