Pym, Volume #4
Posted by Justine Tal Goldberg in 
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the final installment of the WBN online book club’s discussion of Pym. It’s been a wild ride. We laughed, we cried, we witnessed not one but two civilizations crumble. Not bad in a month’s time.
If you’re just now joining us, don’t forget to check out our discussions of Volume I, Volume II, and Volume III. Note: Our Volume III post is feeling seriously neglected, so if the spirit moves you, do share your thoughts there before you do so here. read more
Print vs. Online
Well, usually I’m writing here from the point of view of an editor of Anomalous Press, but I recently started submitting my own work again after a bit of a break working on a long project. And I found that the first few places that occurred to me to submit my work were print journals. I was surprised at myself–there are a lot of online journals I read regularly, subscribe to, and thoroughly love. But without even really considering it, I sent my work to a wonderful print journal I’ve read for years, and was really thrilled to have it accepted there.
Then I got to thinking. Who was going to read this work? And when? And for how long? read more
Deadliners Club
On Tuesday a couple dozen Austinites forewent the State of the Union to come to WBN for a panel discussion on the state of tyranny against photojournalists. “No Photography: Dealing With Obstruction” was the first in the new Deadliners Club, an occasional journalism discussion series presented by WBN and PWA, and moderated by writer Alex Hannaford.
The event was well-covered by our friends over at CultureMap Austin. You can also watch a recording of the discussion in its entirety over at USStream (the panel begins at the 18-minute mark).
Future Deadliners topics will include read more
The Words We Choose
One of my favorite writing exercises is also one of the simplest. It consists of picking ten words and using those words to create a plot synopsis, description, or a bit of dialogue–whatever feels “right.” This exercise is great because it increases vocabulary recall, encourages you to engage with words on multiple levels, and can prompt a new story or poem. It’s focused stream-of-consciousness writing, and that balance can optimize creativity. Sometimes I pick from a dictionary if I’m hankering for new words, and other times I intentionally choose words with the same root language or theme. You can easily tailor this exercise to your own needs.
This exercise, which I’ll call “Take Ten,” is great for writer’s block. For example, I’m in a major funk right now. read more
The Five Stages of Rejection
Stage One: A Mistake (Shock and Denial)
The editor/literary agent clearly screwed up and sent you the wrong letter. All you need to do is wait for the mistake to be fixed. Or maybe you should call and let them know they’ve made an egregious mistake. After all, what does a literary agent do besides read manuscripts all day? It’s completely plausible–in fact, likely–that your story slipped into the reject pile by accident. read more
Pym, Volume #3
There’s plenty to explore in this week’s installment of Pym, so let’s get right down to it. If you’re just joining us, you might want to check out our lively discussions of Volume I and Volume II.
Meta, Meta and More Meta
“Turns out though that my thorough and exhaustive scholarship into the slave narratives of the African Diaspora in no way prepared me to actually become a fucking slave” (160), says our scholarly narrator Chris.
Aside from being a great standout line—I’m a fan of the cadence—it calls our attention to two important elements at play throughout the book: 1.) the meta-narrative, the way that Chris’s account of his Antarctic experiences mimics the slave narratives with which he is so familiar, and 2.) the limitations of scholarship, and by extension literature, to fully capture actual lived experience.
What statement, if any, do you think Johnson is making about the limitations of scholarship and/or literature? read more
Water For Elephants: Worth the Hype?
If you want escapism, a step above a beach read, Water for Elephants is a viable choice. I read the book in two days. While I enjoyed immersing myself in Sara Gruen’s rich descriptions of Depression-era circus life and a sweet love story, I found myself annoyed with several things. Narrator Jacob Jankowski loses his parents while he’s a senior vet student at Cornell, quits school during his final exams, and just happens to hop a circus train that needs a vet. Now that’s a strong (if a little too convenient) set-up, but the way Gruen portrays Jacob’s loss lacks depth. Jacob doesn’t grieve much over his parents except immediately after their death, and the whole ordeal seems like a mere plot mechanism by the end of the book. It’s not that Jacob reads like a stock character–despite sometimes acting like a “callow youth”–but that he seems so unshaped by his life before and after the circus. read more
Grammar: One Step Forward, Too Steppes Bak
By Danielle White
Instant Messenger taught me how to type. Maybe not entirely–fundamentally, Type to Learn taught me how to type, but nowhere near as efficiently as when I started chatting with my friends online. (Funny how in both cases it was a program rather than a person.) Type to Learn was structured and precise, following the rules of punctuation and capitalization. It taught me the correct mode of formal language. Instant messaging, on the other hand, was completely casual. Spellchecker was available, but always seemed misplaced, an absurd amenity. IM was a means to an end. Have idea. Form words to express idea. Repeat. Grammar? Punctuaton? See ya tomorrow in English class.
