hey all:  so here is the space to post your feedback….my suggestion is to simply list the author’s name, and type the comments–then list the next author’s name, comments….like that.

to explore the weird world of steve tomasula go to:

http://www.stevetomasula.com/

to explore the equally weird world of shelly jackson go to:

http://ineradicablestain.com/stain.html

then tell me whachoo think. why are they moving into these forms to effect what we mean when we say “writing” and “reading?”

OK, so here’s the skinny.

In the next two weeks, you do this:

1. read our last assigned book.  THE AGE OF WIRE AND STRING.  ben marcus.  it’s ok to “read around” in it. when you do, select THREE of the little stories that you believe have merit to write your post about. or, if don’t find that any of them have merit, write about why not, but try to be specific. what’s he up to? why?

2. read the packet of your colleague’s work.  the next time i see you, we’ll workshop about half of them–meaning, you provide written comments on the actual stories and we give the authors verbal feedback.

note:  i emailed you selena’s text; we will workshop her story first.

asta,

lid

so NORTHWEST EDGE is an anthology series put out by CHIASMUS PRESS (www.chiasmusmedia.net).  The anthology seeks to represent prose writing that is outside the mainstream in a collection that features writers from washington, oregon, idaho, and canada specifically.

this particular year’s theme was “the end of reality” — at the time the zeitgeist seemed to be about war, global warming, economic fear and oil woes…but the writers took on a variety of themes.

several of the pieces in the anthology started out as exercises in a class exactly like yours.  in case you are interested:

megan jones – breathpoints

tiffany lee brown – jack and camero

raphael dagold – pussy cigarette

kevin sampsell – headache

ryan smith – foramen

cat tyc – mojo, the patriot

zoe trope – fleeting desires of an anonymous lesbian

and the following films started out as prose writing, and the writers/artists evolved the writing into video/film:

lullaby

blood donor

dandelion

cat and cake

bravo america

explore lydia davis at: http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~jlc42/davis.html

explore shelly jackson at: http://www.ineradicablestain.com/stain.html

read around both sites, find something that resonates for you, and write about it. it’s also important to ask and reflect on this: why do you think these women have deviated from traditional prose writing and taken the prose into experimental territories? what are the gains, the losses?

Steve Tomasula is the author of the novels The Book of Portraiture (FC2); IN & OZ (Ministry of Whimsy Press); and VAS: An Opera in Flatland, an acclaimed novel of the biotech revolution that has recently been re-released in paper by The University of Chicago Press.

Incorporating narrative forms of all kinds—from comic books, travelogues, journalism or code to Hong Kong action movies or science reports—Tomasula’s writing has been called a ‘reinvention of the novel,’ combining an ‘attention to society in the tradition of Orwell, attention to language in the tradition of Beckett, and the humor of a Coover or Pynchon.’ His writing often crosses visual, as well as written genres, drawing on science and the arts to take up themes of how we represent what we think we know, and how these representations shape our lives. His short fiction has been published widely, and most recently in McSweeney’s, The Denver Quarterly, Fiction International, and The Iowa Review where he received the Iowa Prize for the most distinguished work published in any genre.

Recent essays on body art, literature and culture can be found in Data Made Flesh (Routledge), Musing the Mosaic (SUNY), Leonardo (M.I.T.), and numerous magazines both here and in Europe. He holds a doctorate in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and teaches in the program for writers at the University of Notre Dame.

his home page: http://www.stevetomasula.com/

NOTE:  to the right under “pages” is a link to the artist deb used to write her last exercise…she wanted to share it.

so once you pick up the book and start reading it, you will notice that it has a hell of a lot to do with the painter Frida Kahlo.

in effect, carole maso has said in interviews that the book is an “erotic song cycle” both to and about Frida Kahlo.  In this poetry-like fiction, maso uses images from the life of Frida Kahlo to create, as she describes in her author’s note, “a deeply personal meditation: an attempt to be in some kind of dialog with [Kahlo] across time and space-and with myself.”

I think it helps to know a bit about the artist–and if you get a chance, rent the movie FRIDA:

Frida Kahlo (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954) was a Mexican painter, who has achieved great international popularity.^[1] She painted using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by indigenous cultures of Mexico as well as by European influences that include Realism, Symbolism, and Surrealism. Many of her works are self-portraits that express her own pain symbolically and her sexuality.

