Ignore Everybody and 39 other keys to creativity, by Hugh Macleod
Posted on | August 17, 2010 | 4 Comments
This is part of an occasional series on creativity.
I like to think of myself as a creative person – the people who read my creative work always tell me it’s very imaginative. But every once in a while I need some advice on how to carry forward, and it can only come from the most successful in the field. MacLeod has a career as an advertiser, and has also built a name for himself in web comics. Ignore everybody is his advice to would-be creatives of the world, (or creative people looking for their career path) (or non-creative people who want to be more creative.)
That said, it’s a short book – I read it in about a day, and it was a day in which a lot of traveling by car occurred. Which is to say I read it in about 6 hours. There’s a lot of white spaces on the page. I think Hugh may be a master at brevity – as should all web comic writers should be. The comics that he uses in this book are a combination of sarcasm, insight, and what I can only describe as one-line character anecdotes. A few of them, such as “The market for something to believe in is infinite” is a zen meditation for the marketing era.
But if you picked up this book, you’d be looking for the advice, not the comics, and the advice is really the reason to read it. What really impressed me was that this was different advice. Advice for creative writers usually consists of two versions: write more and write better. MacLeod has actually thought about the specific challenges of holding onto a creative life while at the same time maintaining work and normal life. Key #2, “It doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be yours,” is a very pertinent rule for young artists, and a powerful one today. Awkward family photos, for instance, is not a big idea, but it is becoming a famous one. Another useful tip is “Avoid the watercooler gang,” which is another version of my father’s advice “Don’t waste your time flying with the turkeys.”
Macleod does give some time to obvious tips like “start a blog,” which is great advice, but rather specific. And then there’s his business card comics. He mentions them over and over again as an example of ways to express creativity. It’s excruciatingly repetitive if you read the book in hurry, which the writing encourages you to do.
“There’s a word for what happens to people like you – ‘nothing’” is a hard piece of advice to give, but you get the sense that MacLeod is will dish it out if he saw you doing what he says you shouldn’t. Sometimes this hard-hearted edge is really just what the creative needs to wake up and put their work out there. And I think there’s plenty of that in the book, I just wish he had used more than just himself as example.
The Fixer – Bernard Malamud
Posted on | August 6, 2010 | Comments Off
Hooray! This is the first novel in my “War, Violence and Suffering” series! Are you as excited as I am to plumb the depths of human misery?
No?
Well, I’ll start with an easy one. Bernard Malamud is considered one of America’s greatest writers, having written The Natural, which, like any great American novel, is about some sport.
Less famous but perhaps more moving for those who are bad at sports is The Fixer, a story set in Russia moments before the Russian Revolution of 1917. Yakov Bok is a Jewish man living without identification outside the designated Jewish ghetto, in a town where that’s easily a crime in itself. He’s then framed for a vicious murder and is forced to endure a trial of cruelty, loneliness, and indignity. Through it resolves to keep his religion, not because he was particulary religious before the imprisonment began, but because they keep trying to get him to convert.
I know, it sounds like a horrible book – but really, it’s fantastic. Yakov as a character is inspiring and enthralling. This is the kind of book that you could sit on the beach and read for hours while your skin got crispy, and you wouldn’t even complain about the sun burn because you were reading about real survival. You’d wonder how you could have sat on the beach all day when they’re real injustice going on in the world – people imprisoned for the wrong reasons, whole communities oppressed to the point where even thier hope dies, land and water destroyed by carelessness and incompetence.
Fortunately for those who don’t like to read about suffering, I’ll say that there is a feeling of reprieve at the end. Let’s just say that the story starts in 1911, and ends at a point of no return for revolution of Russia, which drastically overturned the leadership from a dictator with a strong sense of religious entitlement to a provisional government that eventually abdicated all power to the soviets – the people’s party. Of course, everybody knows that this story ends with Stalin the evil mustache dictator turning the U.S.S.R. into an Animal Farm, but think of the glory of that first taste of freedom - it must have felt glorious, like flying or falling in love.
I think for a certain generation of Americans, the most difficult thing we have to overcome is our own ennui. Those of us who were lucky to grow up with everything we ever needed didn’t realize how complicated solving the world problems would be until our parents declared us launched, and told us to go get real jobs (and no, sitting in a Green Peace raft isn’t a job). We spend a lot of time trying to recapture that “Unique snowflake” feeling that we experienced whenever we got an award in grade school – the but the awards are far more competitive now and mean very little in terms of real progress. What will an American Idol trophy mean in a hundred years, if our grandchildren can’t afford to eat fresh produce?
This is the sort of book that reminds you that there is a power in a set of determined values, and I think that’s why it spoke to me. It’s harder to see oppression in 2010 – we don’t have Evil mustache dictators (unless you include Bush) but that doesn’t mean the battles over.
A great companion book for this is Nicholas and Alexandra, the non-fiction, highly researched story of the last imperial family of Russia and their lives on the eve of the revolution. It’s also, incidentally, my mother’s all-time favorite book.
