"Infinite City" at the University of San Francisco

“Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas,” by Rebecca Solnit, was chosen by my university to be the book that this year’s incoming freshmen all read and then discussed upon arrival on campus. This book, which I wrote about here on 3/18/11, was the subject of a wonderful campus event I attended yesterday, where Solnit herself, along with contributor and University of San Francisco Professor Aaron Shurin, spoke about the book and its implications. In addition, Solnit and her colleagues had created a brand new map, in the style of the maps in the book, of the USF campus and its surroundings. We who attended were each given a large, beautifully colored and produced copy of this map; I will display mine in my office. It notes the various cultural sites, both past and present, in the area. (USF is located in the geographical center of the city, near Golden Gate Park, and at the crossroads of several neighborhoods: the Haight, the Western Addition, the Richmond, and Presidio Heights.) For one example of historical/cultural sites, our university is located where there were many cemeteries, but many years ago the city banned cemeteries within city limits and moved all the graves out of the city; these cemeteries are marked on the map. Such nearby cultural sites as the Grateful Dead house, the house where Janis Joplin lived, and the house where Patty Hearst was held hostage are all marked. There is a list of all the African American churches in the area, with their long traditions, especially in the nearby Western Addition neighborhood. Solnit gave a mesmerizing talk about the importance of maps, and about how almost anything can be expressed through maps. She spoke of how we all are a collection of maps, in that we carry in our heads maps of all the places we have been. She pointed out that maps we use online or on smart phones are so partial, so drained of meaning except for the strictly functional, and said that one of her goals was to “make paper maps sexy and desirable.” She told us that after living 30 years in the Haight area near USF, she has recently moved to the Potrero area, and feels she is discovering a whole new aspect of San Francisco (“infinite San Francisco"). She reminded the audience that maps can be beautiful and surprising, and can capture the past and the present. She urged us to add our own stories to her maps and our own maps. Professor Aaron Shurin then gave a beautiful, poetic talk (he is a well published and well regarded poet) about the experience of writing his contribution to “Infinite City.” This event was a thought-provoking one, combining cartography, culture, literature, history, the environment, and more. I was happy to see many freshman students in the audience, and I hope and believe that they were inspired by these thoughtful, beautifully crafted talks as well as by the maps and the book itself.

"Use Me," by Elissa Schappell

It's all about the fathers in Elissa Schappell's book, "Use Me" (William Morrow, 2000). The two main characters are two teenaged (at the beginning of the book) girls, but almost all their actions and decisions seem to be in reaction to their fathers. Evie is in rebellion against her father, who she thinks is dorky and fake, but when she gets older and he gets ill, her whole world is threatened. Mary Beth is a sophisticated young lady who lives in Manhattan and seems to have few limits on her behavior; for example, she has several slightly kinky affairs with older men. Her father left the family and she rarely sees him, acts as if she doesn't really care, but often thinks about him and yearns for his love and approval. Although this is a novel, the two girls' stories are told in different chapters, each chapter almost a mini-story of its own. It seems that Evie gets more space in the book, and is more clearly drawn; the reader suspects that Evie is the author's alter ego. Mary Beth's life and character are a bit more mysterious throughout the book. The two girls' stories converge when they become college roommates and best friends. They stay in touch as they get older, meet their mates, and live their lives. Their fathers continue to be huge influences on their lives, in their presence as well as in their absence, and especially during Evie's father's illness. Their relationships with their fathers are so fraught that they even influence Evie's and Mary Beth's relationship with each other. I don't want to say more for fear of giving away plot points. I will say that these two young women are bright, daring, transgressive, sometimes unafraid of anything and other times vulnerable and dependent; mainly they are just as confused as we all are when faced with the complications of "real life." The novel is fresh, immediate, a bit edgy, but mostly acutely observant of and understanding of the lives of young women.

