Great Works Discussion at Baruch College

Tomorrow at Baruch, poet laureate Charles Simic, along with writers Antonio Munoz Molina, Fatou Diome, and Ma Jian, will be discussing works from Baruch College’s ‘Great Works’ courses. According to the PEN website, each writer ‘selected a classic work from those being studied in Baruch’s Great Works program and will discuss its resonance within his or her own life and work.’ It sounds like it will be a very interesting program; it’s also free and open to the public. It will be held in room 5-150 in the Vertical Campus at 2:30 tomorrow, May 1. It’s part of the PEN World Voices series taking place all over the city this week. Visit the website for more information and a complete schedule of events.

Charles Simic at Baruch College

U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic spoke here at Baruch last Tuesday, March 18. He’s teaching here this spring as part of the Harman Writer in Residence Program, which brings a different writer to Baruch each semester. He read from a number of poems written over the course of his career. The reading was alternately poignant and bitterly funny. One memorable poem was ‘Serving Time,’ excerpted here:

‘Here on death row, I read a lot of books.

First it was law, as you’d expect.

Then came history, ancient and modern.

Finally philosophy–all that being and nothingness stuff.

The more I read, the less I understand.

Still, other inmates call me professor.’

(Simic, Charles. Sixty Poems, p88; originally appeared in The Voice at 3AM, 2003).

Simic’s sense of humor shone through during his reading, even when he was discussing serious events and issues. Originally from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, he lived through World War II and the occupation of that country by the Nazis. To find out more about Simic and his work, and to hear more of his readings, you can visit his website at the Library of Congress.

You can watch the entire video of the Baruch event by clicking this link.

The Children of Hurin

This book is one of the best things I’ve read in the past few years. Granted, Tolkien is my favorite writer. But the book shows his versatility–it’s very different in tone from The Lord of the Rings. It is unrelenting in its darkness, a tragedy without redemption. It’s hard to read this book and not be moved. Tolkien uses very little sentiment in describing his characters, which makes their suffering even more sympathetic, in my mind.

The work centers mostly on Turin, Hurin’s son, and his sad wanderings. Hurin, after being captured by Morgoth, refuses to bow to him, dooming his family to Morgoth’s curse. His pride causes endless suffering. Turin’s life is covered in shadows; no matter what he does it ends badly for him and everyone he cares about. Hurin’s daughter Nienor and wife Morwen are similarly doomed to live as refugees, subjected to constant peril their entire lives. In this way the book has the feeling of one of the Norse sagas or Greek tragedy.

For Tolkien fans, this is an essential read. If you are interested in fantasy or enjoyed the Lord of the Rings, it doesn’t get much better than this.

The Search

Very thoughtful and interesting article in the NY Times about comic books dealing with the Holocaust that are being used in German schools.

Vanishing Librarians

An interesting article in Library Journal notes that public libraries are incorporating all the worst aspects of chain bookstores without the benefits (like being able to drink a $7 coffee or buy a book):

More and more working librarians are “managed” by a new breed of library leader. Their model for the new public library is that dehumanized supermarket or the chaotic disorganization of the largest Barnes & Noble.

When I worked at Queens Library from 2001-2003, I saw this management strategy firsthand. Professional librarians spent huge amounts of time ‘merchandising,’ which meant taking books from the shelves, where they could be located according to call number, and piling them haphazardly onto display cases where people could browse as if they were at a bookstore. In its infinite wisdom, management believed that people came to a library ‘to feel like they were at a bookstore,’ as it was once explained to me.

The flaw in this unassailable logic was that books were impossible to find, and the catalog almost useless, since many of the most popular titles were often piled beneath a mountain of true-crime books or civil service tests. Very frustrating and a waste of time for patrons ‘customers’ and librarians ’sales associates’ alike.

The atmosphere was pretty much chaos all the time, with long lines of annoyed patrons waiting for help from staff. The turnover was high, as librarians would get some experience and leave as soon as they could. There were good librarians and patrons there, but often they were undermined by the poor leadership of the place. I was physically threatened by a ‘customer’ just before I started a job search in earnest, (our supervisors and director cared nothing about the staff or its safety,) and took the first one I was offered.

In any case, this is an interesting read and it does make one wonder what public libraries will look like in the future.

Wikipedia article

Wikipedia is in the news today about an entry on Islam that ‘has become the subject of an online protest in the last few weeks because of its representations of Muhammad, taken from medieval manuscripts.’

Good luck trying to get rid of those images. Even though any reasonable person would agree that the right thing to do is to blot out history so as not to offend anyone.

Sad Little Man Disgraces Self, Profession

A state archivist in Albany has been charged with stealing hundreds of rare and valuable documents on American history from his place of work. The first line almost made me spit coffee onto my keyboard; it’s kind of funny that he was doing something so banal with the cash:

ALBANY — A veteran state archivist said he stole hundreds of historical artifacts from the State Library — including two Davy Crockett almanacs — to pay for home renovations, tuition and his daughter’s $10,000 credit card bill.

Sure, blame it on your daughter, pal. He’s kind of like the reverse of a librarian. Remember Winston Smith, the character from 1984, who destroyed news every day as part of his job? It’s like that, except this guy sold stuff to put a pool in his yard.

He got caught when a lawyer/history buff from Virginia saw some of his postings on ebay and knew something was amiss. Good idea that, placing unique historical artifacts on a public auction site. No one was ever going to find out.

Call me Ish.

An article in the NY Times highlights a new craze in Japan–the cell-phone novel. Here is an interesting quote:

“Of last year’s 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels. What is more, the top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists, touching off debates in the news media and blogosphere.”

And this:

“Indeed, many cellphone novelists had never written fiction before, and many of their readers had never read novels before, according to publishers.”

I wonder how long it might be before we see some of these things in the U.S.? Another passage trumpets the universality of the books compared to coventional novels. Consider this quote from an author:

“Traditionally, Japanese would depict a scene emotionally, like ‘The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country,’ ” Mika Naito, a novelist, said, referring to the famous opening sentence of Yasunari Kawabata’s “Snow Country.”

“In cellphone novels, you don’t need that,” said Ms. Naito, 36, who recently began writing cellphone novels at the urging of her publisher. “If you limit it to a certain place, readers won’t be able to feel a sense of familiarity.”

By that reasoning, the less detail and insight the writer provides, the better off we’ll all be! Popular films have been proving this logic for many years.