Putting Recreational Reading to “The Flannery O’Connor Test”

Flannery O’Connor once said that she stops reading a book the moment that she “would not feel a sense of loss if she were to quit reading.” Professor Smith has mentioned that he regularly reads a twenty to thirty page story and thinks something to the effect of, “This story really begins on page eight.” For the past four years, the English majors have been living in a bubble in the sense that we do not get to decide whether we want to continue reading the work or not—if a teacher assigns a work, we’re obligated to finish it.

But what happens when you enter the realm of recreational reading? If the book isn’t interesting, should we stop reading and turn on Mad Men, or should we work our way through it, and earn our way to the meat of the novel, as if we’re eating lobster? In my personal experience, I feel that way about William Faulkner’s work. I really like the idea of William Faulkner, and I have a great interest in many of the themes, motifs, and sense of nostalgia that animates his texts. But with the exceptions of the short story A Rose for Emily and The Sound and the Fury, I haven’t particularly enjoyed the experience of reading a William Faulkner work—getting through Flags in the Dust felt more like a chore to me than an exhilarating reading experience. Yet, once I was done with the work, I was glad that I read it.

I was willing to slog through Flags in the Dust because I was aware of Faulkner’s reputation and I had a good idea of the subject matter at hand before I even read it. But what happens when we’re dealing with no-named authors writing on topics we’re not familiar with? At that point, it’s like picking a piece in the box of chocolates, but some of the options…aren’t chocolate.

If you’re fifty pages into a novel that’s yet to impress you, what do you do? Do you work your way through it, hoping to find the nugget that makes the experience worthwhile, or do you adopt the “life’s too short mentality” and simply give up on it? My attitude on the matter is this: if the author has a well-earned reputation for quality, I’m going to be charitable and give the book a couple chances to capture my interest. But if I’m doing the equivalent of perusing a book on the rack at a bookstore by some Johnny Come Lately, then I’m much more inclined to move on to the next option, as if I’m cable surfing on the television.


Interview With Reginald Stinson (AKA Prince Hollywood)

Listen To Song: Get Her First

Earlier this afternoon, I had the fortune of conducting an interview with Reginald Stinson, an up-and-coming rapper in Queens, New York better known as “Prince Hollywood”. Hollywood has a budding reputation for well-written lyrics backed up by strong beats that reflect the intensity of his personal feelings on the subject matter at hand. Hollywood was born in Butler, Georgia, but moved to the South Side of Queens when he was five years old. He started writing music when he was eleven, and started focusing on the relationship between conveying authentic emotion within the confines of well-written lyrics while serving a short prison sentence around 1995. His career took off in 2009-2010 with the release of his album “Hollywood Star”, which is a tribute and successful collaboration with Warren “Dirty War” Davis and another popular Manhattan rapper, Red Viper. Currently, Hollywood is working on the album “Under Dog’s Volume 1” which features the mix tape “Project G.E.D.” Hollywood regularly performs at night clubs and concerts in Georgia and New York, and will be making a live performance at Washington & Lee University in May 2012.

*You can access Young Hollywood’s music by visiting the website www.soundcloud.com/younghollywood

Mr. Hollywood. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to conduct this interview. I really appreciate that. My first question for you is this: What made you decide to abandon the name Reginald in favor of your stage name, Young Hollywood?

It all has to do with how I live my life. Obviously, everyone wants to go to Hollywood and live a Hollywood lifestyle, but we can’t all go to California. So I try to live a Hollywood kind of life. Every day, I live the glamour, I got the “here and there” mindset, while not forgetting about tomorrow. Everything I do is energy, that’s why I’m Hollywood.

Very nice. I was hoping to talk to you for a minute about your debut album, “Hollywood Star,” that sort of put you on the map in the Queens scene. What do you think it was about the album that has made it such a big success?

