Recently in Commentary Category

Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. As other reviewers have noted, this was a series of lectures, and therefore should NOT be considered a guide on "how to write a novel." If, however, you have a background in English literature and want to write a novel, then you may find this book an interesting exercise in critical analysis.

I found the sections on story, people (parts 1 and 2), and plot thought-provoking and insightful. What made these sections most interesting were how Forster used examples to explore his analysis. Even though he refers to several novels I have never read, he provided sufficient context that I was able to understand his points with relative ease. Having read these section, I feel that I will be able to assess my own work to see how it stands up in each area.

I struggled a bit with the section on prophecy as it stabbed at my memories of reading Moby Dick, Billy Bud, and The Brothers Karamazov, from almost 20 years ago. Even so, combined with Forster's examples and analysis, I remembered enough to feel like I had a reasonable grasp of the analysis. That said, I think it will be worthwhile to revisit at least one of those books in the near future and then reread this section to see if I really understood it.

When Forster's subjects increased in complexity, diving into the more nuanced aspects of fantasy and patterns & rhythm, I floundered. I found it nearly impossible to fully understand his points without having read the novels from which he drew his examples. The concepts of rhythm & patterns in particular I feel are macro-level elements that one can only really appreciate in the context of having read an entire novel. Because of this, I didn't feel as though his examples could do the concept justice. I have limited experience reading Henry James, and none with Marcel Proust, Anatole France, or Percy Lubbock, all of whose novels Forster used as examples, so I had reason to flounder. And, unlike my interest in Melville or Dostoyevsky's work, I honestly have no interest in reading these authors, so it seems that my only opportunity to gain insight into Forster's analysis on fantasy and rhythm & patterns will be if I read some of his novels in which I hope he managed to demonstrate some of his advice.

View all my reviews >>

I'm a regular follower of Mur Lafferty's I Should Be Writing blog and podcast. Recently she posted this YouTube video from the Digital Marketing team at MacMillan Publishing. Based on my years of professional experience, I can attest that it accurately captures the entire process for how books are made. Enjoy!

As the video states, non-fiction books take far less time to produce than fiction, often because we are only allowed a few weeks to write them (versus decades) and also because we only have time and the staff to copyedit one out of every 18 books, rather than each book 18 times.

Hollywood hasn't impressed me much this year, however there are two movies coming out that have me excited: the new Harry Potter movie in July and the long overdue, live-action version of one of my childhood favorites, Maurice Sendak's classic, Where The Wild Things Are.

This movie is being directed by Spike Jonz. For those of you who aren't familiar with the name, Jonz directed Being John Malkovich, the wonderfully dark and surreal movie which starred John Cusack as a puppeteer who discovers a portal into the brain of John Malkovich. Jonz also directed Adaptation, another brilliant, but more neurotic movie with Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper (who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). I thoroughly enjoyed both of these films. One down side of Jonz was his involvement in MTV's Jackass movies, to which I readily acknowledge (and am proud) that I am not part of their target demographic. My hope is that Jonz did those for the money so he could continue making high caliber artsy films. Speaking of demographics, any movie of this classic Sendack work will automatically have a large family demographic. I read in interviews that, like me, Jonz read the book as a kid, and will want to share it with his own kids. Now given his track record with the dark, artsy films and hoping that he has the sense not to incorporate any elements from the Jackass series, I'm still a bit anxious about the final product. That said, another potential positive factor for this film is that the screenplay was written by Dave Eggers, the creative mind behind McSweeney's Internet Tendency. Eggers is co-founder of a program called 826 National, which promotes writing skills in kids ages 6-18 at seven centers across the U.S. Given that level of interaction with kids, I think there's very good reason to be hopeful that the script Jonz started with was in tune with younger audiences.

The Wife Whisperer.

For the record, Melissa thought it was funny.

This past week I could not believe my ears when I heard a story on NPR about how PETA is trying to rebrand fish as "Sea Kittens." I laughed so hard that I almost drove off the road. Then I realized as the story continued, that these people are serious. From the NPR web site:

"PETA thought that by renaming fish sea kittens, compassionate people who would never dream of hurting a dog or a cat might extend that sympathy to fish, or sea kittens," PETA campaign coordinator Ashley Byrne says.

Growing up, I went fishing on a regular basis with my Dad and brother. I don't think I ever felt much sympathy for the fish because we ate nearly everything we caught and I thought it was far more humane (and less work) to eat a dead fish than a live one. Honestly, if anyone deserved sympathy during our fishing trips, it was my Dad. My brother and I were typical kids, and by that I mean we weren't very good at sitting still for long periods let alone the extended spans we often spent staring at the surface of a lake hoping that a fish would bite at the gnarled worm we had haplessly impaled on a hook. Dad showed tremendous patience with us as demonstrated by not only our staying out for several hours, but by the fact that he took us with him time and again. I thought fishing was fun also because we got to spend leisure time with him that didn't involve tearing down a wall or putting up drywall. The Peta spokesperson apparently has a different view on what Dad was doing with us:

"Most parents would never dream of spending a weekend torturing kittens for fun with their families, but hooking a sea kitten through the mouth and dragging her through the water is the same as hooking a kitten through the mouth and dragging her behind your car," Byrne says.

