Madame de Staël

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein (French: [stal]; née Necker; 22 April 1766 – 14 July 1817), commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a French woman of letters of Swiss origin whose lifetime overlapped with the events of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. For many years she lived as an exile under the Reign of Terror and under Napoleonic persecution. Known as a witty and brilliant conversationalist, often dressed in flashy and revealing outfits, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. She was present at the first opening of the Estates General and at the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and witnessed the departure of the royal family from Versailles. Her intellectual collaboration with Benjamin Constant between 1795 and 1811 made them one of the most celebrated intellectual couples of their time. They discovered sooner than others the tyrannical character and designs of Napoleon. In 1814 one of her contemporaries observed that "there are three great powers struggling against Napoleon for the soul of Europe: England, Russia, and Madame de Staël". Her works, both novels and travel literature, with emphasis on passion, individuality and oppositional politics made their mark on European Romanticism. Personal freedom was evidently as important to her as abstract political liberties. 

REVEALING THE ENVIRONMENTAL WISDOM IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

LIAM HENEGHAN

Talking lions, philosophical bears, very hungry caterpillars, wise spiders, altruistic trees, companionable moles, urbane elephants: this is the magnificent menagerie that delights our children at bedtime. Within the entertaining pages of many children’s books, however, also lie profound teachings about the natural world that can help children develop an educated and engaged appreciation of the dynamic environment they inhabit.
 
In Beasts at Bedtime, scientist (and father) Liam Heneghan examines the environmental underpinnings of children’s stories. From Beatrix Potter to Harry Potter, Heneghan unearths the universal insights into our inextricable relationship with nature that underlie so many classic children’s stories. Some of the largest environmental challenges in coming years—from climate instability, the extinction crisis, freshwater depletion, and deforestation—are likely to become even more severe as this generation of children grows up. Though today’s young readers will bear the brunt of these environmental calamities, they will also be able to contribute to environmental solutions if prepared properly. And all it takes is an attentive eye: Heneghan shows how the nature curriculum is already embedded in bedtime stories, from the earliest board books like The Rainbow Fish to contemporary young adult classics like The Hunger Games.
 
Beasts at Bedtime is an awakening to the vital environmental education children’s stories can provide—from the misadventures of The Runaway Bunny to more overt tales like The Lorax. Heneghan serves as our guide, drawing richly upon his own adolescent and parental experiences, as well as his travels in landscapes both experienced and imagined. Organized into thematic sections, the work winds its way through literary forests, colorful characters, and global environments.
 
This book enthralls as it engages. Heneghan as a guide is as charming as he is insightful, showing how kids (and adults) can start to experience the natural world in incredible ways from the comfort of their own rooms. Beasts at Bedtimewill help parents, teachers, and guardians extend those cozy times curled up together with a good book into a lifetime of caring for our planet. 

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo25153600.html

Writer's Retreats - A dream in Italy

So, I have a grand idea based on the beautiful retreat hosted in Tuscany, Italy by Vanessa Carnevale and the folks at Wide Open Writing. I have resources that will allow me to design my own writing retreat, reach out to the right people, and establish an experience for others. I can't wait! This is my dream.

Also, The McDowell writing residency application is due on April 15th, so, I hope to apply this weekend. It will help to get this experience under my belt and also to get some uninterrupted work done.

Poets & Writers has some tips and insights into the best retreats and conferences as well as Booksparks.

Of course, there is important information about getting a passport to consider and also discovering if I need a Visa. Also, a company called Aer Lingus seems to have the cheapest flights.

Ciao Bellas.

Wood, then years later

Reading Wood, again, I am enthralled by his mind as it developed as a critic. He is working through the theories and ideas he posed and making sense of the material in a less visceral, more removed way. She does sound wonderful.

"I believe that books, once they are written, have no need of their authors. If they have something to say, they will sooner or later find readers; if not, they won’t. . . . I very much love those mysterious volumes, both ancient and modern, that have no definite author but have had and continue to have an intense life of their own. They seem to me a sort of nighttime miracle, like the gifts of the Befana, which I waited for as a child. . . . True miracles are the ones whose makers will never be known. . . . Besides, isn’t it true that promotion is expensive? I will be the least expensive author of the publishing house. I’ll spare you even my presence."

