Readings
I've fallen behind a bit on this blog, mainly because when I've been focusing most of my writing energy on my novel (which happens to have the same title as the blog). The last few weeks have been incredibly uplifting for me. My hearing is stable and I've been cleared for exercise again. I've been biking and now I'm interested in getting into tennis. One of my fiction classmates has done tennis instruction in the past.
Anyway, on the subject of readings. There have been several wonderful readings over the past three weeks-- Philip Levine, John Barth, and then our Graduate Writing Sems readings. I gave a reading for the first time in my life, for an audience of about 50 people. My mom was in town, which was nice, and we spent that weekend in Shenandoah National Park.
An interesting anecdote about the John Barth reading: Barth is basically the granddaddy of the Writing Sems. He taught at Hopkins for a long time, and he's about as post-modern and experimental as they come. Anyway, after all of the fiction writers got out of class that Thursday, we went down to the Hopkins Club, hoping to crash his reception. We weren't sure if we'd be able to get in-- we taught, but were we faculty? And after all, we hadn't exactly been invited. But as we were standing there uncertainly a car pulls up and John Barth steps out, waves us all in. He gave us a little talk in the Hopkins Club about inventing new genres, as we quaffed as much free wine and beer as we could in the hour before the reading. At the reading, he spun out a post-modern fantasy that included all manners of lechery-- imagine a 75 year old man throwing out everything from half-limp erections to yeast infections. Most of my students attended the reading, and they were shocked.
Philip Levine was absolutely wonderful as well. What a funny old guy. He spent the breaks between poems telling us jokes and trying to convince us that he was not a tormented, depressed poet, and then he read the most heart-breaking poems to us-- poems about war, his twin brother, a lonely waitress.
Anyway, on the subject of readings. There have been several wonderful readings over the past three weeks-- Philip Levine, John Barth, and then our Graduate Writing Sems readings. I gave a reading for the first time in my life, for an audience of about 50 people. My mom was in town, which was nice, and we spent that weekend in Shenandoah National Park.
An interesting anecdote about the John Barth reading: Barth is basically the granddaddy of the Writing Sems. He taught at Hopkins for a long time, and he's about as post-modern and experimental as they come. Anyway, after all of the fiction writers got out of class that Thursday, we went down to the Hopkins Club, hoping to crash his reception. We weren't sure if we'd be able to get in-- we taught, but were we faculty? And after all, we hadn't exactly been invited. But as we were standing there uncertainly a car pulls up and John Barth steps out, waves us all in. He gave us a little talk in the Hopkins Club about inventing new genres, as we quaffed as much free wine and beer as we could in the hour before the reading. At the reading, he spun out a post-modern fantasy that included all manners of lechery-- imagine a 75 year old man throwing out everything from half-limp erections to yeast infections. Most of my students attended the reading, and they were shocked.
Philip Levine was absolutely wonderful as well. What a funny old guy. He spent the breaks between poems telling us jokes and trying to convince us that he was not a tormented, depressed poet, and then he read the most heart-breaking poems to us-- poems about war, his twin brother, a lonely waitress.
posted by Franz K at 10:15 AM
1 Comments:
Hey, great blog.
John Barth is terrific. I had to write a paper on him in high school and hated his style. However, since starting college, I've read another of his stories, and it was very thought provoking. I'm going to pick up an anthology of his fiction at some point. It's cool that you got to meet him.
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