‘Hiding Out” and “When the Messenger is Hot”
Posted on | August 3, 2010 | 1 Comment
Hello again! Did you miss me? I’ve been moving the past week or so – what a drag! I feel like a hoarder with all these little paths going through my apartment. In any case, if I’m going to get any reading done, it will probably be short stories. A good set of short stories will not make you feel like you are “starting fresh” with each chapter, but excited to find out who you will visit next.
While I was packing away my books, I gave one over to a friend of mine: Jon Messinger’s Hiding Out, which is a lovely and sublte collection of contemporary stories that exhibit the sort of sensitivity that David Foster Wallace used to bring but with a slightly less whacky sort of view. The characters are all too human, sometimes flawed to the point where you wouldn’t want to meet them in person, but that to me makes a good character. In any case, my friend was impressed – she hadn’t read fiction in a while and was pleased that she found something she could sink her teeth into.
Jon Messinger is a Chicago Author – I saw him read at an RUI event here a couple of years ago. He’s a busy guy though – he’s book editor for Time Out Chicago, and a co-founder of Featherproof Books.
Elizabeth Crane is another Chicago author who is worth reading. Her work was introduced to me by a friend of mine, and she still teaches at various Chicago Universities
.
Her first set of short stories has been around for a while, but still have a contemporary feel. Mostly concerned with dating, each story contains a little bit of blunt whimsy that most readers appreciate.
But watch out for Daves.
quick break!
Posted on | July 31, 2010 | Comments Off
I’m not going away again – I’m just elbow’s deep in the misery of moving. Will be back next week with more!
Until then, you should check out my friends at Literago.com
The Master and Margarita
Posted on | July 19, 2010 | Comments Off
By Mikhail Bulgakov
A word to the wise: If you’re reading book reviews, I’m going to guess you are a smart person – someone who likes to read books. And if you’re single, you’re probably on the lookout for someone about as smart as you are, if not more so. But have you ever noticed that sometimes even the smartest people end up dating unabashed word-hating brain-rotting tube-droning bore-ons?
There’s a cure for that – go to the smart person’s facebook page. Look up their favorite book. Come back here and http://www.powells.com/?p_hp_tx&PID=35234 (use this link so I can get credit for my awesome advice) or . . okay, go to the library if you’re cheap ( but don’t expect any more advice). In any case, get those books. especially the first one listed.
Next, read the books, or at least carry them around. If they are brand new, rough them up a little. Now – bump into Mr. Smartypants. Accidentally drop book. Hear him say “Hey, that’s one of my favorite books!” Act surprised.
You don’t have access to his Facebook page? Then read The Master and Margarita. For some reason, the Devil + Russian artists + giant black cats really seems to be the literary ticket to smart dating.
What should I read?
Posted on | July 18, 2010 | Comments Off
Don’t let the authoritative nature of the blog fool you – I am always open to suggestions regarding what I should read. If you suggest a book, and I like it, then I’ll review it here – or maybe let you do a guest post (if you ask nicely)
So tell me forum: What books should I be reading?
The Scarlet Letter
Posted on | July 17, 2010 | 4 Comments
If it were written today we’d call it “The Racy Letter”
Alright, alright, I’m sure 90% of you read this in high school, and the 10% of you that didn’t consider yourself lucky. But it’s American classic – and if you read closely, it’s filled with scintillating details your sophomore English teacher probably failed to point out. For instance, take this paragraph:
The stigma gone, Hester heaved a long, deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit. O exquisite relief! She had not known the weight, until she felt the freedom! by another impulse, she took off the formal cap that confined her hair; and down it fell upon her shoulder, dark and rich, with at once a shadow and a light in its abundance, and imparting the charm of softness to her features. There played around her mouth, and beamed out of her eyes, a radiant and tender smile, that seemed gushing from the very heart of woman hood. A crimson flush was glowing on her cheek, that had been long so pale. Her sex, her youth, and the whole richness of her beauty, came back from what men call the irrevocable past, and clustered themselves, with her maiden hope, and a happiness before unknown, within the magic circle of this hour. And, as if the good of the earth and sky had been but the effluence of these tow mortal hearts, it vanished with their sorrow. All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest, gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and gleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees. The objects that had made a shadow hitherto, embodied the brightness now. The course of the little brook might be traced by its merry gleam afar into the wood’s heart of mystery, which had become a mystery of joy.
Crimson flush? bursting sunlight? Someone ought to tell the Pastor to keep his little brook in his pants.
This time period is endlessly useful for term papers and research papers. Consider comparing the depiction of the time to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, or delve into the work of John Demos to put the events in context.
For a no-shame A, I recommend the Nortan critical edition. It comes with critical papers in the back – so you don’t have to back to school library.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Posted on | July 14, 2010 | 4 Comments
It’s easy to see why Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is deliciously readable. Though neither of the main characters are super heros or special agents, Chabon keeps the pages packed with action and a definite sense of adventure for the boys as they manage sudden success, awkward dating situations, and the pain of losing family during the holocaust.
