from The New Yorker's archives quoting Jack Kerouac's diaries:
Tuesday, February 28, 1950. My new plans for March: soon as I get my money, I’ll join the morning club at the Y and work out almost every weekday. Also, black coffee (no cream and sugar); chinning from the door (which has no real grip, so I can only do ten or eleven or twelve); and less sleep. I’ve been getting fat and lazy. Time for action, time for a new life, my real life. I’ll be twenty-eight in two weeks. Two meals a day instead of three. Much travelling. No stagnation. No more sorrows! No more metaphysical awe! Action … speed … grace … Go! Writing from true thoughts instead of stale rehashes. I’m going to express more and record less in “On the Road.”
Alex Kudera’s award-winning novel, Fight for Your Long Day (Atticus Books), was drafted in a walk-in closet during a summer in Seoul, South Korea. Auggie’s Revenge (Beating Windward Press) is his second novel. His numerous short stories include “Frade Killed Ellen” (Dutch Kills Press), “Bombing from Above” (Heavy Feather Review), and “A Thanksgiving” (Eclectica Magazine).
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Saturday, May 24, 2014
check your prose
This is a slightly modified version of a comment I never posted at The Chronicle of Higher Education after reading "Check Your History."
I wouldn't reduce Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind to the category of "memoirs of oppressed white men," and I'd also argue that Bloom and his text, and perhaps Saul Bellow's Ravelstein as a reader's companion to, are far more intriguing than Tal's tiny essay, even if I disagree with Bloom's political orientation as well as his hilarious, if minimizing, thoughts on Nietzsche and Mick Jagger.
Anyway, Fortgang is much more of a cliche than an interesting writer, and, yes, he's 18 or 19 and we're supposed to think of him as innocent or allowed to be naive or something like that. Still, it's rather disturbing that his "Checking My Privilege" is getting so much more attention than, say, chapter 5 of Fight for Your Long Day, "Check Your Package At The Door," which offers a fuller, richer, darker, and funnier look at the academy and what goes on between classes.
But back to Tal, this fine reminder that most of us "whites" have not been white for much more than a century, or even half of one, is my favorite essay response to the original,
And here is two to twenty cents from The New Yorker.
I've also been getting into the anger and satire of Paul Beatty's first two novels and thinking of them within the context of the very recent Ta-Nehisi Coates article on reparations to African-Americans. I may write more on this later, and at the least, I'm hoping that Tal Fortgang reads it.
I wouldn't reduce Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind to the category of "memoirs of oppressed white men," and I'd also argue that Bloom and his text, and perhaps Saul Bellow's Ravelstein as a reader's companion to, are far more intriguing than Tal's tiny essay, even if I disagree with Bloom's political orientation as well as his hilarious, if minimizing, thoughts on Nietzsche and Mick Jagger.
Anyway, Fortgang is much more of a cliche than an interesting writer, and, yes, he's 18 or 19 and we're supposed to think of him as innocent or allowed to be naive or something like that. Still, it's rather disturbing that his "Checking My Privilege" is getting so much more attention than, say, chapter 5 of Fight for Your Long Day, "Check Your Package At The Door," which offers a fuller, richer, darker, and funnier look at the academy and what goes on between classes.
But back to Tal, this fine reminder that most of us "whites" have not been white for much more than a century, or even half of one, is my favorite essay response to the original,
And here is two to twenty cents from The New Yorker.
I've also been getting into the anger and satire of Paul Beatty's first two novels and thinking of them within the context of the very recent Ta-Nehisi Coates article on reparations to African-Americans. I may write more on this later, and at the least, I'm hoping that Tal Fortgang reads it.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
My Struggle
"My Struggle" is the original title I have for 200 pages I wrote twenty years ago, in the early nineties. It was my second burst of novel writing, and a parody of the liberal arts grad who winds up broke, slacking, experiencing angst, and so on. See Less Than Zero and Bright Lights, Big City for examples of the genre. It seems like a valid title for anything that intends to draw attention to the fact that the author or narrator has not struggled, has no right to think of his life as struggle, or has struggled in such a psychological or emotional way that it hardly seems like struggle compared to the starving, enslaved, overworked, terminally unemployed, etc.
But I don't know why Karl named his book thusly.
But I don't know why Karl named his book thusly.
Monday, May 19, 2014
The B.K. Lounge
After finishing Paul Beatty's The White Boy Shuffle, I've moved onto Tuff, wherein the main character is seized with love at first sight whilst staring at the fly fry girl at a Burger King. I turn to the internet, and the first story I find staring back is news that Burger King is changing its slogan of 40 years; the royal Whoppers are moving from "Have It Your Way" to "Be Your Way." No doubt the stress of such a transition will weigh down on most of us.
I suppose all roads lead back to De La Soul.
I suppose all roads lead back to De La Soul.
Friday, May 16, 2014
L. A. Books
I've recently been enjoying novels set mainly in Southern California such as The White Boy Shuffle and How To Get Into The Twin Palms. I've also been following So Cal fires and oil spills, and I'm even getting e-mail on L.A. social-justice "gap year" programs.
So, naturally, I took it all as a sign that I was due to link and list:
Novels:
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
So, naturally, I took it all as a sign that I was due to link and list:
Novels:
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty
Chump Change by Dan Fante
Ask the Dust by John Fante
Chump Change by Dan Fante
Ask the Dust by John Fante
Dreams from Bunker Hill by John Fante
The Road To Los Angeles by John Fante
The Road To Los Angeles by John Fante
Which Side Are You On? by Ryan Lee Wong
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
The Player by Michael Tolkien
How To Get Into the Twin Palms by Karolina Waclawiak
Memoir:
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Fante by Dan Fante
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
The Player by Michael Tolkien
How To Get Into the Twin Palms by Karolina Waclawiak
Memoir:
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Fante by Dan Fante
Splinters by Leslie Jamison
I'll add links and other books soon, but please feel free to note your own in a comment.
I'll add links and other books soon, but please feel free to note your own in a comment.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
millennials, employment, the jobless, and food
A glut of articles on millennials and employment seems to have surfaced soon after graduation:
http://www.nbcnews.com/
http://www.nbcnews.com/
http://www.today.com/money/millennials-lazy-entitled-or-maybe-just-young-2D79664367
Meanwhile Reuters notes that jobless claims are at a 7-year low, but in another article says Americans are now so "frugal" that it's hard for food companies to raise prices and retain customers.
I have no data on which of these writers was paid for their work, but I can assure you I received no compensation for this blog.
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