J. D. Salinger: A Life

     It hardly seems that a year has past since J. D. Salinger departed this life. Since his passing, inevitably, authors have taken the time to analyze, research and write about him. Currently, a book is being released called, aptly, J. D. Salinger: A Life. Author Kenneth Slawenski lives in New Jersey. He has been researching J.D. Salinger: A Life for the past eight years. NPR's Maureen Corrigan reviews the new book with her usual candor and delightful insights.There is not much I can add to her review other than this: Is this book completely factual? I'm not saying the author deliberately made up observations about Salinger. What I am saying is that no one can truly understand and know what a person's life was except for that person. Salinger chose to keep to himself as much as he could considering the fame which followed his novel The Catcher In The Rye.  As a result, he left himself open to conjecture and rumors. One could only understand him through his writing and personal observation. This biographer also researched the records of Salinger's family in order to weave in the pertinent facts about Salinger's past.
     I, for one, would have loved to read a Salinger autobiography. Much like Mark Twain, Salinger could have written a personal account of his life only to have it published posthumously. That way, Salinger could have been open and forthright in his writing without worrying about who it might offend. Only then, could we  see into the mind that is J. D. Salinger. Alas, it was not to be. We must be content with a third-person account of Salinger. It is written by a skillful and well researched author. However, he had never met the subject of his book. He can only do so much to see into J.D. Salinger, the man. Nonetheless, it offers something for those hungry for any insights into the life of Salinger. He was an enigma as much as he was a master story teller.

Tis the Season

The holidays make me think (which is something I do a lot of). What is it about the holidays that bring out the best/worst in people? As a kid, you can't sleep, eat, rest or anything else, because there is stuff under the tree with YOUR name on it!!! Well, to be fair, you can eat...candy, nuts, pies, sugar, etc. They say that the child is full of wonder and sees the good in all things. Yet, if you don't put any presents under the tree with the child's name on it, you'll see how "full of wonder" they are. Like, "I wonder where the !@#$ my booty is?" Well, maybe not exactly like that, but the sentiment is the same. So, here we are, a youngster awaiting the opening of the gifts. Their joy knows no bounds. The adult, on the other hand may have their own Christmas spirit (albeit, from a bottle), but it is spirit nonetheless. Now, let's fast forward to a week later, The kids are exhausted and covered in broken toys, sleeping off their Christmas high. The adults, however, are uncorking the bottle, yet again, as they open their Christmas bills. Its almost like going through withdrawals. You get the anticipation, the high, and the eventual let down. Now you don't have to be a drinker to anesthetize yourself. You can do it through whatever guilty pleasure suits you, be it sugar, caffeine, two day naps, etc. Here's the thing, do we really want to do this to ourselves? I mean, I like getting new stuff as much as the next person. But, is my life really enhanced by this stuff? I guess it depends on what it is. I'm not suggesting that we stop with the gifts. All I'm saying is that there should be limits. Maybe there should be more traditions and rituals to offset the money drainage. The bottom line is, is it worth it? Some people suggest that we live every day as if it were Christmas eve. Is that even possible?  I look at it this way, the lows (and yes they are inevitable) make the highs that much better. We learn from contrast. If everyday was a euphoric field of happiness, would we be getting all that life has to offer? I try to appreciate each and every day. I attempt to "stop and smell the roses" so to speak. I take note of something, no matter how insignificant, to appreciate. When the lows hit, I try to see them as a formidable opponent. Not something to fear, but something to overcome. I see it for what it is: LIFE. So, for 2011, I, for one, shall attempt to walk through the forest of life with perspective. See it from a higher point of view, like a river. You can stay stuck in the sandbar, or you can take flight and see the whole river. You can see the beauty of it and how it flows on and on. You can savor the scenery before you reach the end of the river and traverse a whole new world. Merry Christmas, Happy Life Day (which is every day)!!

While I Was Out.

