Raymond Carver said John Gardner, PhD Iowa, famous, if forgotten?, had a 4 or 5 course load of fresh comp at Oberlin: http://t.co/r6f6A2ILAk
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
maybe i should be anti-Gardner since i'm in w/the #Pynchon crowd & am known to dig caricature, distrust too serious http://t.co/r6f6A2ILAk
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
on the other hand John Gardner's Mickelsson's Ghosts got me back into writing fiction, would sit on Friday afternoons in Van Pelt, comfy 1/2
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
cushioned seat by big glass window, March, April, May 2004, never checked the book out of the library, used a clean dinner napkin 4 bookmark
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
returned the book to the shelf every single time, always read from same book although there was another exactly like it up there in stacks
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
first paragraph of Mickelsson's Ghosts led me to conceive of Cyrus Duffleman https://t.co/LEw2lAGnrF
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
although i think chapters 2 and 3 of Fight for Your Long Day were the first ones i wrote, pen on lined paper, skipping lines, June 2014
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
bought a used IBM ThinkPad to bring to Korea, once there wrote the whole thing from late June to early August, mainly lined paper in COEX
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
shopping mall corner Starbucks and then typing in, improving in evenings and mornings. did not grade papers that summer. Gardner was right!
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
so now Fight for Your Long Day is up there on the 3rd floor of Van Pelt w/ the 2 copies of Mickelsson's Ghosts; somewhat unbelievable to me.
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
i think you can still get into UPenn's Van Pelt library with a driver's license, as i would, although they take your photo at the entrance.
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
"He came to Chico in fall 1959, after having been fired from Oberlin for leading a faculty strike, and left in 1962." http://t.co/r6f6A2ILAk
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
so if you're a sucker for this kind of "writer's life" medium-to-long journalism, as i am, then i recommend: http://t.co/r6f6A2ILAk
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015