How fiction worked?

Back to the question of the New Sincerity.


The concept isn't entirely new to me, personally. Around the time these articles claim this movement was getting traction, a literary friend of mine and I (the director of a literary group and publicist for a poetry and jazz festival) were hot on the trail of the David Foster Wallace/James Wood debate--if you don't know what that is, it's the "Ultimate Post-modern versus Classical Realism dialectic" and all the philosophies therein. Why should this matter in the humanities, in politics, and in life? 

I'm thrilled to see one article on this debate mention the elegant, earthy, honest works of Jumpha Lahiri (of The Namesake), as she was a frequent touch point, aesthetically and philosophically, in my defenses tool kit (whoever wrote this article back then was thinking along the same lines as I was). 

That said, back then, I was fortunate to meet James Wood (I suppose in the "realist camp" and staff writer and literary critic at The New Yorker). I also heard him speak at Tufts U. Later, we met again when he came to our bookstore. I had questions, he had lots of ideas.

In these debates, I was often negated by being placed (with much protest) into the realist camp--a snarky place to be tossed if you are young and in the modern art world, I guess. I would counter by saying if by realism they meant magic realism ala the rich, lucious Marquez; however, I often craved the occasional genuine confession, a kindness, a feeling, and emotion in our art like a person on a dry desert seeks an oasis--sentiments I found often lacking.

Usually if one is traipsing around the metaphorical literary jungles, cities, and sometimes deserts; one is seeking adventure--as anyone who reads to experience new things does (think the protagonist in Norman Rush's Mating). It wasn't the mechanics of the adventure (or ideas or debates) that bothered me; whether the story was Pomo or Realist or any other technical style; it was, I realized later, rather attitudinal proclivities that grew wearisome--attitudes that came from a certain direction and most often.

To rest from time to time in a sincere, calm, nurturing place and gather one's wits; is a fairly benign request.

The problem is when irony sops up the hopes of an oasis and replaces it with bitter, aggressive, wry laughter. To seek such repose in modern academe (something nurturing, perhaps) was a sign of idealistic naivete. It knocked hard on those who said: "Hey, these issues that we write about, that we find our inspiration from--whether they be the big ones such as despair and existentialism; or the more social ones like economics, prison, race, social mores, betrayal--these ideas move us because we see the havoc and pain they can cause on others. Is not the telling of these stories (simply because one wants to be famous, or considered deep and literary) while using post-modern window dressing with no hope of repair fatalistic? *eye roll* "Doesn't sincerity move toward repair?" *snicker* "When should our stories be soft." *yawn* I guess this question somehow made me an old fashioned Classical Realist? 

"Make it new," to quote Pound, in literary circles meant something; yet, the philosophy of what it was was slightly out of reach. The meaning was adrift but the window dressing was specific.  

I think this moves into the theory of the "safe space" as presented in modern academe. With all this ironic, mocking laughter of the innocent, gentle, or sincere, why shouldn't a person want an oasis from which they can catch their breath, eat, sleep under the stars, process their feelings and experiences (you know, a sincere recounting and regathering) before they go back out into the tough, loud, bossy world that provides as much emotional and intellectual excitement as it does jarring and horrifying experiences?

If irony and biting wit are defense mechanisms against the harshness of modern life, what exactly is it that one is defending? Peel back the tough, abrasive layers and I guarantee the softer, more tender answers are waiting there.  

Being a Writer

"We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—even of silence—by choice. The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse." Annie Dillard

Coming Soon

Magic realism, gypsies, europe, religious zealots and chocolate. A review of Joanne Harris' book.


Note: Well, I had a whole blog typed up Sunday January 22nd, including an experiment in the kitchen making Pain au Chocolat (chocolate croissants--they came out okay-William Sonoma, Baking) and highlights from the Patriots/Ravens game and it got erased due to computer error. Back to the cutting board. 

A really incredible look at a young activistist's life in corporate America with echos of the 70's offering up stories and secrets about what is called "the movement."