I began this post after Thanksgiving dinner, when my brain was bursting at the seams with L-Tryptophan, and I realized I really needed to write this blog.  “The Holiday Season” in general was on my mind, and I kept thinking about what books could be considered seasonal literature, or what books are traditionally read during the holidays.

I consider the #1 holiday classic to be Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Though I would venture a guess that most of the population watches it in video form, the Muppets or otherwise (my favorite version is the one with George C. Scott), I know there are still some die hard fans out there who read the book each December. The classic message of kindness prevailing and the ability to change your fate along with some generally wholesome Dickens writing is enough to keep readers faithful.  Dickens also wrote other holiday stories such as The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, and The Battle of Life. Each of these contains the same theme of A Christmas Carol: a character having a change of heart. Dickens evidently ran with what he knew would be a hard hitting message for audiences.

However, you then have the peculiar case of Christmas crime and mystery novels. I vividly remember my mother reading a book of short stories called Murder Merry, where all of the stories of course have to do with festive Christmas murders. There’s Shakespeare’s Christmas, by Charlaine Harris, where “Lily Bard attends her sister’s Christmas wedding and is shocked when she gets caught up in an unsolved kidnapping after discovering that her new brother-in-law’s daughter bears a striking resemblance to the missing child.” You could also read A Christmas Journey by Anne Perry, where “a peaceful Christmas party at an elegant English country house is interrupted by what seems a suicide, and Lady Vespasia turns investigator to determine the truth behind the puzzling death” (descriptions taken from here: http://www.winfield.lib.il.us/winfield/holidaywhodunits.html).

If Hanukkah is your celebration, try Festival of Death by Jane Haddam and Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Choir by Sharon Kahn, which are both Hanukkah mysteries—although, that category lacks as much breadth as the Christmas crime and whodunits.

Another subgenre of Holiday literature are the ever-popular children’s books. My parents still read me The Night Before Christmas (illustrated by Grandma Moses of course.) Some of my favorite books are the ones by Jan Brett, like The Mitten or Troubles with Trolls, which are delightfully illustrated, winter-themed, but with the added benefit of being non-denominational. The Polar Express, The Gift of the Magi (not necessarily a children’s book but I feel like it’s often read to them), How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Babar and Father Christmas, and Olive, the Other Reindeer are some books that we adults still enjoy today and help get us in the spirit!

Lastly, you have the snarky holiday book. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris and You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas by Augusten Burroughs are two of my favorites. The North Pole Employee Handbook: A Guide to Policies, Rules, Regulations and Daily Operations for the Worker at North Pole Industries by James Napoli looks promising, as does Christmas Letters from Hell: All the News We Hate from the People We Love, by Michael Lent. Sometimes you need a few laughs over the holidays to get over your shopping and family stresses.

Of course, this is completely subjective, and everyone has his or her own holiday favorites! I’d love to hear if there’s a book that never leaves your coffee table in December. Or if anyone thinks that “New Year’s Fiction” is an up-and-coming sub genre…

When you hear November, you might think of the transition between fall and winter. Thanksgiving and No Shave November. Native American Heritage Month. American Diabetes Month. BLACK FRIDAY. Sweet Potato Awareness Month. The month Beaujolais nouveau is released (a big deal for us wine lovers).

However, if you’re a literary nerd, you’ll know its National Novel Writing Month. Also known as NaNoWriMo, the slogan of the program is “thirty days and thirty nights of literary abandon!” Sounds fun, but what is it specifically? The goal is to complete a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. This is approximately 1,667 words everyday. NaNoWriMo began in 1999 to motivate a small group of writer friends and has since become an Internet sensation. The website can keep track of your words, introduce you to other writers in your genre, and help keep you motivated.  There’s no prize for completing the challenge or failing, but I’m sure it feels pretty good to have written something of such magnitude.

Full confession: I actually tried this once.  It was either in high school or freshman year here at W&L but I honestly can’t remember.  Couldn’t tell you the plot but I’m pretty sure I was going for a Donna Tartt The Secret History ripoff, except made for teens at boarding school. Real work and real papers apparently got in the way and I stopped. And that leads me to my biggest question: who the heck has time for this? Legitimate authors make time for their work. Can any new phenoms appear from the frenzy that is NaNoWriMo?

Clearly, I’m setting this up for some favorable outcomes. Of COURSE there have been successful novelists. Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen is perhaps the biggest success story. It was on bestseller lists for over a year and was made into a movie with Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson. Enough said. Then there’s The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which barnesandnoble.com tells me got great reviews and was also on the NYT bestseller list. I actually want to check this one out.  Additionally, Wool by Hugh Howey was mentioned after the first two by both Barnes and Noble and Mental Floss so I’ll just go ahead and assume it’s also a good book. It sounds kind of like an Anthem/ The Road crossover but the movie rights have already been purchased by 20^th Century Fox. When movie rights are purchased early, the book is probably great. Fact.