Granted there were times when we caught fish that were considered too small to be legal. In those cases we carefully removed from the hook and returned to the water, alive and able to swim away. I don't recall that any of these fish were mangled or mortally wounded, at least not with anything more severe than the minor cuts I suffered from the occasional fish hook which I somehow managed to get caught in my hand, which my Dad promptly removed.

In classic journalistic style, the NPR reporter sought the public's reaction to the campaign. In a move that I would have expected from The Onion or The Daily Show, the reporter went to what one might consider a hostile environment: members of a fourth-generation commercial fishing family in Alaska. The comments were about what you might expect. My favorite quote was from a 12-year old girl, with whom I couldn't agree more:

"I don't see fish as sea kittens; I see them as food."

After hearing this story, I took a few minutes to visit the peta.org web site and to look over their materials. While there I skimmed it and didn't find anything that changed my opinion about the rebranding. I took a minute and made a sea kitten avatar (see right) and in the process began to think about the incredible amount of money this organization must have spent on this absurd campaign. I've never given money to Peta, and honestly, after looking at how they spend donations, I will not do so in the future. If you care to read about the campaign for yourself, or create your own sea kitten avatar, visit the site at peta.org

Watch the CBS Videos Online

My friend Jennifer sent me a link to this video about an incredible friendship between what could best be described as an "Animal Odd Couple." Watch the video and you will wonder, as the reporter does, "If they can make it work, what's our excuse?"

Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was a sweet, comedic romp of a story, very unlike previous works of Greene's that I've read--The End of the Affair, Our Man in Havana, and The Quiet American.



I read the Penguin Classics edition which includes a thoughtful introduction which unfortunately has spoilers in it. The introduction also made the book seem to be far more interesting and entertaining than I found it to be. I was no where as intrigued with the hippy girl or the beloved Aunt. Also, I guessed the ending long before it was revealed and was a bit disappointed with it.


View all my reviews.

Barbara Walters of 20/20 (USA) did a story on gender roles in Kabul several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked about 5 paces behind their husbands.

She returned to Kabul recently and observed that women still walk behind their husbands, but now seem to walk even further back and are happy with the old custom.

Ms. Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, "Why do you now seem happy with the old custom that you used to try and change?"

"Land mines," said the woman.

(From my Aunt Judy)

While many people are fighting for the right to vote even once, I had an odd experience that shows you how easy it is for things to go askew in the U.S. electoral system:

I got to the polling place this morning and my name was on the register roles, twice. They misspelled my last name so it showed up in two places. It's five letters and a VERY common Anglo name, so it's beyond me how they managed to screw it up, but my City Clerk's office did. I pointed it out to the clerk at the polling place but he didn't seem to care because there was a queue they wanted to get cleared before the polling volunteers' oxygen tanks ran out or pacemaker batteries died. Of course they didn't ask for any photo ID, so I suppose I could go and vote again tonight. Probably won't though. Once was quite enough for me.

On Friday I heard rumors that John Kerry is considering U.S. Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) as a potential running mate. I don't know a lot about the man other than to say that based on a video I saw on the Internet of him giving a speech I think he makes Kerry look peppy and energetic. This is not what Kerry needs to energize his ticket--(Remember what Joe Lieberman did for Al Gore's run!). The idea that Kerry would consider Graham signals how seriously he takes the strategic importance of the Floridia electorate in the election. Of course it also reminds me of the ballot chad fiasco in the 2000 presidential "selection" and the holiday card I made that year:

Frankly I don't think Kerry should throw away his chance at picking the best qualified running mate as a means of countering a corrupt Floridian election system. Instead he should be counting that there will be fair(er) elections using readable ballots or better yet, functioning voting machines, and all registered voters will have less restricted access to polling places. I have heard a few stories on NPR and on CNN about Florida's progress since the 2000 election toward using modern voting equipment and would have to say that it still sounds a bit uncertain that they won't screw it up again. While I think it's premature to suggest UN observers be called in, I think it's something the American electorate needs to keep their collective eyes on.

So, if I discount Graham as a potential running mate, who else is there?

Earlier today I attempted to send an e-mail to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), Gale Norton. I wanted to ask her to protect Utah's redrock canyons from energy development and off-road vehicles. The e-mail bounced back almost instantly with this error message:

"Mail for gale_norton@ios.doi.gov rejected for policy reasons."

Though I've grown accustomed to my Yahoo e-mails bouncing back as a consequence of using other people's PCs to log on to send them, this did not seem like the typical "GFY: we think you're sending spam" error message. For a moment I thought that perhaps the Secretary had created a rule in her e-mail program that automatically refuses messages from people who disagree with current department policies. Then I thought, "Nah, that's too obvious." I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and began looking for a more logical reason. Once I started digging I was quite surprised by what I found.