Well, the album is all about real feeling, and laying down rhymes that it tell it like it is. People can relate to that. When they know you’re being real with them, and spitting out truth, you get a response. I worked with my longtime partners “Dirty War” and “Red Viper”, and they both bring the killer stage presence. They were there for me at “Fourth Ward” and “P.A.N.I.C”, and I’m grateful for their supportive collaboration. It’s hard not to make it big when you’ve got that kind of energy on stage.

Fourth Ward and Panic. Any chance you could elaborate on that for us?

Absolutely. Me and Dirty War came from the Fourth Ward of Butler, Georgia, and we make sure that no matter how big we get, we never forget where we come from. It’s about being true to ourselves, and making sure that we don’t ever lose sight of ourselves. Panic is actually an acronym, P.A.N.I.C.,that Dirty War came up with to fight the discrimination we had to deal with growing up. It stands for “Put All N-words in Check”. That was the mentality of a lot of people who hated us, fronted us, and weren’t real with us while we were growing up, and we tried to flip that negative and turn it into a positive. Every song, we say “Fourth Ward! Panic!” to remind ourselves of who we are, where we came from, and that we’re never going to let that go.

I just finished listening to your track “My Letter to God.” It sounds very inspirational, and rejects valuing the opinions of those who judge you in favor of seeking refuge in God. If I can say so myself, I thought it was a very bold track. What’s the story behind that sound?

Listen To Song: My Letter To God

You know, when I wrote that, I just got jumped in Queens, and the guy took me for what I had. It was hard for me to write about faith in God at that time, but I knew that I had to do it. Because having faith isn’t just about God in the good times, but finding him in the bad times as well. Especially then. So I changed up the vocals, and wrote a dialogue where I spoke to God, and then responded based on how I thought God would talk to me. It was definitely my most daring song, and I’ve been lucky that most of my fans such as yourself have overwhelmingly responded positive to it. If people look to my work ten years from now, I hope “Letter To God” is the song that they remember.

Oh wow. So are most of your songs autobiographical?

Absolutely. Some of it is fictional, but I always talk about what I’m feeling at a given time. If you want to know me, the real me, who I am, just listen to my songs.

So what’s your process for writing songs like?

I just sit on my front porch, take out a notebook and pen, and write how I feel it. Even if it didn’t happen to me, I’m talking about an emotion that did. That’s what it’s all about it. Conveying to my audience what I feel. The truth is what I tell my audience, and I make sure to get that through in my work. When I’m up front and honest with you, and you know I’m not fronting you, then we’re there.

What has been your best performance lately?

I recently peformed at a couple of night clubs in Queens with Dirty War, and that was a killer success. I’m from Georgia, so I’ve played there as well, but there’s nothing quite like putting on a show in New York.

If you were from Butler, GA, how’d you work your way to New York?

My mom and my brothers moved out of Georgia and went to New York where she was originally from, when I was five. My dad’s family is from Georgia, and I still go there from time to time.

What do your parents think of your rap career?

They’ve never seen me live before, but they’ve both listened to my songs on my album. They might like it if I was still working other jobs, but I do what I can do. They support what makes me happy, and I’m thankful for that.

What other kinds of jobs have you worked on, or do you focus on rap exclusively?

You know, I’m in vocational school, becoming a medical office assistant. I wish I could spend all day writing, but for now, it’s just a weekend gig. I’m putting out music that’s true to myself, and that’s where I’m at right now. I want to reach the point where I can rap exclusively, but I got to provide for my little shorty, Murda, and our kids. They’re the center of my life, and if you listen to my music, you’ll get that.

Thank you so much for you time today, Young Hollywood. I really appreciate that. Do you have any parting words for those of us reading at home?

Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure. Never lose sight of yourself, stay true to who you are, and if you want it, go get it. Life’s too short to worry about other people judging you. Doing your own thing everday is what makes you happy. I do what I want, where I want, with who I want, and that’s all you can ever ask of yourself. That’s where it’s at.

