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January 24, 2007
THIS LITTLE PIGGY IS READING WHEN SHE CAN AND PACKING HER BAGS
RECENTLY
Very short fiction of mine appear in the latest wet ink, a lovely magazine from Adelaide. One of them, Regurgitation, appears online.
PACKING
I am preparing for my second trip to the US after being home for a mere 2 months. Who would have thought that the fallout of travelling to the States last September would result in my current chilled out state? After the Department of Homeland Security and Domestic Travel in the US, everything else is bliss. Carving out writing time is like a perfect movie where the heroine faces several final tests before Shangri La.
RECOMMENDING
I have been reading less novel length work and more short fiction, usually in magazines and reviews. I did finish reading the Atlantic Monthly Fiction Issue. Gorgeous story by Lauren Groff. And more great ones from Cynthia Ozick and Tim Gautreaux. I couldn't get into the Richard Russo -- long passages with italics killed me off and I am probably missing lovely fiction--I watched Empire Falls on DVD--what a story!
ENVIRONMENT
It was hard to think, some days ago, of Victorian fires still burning in much of the state; the smoke was pretty heavy in Melbourne on most days. After a few clear ones, I stopped thinking so much about it. Someone told me the wind had even blown the smoke into Sydney. 3rd stage water restrictions here means that you cannot wash cars except for windscreens and lights. I must ring the council about the food vehicles because safety laws require clean transport.
RESOURCES
Since the cafe, all resources have been stretched so I've been on fetch-and-carry duty lots. I barely think more than a few hours at a time (hence my reference to being chilled out). New Years day found us driving two vehicles down to Falls Festival to get there by 7am. I have decided that I don't like getting up at 3 in the morning. Took my notebook but was too stunned to do any writing; even my usual quick jotting of notes deserted me.
SECOND USE
My mother-in-law asked me if I could help a friend of hers who had written an article, a question of rights. Today, I finished a very interesting article in the latest Harpers by Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence. A fabulous read. I had crossed paths with plagiarism; what is borrowed, stolen, unfairly used, the suits, the pros and cons, and up till now only had lukewarm beliefs about the phenomenon. True, I had been moved to strong feelings when a story I had reviewed by a writer friend turned up to win the Stony Brook prize (for undergraduates). It had been lifted almost in its entirety by a student of Joyce Carol Oates. Nothing happened. No apology even to the author who had little money and time to pursue the matter. Happens the same way when one goes to try claiming off insurance, the time and trouble is more than the claimant is willing to pay. But in Lethem's article are the finer nuances of borrowing, and in contexts that I had not never thought about before.
A passage that entranced, from the article: The world of art and culture is a vast commons (ie., a commons belongs to everyone and no one, its use controlled only by common consent)... The closest ressemblance is to a commons of a language; altered by every contributor, expanded even by the most passive user. That a language is a commons doesn't mean the community owns it, rather it belongs between people, possessed by no one and not even by society as a whole.
He also makes a distinction about art belonging in a gift economy and a market economy. Worthwhile reading.
SOON
More later about February and the AWP panel in Atlanta where I shall be on an online panel with some wonderful gifted writers.
Posted by girija at January 24, 2007 12:21 AM