The book has a deep sense of metaphor throughout, but never gives in poetic abstraction. It’s the type of book you could read when you’re looking for something a little light, and then tackle again if you want to find a deeper meaning in the character’s desire to escape their current situations. The premise of the book fully exults genre fiction and comic books, but I think even those of us who eschew these forms will find the story enjoyable.
The only criticism that I have is that at certain points in the novel, Chabon either takes us into the narrative of the comic books themselves, or jumps forward chronologically and forces the reader to reorient themselves in the world of characters. The comic book sections are perhaps the most interesting and fantastic of the whole book, but as the book moves towards the end, years are skipped over the characters lose a bit of their charm.
All in all, the book is 650 pages, but moves quickly enough that you’ll want to take it to beach with you. I grew attached to the characters in the end and was grateful for the insight into the comic book industry during its golden age.
Who should read this: teenagers who don’t like to read, readers looking for a good plot.
Medium Raw, By Anthony Bourdain
Posted on | July 13, 2010 | 1 Comment
Anthony Bourdain's most recent book
Anthony Bourdain is mostly famous for writing a book – a scathing non-fiction memoir of the restaurant industry. Since then it seems that he’s lightened up a little bit, but the voracity of his opinion still keeps him in the public eye. Mr. Boyfriend got into him by watching “No Reservations,” a traveling restaurant review show that aired on the food network and now on the travel channel – it’s a show that combines two things that many people love – exotic travel and eating. Geez, how could you go wrong with that combination?
In any case, Bourdain gets to enjoy a life that most people only dream about. But instead of gloating about it, he’s actually pretty snarky on the show. The best episodes include a mix of bizarre travel discoveries and hole-in-the-wall eateries that are surprisingly scrumptious and reveal something about the disparities of the rich versus the poor in terms of how we eat, AND many moments where Bourdain is reacting to cheesy, tourist oriented hype or staged “exotic events” with his own particular style of sarcasm. (By that formula, I think an episode in Orlando, Florida is way overdue.)
So what about his new book? Is it anything like the show?
Uh, Not really. If you are looking for passages on his world travels, there is really only one, and it gets lame pretty fast. The book is really more about the cooking industry in the U.S., especially on the high-end side. It’s a series of essays, really, about his life, how he’s changed in the past ten years, and what’s changed in the world of cooking. I find it ironic that the cover features him sitting at a table with wooden-handled knives – he proclaims in several sections of the book that he no longer considers himself a chef, so why is he in the presence of so many cooking accouterments? Perhaps the key symbol here is that they are knives. He holds on in his hands, the tip of his finger on the blade. He’s wearing a dark suit, and hunches over the table, his face stoic, mouth unsmiling. Who cares if he’s a chef or not, he looks like he’s ready to cut YOU into tiny little pieces for just suggesting that a meal at Applebee’s wouldn’t be so bad.
There’s a lot of anger in the book – His targets include Alan Richman (the critic) and Alice Waters, co-owner of Chez Panisse and the mother of the California food movements (he cuts her a little slack for having a nice personality.) Sections of the book read like a who’s-who of the cooking industry, with carefully crafted arguments as to why you should be for or against that celebrity’s existence. He also offers profiles of working chefs and cooks that will leave you surprisingly impressed with the people who handle your food when you dine at an expensive restaurant. The profile of Justo Thomas, the man who prepares all the fish for Le Bernadin, is beautifully crafted homage to the people who get up very early in the morning to create the processes that make this hold capitalism thing work.
The most moving sections, however, are not about the torrid careers of celebrity chefs, but his personal memories that shape how he approaches life today. The essay titled “The rich eat differently from you and me,” sticks out as dating adventure gone horribly wrong, and a unique transformation born out of terror, regret, depression, and anger that you can still feel in every sentence of the piece. This is Anthony Bourdain before we knew Anthony Bourdain, and in a very raw state. In a very different mode, “I’m dancing” is a very personal essay regarding his transformation from a hard-living, chain smoking rebel to a father completely dedicated to his little girl. “If Stiv Bators were still alive and put his filthy hands anywhere near my baby, I’d snap his neck–then thoroughly cleanse the area with baby wipes,” he writes, as an example of how much he’s changed. “She’s never going to look for validation from some predatory asshole,” he assures us, proof that his sense of fatherhood is truly about preparing his daughter for the future.
who should read this book: People who want to be cooks or chefs, fans of Anthony Bourdain (the person, not the show).
If you like the show, you should probably read A Cook’s Tour instead.
Summer vacation
Posted on | July 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Yep, that’s pretty much where I’m at – and I when I return I’m going to write more about books and writing and less about SEO.
Until then, I’m going to give a little link love to the blogs I just can’t get enough of:
www.cakewrecks.com
www.fmylife.com
www.icanhazcheeseburger.com
etc. Have a nice summer!!
Social Media
Shelfari at Shelfari
Google Reader at Google Reader
Twitter at Twitter
Facebook Page at Facebook Page
Created by #! code