Category: Uncategorized

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The longer you wait, the farther away it gets

On September 15, 2006, I ordered a special 25th anniversary edition of one of my favorite books, Little, Big by John Crowley, which was then in preparation. (I even sprang for a copy of the numbered edition, I like this book that much.) There is a theme in the book, that the farther in you go, the bigger it gets. Waiting for this book to appear feels much like that. Here’s the most recent (October 3) update from the publisher:

A few folks have made the perfectly reasonable request that I post updates on the progress of Little, Big 25 more frequently and more regularly; I will do so at least once a month from now on, and as we get closer to finishing the book that frequency will only increase.

The news from September is not ideal. I threw my back out badly early in the month, and was barely able to move for twelve days. I got little work done during that time, and it’s taken me awhile to get back up to speed since. I am still immersed in choosing the art for The Wild Wood, and expect that John Berry and I will finish that within ten days or so, and move on to The Art of Memory. I will post another update at that point.

I regret to say that this means we won’t be able to get books out in time for Christmas. Better that I make that clear now rather than later. January remains a possibility.

In other news, the Numbered Edition is almost sold out: out of 300 numbered copies, we have sold 290: only ten remain. Those interested in buying a Numbered copy should enquire about availability at vranizky@speakeasy.net.

Many thanks for your continued patience and forbearance. Please look for another update around the middle of October.

It is, you will note, nearly the middle of November and there has been no update. I don’t know whether to feel resigned, sad, or angry.

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Margaret and Helen

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Andrew Sullivan, for pointing out Margaret and Helen’s blog. 82-year-old Helen Philpot doesn’t like Sarah Palin (or McCain or Bush, either):

I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer. And I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling the parts of the country where I don’t live more Pro-American than the part of the country where I do live. And I will definitely stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops acting like a bitch.

And a few posts back, in response to someone who wrote asking for advice because her grandparents tore up their ballots rather than vote for a black man:

Well Jennifer, my first instinct was to tell them to pull their heads out of their asses and start living in the 21st century. Life is too short to be hanging on to stuff we learned when we were young and didn’t know any better. But I remember those days. We didn’t know any better and some of us cling to yesterday out of fear and ignorance.

So, as an old lady who has been around the block of few times, here is what I think: Sometimes elections can be about great things… about changing the world. Think Lincoln. Think FDR. I started out in this election supporting Hillary Clinton because I believed our country needed a women’s point of view in the Oval Office. I truly believe that women approach education, war, healthcare, the environment, poverty, etc. differently. Of course then I met Sarah Palin and realized that some women are just bitches who only want to change their wardrobe and your religious freedoms.

So tell your grandparents this instead: Imagine what the world looks like on November 5th if America elects Barack Obama for President. We will have finally closed a chapter on American politics and moved into the 21st Century realizing that hatred, fear and bigotry is a waste of time and energy – both precious commodities of limited quantity. What respect we would get from around the globe. Why wouldn’t your grandparents want to be a part of such a historic moment? Why wouldn’t any of us want to be part of this historic moment — a moment when we profoundly change the world for the better?

But remember we grew up in a different time. We grew up during a time when this country didn’t understand the depths of its hatred. Don’t blame them. They don’t know any better. It is a part of who they are. But if they ignore you, you have my permission to do what I do when Harold doesn’t listen to me. Put laxatives in their pudding.

There are hundreds (probably thousands) of comments. Some of the comments wonder if the writer is for real (or a 22-year-old guy). I’m enough of a skeptic to wonder the same thing, but I laughed out loud as I read the last week or so of posts. And that’s good enough for me at this point in a presidential campaign.

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Books as business, take 2

The New York article I blogged a few days ago got quite a response from Kassia Krozser at Booksquare, It’s Only The End of Rose-Colored Glasses:

Noted statistician Philip Roth estimated, fifteen years ago, “…there were at most 120,000 serious American readers—those who read every night—and that the number was dropping by half every decade.” If this were even remotely true, then the New York publishing industry would have collapsed ages ago. Lordy, how would they make the rent on those Manhattan offices?

What is really meant by this, and what is really meant by this article is that a certain segment of the publishing industry is in jeopardy: literary (with a capital L) fiction. More specifically, literary fiction from New York publishers. Look at who is doing the hand-wringing, who is doing the worrying. If this is the end (and it’s not), then what, exactly, is ending?

Both posts have quite a few great comments, well worth the time.

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Asking for a little accountability

Among the variety of things in my RSS reader is Robert Reich’s blog, and today he has an excellent set of observations about the coming socialism in America corporate welfare salvation of the world economy: What Wall Street Should Be Required to Do, to Get A Blank Check From Taxpayers

Why should Wall Street get bailed out by me when I’m getting screwed?

So if you are a member of Congress, you just might be in a position to demand from Wall Street certain conditions in return for the blank check.

(Send a letter to your elected officials about subjects that concern you.)

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Resist the present!

Not to mention the future: Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind — ChronicleReview.com

So let’s restrain the digitizing of all liberal-arts classrooms. More than that, given the tidal wave of technology in young people’s lives, let’s frame a number of classrooms and courses as slow-reading (and slow-writing) spaces. Digital technology has become an imperial force, and it should meet more antagonists. Educators must keep a portion of the undergraduate experience disconnected, unplugged, and logged off. Pencils, blackboards, and books are no longer the primary instruments of learning, true, but they still play a critical role in the formation of intelligence, as countermeasures to information-age mores. That is a new mission for educators parallel to the mad rush to digitize learning, one that may seem reactionary and retrograde, but in fact strives to keep students’ minds open and literacy broad. Students need to decelerate, and they can’t do it by themselves, especially if every inch of the campus is on the grid.

Obviously this guy is a complete lightweight, or he’d be holding the line at oral recitation. Pfft.

While I heartily disagree with him (I believe he is confusing the medium with the method, and reactively at that), his essay is worth reading.

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Books as a business

Fascinating article in New York Magazine, as a reader, as an editor, and as a new owner of a kindle: Have We Reached the End of Book Publishing As We Know It?

Debbie Stier, Miller’s No. 2 at HarperStudio as this little imprint is called, has been collecting videos for their blog. “You want to see what happens to books after they go to book heaven?” she asks. On the screen of her MacBook, a giant steel shredder disgorges a ragged mess of paper and cardboard onto a conveyor belt. This is the fate of up to 25 percent of the product churned out by New York’s publishing machine.

Everyone’s eyes widen, as though watching some viral YouTube gross-out. “It’s like Wall‑E,” says marketing director Sarah Burningham. “It’s depressing,” Miller adds. They had sent in a Flip camera with a warehouse worker. “You can see our books go through there,” says Stier. “The Crichton, the Ann Patchett.”