I am struck by serendipitous events as of lately.
Last night, I finally got pulled into the current book club read: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It also happened to be the first time I sat down at home and devoted an evening to enjoying a good book.
Previous readings consisted of fractured flashes of time on the bus - not the way to start a book for me. I would read a few pages in the 15 minutes it takes to get from home to work or work to home and I would end up having to reread a page or two just to recall what was going on before moving onward making for slow progress and a story stuck in a black and white world of words. So last night I actually started all over, lightly rereading the first twenty pages that had taken me a week or more to get through on the bus. I am now at the end of Part I The Escape Artist.
***
Do folks want to discuss this first Part? Do we want to discuss each Part as we all finish them?
So what about the serendipity, you might be wondering.
Earlier yesterday, I flipped my scrabble one-a-day puzzle calendar to the next day and was faced with the word brig on the board and the letters I T R T E O L.I struggled but nothing came to mind, so I had dinner, and then as I already said, dove (properly this time) into the book when on page 28 what word should I come across --- as Chabon describes Thomas Masaryk Kavalier, his innate skills at Italian and his "musical chromosomes" from his mom's side of the family --- but the word "libretto." Fantastic!
Then today, who's birthday would it be but none other than the King of Cards and Handcuffs himself, the man who bathed in a tub of ice water, Harry Houdini. Click here to visit a tribute website And then of course wikipedia
I hope all is going well with everyone and the big changes in everyone's lives. Are people finding time to read, or is moving across the country and the welcoming a baby into this world taking up peoples' time? I am not sure if I am going too slow or too fast or just right.
Best,
Franco
10 comments:
I have been poking at the book and have not been disappointed. I had totally forgotten about the whole first part. I am certainly willing to discuss the first part of the novel. The first thing that occurs to me to discuss is the examination of the sometimes hackneyed link between childhood/adolescent trauma and the life of a creative person. The three fold escape in the opening part (escaping to America, Escaping to a hobby or avocation and the performance art of escape) is the preface to his becoming an artist. That universal premise that the populace grants, an artist is an artist to work through some great trauma, is as old as can be but is also not so far removed from the life of the performers I know. Other than the cultural antecedent of learning escape as a trade leading to creating a character whose basis is escape what is the link between the need to flee and the need to create? This is a broader question than can be answered using the text...but regardless it got me thinking. Now, if you'll excuse me, the baby needs changing.
i am a bit behind...as in, i have yet to start the book. i will try to catch up when i finish the windup bird!
I'm struggling through. Around page 150 I started to have some genuine interest but I'm not much past that now. I think it is partly my lack of focus in general lately - or the ability to concentrate on the "less productive" things but it's also a book that has quite an excess of words. I find myself skimming over whole sentences to get to something more moving. But the way you phrase the deeper considerations, Adam, I might be able to get into it yet.
my wife (who is smarter than me by a factor of 10 at least) similarly couldn't get into this one. She thought there were the nuggets of good ideas but couldn't take Chabon's writing. I think as a life long fan of comic books this one had a solid handicap for me coming into it and as such the verbosity was ignored. Also I am afraid I share some of Chabon's over-worded sins.This one might not be for everybody I am happy to offer reason I like what I read though as a point/counterpoint exercise.
full disclosure: I too am stalled right around page 160. this could have more to do with the baby...but also could be because I am not responding as strongly 7 years after the first read.
full disclosure: I too am stalled right around page 160. this could have more to do with the baby...but also could be because I am not responding as strongly 7 years after the first read.
The way that you word the ideas for discussion really is something that everyone should/could participate in even if they haven't picked up the book yet. It's still beneficial and pertaining to the concept of a book club right? Let's try to get everyone into a discussion on the idea of flee as it relates to create and something having to do with trauma or life situation as it relates to creativity or the way that a person ultimately turns out because of their experiences.
Love the discussion!!! And apologize for my absence. I too am struggling with the book. It is too thick to get into on my bus rides to and from work and I haven't had an evening to dive into it again. The last time I did, I made a huge leap, a lunar stride. I have to read it with a pencil so that I can scribble at the margins all the words that I need to look up later. It is not a book I can nibble and nosh on, but one that requires a bit of jaw muscle and gnawing. Solid like a bit of fat or gristle.
As for the question A.Hegg posed - is the universal premise that an artist is an artist to work through some great trauma true? -
What if we contrast the word "artist" with "creativity" ---
I hate to cave into anticipated stereotypes... but I kinda agree with the question that A.Hegg put on the table to chew on... my gut reaction is this: artists suffer; creativity people don't. Being an artist means sacrificing something for a calling or a personal cause and creativity is just the process, which anyone can be... interesting that I conjure such radical differences. WHY? WHERE did I learn such wispy ideas?
I don't have any substance to my reasoning though. None.
Obviously not all who go through trauma become artists, so there must be some nugget of artist in the person before going through a traumatic experience... so my question is thus:
Is an artist's message or art amplified or honed by trauma (something in which to create art about...)?
Is a person with artist potential merely creative (like the coffee shop water color landscape painters) until they have something intense to focus his/her art around and thus becoming a bona fide artist?
What makes an artist an artist?
Is being an artist merely the reactive nature of some to trauma?
Love the discussion!!! And apologize for my absence. I too am struggling with the book. It is too thick to get into on my bus rides to and from work and I haven't had an evening to dive into it again. The last time I did, I made a huge leap, a lunar stride. I have to read it with a pencil so that I can scribble at the margins all the words that I need to look up later. It is not a book I can nibble and nosh on, but one that requires a bit of jaw muscle and gnawing. Solid like a bit of fat or gristle.
As for the question A.Hegg posed - is the universal premise that an artist is an artist to work through some great trauma true? -
What if we contrast the word "artist" with "creativity" ---
I hate to cave into anticipated stereotypes... but I kinda agree with the question that A.Hegg put on the table to chew on... my gut reaction is this: artists suffer; creativity people don't. Being an artist means sacrificing something for a calling or a personal cause and creativity is just the process, which anyone can be... interesting that I conjure such radical differences. WHY? WHERE did I learn such wispy ideas?
I don't have any substance to my reasoning though. None.
Obviously not all who go through trauma become artists, so there must be some nugget of artist in the person before going through a traumatic experience... so my question is thus:
Is an artist's message or art amplified or honed by trauma (something in which to create art about...)?
Is a person with artist potential merely creative (like the coffee shop water color landscape painters) until they have something intense to focus his/her art around and thus becoming a bona fide artist?
What makes an artist an artist?
Is being an artist merely the reactive nature of some to trauma?
Side thought. Granting the premise that the act of writing is an act of escape, what accounts for the stereotype of drug and alcohol abusing writers? This read snarky and I am honestly just asking the question. Do you think that the act of using drugs or alcohol is an escape or is it an attempt to open oneself up to another level of writing by lowering one's inhibitions? I haven't the faintest idea. Okay back (coincidentally) to writing (sober).
Post a Comment