As I've been busy doing "very productive" things, a prominent blogger has recommended three books for the holiday gift giving season. Over here.   I am a contributor in book #1, so, if you have an inclination, check it out. Or, for that matter, check all three. Passing along the written word is a wonderful tradition. Expanding one's mind is about the single most important thing you can do. We are all trying to get through this thing called life, just like everyone else. The key is to evolve in a positive way. Remember, you don't drown by falling in the water, you drown by staying there. They say we all have friends on the "other side" who are whispering in our ears from time to time. Stop and take time to listen. Even if you don't believe in an after life, you can surely believe in your own intuition. It is that inner spark which tells us we are doing something right (or wrong). It continually guides us along our path. It is connected to our emotional guidance system which tells us if the advice fits. You know, the feeling we have which tells us if something makes sense, no matter how bold or not, it might be. It lets you know if the voices in your head are good or misguided. If we take time out, even if only for a few minutes, to reconnect, we can nurture our inner spirit. Meditation doesn't have to be ritualistic. Just take some deep breaths, let them out slowly and close your eyes. Let your imagination do as it will. You may see some strange things and maybe, like a puzzle, some things just might make a bit of sense. Here's to sitting down occasionally on the park bench of life and taking a breather. Then, when you start traversing you life's path, once again, it might seem just a bit nicer.

Reading for October

Ray Bradbury first published the short story, the Homecoming, in Mademoiselle magazine in 1946. It was about an Elliott family reunion in Illinois. The Elliott family happen to be vampires. They were an unusual family who lived in a dark, Gothic Victorian house. This fictional family became the inspiration for Charles Addams creation, the Addams family.Author Neil Gaiman credited this tale as one of the stories that inspired him to take up writing.
 Since I am an Elliott, I find the story intriguing.I was brought up watching the Addams family and the Munsters on television. In fact, my siblings and I seemed to be able to relate to these weird, yet loving families who were different by all of society's norms. We, too, felt as if society saw us as "strange". At the same time, we saw this as a good thing. We loved being the "black sheep" who loved monsters and unusual books and movies. Maybe we used our unique outlook to life as coping mechanisms. Maybe we had an artist mentality. It was probably a little of both. Yet, we were different in a good way. It became who we were.
     Bradbury seemed to be coming from the same type of mentality. He saw the world from an artistic, yet darker slant. Bradbury had an intelligent imagination. He could not only see the world in different ways, he could make the reader see it too.

     Bradbury came from Waukegan Illinois which he immortalized in a poem.  

Byzantium I come not from….
As boy

I dropped me forth in Illinois.
A name with neither love nor grace
Was Waukegan, there I came from
And not, good friends, Byzantium….
Pretending there beneath our sky
That it was Aphrodite’s thigh….

And uncles, gathered with their smokes
Emitted wisdoms masked as jokes,
And aunts as wise as Delphic maids
Dispensed prophetic lemonades
To boys knelt there as acolytes
To Grecian porch on summer nights

When he was young and had recently moved to California, Bradbury was introduced to the existence
of the “Science Fiction Society,” a local group where he met
Robert Heinlein and other writers, both established and
aspiring.  Heinlein helped Bradbury publish an early story, and
by the early 1940s the boy from Waukegan was selling material
regularly to pulp fiction periodicals.

Almost from the start, Bradbury aspired to something higher
than the formulas of genre fiction.  When his story Homecoming was turned down by Weird Tales, Bradbury
published it instead in Mademoiselle, where it was championed by
Truman Capote.  Soon afterwards, it was chosen for inclusion in
The O Henry Prize Stories of 1947.  Around this same time,
Bradbury’s work was accepted by Harper’s and The New Yorker.   
By the early 1950s, when he began publishing the novels and
short story collections for which he is best known—including
The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), Fahrenheit
451 (1953)—Ray Bradbury had evolved into a fantasy writer, evolving into a Science Fiction author. He had the wit of a poet and the flair of an actor who could immerse himself in the tale as if he were living it. 

Looking at his classic works, one could see how unique his slant was on reality.   Take, for example, a  passage from The Martian Chronicles.  Here any other science fiction writer of
Bradbury’s generation would have written: “The rocket ship
landed.”  Instead, this is what we get with Bradbury:

The ship came down from space.  It came from the stars and the black velocities, and the shining movements, and the silent gulfs of space.  It was a new ship; it had fire in its body and men in its metal cells, and it moved with a clean silence, fiery and warm . . . It was a thing of beauty and strength.  It had moved in the midnight waters of space like a pale sea leviathan; it had passed the ancient moon and thrown itself onward into one nothingness following another.  (from The Martian Chronicles)

 

