Pearls Before Canine

Day 248 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and Ariel is reading a collection of short stories by Carol Shields because "I have a short attention span and short stories are good for me."

I told her how much I liked Carol Shields and then pointed out that Ariel has an Uncorrected Proofs copy, truly the book in its first state! "Hang on to this," I said.

It might become valuable, and, because of the possible typos, it might hold Ariel's attention for more reasons than excellent writing.  It's fun to find the little errors!  She said she would share the book with her friend who is majoring in publishing, which must be a new emphasis in the English or Communications degree. Hmmm!

Ariel picked up three other books, novels, and says she'll be back (to Babbitt's) the next time she gets paid.

Another college student, or graduate student, walked out with Brooklyn Follies, by Paul Auster, and another with The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway.  The latter will be doing his student teaching soon in a troubled school system in his hometown of Rockford, Illinois, and then hopes to teach overseas for a while, to keep gaining in life and teaching experience.  I have to say it's a thrill to talk to the these young men and women who love to read and hope to teach.

And a couple with a Jack Russell terrier on a leash spent quite a bit of time in the store and walked out with a huge stack of fine books!  The dog, the runt of the litter, according to her mistress, was very well behaved, wore a pearl collar, and knew when she needed to go out.

Babbitt's is a dog-loving store, and Jackson the dog used to live there.  But, sadly, not any more.

Perhaps Women

Day 101 (as in Dalmatians) of the "What are you reading, and why?" project.

I want to know if anyone is reading, or has read, Perhaps Women, by Sherwood Anderson. An olive green copy sprinkled with little offwhite flowers passed through my hands yesterday at Babbitt's, and I was intrigued. Though it is called a novel, Anderson's short preface identified it as a hybrid form of poetry and prose, sort of an essay/essai (as in "try something"), and his concern in the book is "the machine," or man and the machine, and how, perhaps, women might be men's salvation at this turning point in American life.

I will not comment on how women as men's salvation sometimes just means picking up after them. Sigh... But I do notice (in his Wikipedia bio) that Anderson also has a book called Many Marriages and had them (4), so perhaps women were not his personal salvation. I also notice that Ernest Hemingway seems to have skewered him in at least two novels, but what goes around comes around and poor Ernie Kabob has been skewered, too. Hence, The Old Man and the Sea, or so they say. Marlin Kabob.

Speaking of unfortunate skewerings, Anderson is the author who died on a cruise after swallowing the toothpick in his martini. No wonder F. Scott Fitzgerald loved him.

Anderson has been mentioned previously, and recently, in this blog--in Doug's List and follow-up comments, and in the context of a past Great Books Chicago event, but that was his best-known work, Winesburg, Ohio, a set of interconnected short stories.

A first edition of Olive Kitteridge, also a set of interconnected short stories, also passed through my hands this week, long enough for me to note that the stories were written and separately published over quite a long span of time, a comfort to me, as I've had to set aside the writing of short fiction during the hardworking/childrearing years, and a bit of time for it is just now coming back.

And this week in vintage sales, a young man headed east bought a copy of The Great Gatsby, which returns to the values of the Midwest; a land surveyor came in search of another hardcover Catcher in the Rye, a book he collects and reads frequently, sharing my love of perennials; and a third random stranger bought a just arrived $2 paperback of Franny and Zooey. It just keeps happening.

And now the sun has come out. I'm off to check on the perennials.

Girl, Please! (A return to chick & dick lit)

Day 32 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project.

Tom, who was reading Misfortune, the Wesley Stace book about a boy raised as a girl in the 19th century, tried to comment on this blog earlier, sent his thoughts to me another way, and I saved his comments on chick lit and dick lit for later.

Later is now:

"Hmmm, here's one gay male perspective. I would have thought Chick Lit would have fallen in the same general category as Chick Flicks, which by my definition are not necessarily by or even about women, but of a certain genre deemed too 'feminine' to appeal to men. My partner and I are always at odds when it comes to films because he tends to like gore and slasher/suspense films (guy flicks), while I am more drawn to more serious, 'thoughty' films, along with romantic comedies and romance in general (chick flicks).

"It tends to be the same with books, he likes true crime and I like books, mostly by women authors (including mysteries by women authors with female detectives), that have a more thoughtful bent to them and are more language oriented. I'd have referred to my taste as more chick lit oriented, but that wouldn't fall under your definition. I hadn't thought of either chick lit or chick flicks as having been necessarily lighter or funnier, but literature that would by a stereotypically male definition, would appeal more to women.

"By the same token, I'd refer to Hemingway and even Stephen King as dick lit because both authors are so prodigiously 'male' in their attitudes that I don't connect to them at all. Which is not to say I'm not male or relate to male authors or subjects, just that I don't relate in any way to that kind of machismo.

"And where do strongly gay male visions like Augusten Burroughs or David Sedaris fall? Chick or dick? Or somewhere in between. This has been a very enlightening discussion. Thanks for sharing. "

I've got to say that Burroughs and Sedaris are very popular on the Selected New Arrivals shelf by the door at Babbitt's, and all the recent buyers have been women!

Rupaul offers a way to look at being human in this Woman Made Gallery Call for Art:

"We are all born naked, the rest is just drag."

Woman Made, as its name will tell you, is a gallery dedicated to exhibiting and promoting work by women artists to help correct a historical imbalance in their representation in the world, but for some theme-based group shows it calls for art from men as well. This is an all gender call, and defines gender this way:

"Gender is a performance, an act that is perpetuated and maintained by societal norms and expectations, but how, and to what extent does it define us? 'Girl, Please!' seeks to push and transcend the definition of gender while also exploring its relation to individual character amongst collective expectations. Bearing in mind Rupaul's statement, drag in this case is not disco, but rather an illustration of feminity and masculinity in shades of grey."

If you are an artist interested in this theme and in submitting work to this show, click the Woman Made link above to learn more about how.

If you want to return to the chick lit/dick lit dicussion or pursue these other ideas on what we mean by "gender," feel free to comment.

Interesting that Tom mentions Hemingway, one of those boys dressed as a girl for a time in childhood, which was fairly common practice, I understand, as one of those 'male' writers.