What I was able to draw from these opposing teachers is that usage has a time and place. read more
Pym, Volume #2
Here we are, friends: Volume II of Mat Johnson’s Pym. I got some valuable feedback from a few of you fine folks that last week’s post was a little aggressive discussion-wise, so I’m going to do my best this time around to do less analysis and more inquiry.
Hang onto your hats, readers. Shit’s about to get real.
Apocalypse Now
While immersed in Volume I, I had been wondering about Johnson’s preoccupation with disaster. On his way to meet Captain Jaynes in Manhattan, Chris confesses, “I didn’t like going near Wall Street. More specifically, I didn’t like going near high-risk bombing targets, it just wasn’t my thing” (71), and a few pages later, “I’d reserved a hotel room in Queens for the night; it was cheaper and safer than Manhattan” (75). In Volume II, we begin to understand these earlier moments as set-up for the Armageddon that finally arrives: read more
Recommended Read: God Knows by Joseph Heller
Man, o Man (and Woman, o Woman)–what in the world?! What stirs one and sifts and lifts the sediment from the depths? What piques, impassions, enrages and enlivens? God Knows. Apparently Joseph Heller knows, too.
Pym, Volume #1
For the inaugural month of WBN’s online book club, we’re reading Mat Johnson’s Pym. If you’re a book club member, you already know that. If you’re not yet a book club member and would like to be, it’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon. Simply use the comments section below to express interest, and either dive into Pym now or join us for next month’s pick (TBD).
Here’s a quick reminder of January’s reading schedule:
Jan. 1-7: Pym Volume I
Jan. 8-14: Pym Volume II
Jan. 15-21: Pym Volume III
Jan. 22-28: Pym Volume IV
A discussion of each volume penned by yours truly will appear right here on WBN’s blog within days of that volume’s completion. Please be sure to subscribe to WBN’s blog via email (in the sidebar to the right) or RSS so that you’re alerted to posts when they publish.
As riveting as these logistics are, what do you say we get down to business? Volume I, here we come. read more
Book Launch Party
Today’s post is from Mooner Johnson, who, as usual, takes forever to get to the point. (He just can’t help it.) The point? On Thursday we’re having a book release party, 7:00. So come. And here’s the “Evite” Mooner mentions.
There. Seventeen words. Now here are nearly seventeen hundred more.
Sincerely,
What’s-His-Name
So. Here we all are, gathered together under the umbrella of WriteByNight, me writing and you reading what I write. It’s three in the morning Christmas night as I, Mooner Johnson, sit—sleepless—with my two trusty hounds and a cup of the rich coffee I love, no longer steaming. It just started raining when the rain was said to be gone, and that pisses me off. And I’ve been asked by Justine to write a blog post for the WriteByNight website, a job I’m unsuited to perform yet a job I was born to do.
Which is why, or rather I should say, all of which are why I can’t sleep.
Writing is all about communication and when I communicate, I’m all about presenting the unbridled truth with full, total and complete disclosures. Therefore, please allow me to say the following: This little endeavor, this herein written blog posting endeavor, is problematic. To better understand what I’m attempting to explain, climb the following logic tree with me. read more
Worst. Advice. Ever.
About 25 years ago, I decided I wanted to be a writer. I’d just read the Little House on the Prairie books and realized–thanks to my fantastic school librarian–that they were written by a person, a living human being; and that some people write books as their jobs. (Until that point, I’d honestly thought stories were manufactured in factories, just like the books on which they were printed.)
Get Out of the House
In my basement apartment there are two places I can write: the living room or the spare bedroom’s closet. Whenever I have visitors, though, I can’t write—I get a case of shy pen. However once I leave my house, my pen is liberated to sweep across as fast or as slow as the story comes to me. Standard options for places to write outside the house are coffeehouses or cafés because almost every town has at least one and it’s not overly expensive; but it’s not your only option. read more
Benson & Hedges & Writing
I used to make New Year’s resolutions, then gave up a few years ago because I never followed through. This year, though, I thought I’d make a go at resolutions differently, particularly when it comes to writing. My approach to writing-oriented resolutions is a little unorthodox, but it worked for me in a different context:
(Preface: For everyone who smokes cigarettes, I have no intention of preaching. I still get perturbed when nonsmokers give smokers grief for things they already know. Like “It’s bad for you.” Please, tell me something I didn’t learn in kindergarten.)
I quit smoking cigarettes last February. read more
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