Haa Haa! Keeping it live in the virtual blogging world. In one of my previous posts I remarked that I hope to do a lot more blogging this semester... Well, that worked out. Regardless, this semester is in full fifth-week steam now, and there's no time for peripheral vision. My life is, as always, a constant stream of consciousness. I made chili and pumpkin-spiced coffee (from Coffee & Tea Exchange on Broadway, check it out!) for dinner, and now I'm hunkering down to do my Anthropology homework... Sometime in the next 12 hours.
Meanwhile! I finished reading
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren over the winter break. Great read! I first stumbled upon this Pulitzer Prize winning novel in my Fiction Writing class (we read an excerpt). Realizing that I had a copy of this book on my shelf, I decided to read the whole thing. Set in the 1930's and told from the perspective of an American historian, albeit a very unconventional one, who works as an aide to Southern politician Willie Stark throughout his rise to power. The book was most interesting because you were able to see the world through the narrator's eyes and how he applied historical process to his own life as well as the other characters. For example, at one point he is reading through the diary of his ancestor, and the author's ability to accurately recreate a civil-war era voice is impeccable.
In other readings, I am attempting to keep up with
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (another Pulitzer Prize winner) and
Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson, as well as my class readings which include most notably
On the Road by Jack Kerouac,
Roughing It by Mark Twain,
The Oxford Book of American Poetry, and
13 Stories & 13 Epigraphs by William T. Vollmann (by far the best, followed by
Hell's Angels, followed by
On the Road). I hadn't discovered Vollmann till last semester, and I recommend you all read him immediately. He ranges from short story collections to huge novels, such as
The Royal Family (780 pages). I also finished
Queer by William S. Burroughs sometime in January. It is very different from
Naked Lunch, and for anyone new to Burroughs, I would suggest starting here. Interestingly, both Burroughs and Vollmann endured personal trauma in their lives, and attribute much of their lives as writers to these specific events in one way or another. I am speaking of Burroughs accidentally shooting and killing his wife in Mexico, and Vollmann's inability to save his drowning sister at a young age.
A good deal of my literature is made possible thanks to the Harold Washington Library Center at State and Van Buren. This is a wonderful place, and I try to make a visit at least every two weeks, if not more.
Classes are all going pretty well. I may not be enthralled by my radio or journalism classes, but we did have a writer from WBEZ as a guest speaker today (!!!). I am becoming completely immersed in the writing program, and I am writing so much these days, it feels wonderful. Now it's just the tricky dichotomy of making my talents specific enough to hone, yet diverse enough to tackle anything, as well as making the right decisions. For instance, I think I want writing, travel, and photography in my future. Is journalism the better path?
Politically speaking (briefly): Hunter S. Thompson once said that the Democratic Party would destroy itself if it knew what was good for it. I consider myself a Democrat, but sometimes the party is so fucking spineless. Let's put it this way; in the last ten years, Republicans were able to achieve a war that
nobody wanted, while Democrats can't even pass a health bill that
everyone wants. Just saying.
Oh, and this is what my summer is looking like, as of now.
Seeya soon!
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