God I love technology! I love the fact that I have a phone that I can use almost anywhere in the U.S. In the same breath, I hate this technology because it has given American business a new channel to maximize profits at the cost of screwing consumers for wanting the new technology. Specifically, I resent the fact that I am held hostage by what seems to be an interminable service contract with my wireless phone provider. I'm pretty pissed off right now and may not be thinking very clearly, but I can't think of another business (other than a few monopolies) where a service provider can require customers to extend a service contract when the equipment used to receive the service breaks. Can you?

I say "hostage" because when my wireless phone took its final gasp this week I called my provider and discovered that because my phone was out of its warranty period and because I hadn't subscribed to their extortion-priced replacement program, I not only have to buy my replacement phone from them, but doing so is classified as an "equipment upgrade," and therefore requires me to extend my contract by one year. Shame on me for not reading the fine print of my contract, but honestly, I am left wondering why mysteriously my local and long-distance providers did not place the same requirements on me when my the cordless phone I used for 10 years in my apartment died? Why should it be any different for the wireless providers? In most cases these are the same high-tech companies who provide the wire-based telephone, Internet, and cable service. What is the difference?!?!

"The art of a people is a true mirror to their minds."

- Jawaharial Nehru (1889-1964)

I found this quote on a job web site this morning and thought it was worth sharing. For those of you who don't remember your world history, Nehru was the first Prime Minister of Independent India and architect of its foreign policy.

This quote gave me reason to reflect on how moved I felt when I toured Antoni Gaudi's architectural wonders in Barcelona last October. I still think about the beauty and diversity of his works, particularly how they stand in contrast to the rest of Barcelona's far less inspiring architecture, let alone the stale trends of cookie cutter architectural blandness that drive us to complete the paving of America.

Today, with the passing of Captain Kangaroo, yet another of my childhood icons has left this world. I hope he finds peace and is blessed with knowing how much of a positive role model he created for kids like me. Both as Captain Kangaroo and Clarabell the Clown on the Howdy Doody Show, Bob Keeshan set an example and standard of quality that modern children's television has lost sight of. I hope that someone within the children's television industry will take pause on this occasion and reflect on the lessons that pioneers of kids' television programming such as Keeshan and Fred Rogers, who passed away last year, offered us. I know I learned a lot from watching them and I am certain that today's generation of kids could too.

With this in mind, I'd like to make a bold proprosal to my friends at CBS: Show the public how much you think of American children by running a marathon of Captain Kangaroo episodes this weekend. You don't have to compete with the Super Bowl hype, so take a moment to remind Americans that it is possible to entertain and educate children without the vulgarities and raw stupidity that is so abundant in American television. Just a thought.

Finally I'd like to say to this to the Captain: I will miss you and I'd appreciate it if you'd say 'hi' to Mr. Rogers for me when you see him. Thanks.

Dear Californians,

If you voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger in the recent recall election, you are an idiot. I don't personally know enough about Gray Davis' policies or failings to comment on whether I think he should have been recalled or not, but I would NEVER vote for someone who made as few or as vague statements about how he will fix California's multitude of social and economic ails as your newly elected "Governator." I hope you get whatever you deserve in the next three years. I look forward to watching the next several seasons of Bill Maher on HBO making fun of you sun-fried morons. I will be laughing at you, not with you.

Here's a set of haikus I wrote in honor of Madonna's pathetic attempt to demonstrate her relevance to pop music by kissing Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears at the recent MTV Video Music Awards show:

Lucky star burned out,
Irrelevance spurs action,
Still, looks good in black.

I was watching Bill Maher on HBO tonight and he had some good bits in his monologue commenting on Madonna's kissing both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera during their performance on the MTV Video Awards last week:

"When Christina Aguilera attended the post-show celebrations she said that she had to go down on Old Dirty Bastard just to get the taste out of her mouth. No offense to ODB."

I just saw an ad for the Gwenyth Paltrow movie View from the Top, which comes out on DVD on September 9th. I just want to make sure that no one bothers to rent or buy this piece of crap.

I was one of the few unfortunate souls who saw this movie in the theaters in its not-brief-enough theatrical release, and want everyone to know that it sucked...bad.

"The United States is putting together a Constitution now for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It's served us well for 200 years, and we don't appear to be using it anymore, so what the hell?"

- Jay Leno

Scary, but apparently true.

My buddy Rob just called to let me know about something he read on the web today: The HR wizards at Allstate Insurance released a memo to employees this week describing a new feature on their internal intranet: an automatic self-termination process. The details are described in an internal memo that someone posted on internalmemos.com.

As you likely know by now, the great comedian and actor, Bob Hope passed away this past Monday, July 28, 2003. What you may not know is that Vincent Canby, the renowned film critic who wrote the lead obituary printed in the New York Times today had died on October 15, 2000--nearly two years BEFORE Hope.

In yesterday's entry I referenced two of my preferred online dictionaries. I thought it might be helpful to post a list of some of my favorite online English dictionaries.

I recently watch Helen of Troy on the USA network. It was pretty atrocious. Here's a couple of haikus I've written to describe the experience:

To Helen I pledged,
Four hours I have now lost,
Vow: Never again!

Washed up on Troy's shores,
Melodramatic drivel,
USA's folly.