The Bushwick Bookclub Blog is currently under construction.

Check back soon for new content from a formidable tribe of new writers and thinkers!

As always, thanks for your patience and patronage.

Elaina Ellis Demands That You Follow Your Dreams

Ellis became a full time writer in 2010, having then graduated from Antioch  University with a MFA in creative writing and published her first full length book of poetry. Her first collection, entitled Write About an Empty Birdcage, is predominately about heartbreak and familiar emotional taboos. Jenny Factor, author of Unraveling at the Name, states that,


"Elaina M. Ellis has a voice that cuts through wool. Rich in sound and sense, meaning and madness, she signals and signifies. Her imagery comes from a place of truth and her people sweat and breathe. Hers is a talent that can set the world on fire."

Now with a repetoir of gilded reviews, Ellis has continued to work in and out of the classroom. Her motivation to write stems from, in her own words, the need to "worship, to recover, to seduce, to fight back, to play, to confess, and to make messes." 

Make sure to stop by the Hugo House on April 26th to see Ellis and numerous others rock the house.


 For more information about Elaina, visit her personal Hugo page at http://hugohouse.org/bio/elaina-ellis

Thanks for stopping in!

Slam Some Hot Iron, Wordsmith.

Daemond Arrindell is a slam poet and confidant of a revolutionary lit movement occuring in Seattle. He is known for a slew of suprise throw downs in coffee houses, stages, and various other venues across the city. His energetic performances garner applause and enthusiasm, and his unabashed word play is as approachable as it is baffling.

Since slam poetry has been said to be the foundation for funk, hip hop, and a multitude of other forms of music, I feel it is only appropriate that Daemond's blog post reflect some of the musicality of his performances. Here he is performing a slam duet about music with poet Roberto Ascalon.

As always, enjoy and thanks for checking in!

Two Poems from Bill Carty

Here are two poems from performer Bill Carty. Currently teaching at Edmonds Community College, Carty has also been published in numerous magazines and has recently built a reputation for his satirical mis-representation of 17th century history. He is also a regular contributor to DIAGRAM and has been published in prestigious collections including the New Orleans Review and Blue Mesa Review.

Here is a link to DIAGRAM, for those of you interested in one of his many current projects.
http://thediagram.com/9_6/bios.html

As always, enjoy and thanks for checking in!

THE STAR TALERS

A lawyer leans toward you,
"Kiddo, the quid pro quo is letting go.
Whatever goodwill you've banked
can't keep the firm's interest."
The evidence is evident only
as you imagine it: paint
on the bumper, a second driver
speeding from the scene.

This was the winter severed feet
drifted to shore and everyone
thought it was funny. Look
at yourself, where's the outrage?
A boy's shoe ditched on the highway—
what's that story? Once, someone
left a red rag in the road
just to keep your hopes down.

Some people just go missing.
Over the harbor, the sky clenches
dark and grim. Once, you tried
to disappear for good: knapsack packed,
you jetted into the woods.
That night thunder struck the coast
like gunshots, like some punks blasting
bottles from a jilted Datsun.

When along the ridge a tree exploded,
you charged through brambles.
Two miles later, skin torn and defeated,
you saw your house ahead
and thought of light and sleep.
You saw the grim hearth and didn't enter.
As the sky went slack, you collapsed
in the crook of an oak,
while stars blinked and fell
into the meadow like a thousand coins.

WAKE

As a doornail. As a duck. As a battery. A beat. The fall. Heat. A line. A heavy load. The weight. As wood. As air. As an eye. As the end. As it will be and has been. As dust. As it happens. Ascending. Moving on. Away. Into air. Into the sunset. A long sleep. A lonesome road. A kingdom come. Over Jordan. Back to nature. Snuffed out. Curtains. Croaked. Cashed. Kaput. Paid the debt. Pushing daisies. The piper. The plank. The price. The toll. The coil. The farm. The halo. The ghost. Now you see it. Ta-dah. The big one. Number's up. Long gone. Last legs. Done in. A box. The bucket. Earth bath. Across the river. Over water. In slumber. At peace. The latter end. Unto the Lord. A reckoning. To the maker. To meet Him. To go with Him. The just reward. The last account. The way of all earth. The inevitable hour. Last call. Last breath. Final rest. My regards. Bless you. What a shame. The luck. Who would have. My condolences. Heartfelt. Deepest. Warmest. Gravest. Sincere. Seriously. Peace be with you. I just heard. Anything I can do. Part of the plan. His plan. His will. The way. The strangest thing. It shouldn't. If only. You couldn't. I never. Imagine. The brightest light.

