A Different Stripe

Monday Multimedia: Two Ways of Writing About War

Just before Halloween, the New York Institute for the Humanities sponsored a panel discussion about Vasily Grossman and Curzio Malaparte, two writers who worked as war correspondents on opposite sides of the Eastern Front during WWII. When it was Chris Hedges turn to speak, it became clear that he believed the most significant divide between the two writers to be not geographical or narrowly political, but primarily moral. The panelists were too polite to duke out the merits of realistic writing versus the fantastic mode or the value of giving voice to war's victims (Grossman) rather than focusing on those in power (Malaparte) right then and there. Too bad, we would have liked to hear panelist and Malaparte translator Walter Murch come to Malaparte's defense.

Last month, the radio program On The Media gave Hedges an opportunity to discuss war writing, Grossman's bravery and what he terms Malaparte's "war pornography" in more depth. It takes a minute, but an audio player should load right on this very page.

By the way, it's worth listening to this entire episode of On The Media, which took "The Future of the Book Industry" as its theme.

Mutimedia Tuesday: Edwin Frank on Thoreau's Journal

Today is the official publication date for the NYRB Classics edition of Henry David Thoreau's Journal. Last month, while in town to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the series at the Harvard Bookstore, in  Cambridge, MA, Edwin Frank sat down with Jenny Attiyeh of Thoughtcast to discuss the book.

We also recommend reading Geoff Wisner's review of the Journal at The Quarterly Conversation. Geoff has a passion for Thoreau, and for the Journal in particular. So we held our breath knowing he was working on an assessment. Well, what does he have to say?

Damion Searls’ new edition is meant to showcase the Journal as a unified work of literature. More than any previous version, it allows a direct encounter with this great work and approximates the experience of reading the whole. In fact, by clearing away some of the underbrush in the fourteen volumes, it highlights the better-known passages and uncovers hidden gems and significant connections.

Monday Multimedia: Sylvia Townsend Warner gets the digested classic treatment

If you're not familiar with the Guardian's Digested Read series, we suggest you have a look at John Crace's recent roundup of the Booker nominees.

Here Mr. Crace presents a satirical, meta-critical summary of Sylvia Townsend Warner's novel of a hapless missionary who after 3 years of residence on a remote Pacific island, has managed to convert only one heathen—or has he?

Listen to The Digested Classic, Mr. Fortune's Maggot

This edition of Mr. Fortune's Maggot includes "The Salutation"—in which we discover what becomes of Mr. Fortune.

By the way, the word "maggot" here does not refer to an creepy crawly creature, but is a synonym for "whim." Sylvia Townsend Warner's formulation, however, recalls a musical naming convention. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Music explains the word was "used by 16th- and 17th-cent. composers in titles of instrumental pieces, often country dances, e.g. ‘My Lady Winwoods Maggot.’"

Multimedia Monday: Mavis Gallant and Jhumpa Lahiri in Paris

 The Cost of Living: Early and Uncollected Stories
Mavis Gallant
Introduction by Jhumpa Lahiri
to be published fall 2009

Thanks to Granta magazine, which published a converation between these two writers in the summer 2009 issue, for posting these clips.

Mavis Gallant reads from  "In Transit" from Paris Stories at the Village Voice Bookshop in Paris.

Q&A with Jhumpa Lahiri and Mavis Gallant

Jhumpa Lahiri and Mavis Gallant Q&A from Granta magazine on Vimeo.

Monday Multimedia: Peter Coyote talks about Emmett Grogan and the state of the counterculture

Peter Coyote reads a bit from his essay about Emmett Grogan at Book Passage and then discusses is own path from the "bland East coast suburbs" to the heart of 60s counterculture, and about the current cultural moment.

Even if you're sick of hearing about the good old days of the sixties, when just about everyone was a believer in truth love and understanding and all of that—especially if you're sick of hearing about all of that—you should listen to Coyote talking about Grogan and the Diggers (later the "Free Family"), and their attempts at a truly radical remodeling of consumer-based society.

Counterpoint will be re-releasing Coyote's memoir Sleeping Where I Fall later in the year.

Monday Multimedia: James Schuyler reads "Unlike Joubert"

This convergence of two NYRB Classics writers (James Schuyler and Joseph Joubert) seems appropriate today. The recording can be found at the PennSound Archives—which also includes several other poems from the same recording session.

" ...All that is
clear on this shadowless day under
a sky like a shadow is that the first
thought was gray..."

James Schuyler reads "Unlike Joubert"
Recorded at the Chelsea Hotel, New York City, on November 9, 1986.

Monday multimedia: Freebird's post-apocalyptic book group

Peter Miller of Freebird books on the Brooklyn waterfront wrote in to let us know about the Chrysalids' cameo in a segment the store's post-apocalyptic book group filmed for AMC's Science Fiction blog. When asked why the store hosted such a group, Peter remarks that, given the store's industrial setting (which despite such dire description, looks stunning in the clip), "to be honest, if there were an apocalypse, it'd look more or less the way it does now."

Freebird's post-apoc group discussed John Wyndham's Chrysalids the other week. Next up is Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and a Valentine's day apocalyptic-themed shorts festival.

The book group might also want to look into The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya or The Inverted World by Christopher Priest (and of course, The Apocalypse Reader, edited by Justin Taylor).

Monday multimedia: Tatyana Tolstaya's "Okkervil River" read by Will Sheff of Okkervil River

Daytrotter, which broadcasts reliably excellent live shows from major and up-and-coming indy bands (and which—bless their hearts—releases tracks as mp3s, free to all) has been a favorite source of new music around the office for some time. In fact, we would go as far as to say that a number of Daytrotter session tracks are superior to the recorded version. A little over a year ago, the site launched a spin-off feature called Bookery, in which musical guests select and read passages from books and the occasional cinema classic. When Okkervil River recorded a session late last year, it seemed natural that the bandleader, Will Sheff would read from the Tatyana Tolstaya story that gave his band its name.

Will Sheff reads from "Okkervil River"

Monday Multimedia: Footage of Renoir circa 1917

Anyone who has read Jean Renoir's memoir of Auguste Renoir, Renoir, My Father will recognize the old bearded man seen here, his hands twisted from arthritis. Also in the film are the painter Vollard and "La Boulangère," also familiar from the book. [via]

The film was discovered in Harvard University's archives in 2001.

Monday Multimedia: The animated Tulip

Via LineBoil and MyToons, some preview clips of the recently completed animated feature film, My Dog Tulip (based, of course, on J.R. Ackerley's memoir of his "ideal friend"), created by the team of Paul and Sandra Fierlinger. Christopher Plummer provides the voice of J.R. Ackerely. The cast also includes Lynn Redgrave, Isabella Rossellini, and several distinguished stage actors.

The filmmakers intend to enter the film in next year's Cannes Film Festival.

The first clip, featuring as it does a comparison between the bowel movements of Tulip and the emporer Napoleon, reassures us that the film has not been neutered in the interests of gentility. Is this the first animated example of a dog shitting on the sidewalk (or, in English, "pavement")? If not, it must be the best. Enjoy these three clips, and then have a look at the official MyDogTulipFilm.com site for excerpts of a documentary about the making of the film, wonderful for the way it shows the Fierlingers at work (frequently accompanied by their dogs).