Science did not prevail in Bradbury's Sci-fi tales. He chose to envelope the reader into another world without the nuances of technicalities.He used interpersonal relationships between the characters and their environment. He chose to delve into the underlying human and political aspects of the tale. He used common dilemmas society faced and placed them delicately into a science fiction setting.In the book Dandelion Wine, he takes the idea of a boy wanting a pair of "tennis shoes" or sneakers and makes it a wonderful thing. Here is an excerpt:

Somehow the people who made tennis shoes
knew what boys needed and wanted.  They
put marshmallows and coiled springs in the
soles and they wove the rest out of grasses
bleached and fired in the wilderness.  
Somewhere deep in the soft loam of the
shoes the thin hard sinews of the buck deer
were hidden.  The people that made the shoes
must have watched a lot of winds blow the
trees and a lot of rivers going down to the
lake. Whatever it was, it was in the shoes,
and it was summer

 When I was in high school, I was fortunate to have been offered a class in science fiction. In this class we read and discussed science fiction books. From Bradbury to Asimov, the class was propelled into a fantasy world that faced issues that were not so different to what we faced in our world. The wonderful twists of fate and ultimate ethical questions sparked my young mind. Bradbury deserves our gratitude. He gave us a way to escape the mundane while offering us an alternative view of the world in which we live. He presents us with thought provoking ideas and ideologies which, ultimately, give birth to our limitless imaginations. It is a gift we all have. How we use it is up to us.

 While your on the computer, go check out 'B.C. Brown Writes, where I am interviewed

 

Banned Books Week

Boo

   It is, once again, Banned Books Week. Stand up for the freedom of information and speech. Here is the place to go to in order to see what is currently being challenged in the U.S. 
Let us remember the wonderful books that were once banned or currently challenged. Education is a wonderful thing as long as the young minds have access to all types of subjects. Obviously, anything that might be a directive for specific harm should be monitored, but generally that is a gray subject. Also, if a book is being touted as non-fiction when it is actually fiction, then it must be brought to light. The debate on what is acceptable and what is not could go on forever. It is important to keep in mind that, just because you disagree with something, doesn't necessarily make it bad. It is just like the parents who refused to let their children listen to a speech on the value of education by President Obama. It is sad when parents withhold information just because they don't agree with the person delivering it or the subject for that matter. They may hide topics they oppose. Eventually, the child will grow up and be exposed to this information. Wouldn't it be better to open a dialogue on the  topic so your offspring can be fully informed enough to make up their own mind? A well informed student will become a well informed adult. Educational balance is very important for intelligent, functioning adults. Our leaders need to know about the world they live in....every sordid detail.
Here is a very short list of formerly or currently banned books. 
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle 
Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth 

