Bizzy
Read:
Djuna - how can a writer be completely unreadable AND a "genius" at the same time? Ask T.S. Eliot, who seems to think that Djuna Barnes was both. He should talk, no?
Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's by Vin Packer, aka Ann Aldrich, aka M.E. Kerr, aka Marijane Meaker. This book sucked me in with the first chapter and it's description of gay life in the 1950's. And it's description of how Highsmith seduced the author away from her live-in lover in about 5 seconds flat.
Highsmith seen through the author's eyes goes from brilliant, incredibly fascinating and irresistible in their early relationship to difficult, drunk and petulant as they navigate living together. Finally - after a 20 year absence, Highsmith reappears in her life still drunk and difficult, but now aged and obsessed with how the Jews ruined her life. Much of the story is how drinking steadily rots away personality, but amazingly can (sometimes) leave talent intact.
Both Djuna and Highsmith are also about how alcohol can isolate a person systematically over time until it is impossible for the drinker to reconnect with anyone. (Djuna Barnes eventually stopped drinking, but her character was so warped and settled she still never could relate to people, despite reaching out.) When Highsmith reaches out to MJ at the end of this book, it is so pathetic, and done in such a way as to make it impossible for MJ to respond positively - even though she very much wants to.
The middle sections do not live up to the beginning. Meaker's prose in the first chapters is so whittled down to essentials, but so full of detail that it isn't hard to believe she was an incredibly successful writer of pulp. Her writing in the end shows a sensitivity and gift of insight that makes it easy to believe she now is a successful writer of young adult fiction. What an amazing writing life she's had.
And the relationship between the two writers shows how reinvention keeps a person alive. Meaker constantly changes and grows as a person and a writer (though she really never writes about herself, it's obvious). While Highsmith hardens into a groove in both writing and life and becomes a caricature - though no one disputes her work continued to shine.
Saw:
Tipping The Velvet (see icon of Rachel as Antoninus)- Rachel Stirling looks so much like her mama, Dame Diana Rigg, that the sex scenes make me feel a bit like I did as a kid watching Avengers on PBS. Purrrrrr.
Lost and Delirious - Kind of the lesbian Dead Poet's Society. Ash is now obsessed with Piper Perabo ( I think it was the fencing gear ), which explains why we then watched:
Perception - A truly hideous mess of a movie in which one character experiences: spoilers Two mentally ill parents, jail for drunk driving, a lesbian relationship, a paralyzing accident, drug addiction, the death of her father by heart attack, a miraculous recovery from nearly total paralysis, sobriety, her two best friends doing smack and then learning they have AIDS, the pregnancy of her former lesbian love by a mutual friend...
Then I turn to Ash and say:"What more could possibly happen to one person in one movie?".
Apparently: re-emergence of symptoms of paralysis, suicide of mother, former lesbian love murders father of her child in the living room of main character's house while mother's dead body and suicide note languish about upstairs, police intervention, former lesbian love becomes fugitive from the law, main character has unsuccessful suicide attempt - End Credits.
Holy shit, sounds like my life.
ALSO:
Been obsessing on Rad Cheer MySpace page:
Find The Pom Squad on MySpace and be our friend!
CHEERLEADERS: Call/email/LJ/MySpace me with a good practice time/date! Otherwise I will autocratically pick one.... Love!
Djuna - how can a writer be completely unreadable AND a "genius" at the same time? Ask T.S. Eliot, who seems to think that Djuna Barnes was both. He should talk, no?
Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's by Vin Packer, aka Ann Aldrich, aka M.E. Kerr, aka Marijane Meaker. This book sucked me in with the first chapter and it's description of gay life in the 1950's. And it's description of how Highsmith seduced the author away from her live-in lover in about 5 seconds flat.
Highsmith seen through the author's eyes goes from brilliant, incredibly fascinating and irresistible in their early relationship to difficult, drunk and petulant as they navigate living together. Finally - after a 20 year absence, Highsmith reappears in her life still drunk and difficult, but now aged and obsessed with how the Jews ruined her life. Much of the story is how drinking steadily rots away personality, but amazingly can (sometimes) leave talent intact.
Both Djuna and Highsmith are also about how alcohol can isolate a person systematically over time until it is impossible for the drinker to reconnect with anyone. (Djuna Barnes eventually stopped drinking, but her character was so warped and settled she still never could relate to people, despite reaching out.) When Highsmith reaches out to MJ at the end of this book, it is so pathetic, and done in such a way as to make it impossible for MJ to respond positively - even though she very much wants to.
The middle sections do not live up to the beginning. Meaker's prose in the first chapters is so whittled down to essentials, but so full of detail that it isn't hard to believe she was an incredibly successful writer of pulp. Her writing in the end shows a sensitivity and gift of insight that makes it easy to believe she now is a successful writer of young adult fiction. What an amazing writing life she's had.
And the relationship between the two writers shows how reinvention keeps a person alive. Meaker constantly changes and grows as a person and a writer (though she really never writes about herself, it's obvious). While Highsmith hardens into a groove in both writing and life and becomes a caricature - though no one disputes her work continued to shine.
Saw:
Tipping The Velvet (see icon of Rachel as Antoninus)- Rachel Stirling looks so much like her mama, Dame Diana Rigg, that the sex scenes make me feel a bit like I did as a kid watching Avengers on PBS. Purrrrrr.
Lost and Delirious - Kind of the lesbian Dead Poet's Society. Ash is now obsessed with Piper Perabo ( I think it was the fencing gear ), which explains why we then watched:
Perception - A truly hideous mess of a movie in which one character experiences: spoilers Two mentally ill parents, jail for drunk driving, a lesbian relationship, a paralyzing accident, drug addiction, the death of her father by heart attack, a miraculous recovery from nearly total paralysis, sobriety, her two best friends doing smack and then learning they have AIDS, the pregnancy of her former lesbian love by a mutual friend...
Then I turn to Ash and say:"What more could possibly happen to one person in one movie?".
Apparently: re-emergence of symptoms of paralysis, suicide of mother, former lesbian love murders father of her child in the living room of main character's house while mother's dead body and suicide note languish about upstairs, police intervention, former lesbian love becomes fugitive from the law, main character has unsuccessful suicide attempt - End Credits.
Holy shit, sounds like my life.
ALSO:
Been obsessing on Rad Cheer MySpace page:
Find The Pom Squad on MySpace and be our friend!
CHEERLEADERS: Call/email/LJ/MySpace me with a good practice time/date! Otherwise I will autocratically pick one.... Love!