We Tell Stories

For the most part, literature has made an uneasy transition onto the Internet. Generally, it is presented as if it were printed on a page, and though there is a different physical interaction, clicking the mouse instead of turning the page, the actual reading experience is no different online than on-paper. Furthermore, most attempts to merge the two media end up simply mashing them together, like hypertext poetry for example, rather than seeking out a new mode of expression that uses the best of both. The only thing that I've come across so far that comes close to a real new "online literature" are the Internet games, like the one we hosted for our Raw Shark Texts event last year, or the one based in the universe of, but not officially sanctioned by, the Matrix movies, where competitors follow clues through a number of different websites to solve some mystery. That is until I came across We Tell Stories.

We Tell Stories is a project of Penguin UK, where six short stories based on classic works are presented with the tools of the internet. The first installment is called "The 21 Steps" and is based on the novel The 39 Steps. The 21 Steps uses Google Earth to literally follow the protagonist around the UK. Wherever the protagonist goes on his adventure, the reader is taken there on the map. The prose is enclosed in the Google Map bubbles and includes additional pictures, audio, and video that augment the story. It is a seamless meshing of the two media into something entirely new. The second story "Slice" is based on The Haunted Doll's House and is told in two blogs (including the comments); one on LiveJournal and one through WordPress, with additional material available through Twitter and Flickr. The story started on March 25 and will end on March 28, but it will remain on their archive. What you see in both are all the hallmarks of literature with verbal images, characterization, plot, and interpretative potential and all the hallmarks of the internet with constant update, access to vast amounts of information, and (potentially simulated) reader interaction.

"Slice" will be followed by works based on Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, Therese Raquin by Emile Zola, Hard Times by Dickens, and Tales from the 1001 Nights. If the first two stories are any indication this is a project to watch for.

A New Primary Color

One of the challenges of talking about books is expressing a deeply personal connection in a way that will convince a total stranger that the book is worth his or her time. It's the challenge every reviewer faces and it becomes more daunting when trying to explain a book that has a unique importance in your life. Given that, this article from Slate blew me away. What's so exciting about the article, and what made me special order the book immediately after reading the article, is that the work clearly inspired the writer to stretch the limits of his prose to do justice to a work of profound importance in his life. After describing the effect this work had on writers like Gabriel Garcia Marques, he says of Pedro Paramo, "it was like happening on a new primary color, entirely unlike any I'd seen before." Not just a new experience, or something unique and quirky, but a book that became a basic unit from which all his subsequent reading experiences would be composed.

Bret Johnston

A good time was had by all when Grub Street and Porter Square Books brought Bret Anthony Johnston to the store. The audience was full of aspiring writers lapping up the wisdom being dispensed by Johnston who is Director of the Creative Writing Program at Harvard. Johnston's book, Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, is an interactive writing book with contributions from over sixty writers. Johnston is also the author of Corpus Christi: Stories. If you missed him at the store you can still catch him at the Muse and the Marketplace, Grub Street's weekend-long literary conference happening April 26-27.

The Blot

One of the most exciting debuts in graphic novels this year was The Blot by Tom Neely. Neely's first novel is the story of a character afflicted by a force made visible through ink blots on the page. Sometimes the blots are small and subtle. Sometimes they dominate the page or the panel. Sometimes the blot destroys and sometimes the blot creates. It's one of the strongest central images I've read in recent literature. The strength of a particular image, whether visually or verbally constructed, does not come from the clarity with which it conveys a particular idea, but from its ability to provide structure for whatever ideas are important to me as I read. An image like the blot can be anything, but when I read it, I saw the complexities of humanity's drive to create. Sometimes that drive is the only thing we have. Other times it pushes us to dangerous ambitions and foolish delusions. The drive to create helps us build relationships, but other times it drives us apart from each other. Other readers of The Blot will find other ideas for the blot to represent and I think that is a success. Neely guides us in the direction of this interpretation with a few subtle nods to one of the great images in American literature: Moby-Dick. Below are links to a recent interview with Tom Neely about The Blot and about his art in general.

Part One.
Part Two.

Wishful Reading: So Many Books...So Little Time

It's been a Busy Year thus far and my new year's "resolution" to do even more reading in my "spare time" hasn't been going as well as I'd hoped. There are many books on my shelves at home that I'm eagerly anticipating...Here are 8 of them.
1. Working by Studs Terkel: When my brothers were in high school the drama club did a musical performance of Working. I was young at the time and can still remember some of the numbers, and as a twenty-something trying to decide on a career it seems like a good resource.

2. Darkmans by Nicola Barker: Josh has been raving about this at the book store and I do trust his taste (he encouraged me to read Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall which I thoroughly enjoyed)

3. Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo: After we moved to the city I heard about "The great Boston molasses flood of 1919" and couldn't believe that molasses in January could be considered a disaster. This book is supposed to be the definitive account of everything that happened that January 1919.

4. Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link: In 2004 I went to a concert in Northampton and instead of having an opening band they had a reading. It wasn't until this past year that I found out that it was Kelly Link who had read from this book. She read the 6th segment of this book, a story about Zombies. It lulled us into a story- time sleepiness. There is nothing quite like being read to in a dark theater to let your mind wander and join the story.

5. As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem: Alexander put this on display a year ago February. I remember reading the back, being intrigued...forgetting the title, asking Alexander what it was and then finally taking it home before I could forget again. The idea of a particle physicist leaving her boyfriend for a void in the universe seems odd- but thoroughly entertaining.

6. No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July (stories): Perhaps it was the bright yellow cover, the simplistic design (I know that this contradicts my previous post- forgive me). After reading a short story of July's in The Best American Non required Reading 2007 I was hooked!

7. The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers: Perhaps I'm just attracted to bright yellow covers but this book has grabbed my eye several times over the past year and a half. It's described as being "equal parts J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams and Shel Silverstein" and I really enjoy Mr. Adams' work.

8. Travels with Charley: in Search of America by John Steinbeck: I've been in search of road trip literature for the past year in preparation for my own road trip and this was suggested to me by a friend who went through the same process.

Are there any books you've been dying to have time to read?

Best of Boston!

Porter Square Books has been nominated for a Best of Boston Award from the Boston Phoenix. Click on the banner above to vote for us. Thanks for your support.

The Conscious Bride

For my staff pick this month, I chose The Conscious Bride by Sheryl Nissinen. Because this isn’t your typical wedding book, I wanted to write a little more about what it offers that most other wedding-related books do not. As my own wedding approaches this summer, I have somehow felt that I “should” be perusing bridal books and magazines to gather all the latest tips, advice, and reminders of all the little details that can’t be overlooked. Also, isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you get engaged? It seems that we’re surrounded by numerous experts to guide us smoothly through the engagement and wedding…that is, if you’re only looking for experts on dresses, flowers, and the etiquette of whether to invite your second cousin once-removed. I certainly have consulted these sources, sometimes for a laugh and sometimes looking for and finding genuine good advice. I understand and sympathize with a desire to make your wedding tasteful, aesthetically pleasing, and celebratory in whatever way best fits you, and clearly a degree of some planning is necessary for any event. But in my perusal of wedding “literature” I was searching for some insight beyond the planning and implementation of just this one day.

Nissinen’s book offers a different take on the wedding, which I think is a wonderful complement to any other wedding books or magazines you may be reading. Being a “conscious bride” (“as opposed to unconscious/drunk?” one of my friends joked) is about being aware of, and willing to face, the variety of emotions – both joyous and painful - that can surround the wedding and beginning of marriage. Nissinen views the engagement, wedding, and first year of marriage as a rite of passage, with typical stages and rituals that characterize all rites of passage. A rite of passage, she argues, involves a transformation of identity, as the “initiate” lets go of his/her old way of life and moves into a new role. The three stages of separation, transition, and incorporation of the new self are present in the wedding process, too. And as with any separation and transition from the old to the new, we can be scared, confused, and even sad, which Nissinen argues are all natural and necessary parts of any rite of passage, including a wedding. So often, though, our image of a wedding is one of pure and total happiness, and we worry that if any other emotions are present there is something wrong with us.

Nissinen brings to the surface the confusion and doubt that even the happiest of brides can feel during this lifecycle event, and dispels the notion that feelings of fear and sadness are not okay. Rather she argues that many brides and their family and friends put so much energy into the planning of this one “perfect” day precisely so they don’t have to face the changes and emotions this new stage will bring. Nissinen interviews and gathers stories from many brides reflecting on their experiences. The personal voices and variety in these stories were one of my favorite aspects of the book.

My one big complaint about the book is that while Nissinen moves beyond the material aspects of the wedding to focus on the emotional process -- which I clearly value and think makes the book worth reading -- the wedding template she uses is still of a very traditional nature (an engagement ring, a fancy white dress, and a father “giving away” his daughter). There is little discussion of same-sex or inter-racial and inter-religious marriages. In the introduction, Nissinen makes a disclaimer to this point: “Because what we are talking about is an archetype, it makes no difference what we call this commitment - marriage, sacred union, spiritual partnership; it makes no difference what combination of races, cultures, and sexes enter into this union.... so although the book is largely written for heterosexual couples, the energy that consumes brides applies to all committed unions.”

Despite the problematic and limiting nature of looking mainly at the archetypal heterosexual wedding, I still appreciate the emotional/psychological guidance this book provides. It truly is unique to find a book that acknowledges the full scope of feelings involved in the wedding process. It is rare to see someone completely avoid advice on how to make the external and material aspects of a wedding as “perfect” as possible, and instead advocate improving your inner landscape before and during the wedding. That is why if you’re engaged, or know someone who is, this is an incredibly important wedding book to own. I can only hope that Nissinen, or someone else, will expand on this unique perspective and write another book that more actively includes a diversity of participants and rituals.