A Poem From Evan J Peterson

Evan Peterson is an eclectic Florida State Alumn with a penchant for non-fiction, performance, and education, and has since acquired a great deal of acclaim for his award winning poetry. Evan’s full-length poetry manuscript, tentatively titled The Cutting Room Floor, is currently haunting the contest circuit. His self-published zines and chapbooks include Secular Exorcisms, Hello Kitty Chainsaw, The Ecstatic Tarot, New Mythology, Starve A Fever, and Viscera. He is also the founding editor of ZiReZi, the zine review zine from ZAPP & Richard Hugo House. His writing is, as specified by his website, "characterised by a balance of levity and darkness."

Here he is reading his favorite poem for the Richard Hugo House website:

For more from the author, see his personally curated blog space at Poemocracy!

April Showers and Seattle Lyricism

For the literary curation of this month's show at the Hugo House, the Bushwick Blog will fill you in on information regarding those that are reading, vingettes of their poetry, and the recently published works of the many authors performing on April 26th. The first of these poets is Ed Skoog.

Skoog has received ample acclaim for his recent publication titled "Mister Skylight", which is a collection of works reminiscent of the 20th century new wave poets like Frank O' Hara and Ashbery. The Harvard Review calls his latest work "surprising and beautiful", and continues on that "Skoog's meaning is repeatedly deferred and actively destabilizes the conventions of telling and of the way readers and speakers relate to one another."

Brought up in Topeka, Kansas, Skoog has since received numerous fellowships and professorial residencies that brought him to Montana and California institutions. "Mister Skylight" is his first full length collection to be published, though much of his other work has appeared in Paris Review, The New Republic, and Tin House.

For more information and links to his published articles, reference the author's website at edskoog.com.

The Economic Structure of the Future

Here is a link to an article that discusses the potential economic structure of the society within Fahrenheit 451. It is a hypothetical inspection of subtle story elements that, through conglomeration, construct a general economic model within the story, and can further be understood as Bradbuty's antithesis to appropriate economic practices.

Please read and leave your thoughts. Thanks for checking in.

Happy reading!

The Economics of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Here is a link devoted solely to the novel Fahrenheit 451, with character synopsis, plot summary, and analysis of the story.

It is a brief, introductory site that offers a few insights regarding the importance of the dystopian novel in modern times, as well as a slew of study questions to guide your personal interpretations.

As always, enjoy, and thanks for checking in.

Freewebs: Fahrenheit 451

The Simulacrum of Carnival

Attached is an article about the novel written by Johnathan Eller and William Touponce. In it, they discuss character themes, plot, and analyze social norms as they propell Montag from complacent citizen to enlightened outsider.

This article is wonderful supplimentary material to the novel, and offers a poignant discussion of the finer qualities of Bradbury's writing.

Enjoy and thanks for checking in!

The Simulacrum of Carnival

"While Your At It": Reading Other Books on Dystopia

If you enjoy reading about the general decline of society to entertainment and numerous vices, here is a short list of other texts to look into:

1) I am currently reading a book called "Empire of Illusion" by Pulitzer laureate Chris Hedges. It discusses the general decline of literacy and the 'triumph of spectacles/fantasy' within contemporary Western society. Hedges analyzes the trends in Academia, Pornography, and the entertainment industry at large so as to better understand the dire cultural state we are in today.

2) While "Fahrenheit 451" has become a ubiquitously required high school text, many have the option of choosing to study other texts such as "1984" and "Brave New World". If you are one of those who chose "Farenheit", please venture forth and read the latter two books. They are gamechangers in the dystopian sci-fi genre, and deserve no less repute than they have garnished thus far.

3) "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" is Philip K. Dick's novel later adapted for film under the pseudonym "Blade Runner". It chronicles the dystopian society that, since the creation of androids, has lost touch with humanism and the quest for intellectual progress. A must read for sci-fi fans and fiction buffs alike.

4) Isaac Asimov's "Cave of Steel" is a story about the dominance of technology in modern society and how immediate gratification has grown to such excess that people no longer venture outside of shopping malls and theaters within an underground city. Asimov created a overpopulated, agoraphobic world to best elicit the ongoing struggle between fantasy and reality that is present in "Fahrenheit 451".

5) The Eastern European and Russian states during the mid 20th century have also been regarded as prime examples of social control and propagandistic nationalism. With this in mind, I suggest reading Czeslaw Milosz's "The Captive Mind". Told from the perspective of an escaped citizen, "The Captive Mind" deconstructs communism and fascism so as to deter its rebirth.