Thank you, Hollywood. We look forward to seeing you on campus in May.


Movies and Literature

We have recently been talking quite a bit about Young Adult Fiction, both in our blogs and in class. In her earlier blog “When Young Adult is too Adult” Lauren Starnes questioned whether the Hunger Games was an appropriate book for the age group which it targets. I have both read the Hunger Games and seen the movie. The movie appears to be geared towards a similar age group, with a rating of PG13 and yet all ages have been clamoring to see it. It was interesting to see how the film makers managed to make the movie both appropriate for the younger ages and appealing to the older ones. The violence was definitely more subdued on screen than it was on the page. Peeta’s leg that has to be amputated in the book is miraculously healed. The muscular Katniss does not look at all to be on the brink of starvation when Peeta throws her the burned bread. We do not hear the agonized screams of Cato as he is being savagely ripped apart for a seemingly never ending amount of time. The children watching the movie are somewhat protected from all of the unpleasantness that the Games suggest.

Usually, these omissions would make an older audience shy away. They want the gritty stuff. But in this case it doesn’t. Critics adore the movie; people are raving about it. One of the main things the movie had made is to make the characters more mature. Katniss Everdeen is no longer the young stripling she is in the book. In the movie she is played by Jennifer Lawrence, whose 22 years makes her much more of an adult that 16 year old Katniss. All of the actors are older than their counterparts in the novels. This makes their emotions and their actions suddenly more believable (especially Katniss’s). In trying to make the movie more attractive to all ages, the film company has actually done the books a favor. They have brought the series and entirely different audience who will now want to read the rest of the series, for with an established cast of mature characters in mind, adults will not think of it as reading a children’s book- the Hunger Games becomes more appropriate for their age group as well.

What other movies have you seen that you thought made the book better?


Social Media as a Language

Social media has the world in its grasp. Facebook, Twitter and even Google’s new Google+ have all stamped their names upon the word’s computer screens, smart phones, ipads, and tablets. For the majority of the population these websites provide an easy way to reach out and keep in touch with their friends and family. Because we allocate so much time to these websites, we have begun casually implementing the abridged lingo in general conversation. It all began with texting- abbreviations such as lol (laugh out loud) or brb (be right back) began infiltrating everyday conversation.  Facebook seems to be reinforcing these abbreviations and grammatical errors.

Everyday use has made use of this slang appropriate in casual conversation, but I still do not feel they are appropriate in more formal situations. For example, I cannot think of any student who would think it was appropriate to write 2night or btw (by the way) in a formal paper or even in a classroom. So what makes it appropriate for social media? It would make sense if texting was still a bit of a process like it was ten years ago, but today it is simple. It would not even take me an extra second to write got to go instead of gtg. Neither is it because Facebook is a time to relax with friends; Facebook is littered with businesses – bosses are friends. People we would never address in slang terms suddenly fall to the level of buddies. So why do we let our language devolve the second we see that iconic blue and white logo? Personally I hope that particular vernacular remains inappropriate for formal and scholarly settings. I have no desire to even look at a book that reads like a list of status updates.


The Best of the Best…or Not?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking with the Maori poet and scholar, Alice Te Punga Somerville. Alice was born and raised in Aotearoa, New Zealand and she is currently a visiting Professor of Aboriginal Studies at the University of Toronto. I have been studying poetry from the Pacific in my Twenty-First Century Poetry class with Professor and Poet, Lesley Wheeler, so it was exciting to meet a real poet from this portion of the globe.