The Thrill of Monsters in Children's Books

In a fortuitous confluence of events, I recently saw an art exhibit about illustrations of “monsters” in children’s books, and then read a New York Times Book Review about the great subversive children’s book authors Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss). The art exhibit, titled “Monsters in the Bookshelf” is at the Thacher Gallery at the University of San Francisco, where I teach. A few days ago, I attended a talk about the show in the gallery, by the director of the gallery, Tom Lucas, SJ. As he pointed out some of the highlights of the exhibit, he told the audience about some of the great illustrators of children’s books, whose works include a wide variety of monsters, something that children both get deliciously scared of and at the same time relate to. Some parents and teachers fear that children will have trouble handling monsters in literature, but other experts on children, most notably the late Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, felt that scary literature helps children cope with frightening aspects of their real lives. In any case, the illustrations in this exhibit are vivid, fanciful, diverse, intriguing, entertaining, and beautifully executed. The New York Times Book Review essay (9/18/11) points out that the purpose of children’s literature for a long time was “to model good behavior…to edify and encourage young readers to be what parents wanted them to be…Children’s literature was not supposed to shine a light on the way children actually were, or delight in the slovenly, self-interested and disobedient side of their natures.” Seuss, Sendak and Silverstein “ignored these rules. They brought a shock of subversion to the genre -- defying the notion that children’s books shouldn’t be scary, silly or sophisticated.” And – surprise! -- children loved, and love, their books! Books such as Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat,” and Silverstein’s collection of verse for children, “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” became and continue to be huge bestsellers, and after initial resistance by many teachers, librarians, and parents, are now on any list of children’s classics that you can find. I remember reading all of these to my daughter. So hurray for the “real” and the slightly transgressive in children’s literature, and hurray for authors and editors (such as Silverstein’s and Sendak’s longtime editor, Ursula Nordstrom of Harper & Row) whose imaginations produced and facilitated such delightfully, thrillingly scary books.

More from the Current Issue of Vanity Fair

The current (October 2011) issue of Vanity Fair is a treasury of information and good writing about authors and books. In addition to the article on Hemingway’s long-lost letters that I wrote about yesterday, the issue contains three other fascinating articles of literary interest:
1. One article tells the story of how Chad Harbach’s current bestselling and critically well-received baseball novel, “The Art of Fielding,” was written and published. The article describes the long, slow evolution of the book, and in the process illuminates many aspects of today’s struggling publishing industry.
2. A brief article focuses on Joan Didion’s new book (due next month), “Blue Nights,” about the tragic death of her daughter, and about her memories of her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne Michael, at a much too young age. This death came almost immediately after the death of Didion’s husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne; Didion described that sudden death, and the year after it, in her bestselling 2005 book, “The Year of Magical Thinking.” That book was a heartrending portrayal of loss and pain, and of the ways that humans cope with great grief. I am an admirer of Didion’s writing, and although this new book is sure to be painful to read, I will definitely read it.
3. Finally, the magazine offers us a short excerpt from Cambridge University Press’ upcoming second volume of Samuel Beckett’s letters. The excerpt here is from a 1954 letter in which Beckett remembers his relationship with James Joyce. He speaks highly of that great writer, saying that although in some ways they were very different, Joyce “showed me the greatest kindness and generosity,” and “gave me…an insight into what the words ‘to be an artist’ mean.” Beckett concludes, “I think of him with unqualified admiration, affection, and gratitude.” I love reading about the relationships among writers, and this portrait of such a relatioship was inspiring and touching.

