Intellectual Curiosities and Provocations

November 2004

Making the Cut

Beat Generation,
Postmodernism
Bill King (Billectric) came up with an interesting writing challenge for the people of LitKicks, inspired by the example of the late William S. Burroughs. "Cut-ups may not be for everybody, but if nothing else, they can help overcome writer's block," Bill writes.

The basic method is to pick a significant text -- a newspaper article, a favorite book, a letter privately written from a friend -- and use any variety of methods to incorporate randomly chosen phrases or sentences from the text into a new work. You can cut up a single text, or you can stream different texts into a single output.

Books on Film

Classics,
Drama,
Film
During my first semester of college, I was a theater major, enrolled in a theater history class that I probably wouldn't have been taking if it weren't required. The problem with it -- other than the fact that it met at 9 a.m. and took place in a building all the way across campus from my dorm -- was that there was just too much reading. And I, like many new college students, was much more interested in hanging out with my friends than I was into the idea of spending my evenings with a copy of Oedipus Rex and a highlighter.

The Lonely Writer

Being A Writer
Anemone Achtnich (panta rhei) sent us a quote and a question. According to Harold Rosen:

"The writer is a lonely figure cut off from the stimulus and corrective of listeners. He must be a predictor of reactions and act on his predictions. He writes with one hand tied behind his back, being robbed of gesture. He is robbed too of his tone of voice and the aid of clues the environment provides. He is condemned to monologue; there is no one to help out, to fill the silences, put words in his mouth or make encouraging noises."

Seen and Heard

News
As if all the holiday book gift guides and new releases weren't enough to keep us busy, it seems to be award season in the literary world ... and so close to Thanksgiving. Perhaps it's a sign that there are a lot of turkeys about. Heavyweights Tom Wolfe, Philip Roth, Alice Munro and even Dave Eggers have recent volumes out and are getting some buzz just in time to possibly be stuffed in someone's stocking, but sometimes the more interesting news is a little on the less obvious side.

No Exit

Existential,
French,
La Boheme


You know those internet quizzes where you find out what kind of Disney character you are, what root vegetable you are, which flag of the world you are? Well, I don't know if there's a quiz for which classic existentialist text you are, but if there were, I'm pretty sure I would be No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre.

This is a comic play about three recently dead people who find themselves in hell. But hell, in Sartre's vision, has no burning embers or rapacious goat-monsters. Instead, it's a mundane hotel room with a polite servant and Second Empire furniture. The three people, puzzled at their surroundings, begin to converse. They are:

  • Garcin, a grand but arrogant alpha male who brags of his courageous service in the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation.
  • Inez, a street-smart, world-weary lesbian.
  • Estelle, an attractive, somewhat brainless young woman.

Winter of our Discontent

Classics,
Existential,
Personal,
Psychology
My family is as dysfunctional as anybody's, but we have a good time when we get together. I just returned from four days of Thanksgiving madness -- madness being here defined as many board games, several kids running around like banshees, several grownups hanging around the piano belting out torch songs, and a lot of food. At times during this marathon family-fest, I may have even enjoyed myself.