Seeing the World Anew

     Many people walk through life unaware. They go through the routine, they complain, eat, sleep, work and relax. Routine is a comfort to many people. Vacations, a nice respite, can have an undertone of anxiety. People will worry about money, accidents or any number of problems that can interrupt routine. Putting your energy into what you don't want, only gives it power over you. Many organized religions, corporations and any number of groups will use fear in order to dominate, control or to suppress. Anarchy and chaos would surely destroy civilization, they surmise.
     Now, take a step back and see the world through the eyes of an artist. The artist sees the world through their art.
     The writer will see the world in words. They use words to paint a picture and bring it alive. They create emotional dramas or vignettes of serenity.They will use prose to assist a reader in their visualization of a scene.
     The painter will see the world in color. They will use the canvas as a scene. Using color, or lack of  color, they will fashion a moment in time. A piece of the world as they see it. Color, texture and light combinations can draw the viewer into their world. It can be a realistic depiction of everyday life or a fantasy piece from the artist's imagination.Like the painter, the sketch artist will use their pencil or charcoal as an avenue to recreate a picture from life or imagination. They can use the graphite to form simulated texture and shape.
     The photographer sees the world through the lens of a camera. They will use lighting, color, and filters to generate a snapshot of life. The photographer can use various angles and still life in order to offer new perspectives to a subject.
     The musician will see the world through pitch, frequency and harmony. The composer will evoke an emotional response utilizing instruments and rhythm. The musician can also use lyrics in order to clarify and define the musical piece. Along the same lines, the vocalist will use pitch and tone in order to portray a mood and accompany a melody. The singer may sing a cappella without the aid of instruments. The vocal resonance will consummate the aria on its own merit. 
  The fashion designer is also an artist. Clothes are constructed by design using fabric, buttons,thread, color, texture and anything else the designer fancies. The layout and cut of the cloth is just as important as the cloth itself. Some designs are geometric and plain. Yet, they are important parts of an ensemble. People decide how they want to look. What image do they want to project? People will choose their outfits to fit the occasion. A formal or informal party will dictate the style a person will select.  
   The actor is an artist who transforms the face, hair and voice in order to elicit a mood. A good actor feels the part. The actor becomes one with the scene as if he or she were actually experiencing it. A professional thespian makes it look easy. The viewer will be drawn into the scene as if they were really there. 
     The hairdresser uses the hair as her canvas. Using scissors, color and ingenuity, she fashions the style to portray a person's individuality. Hair is an important part of a person's essence. The stylist plays an essential role in an individual's self confidence. 
   The culinary artist uses the taste buds in order to create a delectable meal. Using a recipe, the cook will combine any number of spices, condiments and foodstuff together to make a culinary masterpiece. There is a difference between eating to live and living to eat. Savoring a great meal is a wonderful way to unwind after a hard day. The chef, not only uses food, but also compliments the meal with creative beverages. Wine, coffee and deserts are an important part of a well planned cuisine. 
     An architect is also an artist. Look at the classic architecture in Italy, France and Greece. There are many architectural styles of past and present. Some people love the old Gothic styles used during the renaissance (myself included). Some love the modern, Frank Lloyd Wright styles.The architect must combine style with function in order to add to the aesthetics and utilitarian layout of a well planned city. 
     Now, take the filmographer. This person will combine all the creative avenues together. Movies use music, cinematography, artistic set design, costume design and human emotion. The success of a film is dependent on all creative avenues. An actor is only as good as the script. The script cannot stand alone without the successful backdrop and so on. 
    The common denominator that all artists use is the ability to evoke emotion. Using their art, they draw out an emotional response from the audience. If they cannot do this, they are not fully utilizing their art. It does not matter what the emotion is. It could even be apathy. If an individual is sparked  in some way by art, then the art has, at the very least, did its job. Even if you are not a creative person, you can surely appreciate the artist. How boring the world would be without the artist's input. Using our senses, we absorb the world around us. The artist uses the senses in order to make our world a bit more interesting. They make us more aware of the world around and inside us. 

   Here's a wonderful example of how an artist used junk in order to create fascinating shadow art.

The Year of Twain

“I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835,” Mark Twain wrote in 1909. “It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.’” With this eerie prediction, Samuel L. Clemens did indeed die in the year of the comet on April 21, 1910. One hundred years later, Mr. Twain's legacy is surfacing again. One of Mark Twain's dying wishes was the publication of his personal, outspoken and revelatory autobiography. He devoted the last ten years of his life writing it. Not wanting to face the readers of this candid, tell-all book, Twain chose to have it locked away for a century. He felt that 100 years was adequate enough time to allow his words to simmer. He, most likely, would have been pleasantly surprised to learn that he is as popular as ever in the next century as he was in the last. His publications have survived social changes and book banning. The world is a different place than it was in Twain's day. Yet, simultaneously, human nature remains as complex and dynamic as ever. Mark Twain had a deep understanding of this.
     The creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn  left behind 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs when he died in 1910, together with handwritten notes saying that he did not want them to hit the book stores for at least a century.

   The wait is over, and in November the University of California, Berkeley, where the manuscript is in a vault, will release the first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography. The eventual trilogy will run to half a million words, and shed new light on this uncommon novelist from another time.
  In order to honor Mark Twain, support your local independent bookshop Twain wrote about common folk who made their own adventures, off the beaten path. With the major chain stores, electronic books and the like, the independent shops of all types are being squeezed out.However, it is the locally owned, self-reliant shops that exists for the community. The corporate run stores care about the bottom line, first and foremost. They are motivated by manufacturer kick-backs and popular genres over intelligent, high quality merchandise. The chains are homogenizing the world, one community at a time.Patronizing the local shops is a way of reclaiming individuality and art for the sake of art. The local shop is going up against the corporate giant  armed only with a knowledgeable passion for success. They truly care about what they do. So, keep this in mind when you decide your next purchase. Check out the local shops first and support your community. Ever wonder where a local shop is when traveling? Check this out! If you find a great local shop, you can add it for free!