In her lecture, Alice Te Punga Somerville mainly talked about the current condition of New Zealand poetry. Over the past decade, Bill Manhire and Damien Wilkins have compiled annual online collections of the Best New Zealand Poetry. Recently, they published The Best of the Best New Zealand Poetry, which contains what these individuals considered to be the absolute best from the past years online collections. Somerville pointed out that in both of these anthologies there was a disturbingly small number of Maori and Pasifika poets included. Although Manhire claims that this was because there are not very many Maori and Pasifika poets; this does not make sense because there are almost 80 such poets featured in Mauri Ola, which is an anthology of contemporary Polynesian poems published in 2010. The lack of Maori and Pasifika poets included in these collections results in a sort of chain reaction. Manhire, who is the first poet laureate of New Zealand, and Wilkins both exert a lot of influence on who gains admittance to MFA programs and who ultimately gets published.

This information made me wonder what minorities are not being represented in American poetry anthologies, or Canadian or even Spanish anthologies? This question relates to several issues that we have previously discussed on the Snopes blog. For instance, the Tucson book ban and The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry, edited by Rita Dove, are both connected to this question.

What are your thoughts? Do you believe that it is the editor’s duty to feature minorities in a national collection? Why or why not?

Check out the R.T. Smith’s past posts “Buried Antipathies: The Dove Anthology, Second Wind” and “Top Ten Reasons for Banning Books by Ethnic Minorities” for more information.

 


Senior at Washington and Lee University. Originally from Chattanooga, TN. Majoring in English.

Poetry Daily

Poetry Daily (poems.com) is an online anthology of poetry published by The Daily Poetry Association. A new poem is featured each day chosen from books or journals currently or imminently available in print or online. Today’s poem, for example, is “All the Sciences” by Laura Eve Engel from Black Warrior Review. The site also has a well-organized and accessible system of archives, an iPad/iPhone application, and a Twitter account. Go explore Poetry Daily today!


“My Only Swerving”

As I recently reread William Stafford’s poem “Traveling Through The Dark”, I made the connection between one line and a song title by an electronic group I really like called El Ten Eleven. The title of perhaps the group’s most famous song is a nod to the main guitarist’s favorite poet, William Stafford. Below is the poem and you can hear the song here: 01 My Only Swerving.

Traveling Through The Dark

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason–
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all–my only swerving–,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.

“Traveling through the Dark” was originally published in 1967 by Weatherlight Press as the title poem in the collection of that same name.  Copyright belongs to Stafford’s son, the poet Kim Stafford, a fine writer worth looking up.


Illustration and literature: Can they mix?

We are studying the genre of memoir in my four-person capstone class currently. The course began with Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home—the title ironically encapsulates the story of a dysfunctional family and its funeral home business. The graphic novel is something I have had very little exposure to before reading Fun Home. Perhaps it is due to my constant inclination toward words, but I found myself skimming and sometimes wholly ignoring the illustrations that ran through and around the text.  The multidimensional technique behind Fun Home as well as Howard Cruse’s Stuck Rubber Baby is no doubt laudably crafted and intriguing. The illustrations, however, distract me. They too often make it so that the words are not presented on the page in a discernable order. Dialogue jumps around ambiguously, and there are sometimes a dozen frames of pictures to comprehend. How close of attention should the reader pay to studying the succession of illustrations? What is a good ratio of time spent on the words versus the visual?

As is true of every term as an upper-level English major, my classes have intersected in their content and conversation. In one of our Shenandoah intern meetings we discussed the Virginia Quarterly Review and some of its peculiar facets. What struck me was its incorporation of lots of color, more modern and “hip” typography, pictures, and even comics. A few of my peers voiced opposition to the comics, saying things like they cheapened the review and made it less serious or less academic. I tend to agree with this view. When I read a novel or a literary review, I primarily want words. Occasional photographs and art are wonderful, and can even help transition, set the tone, or change the pace. But I have found I do not mesh well with comics or graphic novels. Maybe a reader like my brother and his Calvin-and-Hobbes-filled childhood would have a different opinion. Or maybe I need more practice and exposure.