The Discovery of Long-Lost Hemingway Letters

For a variety of reasons (re-reading “The Sun Also Rises,” reading “The Paris Wife,” seeing the film "Midnight in Paris,” etc.) I have written several times this year about Hemingway. The current (October 2011) issue of Vanity Fair includes a fascinating article about the finding of a treasure trove of long-hidden letters and documents in Hemingway’s house in Cuba, the Finca. The documents are finally -- after much detective work and diplomacy -- being released, and are being digitized by the John F. Kennedy Library; some of them are now being published, and more will be published in the future. The letters published in Vanity Fair are to Hemingway’s parents, his wives, his friends, and Ezra Pound. Some are very down to earth and even naïve, the letters of a young man. They include worries about his work, about finances, and about love. There are charming glimpses of his life with his wife Hadley and of his friends in Paris. One, for example, describes Gertrude Stein as “very large and nice…and very keen about my poetry.” These letters are a real “find”; it is not often that a cache of documents by and about a major writer is found, rescued, and published. Kudos to all involved in making this happen.

It's Banned Books Week!

This week (Sept. 24-Oct. 1, 2011) is Banned Books Week, an annual event “celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment,” and stressing “the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them” (American Library Association/ALA website). The ALA and others use this week to remind people of how many books are “challenged” every year by people who are trying to rid classrooms, school libraries, public libraries, and even college libraries of the books in question. The challenges are based on the books’ being, according to the challengers, too sexually explicit, or containing offensive language, or addressing homosexuality, or not being family-friendly, or expressing religious viewpoints the challengers (often parents) do not like. We need to thank the brave teachers and librarians who stand up against these types of attempted, and sometimes successful, censorship. These teachers and librarians sometimes risk their own jobs, reputations, and peace of mind. Just a few of the books that have been challenged in the past ten years, according to the ALA website, are the following:
-I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
-Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
-Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
-The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
-Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
-To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
-Beloved, by Toni Morrison
-Harry Potter, by J. K. Rowling
-Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
-Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
-The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

The Power of Books: "Tolstoy and the Purple Chair," by Nina Sankovitch

Among the many things books can do is to heal their readers. Nina Sankovitch’s book, “Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading” (Harper, 2011) tells of the author’s decision to try to heal her pain and grief over her sister Anne-Marie’s death by reading a book a day for a year. (Note the echo of Joan Didion's book title, "The Year of Magical Thinking," about her own grief when her husband died suddenly.) Books had always been important to the author, her sister, and her family, and so this decision made sense to her and to those who knew her. I imagine it would not make sense to everyone, but it does to me. This book describes the author’s relationship with her sister, the time she spent with her sister during her last months and days, and the sustenance she received from reading. Although I understand the motivation, and share the belief Sankovitch has in the power of books, reading a book a day is a challenge. I read an average of two books a week myself, and although I read quickly, this is a substantial commitment of time, especially for one who works full time, so it is hard for me to imagine being able to read a book a day. A former practicing attorney, Sankovitch did not work outside the home during the time period covered by the book, but did -- along with her husband -- take care of a family of four boys. Her family seems to have been remarkably supportive and accommodating of her "year of books." The important point here is that the author’s prescription for herself actually worked. She learned, she thought, she was reminded of memories, she was stimulated, she was entertained, she was awed, she was encouraged, she was comforted and supported by, and yes, healed by, the books. Of course she did not “get over” her sadness, but she felt connected to her sister and to the wider world through times and places near and far, and felt the universality of human experiences: birth, love, family, work, nature, the arts, war, illness, and death, among others. Although the book is only competently written, I loved it because of its obvious passion and because of the author’s absolute belief in the power of books. As I read, I marked many pages, and found many quotations that resonated with me. I offer just a small sampling below.
1. “Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a little book.” (Thomas A Kempis)
2. “Words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.” (Cyril Connolly)
3. “The lives in the books are breathing life into me, new life. And helping me learn how to keep her [the author’s sister] alive. In me.” (Sankovitch)
4. The last sentences in this book: “My hiatus is over, my soul and my body are healed, but I will never leave the purple chair [where she often read] for long. So many books waiting to be read, so much happiness to be found, so much wonder to be revealed.” (Sankovitch)

NOTE: On another topic: this is my 500th post on this blog! It is a great pleasure for me to share my thoughts and feelings on books and on reading-related experiences in this way. Thank you, Mary, for suggesting I start this blog, and thank you to the readers of the blog.