Kahlo was married to and encouraged by the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. They shared political views. Although she has long been recognized as an important painter, public awareness of her work has become more widespread since the 1970s. Her “Blue” house in Coyoacán, Mexico City is a popular museum, donated by Diego Rivera upon his death in 1957.

began in 1910 when Kahlo was three years old. Later, however, Kahlo claimed that she was born in 1910 so people would directly associate her with the revolution. In her writings, she recalled that her mother would usher her and her sisters inside the house as gunfire echoed in the streets of her hometown, which was extremely poor at the time. Occasionally, men would leap over the walls into their backyard and sometimes her mother would prepare a meal for the hungry revolutionaries.

Kahlo contracted polio at age six, which left her right leg thinner than the left, which Kahlo disguised by wearing long skirts. It has been conjectured that she also suffered from spina bifida, a congenital disease that could have affected both spinal and leg development. ^[5] As a girl, she participated in boxing and other sports. In 1922, Kahlo was enrolled in the Preparatoria, one of Mexico’s premier schools, where she was one of only thirty-five girls. Kahlo joined a gang at the school and fell in love with the leader, Alejandro Gomez Arias. During this period, Kahlo also witnessed violent armed struggles in the streets of Mexico City as the Mexican Revolution continued.

On 17 September 1925, Kahlo was riding in a bus when the vehicle collided with a trolley car. She suffered serious injuries in the accident, including a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. An iron handrail pierced her abdomen and her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability.

Although she recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she was plagued by relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life. The pain was intense and often left her confined to a hospital or bedridden for months at a time. She underwent as many as thirty-five operations as a result of the accident, mainly on her back and her right leg and foot.

Career as painter

Frida Kahlo with Diego Rivera in 1932

After the accident, Frida Kahlo turned her attention away from the study of medicine to begin a full-time painting career. The accident left her in a great deal of pain while she recovered in a full body cast; she painted to occupy her time during her temporary state of immobilization. Her self-portraits became a dominant part of her life when she was immobile for three months after her accident. She once said, “I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best”. Her mother had a special easel made for her so she could paint in bed, and her father lent her his box of oil paints and some brushes.^[6]

Drawing on personal experiences, including her marriage, her miscarriages, and her numerous operations, Kahlo’s works often are characterized by their stark portrayals of pain. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits which often incorporate symbolic portrayals of physical and psychological wounds. She insisted, “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality”.

Kahlo was deeply influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, which is apparent in her use of bright colors and dramatic symbolism. She frequently included the symbolic monkey. In Mexican mythology, monkeys are symbols of lust, yet Kahlo portrayed them as tender and protective symbols. Christian and Jewish themes are often depicted in her work. She combined elements of the classic religious Mexican tradition with surrealist renderings.

At the invitation of André Breton, she went to France in 1939 and was featured at an exhibition of her paintings in Paris. The Louvre bought one of her paintings, The Frame, which was displayed at the exhibit. This was the first work by a 20th century Mexican artist ever purchased by the internationally renowned museum.

Stormy marriage

Frida Kahlo (center) and Diego Rivera photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1932

As a young artist, Kahlo approached the famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera, whose work she admired, asking him for advice about pursuing art as a career. He immediately recognized her talent and her unique expression as truly special and uniquely Mexican. He encouraged her development as an artist and, soon began an intimate relationship with Frida. They were married in 1929, despite the disapproval of Frida’s mother. They often were referred to as The Elephant and the Dove, a nickname that originated when Kahlo’s father used it to express their extreme difference in size.

Their marriage often was tumultuous. Notoriously, both Kahlo and Rivera had fiery temperaments and both had numerous extramarital affairs. The openly bisexual Kahlo had affairs with both men and women (including Leon Trotsky);^[2] Rivera knew of and tolerated her relationships with women, but her relationships with men made him jealous. For her part, Kahlo became outraged when she learned that Rivera had an affair with her younger sister, Cristina. The couple eventually divorced, but remarried in 1940. Their second marriage was as turbulent as the first. Their living quarters often were separate, although sometimes adjacent.

Later years

La Casa Azul, photo taken in 2005

Active communist sympathizers, Kahlo and Rivera befriended Leon Trotsky as he sought political sanctuary from Joseph Stalin‘s regime in the Soviet Union. Initially, Trotsky lived with Rivera and then at Kahlo’s home, where they reportedly had an affair.^[2] Trotsky and his wife then moved to another house in Coyoacán where, later, he was assassinated.