However, many people have reservations about NaNoWriMo. Some think NaNoWriMo novelists are just a bunch of amateur writers who think they’ve written the next Twilight. The slogan “No Plot? No Problem!” can actually result in an onslaught of plotless, poorly thought out novels. Literary agents are rumored to receive a much larger influx of slush directly after November. Also there is the issue that some people write at different speeds than others. Laura Miller of Salon puts her reservations rather scathingly: “Why does giving yourself permission to write a lot of crap so often seem to segue into the instance that other people read it? Nothing about NaNoWriMo suggests that it’s likely to produce more novels I’d want to read.” Personally, I am a fan of the Twitter hashtag, #NaNoWriMoOpeners, which mock the, often silly, nature of books people attempt to write during this period. Some of my favorites?

@timmeehan66: I didn’t kill my ex-wife. But, what if I did?

@boring_as_heck: The novelization of Wild Wild West was, quite frankly, pedestrian.” They would be his last words. I unsheathed my katana.

@woodmuffin: “You’ll never get away with this!” she cried in her cell “I’m a famous Disney star!” Obama cackled, “Is that so, Raven??”

You get the picture.

But even though there are the sassy literary-minded people who think the idea of unleashing a bunch of plebeians to run amok with their fan-fictions and their MacBook Pros is stupid, I think there’s a good side to NaNoWriMo. The point is that no matter what you’re writing about, no matter your skill level, you should write.  It doesn’t matter if it gets published or not as long as it makes the writer happy. One day I hope I’ll have the time to participate because I think, if nothing else, it would be a lot of fun. After all, isn’t that what writing is about?

P.S. Wikipedia informs me it is also National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). Here I am, posting a blog. How timely.

Recently, it seems as if brands are beginning to embrace the bookish, nerdy side in all of us.  I was especially struck by Kate Spade’s collection of clutches that looked like books. They started off with The Great Gatsby, Emma, Pride and Prejudice, The Importance of Being Earnest, Great Expectations, and Romeo and Juliet.  The series apparently became so popular that Kate Spade decided to roll out more—now, one can purchase The Age of Innocence, The Portrait of a Lady, and A Tale of Two Cities. All clutches feature brightly colored and dynamically designed “covers,” which bear no resemblance to any prior publisher copies.  For $328 you too can show off how well read and stylish you are, or you can be stylish and pretend you’re well read. 

So what is it that makes this high-end retailer decide to begin marketing icons of literature in such a way? Why were these titles picked? Is what Kate Spade puts on their clutches suddenly going to be what every fashionable cosmopolitan 20-something decides they have to read? Is literature fashionable? I certainly can’t answer all these questions, but I’ll take a stab at it.

I think perhaps the big on-screen adaptations of classic novels could have, in part, inspired these items.  Great Gatsby? When people heard it was being remade, pretty much the whole country ran out to re-read the book, and then go on to misinterpret the point of the novel as “wow Gatsby threw great parties, huh?” and decide that 20’s fashion is in. Classics like Anna Karenina and Jane Eyre were also recently made into movies, both encouraging people to reread these popular novels but also showcasing gorgeous costumes.  As for the titles picked, they clearly skew very classic, popular novels accepted as canon, and nothing that would be too controversial.  This ensures that people know the books and that people would want to purchase the clutches because they know an enduring novel means an enduring fashion statement.

Will these books have a sudden reemergence in the set of modern young women who would purchase such items? Possibly.  Just like movie adaptations reinvigorate book sales, so could fashion.  But these are also novels that constantly get reread and rediscovered.  Dickens, Austen, Wilde, and Shakespeare are read constantly, though of course some socialite who doesn’t often read could pick up one of these clutches and think, “Hmm, The Importance of Being Earnest sounds good, maybe I should read it.”

Interestingly, the relationship between fashion and literature is symbiotic. After clicking about on the Internet, I learned that books and literature can inspire fashion designers as well.  A Japanese clothing brand, Juliette et Justine, was inspired by the Marquis de Sade’s books—expect some lace, ruffles, and chokers. Prabal Gurung’s Fall 2011 line was inspired by Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. Desiging Duo Shipley and Halmos’s Fall 2009 collection was inspired by “the philosophy of Ayn Rand (http://flavorwire.com/162418/books-that-inspired-fashion-designers/).  These examples would make any literary snob skeptical, I’m sure.  The Marquis de Sade? Wouldn’t have gone anywhere near fluffy and cutesy clothing. Miss Havisham? Only wears her old wedding dress; that could barely serve as inspiration for a whole line. Ayn Rand? I would hazard a guess that she almost has more critics than admirers now and who even knows how to translate that into clothing.  But I think what we can glean from this is that people will always interpret literature the way they want to. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing—literature serves to inspire, even if the clothing line isn’t the same wedding dress done 12 different times.

Literary characters are often described and even defined by their outfits. Clarissa Dalloway wears her “silver-green mermaid’s dress” at her party, Anna Karenina wears “a low-cut black velvet gown,” and Hester Prynne wears the scarlet letter—not her own choice of a fashion statement, but still. Perhaps the most iconic combination of fashion in literature is Holly Golightly, of Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s—the everyday woman might not be able to tell you what happened in the novella but they will know that Audrey Hepburn wore a slim black dress, pearls, and big black sunglasses.

Literature CAN be incorporated into fashion, and fashion often occurs as a statement in literature.  The relationship might not be the most overt, but the symbiosis is there. Do you agree? Would you pay $328 for a Pride and Prejudice clutch? Is there a literary figure that you think wore something pretty iconic? I’d love to hear it! –Taylor McPherson