6) And last, but not least, "Children of Men" by P.D. James is a necessary read for those interested in propaganda and the power of fear in a world devoid of hope. For those of you who have yet to see the movie, read this first, then take a few weeks off to stabilize. The book is just as disturbing and will put you in a disassociative funk, to say the least.

Ray Bradbury and the Busty Origins of Fire

In 1947, Bradbury wrote a short story titled "Bright Phoenix" (later revised for publication in a 1963 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction).Bradbury later expanded the basic premise of "Bright Phoenix" into The Fireman, a novella published in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. A few months later, the novel was serialized in the March, April, and May 1954 issues of Playboy.

Bradbury wrote the entire novel in the basement of UCLA's Powell Library on a pay typewriter that he rented for a fee of ten cents per half an hour.

It's poetic that a quintessential book about the decline of literacy would be confined by rental fees and initially published in a soft-core porn mag.

Playboy has a respectable list of subsequent articles and stories published. Joyce Carol Oates, Roald Dahl, Norman Mailer, Haruki Murakami, Vladimir Nabokov, and a many others have published awardwinning material in the magazine. Yes, people do buy Playboy for the articles. Not that Playboy lacks filler content otherwise.

This was the cover for the May 1954 issue that included the first installment of Farenheit 451.

This is one of the few portraits of Austen. It is a still life completed during her childhood, which many call simply "The Rice Portrait".

Quote from Pride and Prejudice

"To yield readily--easily--to the persuasion of a friend is no merit.... To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either."

Jane Austen

Jane Austin: A Short Biography

Here is a brief biography of Jane Austin, gratis The Jane Austen Society of Australia. The website includes a chronological list of events, publications, and personal experiences that shaped the author's life. It also has a direct link to Austen's original obituary and the notification to the public regarding her sole authorship of her canon of novels, a topic of great debate due to social inequalities between the sexes in the early 1800s.

As an added bonus, the bottom of the page has a slew of JASA essays that discuss the letters and novels at length.


As always, enjoy and thanks for reading!

JASA Database

This is a posted link to Joseph Carroll's rivetting installment in one of my favorite collections, The Literary Animal. The article is based around the deconstruction of literature from the Darwinian perspective, and, by page 94, discusses the themeatic elements within Pride and Prejudice that withstand the tests of time due to their accuracy in the description of subtle qualities of human nature. Carroll starts the later part of the article with a brief summary of the book, then elaborates using the rudimentary analysis he discusses at the beginning of the piece.

This is a very interesting article that will undoubtedly change your opinion of Austen and possibly alter your personal interpretation of most literature. Hope you enjoy. Please leave comments as you feel inclined.

Happy Reading!

"Human Nature and Literary Meaning: A Theoretical Model Illustrated With a Critique of Pride and Prejudice"

Discussion Topic: Pride and Vanity as Character Identifyers

Pride and Prejudice, arguably Jane Austen's most widely acclaimed novel, discusses classical romantic experiences of the upper class at the close of the 18th century. It stands as a quintessential contribution to world literature for reasons aside from the cultural vignette she presents, however; Austen not only paints an accurate sociological picture, but inspects philosophical issues pertaining to Catholic moralism and virtue. All throughout the novel, woven between lines of superfluous aristocratic banter, is the ongoing personification of vanity and pride through key motivations of each character.

The comparison of pride and vanity in the fifth chapter especially piqued my interest. Mary, the most intelectually sound and least desired of the Bennet daughters, says that:

"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."

What Mary is saying, in other words, is that subjective interpretation of a person's intent and qualifications make the person appear to be either proud or overtly vain. This is very interesting, as Austen's word choice leads us to believe that pride is a trait contingent on personal entitlement, while vanity is acted upon because of the selfish need to solidify social status and identity.

I will follow up this post with particular attention to numerous characters in the novel that embody these two traits, but, in the meantime, what are some examples of pride and vanity acted upon throughout the story? Are there any players that balance the two traits harmoniously? What are your thoughts on the way that Austen introduces the theme?

As always, thanks for contributing and happy reading!

The First Installment

Here is the first of many postings discussing Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

This is an article by Barbara Sherrod, an associate professor at Colorado State University, who discusses the timeless quality of the novel. Sherrod quickly dispells the popular opinion that Austen, like some concurrent works within the romance genre, wrote shallow and uninteresting prose. She proves that Pride and Prejudice, among Austen's other works, set a legitimate criterion for romantic literature that has since become the foundation for a vital avenue of literary exploration. The paper continues to praise the different actions and characters that make Pride and Prejudice the cultural phenomenon that it has become.

Enjoy.

Pride and Prejudice: The Classic Love Story

I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then.

-Lewis Carroll