Death

A few days before Frida Kahlo died on July 13, 1954, she wrote in her diary: “I hope the exit is joyful – and I hope never to return – Frida”.^[2] The official cause of death was given as pulmonary embolism, although some suspected that she died from overdose that may or may not have been accidental.^[2] No autopsy was ever performed. She had been very ill throughout the previous year and her right leg had been amputated at the knee, owing to gangrene. She also had a bout of bronchopneumonia near that time, which had left her quite frail.^[2]

Later, in his autobiography, Diego Rivera wrote that the day Kahlo died was the most tragic day of his life, adding that, too late, he had realized that the most wonderful part of his life had been his love for her.^[2]

A pre-Columbian urn holding her ashes is on display in her former home, La Casa Azul (The Blue House), in Coyoacán. Today it is a museum housing a number of her works of art and numerous relics from her personal life.^[2]

(by the way, look to the right–there is a new “page” about postmodernism)

(by the other way, here’s the link to debra’s interview again, too: http://avantwomenwriters.blogspot.com/2008/03/interview-with-debra-diblasi.html)

1. debra claims that she structured the book around “systems theory.” Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science and the study of the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specificially, it is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result. This could be a single organism, any organization or society, or any electro-mechanical or informational artifact. Systems theory as a technical and general academic area of study predominantly refers to the science of systems that resulted from Bertalanffy’s General System Theory (GST), among others, in initiating what became a project of systems research and practice. It was Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson who developed interdisciplinary perspectives in systems theory (such as positive and negative feedback in the social sciences).

do you think her book reflects a “systems theory” approach to narrative/storytelling? how?

2. several of you experienced the “alienated reader” effect. you know, when a book puts you as a reader in an uncomfortable, sometimes even antagonistic position while you are reading. when i first read this book i actually felt assaulted. so my question is, is there any value or point to that? or, as jeff suggested, is she just showing off or self absorbed in narrative hijinx? are there any gains to be made by placing the reader there, as opposed to, say, placing the reader in the oprah sofa comfort zone? because barb is right, this book aint gonna make it on oprah…

3. debra calls this kind of writing “multimodal.” what do you think that means? what do you think about the effects or possibilities of “multimodal” writing? according to debra, writing must evolve in relation to our current technologies and cultural productions…

4. debra says in several different interviews, including the one i sent you the website for, that underneath the story of this weird jiri character are important issues of race, class, gender, death, and the human condition. tony’s list seems to track at least some of that. does the book raise those issues? how? does it make you think more deeply about them, or turn you off (like jeff who went to sleep but did at one point make a ‘happy sound.’–cracked me up)?

5. some people have said that men have an easier time getting away with raw, disturbing writing than women writers. that writers like william burroughs, or alain robbe grillet, or chuck palahniuk are treated like famous authors when they write raw, sexually explicit, violent prose. whereas when women do it, it’s downright distasteful. ew. do you agree? why or why not? is there any merit in women writers driving their prose into darker territories of storytelling?

love lidia

Love, Lidia

Debra Di Blasi (www.debradiblasi.com) is the recipient of many writing awards, including the James C. McCormick Fellowship in Fiction from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the Thorpe Menn Book Award, and the Eyster Prize in Fiction. She was a finalist in the Heekin Foundation’s Novel-in-Progress Fellowship and in the first Panliterary Awards sponsored by Drunken Boat literary journal. Her mixed media fiction, “Sparrows,” received a Pushcart nomination, and her essay, “What Three Cheers Everywhere Provides,” an Editor’s Choice nomination for Best American Essays.

Her books include the novellas Drought & Say What You Like (New Directions) and the story collection Prayers of an Accidental Nature (Coffee House Press). Her mixed media novella, Ugly Town, will be published 2007 in conjunction with a hiphop/rap competition and CD production. A spoken word/rap album & book, based on her poem cycle, Twin, will be released in late 2007. Other writing includes short stories, essays, art reviews and articles published in a variety of national and regional publications including The Iowa Review, Notre Dame Review, Poetry Midwest, First Intensity, New Letters, Chelsea, The New Art Examiner, and many others. Her fiction has been anthologized and adapted to film, radio, theatre, and audio CD in the U.S. and abroad. Museums have featured her collaborations with visual and audio artists, and her drawings, paintings and videos have been exhibited in galleries.

Screenwriting credits include The Walking Wounded, finalist in the 1996 Austin Screenwriters Competition, and Drought, for which she won the 1999 Cinovation Screenwriting Award. The short film, Drought, was directed by Lisa Moncure and went on to win a host of national and international awards, including Best Drama and Best Director (Toronto), Best Medium Film (Lisbon), Kodak Visions Award for Cinematography (Avignon, France), and Grand Prize and Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee. Drought was only one of six US films selected for the Universe Elle section at the 2000 Cannes International Film Festival.

Debra is president of Jaded Ibis Productions, Inc., a transmedia corporation™ producing most notably, The Jirí Chronicles, a mélange of over 400 fictive audio interviews and music, videos, print, web and visual art works. She was the founding Chair of Crosscut: Women in Film, former art columnist for The Pitch, and taught innovative writing forms at Kansas City Art Institute for over five years.