Congratulations to Beverly Cleary, winner of the 2010 Robert Kirsch Award, Powell's Books, winner of the 2010 Innovator's Award.
The rest of the 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes will be awarded April 29, 2011, in a ceremony at the Los Angeles Times building. Many great books and authors are in the running as finalists.
For more information, check out the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes page.
Stay tuned for more info about the upcoming LA Times Festival of Books 2011.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Joyce's Ulysses, Early New York Times Review from 1922
It's funny, how when Joyce's classic novel Ulysses first came out
in 1922, few people knew what to make of it. While they sensed
brilliance, they also felt frustration with this new form of art.
For instance, check out this early review from the New York Times.
The professor, Dr. Joseph Collins, clearly appreciates Joyce's genius, calling Ulysses "the most important contribution that has been made to fictional literature in the twentieth century."
At the same time, he laments at the work's abstruseness:
"...Moreover, he is determined to tell it in a new way. Not in straightforward, narrative fashion, with a certain sequentiality of idea, fact, occurrence, in sentence, phrase and paragraph that is comprehensible to a person of education and culture, but in parodies of classic prose and current slang, in perversions of sacred literature, in carefully metered prose with studied incoherence, in symbols so occult and mystic that only the initiated and profoundly versed can understand -- in short, by means of every trick and illusion that a master artificer, or even magician, can play with the English language..."
Well, despite the book's Delphic ambiguity, the professor turned out to be right. Ulysses did go down to become one of the best books of all time, at least according to this list from the Modern Library.
It makes one wonder about the artist's aesthetic, as Joyce explores in his first novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Should an artist follow a Kantian perspective, focusing on "art for art's sake" and disregarding all else (including $), except one's own Muse? And if the work is accomplished to the artist's wishes, is he "successful" in realizing his vision, regardless of outside understanding and recognition?
More musings later...
in 1922, few people knew what to make of it. While they sensed
brilliance, they also felt frustration with this new form of art.
For instance, check out this early review from the New York Times.
The professor, Dr. Joseph Collins, clearly appreciates Joyce's genius, calling Ulysses "the most important contribution that has been made to fictional literature in the twentieth century."
At the same time, he laments at the work's abstruseness:
"...Moreover, he is determined to tell it in a new way. Not in straightforward, narrative fashion, with a certain sequentiality of idea, fact, occurrence, in sentence, phrase and paragraph that is comprehensible to a person of education and culture, but in parodies of classic prose and current slang, in perversions of sacred literature, in carefully metered prose with studied incoherence, in symbols so occult and mystic that only the initiated and profoundly versed can understand -- in short, by means of every trick and illusion that a master artificer, or even magician, can play with the English language..."
Well, despite the book's Delphic ambiguity, the professor turned out to be right. Ulysses did go down to become one of the best books of all time, at least according to this list from the Modern Library.
It makes one wonder about the artist's aesthetic, as Joyce explores in his first novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Should an artist follow a Kantian perspective, focusing on "art for art's sake" and disregarding all else (including $), except one's own Muse? And if the work is accomplished to the artist's wishes, is he "successful" in realizing his vision, regardless of outside understanding and recognition?
More musings later...
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Good Reads
Rock Star's Rainbow by Kevin GlavinMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Hello! I'm the author/editor (I must apologize for this posting--I'm not quite sure how else to link my goodreads profile to my novel). What did I think of the book? I loved it! It was so much fun to write; I hope you have as much fun reading it. If not, it helps make a good fire:)
I'm a bit late to this goodreads site, but I'm glad to have found it and gotten started.
For more info, feel free to check out my website:
http://www.rockstarsrainbow.com
Thanks so much and have a wonderful 2011!
Sincerely,
Kevin Glavin
P.S. Please note that there are some technical issues with the Google eBooks version that are still in the process of being corrected (for some reason, their converted ePub omitted all apostrophes, quotations, accents, and umlauts). All other eBook and print versions work fine:)
View all my reviews
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
More on the Future of Publishing?
L.A. Times: Bob Stein wants to change how people think about the book; plans to start electronic publishing house http://lat.ms/hKhFjX
The Future of Publishing?
5 E-Book Trends That Will Change the Future of Publishing mashable.com/2010/12/27/e-b…
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Lecture Upon The Golf Course
A clod of clay
Upon my cleat
I must remove it
I must be neat
As I discard it
Upon the street
A funeral procession
Do I meet
Oh my word!
Who goes there?
Oh my word?
What do I care?
I have another round
Of golf to play
I'll think about death
Some other day
But the crowd of mourners
Goes on and on
The crowd of mourners
Goes hither and yon
And I am forced to wait
Until they pass
I am forced to wait
Upon this grass
And as I do
I tap my shoe
I twirl my club
I fix my 'do
I even pivot
To fix a divot
And as I bend down--
I see myself--
Beneath the ground
I am beneath the ground and I can't get up
I am beneath the ground and I can't get up
I am beneath the ground and I can't get up
But look!
Pushing through the earth--
There grows a brand new blade of grass!
Kevin Glavin, November 2010
(All apologies John Donne:)
Upon my cleat
I must remove it
I must be neat
As I discard it
Upon the street
A funeral procession
Do I meet
Oh my word!
Who goes there?
Oh my word?
What do I care?
I have another round
Of golf to play
I'll think about death
Some other day
But the crowd of mourners
Goes on and on
The crowd of mourners
Goes hither and yon
And I am forced to wait
Until they pass
I am forced to wait
Upon this grass
And as I do
I tap my shoe
I twirl my club
I fix my 'do
I even pivot
To fix a divot
And as I bend down--
I see myself--
Beneath the ground
I am beneath the ground and I can't get up
I am beneath the ground and I can't get up
I am beneath the ground and I can't get up
But look!
Pushing through the earth--
There grows a brand new blade of grass!
Kevin Glavin, November 2010
(All apologies John Donne:)
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