from the spam
I hate, hate, hate Peter Pan and everything he stands for. Including his political views and his thoughts on recycling and the future of neverland
Cast y’all’s votes, y’all.
Should I be the next Oprah?
Clusterbook #2: Lolita
So a few months back, a bunch of us got together on skype and talked about Lolita. There were all sorts of network difficulties and the sheer strangeness of a bunch of disembodied voices speaking out into the ether, but we got talking, and we talked a lot. I boiled all that down to about 20 minutes, which you can hear below, largely sound snippets of various opinions about the book, rather than a single argument or theme.
(Quality note: There’s some background noise, mostly around the start of the recording, and a general sense of echo throughout.)
[http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lolita-group-1.mp3|http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lolita-group-2.mp3|http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lolita-group-3.mp3|http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lolita-group-4.mp3|http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lolita-group-5.mp3]
Then a few days ago, Sheila and I had another chat about Lolita, and I think that some things we discussed in that conversation would be useful to include in this edition of Clusterbook, so you can hear an edited 15 minute version of our conversation below.
[http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Lolita-Sheila-and-Lucy-1.mp3|http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Lolita-Sheila-and-Lucy-2.mp3|http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Lolita-Sheila-and-Lucy-3.mp3|http://www.clusterflock.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/lolita-sheila-and-lucy-4.mp3]
Feel free to get involved in this discussion. I still feel we have barely scratched the surface. If you’ve read the book, or you have a response to anything we’ve said in either conversation, you are very welcome to contribute your opinion in the comments. I would love to hear more diverse voices.
So without further ado, I hereby declare Clusterbook #2: Lolita to be…. open! The clusterflock book club rides again!
From the Imaginary Diary…
of the King of Pop?
…Dr. Byron did not seem to believe me when I said his last prescription was no match for my insomnia…but I saw through his tricks and insisted he prescribe the mightiest pill extant…[he] finally agreed to give me something that, he said, ‘would really work’; and going to a cabinet, he produced a vial of violet-blue capsules banded with dark purple at one end, which, he said, had just been placed on the market and were intended not for neurotics whom a draft of water could calm if properly administered, but only for great sleepless artists who had to die for a few hours in order to live for centuries.
No, friends, it is Lolita. Part one, chapter twenty-two.
Lord, folks, I will never finish it in time.
Clusterbook #2, anyone?
So is anyone up for another Clusterflock bookclub meeting? I’m thinking a low-fi kind of thing, reading or re-reading a book we might have on our shelves already. Perhaps a classic book that people would like to read for the first time, and others might be keen to revisit? I have never read Lolita, for instance, and I know that Sheila loves it. I would love to hear your suggestions.
Clusterbook #1
Clusterbook #1 from Lucy Foley on Vimeo.
After much arranging, technological soul searching and editing, here is the Inaugural Clusterflock Bookclub Meeting, which I’m calling Clusterbook. Four Clusterflockers huddled over their computer microphones and skype in San Francisco, Kansas, Pittsburgh and County Clare one saturday afternoon/night recently to discuss Daryl Scroggins’ This Is Not The Way We Came In, and this is what tumbled out.
A lot of people expressed a desire to get involved in this project, and there is so much more to discuss about this book, so I look forward to the expansion of the conversation in the comments here.
This little project has been a lot of work and I have learned things. It was fun to hear some of the voices whose words we see every day around this site. I hope this public meeting is the first of many.
Clusterflock book club this Sunday!
Introducing Clusterbook: The Comments.
We’re going to have a live comment-in for people who would like to do discuss This is not the way we came in by text only. We’ve already made the audio post, and it will be reposted on sunday for those of us who have read the book and would like to talk about it more. The idea is really simple: we tune into clusterflock on sunday and chat and respond. A live comments conversation, basically.
The venue will be the comments area of the Clusterbook audio post, which you will see on the top of the front page on sunday, or buggering close enough to it. If you subscribe to the comments for the post, you’ll get email bulletins when there is a new comment posted. We are well accustomed to this practice around here.
Having advance notice will also give those of ye who have not yet read the book, a little time to get into it.
So tune in on Sunday! I’ll be around from late morning…
clusterflock book club
I wanted to move Lucy’s wonderful work with the first clusterflock book club back to the top of the page. All the favorite quotes yesterday knocked it quickly off. I know the intention was to offer the live audio chat as the first version of the conversation, and Lucy has done a remarkable job with editing and presenting the event.
The next step was to offer the comments as a way to talk about Daryl’s book.
Cindy did a wonderful job in comments of providing some context:
I stole some time at work and listened to this delightful conversation. I missed much of it due to bad sound on my end, but what I heard does my soul good. Thank you, dear Lucy, for doing this.
I can fill in some blanks. The group discussed how the book seems to be “all at once,” with a kind of organic wholeness to it. In fact, the pieces were written over a span of 30 years. The oldest is “Down the Rivers of the Windfall Light,” which was written in 1979 or 1980; prior to that, Daryl had written line poetry exclusively. I don’t have the book with me so am not sure which is the most recent piece–I’ll let you know.
Rick, yes, Daryl wrote the found poem in “Inscription.” I think the poem -– and the woman’s finding of it–illustrates our interconnectedness through storytelling. While some people can never “get it,” others will –- even if after we’re gone.
As to the place in “Prairie Shapes,” I think the place is what shapes the story. It has a certain control over the people (I recall Daryl saying it was like a door with a lower than standard header that knocks people out again and again). And the cave strikes me as overtly vaginal. I need to read the piece again, though, to hone my perceptions (I re-read all but “Prairie Shapes” when the book came out–but PS knocked the wind out of me the first time I read it.)
I was really interested to hear that similar language and imagery is used in various stories. This is something I’d never picked up on, but it makes perfect sense. One of Daryl’s earliest memories is of lying in his crib, looking at blue sky through a window. He says he remembers feeling like he was falling up. So it is no wonder that this imagery, along with the high ice clouds, appears again and again.
I’d originally intended to keep my private knowledge to myself and simply participate as just another reader, and if y’all would prefer that I not share details such as this (or prefer that I not participate at all), just say so. This whole thing is strange and wonderful. For all of these years, Daryl and I discussed his stories pretty much in isolation. It’s grand to hear the views of others.
Feel free to join the conversation.
Clusterflock Book Club
It does exactly what it says on the tin. I propose a book club, to meet periodically and mull over a specific book. It goes like this:
We decide on a book, buy, loan or steal the book or pick it off our salubriously furnished bookshelves and re-read it, set a date for a couple or few weeks hence, put the date in our little iCals or Moleskine diaries, and get together and jive about the book on the proposed date. Sort of what we do already about shit, but you know, organised.
I got the idea to do this when Deron played Santa a few weeks ago and sent four of us copies of Clusterflocker Daryl Scroggins‘ book, This Is Not The Way We Came In, free gratis and for nothing. So the first book I would like the First Inaugural Clusterflock Book Club meeting to discuss, is Daryl’s. If you would like to participate, you can buy the book at Ravenna Press. I reckon a couple of weeks from now would be the time to do it. So, if you want to hop aboard the CFBC streetcar, and you don’t have a copy of This Is Not The Way We Came In, that means you’ll have to order it, like today, probably.
So. Suggestions please, regarding medium for our book club. I have already suggested a possible Skype conference, but last I looked, Skype only facilitated five people on any given conference call. Still, I think that would be fun. Any interesting technocratic ideas are welcome. Otherwise, we can conduct the conversation in the comments – our native home – but it’s not always the most real-timey way of doing things.
So, Sheila. You have been remarkably quiet: what do you think of the Clusterflock Book Club idea?
