Where I've drifted this week, deliberately and by chance:
This ten-minute video about the life of street photographer Vivian Maier. I've been following this project for about a year now, right here, and am fascinated by Maier's largely unknown life, and by the amazing shots she captured.
I was captured by E.M. Forster this week. I watched A Passage to India years ago and hated it, tried to read the book instead, hated it, and thought there must be something wrong with me. I was just too young, I think. I needed context. Context is something I work with all the time, with this '60s trilogy -- trying to give young readers context and framework and foundation. It matters.
This week I was led to a quote (you'll see it in the sidebar) from A Room With A View (a movie (lovely montage here) I loved and watched over and over again), which led me to thinking about trying to read Forster again. So I watched Howard's End this week (which made me want to re-watch Educating Rita!), then downloaded the novel from Project Gutenberg. It's great. It's more than great.
The class struggles Forster writes about in 1910 England are the same class struggles I am trying to delineate in book two of the '60s trilogy, which takes place in 1964 Mississippi. Who knew. Kismet. Synchronicity. I'm expecting it now, looking for it everywhere. I know it will come.
Onward. I loved this link from the kitch'n: Nourish Short Films: 54 Bite-Sized Videos about the Story of Your Food. Here's one, from Michael Pollan.
I'm in the midst of making another tiramisu blanket for our family's newest babe (I am now a great-aunt! hooray!). I want to make this next. Remember those chevron blankets from the '70s? I haven't made one in decades. Thanks to this reminder from the purl bee, it's time. I have lots of that blue sky cotton sitting around, waiting to take me back to the '60s.
It's cool this morning. I'm having trouble putting away the stuff of summer, the beach paraphernalia, the memories of a wonderful week away. Instead, my thoughts turn toward firewood and pumpkins. Funny how fall just *arrives* here in Atlanta. Time for some recipes with pumpkin, especially that pumpkin soup with bacon, which I will savor in front of the season's first crackling fire. Avec Howard's End. With my book two manuscript close by.
Hello, happy autumn.
xoxoxoxo, Debbie
PeeEss: If you are at SIBA this weekend in Charleston, come say hello! I'm there on Sunday, as SIBA has named Countdown its YA book of the year. Thank you, Southern Independent Booksellers! xoxo
love love LOVE how one book or film leads to another, and the pleasure that comes from following the thread---like you did with E.M.F. Most of my reading choices come from references made by whatever author I've just finished reading. A Room With A View, btw, is my alltime favorite film. I'll watch anything with Maggie Smith in it (that's a frequently followed thread for me). A Room With a View was brilliant. Favorite character: Mr. Beebe.
ReplyDeleteWishing you continued luck with your 60's trilogy---since yours is another preferred thread of mine!
pee-ess---also meant to say:
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to you and Countdown on being SIBA's YA book of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks, Deb. I remembered "A Room With a View" when I moved here to Atlanta 7 years ago and the moving company lost my furniture. I bought an aerobed and some dishes, and that very movie, so see me through, on my laptop. I love it.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that synchronicity is all around us. We just need to learn to pay attention, in order to see it, hear it, and experience it. xoxo
Also... I'm very taken with the idea of "slender threads" we choose to follow that change our lives. I'm exploring that with book two!
ReplyDeleteAnd, if you'll allow me one more thought about synchronicity or link love... you mentioned Maggie Smith (whose work I adore). I also love Julie Walters. Watch her as the student in Educating Rita, and then again, 17 years later, as the dance teacher in Billy Elliot. She is magnificent.
ReplyDeleteI love how the passage of time seasons certain actors/writers/musicians, etc., and gives their work heft and meaning and context. I love Maggie Smith for this reason, too, as well as Meryl Streep, whom I first saw in the 1978 television mini-series "Holocaust." I sat up straight in my easy chair and said, "whoa." And I was right. :>
Deb, it's so funny. A few months ago, I became obsessed with Forster. I read him when I was younger as well and thought okay, just okay, but this time was blown away by his seemless plotting and story structure by his passion, his language, and also by this idea of a kind of elemental male. (Like the love interest, can't remember his name, in A Room W/a View and the lover in Maurice.) I didn't even know Forster until this time around that he was gay, didn't know how many years after he wrote MAURICE that it got published, etc. I was working with Louise Hawes then and she said the same thing happened with her that she rediscovered Forster later in life and too was blown away--he's such a revelation!!! Anyway, thought I'd tell you we had a mind-meld moment over all these miles. I love/adore/miss you, think about you so much!!! And major congrats on SIBA!!!! But of course, so deserved!!! Jandy
ReplyDeleteI keep trying to fix my grammar/syntax in that crazy sentence in the middle of my post but can't get back in. Alas! Pardon. :-) xxoo
ReplyDeleteLove this mind-meld moment, Jandy. Your syntax is fine. :> You know... I've had this happen with many writers (and moi)... I'm not ready at some stage, but at another, that writer is just the ticket, and a gift. So I'm glad I rediscovered Forster, and your note makes me more than eager to keep going, keep going.
ReplyDeleteI miss you, too, hated not seeing you this past summer, and yet know we'll figure it out. Thanks for the congrats. xoxoxoxoxoxo me