BIBLIOGRIND
The Life of a Wordsmith — Read … Live … Write
Archive for March, 2011
March 30, 2011 at 8:34 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
These days, I’m done with classes at 11.30 on Wednesdays … which means lots of time to write, and be merry. With spring now holding us by the pant cuff, I went off to the Riegevy Sady beer garden to do some writing.
The sun was shining, the garden had a few dozen people, and I ordered a cold beer to take with me over to a secluded (more or less) picnic bench. I wrote for an hour. And then I came home.
Okay, not much action or drama in this story, but then, that’s what happens when I write: all the action happens between brain and pen.
March 27, 2011 at 7:48 am · Filed under The Prague Blog
The real sign of SpringTime for the modern human: changing the clocks forward. That extra, man-made, hour so important to the coming SummerTime, where my eyes become sandy and the lids drop before the sun drops behind the castle.
Asia promises fried chicken breasts, french fries and digestive leaves for an early dinner at 3-ish, after I get back from The Billiards Hour with Cal.
The idiots in Florida have returned my documents that need apostille stamps, because they’ve changed the fee. I hope Illinois won’t do the same, or if their prices have changed, they’ll at least let me know. O the little odds and ends needed for marriage. Now we need to get a translator for the Czech end of things: gov’t forms, dates and schedules, the civil ceremony to be given in Czech (I could comment on the modern world again — a Pole and an American getting married in Czech Republic; three languages, none native — but these things have been happening for thousands of years.
March 26, 2011 at 7:47 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
I was all set to go to the monthly flea market in Namesti Miru, the first after a long winter break, to buy a new pair of slippers. Seems that sliding around on our apartment hardwoods makes the bottoms melt like butter.
This Czech grandmother knits them by hand, nice and soft, multicolorful, and comfortable. But then a little foxy whispered into my ear, and what she told me shocked me out of my back-up slippers: it turns out that the old bitch has doubled her prices.
Asia can teach me how to knit in a Gdynia Minute, and then I can make my own damned slippers.
March 24, 2011 at 7:39 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
I’m starting a notebook of Prague: impressions and people. It’ll be useful in 4 or 5 years, when I’m ready to write about the city, and the people I’ve met, known briefly, and got to know well.
Of course, I have this blog for starters, but a full rendering of the people is essential: those I’ve worked with, my students, friends, acquaintances, expats, natives, transients, government officials, barmen, bar wenches, etcetera. Their personalities, their opinions, their philosophies, are the building blocks of a Prague novel.
And … there’s always the Little Fox, too.
March 24, 2011 at 6:14 am · Filed under The Prague Blog
Looking for a good film while Asia’s strawberry cake baked, we found “Elegy” — a film adapted from Philip Roth’s novel “The Dying Animal”. It stars Ben Kingsly and Penelope Cruz.
An aging professor, who has never really committed himself to a woman, starts up with one of his grad students (after grades are posted, of course; he doesn’t want to be accused of sexual harrassment). There’s a sort of pygmalian thing going on, at first, but their 30+ yr age difference is leveled by Consuella’s intelligence. Of course, the passion is heated, and the connection is emotional. Too emotional, for Prof Kapesh. He’s worried about the age difference, worried about his growing love for this young woman, and worried that she’ll tire of him just as soon as she wakes up from passion’s dream-state.
And then people start dying left and right, or are threatened with death (age, sickness, etc). Depressing? Sure. But then, we all WILL die of something. And that’s the point of “Elegy” — what we leave behind, because we don’t take anything with us. The elegy of who we raised as children, and their thoughts of their parents; elegy of our lovers; elegy of our work; elegy of the friends we’ve had, and lost.
Roth’s title — “The Dying Animal” — not just one or two, or three or four, of the book’s characters, but all of us. How we want to leave the world is as much left to the people we’ve known, as to what we’ve accomplished/failed/tried.
March 21, 2011 at 3:00 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
As I now have discovered, my ambitions for completing “Of Sirens & Muses” inside two years was jumping the gun. I was moving too quick, and have since February slowed down my reading/re-writing, and come to see the need for some structural changes.
The language changes — sentence by sentence reading for sense — was a given, and that continues, with good results. “This is the fun part,” I’ve always told myself. Now I see why: to make the language sing.
March 21, 2011 at 10:39 am · Filed under The Prague Blog
I had another one of those language moments when, using the passive sounds I’ve come to learn as words, I was able to order some chlebickou (open-faced sandwiches) at the local Cukarna (sandies and sweets shop).
I ordered three chlebickou to go, and pronounced the words of the individual chlebicky. Not bad, I thought.
It sure beats pointing and grunting, or simply using English with the expectation that the person serving you knows the meaning of your native tongue.
March 20, 2011 at 5:10 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Philip Roth is staring at me. I feel him, watching each keystroke, assessing my body language, laughing when I sigh, silent when I laugh.
His face is shadowed, the dust jacket photo of an old man, much accomplished, critical of himself and those who claim to know him, know books, know how to criticize books. Inspiring? Hardly … no, yes it is. Someone has to continue to write, try to write good books.
The anxiety of influence, as Harold Bloom wrote. It has a bit of truth to it.
Asia has printed onto a sticky note, next to Roth’s mouth, where a cartoon speech balloon sits, words that Roth might speak: “How’s it going, Mark Thomas Beyer?”
Oi !!
March 19, 2011 at 8:48 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Asia has only learned Scrabble this year, and already she’s scoring near 250. Tonight, though, I had a great come-from-behind win.
With Asia scoring big on words such as “kid” and “weep” and the inimitable “qats” & “megs”, I was behind most of the game. Taking a small lead late, I found myself with z-o-o-c-r-p-y in my hand. I had to get rid of the double-O, playing “poof” in the upper left corner, because there was no other play.
I picked up “a” and “g” as we were out of tiles. Scrambling the letters, with four on the ledge, I formed c-z-a-r !! Now, where to place it, on a board with a loopy, swastika-like pattern, few letters open, and no long spaces left.
On the lower right of the board, “loon” stood verticle, with space on the right. I laid “czar” next to the “l” and “o” and scored big. Worse, I had caught Asia with six letters in hand, for a wopping +14 points. I won the game, 280 – 215.
Sorry, Little Fox, my fiance. Lots more matches and rematches to come.
March 19, 2011 at 7:12 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
I’ve been steadily working on the second draft of my new novel, “Of Sirens and Muses”. This morning (as I do most weekeds) I was up at six, with a cuppa tea, and sitting down to make corrections from printed ms into the electronic version. I worked until after noon, then worked out, had lunch with Asia, and saw her off (to the shopping center, in search of dress/suit for our wedding).
There are not enough hours in the day to get the work done that I want to do. With all the marketing (THE VILLAGE WIT) work, and need of reading, and need of play, I could use another 10 hours in the day. All of this, and I only sleep 6 – 7 hours each night. All of this, and I have basically four days per week to devote full time to writing/brain activities. Wow! How do people who have to slog through jobs for 10-12 hrs do it? I’d blow out my fucking brains.
The weather has cooled off, but it’s still spring-like, with winter becoming a nice dream one forgets upon waking. I took a nice walk in a couple of nearby parks. Then Asia came home with good news about a wedding outfit she’s found. We’re going to go get it tomorrow.
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