Five Books that Will Change the Way You Read

There are few things more fulfilling than reading a truly great novel. Often these rich and complex works do not make for the easiest reading, but the rewards make it a worthwhile endeavor. In these works, everything from the plot to the characters and language draws the reader in and beckons him to read on. During my lifetime I have come across several of these thought provoking novels that completely changed the way I approach literature. These life-changing books are packed with intricate language, motifs, characters, and provocative themes. After much thought, I have compiled a list of the top five works that changed the way I read.  Enjoy!

1. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

I read this novel when I was a senior in high school and again in college.  Each time I study this book I am in awe of Hemingway’s bare, yet incredibly poignant style.  Through his usage of his own Hemingway Code the author creates nuanced shifts in tone, character, and setting.  This novel alerted me to the power of motifs and symbols in literature.

2. All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren

It only took about one chapter in this wonderful novel for me to fall in love with it.  Warren’s depiction of Willie Stark is at times beautiful and sympathetic, but at other instances damning and critical.  Warren’s language and character development in All the King’s Men is unparalleled.  I particularly love the foil created by Stark and the narrator, Jack Burden.

3. The Optimist’s Daughter, Eudora Welty

On the surface, Welty’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book seems simple and conservative.  However as Welty herself once said in One Writer’s Beginnings, “I am a writer who came from a sheltered life.  A sheltered life can be a daring life as well.  For all serious daring starts from within.”  The Optimist’s Daughter is clearly a testament to this idea.  Welty’s seemingly traditional story explores such complex and provocative themes as love, death, truth, and relationships.  Finally, she ventures to ask what happens when we realize our parent’s marriage was not what we originally thought it was.

4. The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner

In this dense and intricate work, Faulkner tells the story of the decaying Compson family.  This unsettling story is unlike any other novel I have ever encountered.  Faulkner experiments with time, psychology, sexuality, and conscious through the guise of various narrators.  Reading and studying The Sound and the Fury taught me about new approaches to style, language, and character in literature.

5. Persuasion, Jane Austen

I’m sure most male readers are rolling their eyes at the inclusion of Austen on this list.  As a woman, my affinity for Ms. Austen is probably coded into my DNA.  Nevertheless, Persuasion is arguably the author’s best and often most under-appreciated work.  This novel is darker than her previous books and represents a shift towards Romantic style and sensibilities.  Austen is a master of dialogue and character development.  If you can’t stand the love story, at least read and admire Austen for her wit, writing, and satire.


Senior at Washington and Lee University. Originally from Chattanooga, TN. Majoring in English.

Pride and Pigs

When I was in high school, my junior English teacher assigned us a project: to write the story of the three little pigs in the style of our favorite author. We were not allowed to write the author’s name anywhere on the page and we were graded by the ease with which he guessed that author. A couple of my favorites flitted through my mind- Daphne Du Maurier, Dornford Yates, Martin Cruz-Smith– all with their own entirely different writing styles. I could just imagine all the various sorts of transformations the little pigs would go through in the eyes of these distinctive writers. But I wasn’t going to risk my teaching not having read one of these author’s of mine, so I settled on one that I figured any high school English teacher had to recognize: Jane Austen. I had a great time writing it. It was so easy letting yourself slip into the mind of an author so stylistically well known and use her voice to speak through. There was no need for me to be original, no need for me to be afraid of overstepping my boundaries. The story wasn’t mine and that made it easy.

When I write my own stories it can be agonizing. I never know how much influence I should allow other writers to have over me. I want to be the one to tell my own story, no exceptions. But sometimes, when I read over a piece I wrote a while ago, I could tell you exactly which author I was reading around that time. Usually, when I ask my friends to see if they can tell they can’t see what I’m talking about, but it bothers me. I know its natural for other writers’ influences to creep into your work, but how much is too much? When does the work become more theirs than yours? Sometimes I struggle with this more than others, but I am beginning to believe that everyone’s particular voice is made original by the authors they have read. Influences are allowed as long as they are slightly outweighed by your own inventiveness. They should be the assistants, not the craftsmen.

What do you think? How much influence should you allow into your work?