Reading Huckleberry Finn on a Kindle

It doesn't work. Sorry. I tried. But there are some books that have to be read in paper. I read to half and put it down. Of course I have read the book many times but I wanted to dip back in and I had it on the Kindle and nah. Didn't work. And why didn't it work. It is lighter. It is more convenient. Hell I can even read it in the bathtub with the cat swimming around. Of course one false move and so much for the kindle and the cat. But the biggest reason I could not read Twain's classic in a mini computer format was because the story did not fit the form.

And here is where Jeff Bezos meets the road. Literature is an art all rankings aside. There are other considerations than how many units can be moved and all the digital BS in the world will not change the fact that the immutability of art trumps commerce. It always has. Why do billionaires buy paintings and pay millions for them. Not because of the investment...it is because they want to own art. Something that can not be bought. It is the eternal that makes money seem small and art if it is any good is all about the eternal.

And so it is with Huckleberry Finn. You cannot read about Huck and Jim floating down the river on a flickering screen. Twain did not intend it that way nor did history. Those old crackly pulped pages must turn again for you to hear the splash of that raft and Jim musings on the cosmos and Hucks hard headed deliverance. So I turn back against form and go for content.

Style over substance loses out and the pulp litters the water while the cat swims.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher




 

Should a Writer Live in New York?

The conventional wisdom is that in the age of the Internet you can live anywhere. No longer do writers have to live in literary centers to be part of the world of publishing and agents and deals and other writers. It helps of course, but it really isn't necessary. Authors live all over the place and even the ones who live in New York have houses in other places. The successful ones that is.

Of course there is a nagging little caveat to all of this. Take Chad Harbachs novel The Art of Fielding. I read the Vanity Fair piece written by his buddy who started the literary magazine N1. He basically describes the process in which Harbachs novel was discovered by Michael Pietch. There is the usual rejected by many component and Harbach slaved away for ten years and people were beginning to worry. But then his friend from the lit magazine who had a book published, put the manuscript in front of the right agent and then the right publisher. Harbach was discovered.

And if you go down the literary heavyweight list of Jonathan Franzen type big novels it does seem a lot of these authors live in New York. Lets face it networking is part of life and being where publishing is centered (at least for now) is probably a good thing. People do business with people they know and if you are bouncing around New York you might bump into agents and publishers and authors who could help you. To say nothing of the wealth of material living in a large city like New York generates.

I...like a lot of writers, thought about moving to the Big Apple. Living in Chicago did seem at times like a second city, but I doubted my ability to find time to write in NY. Chicago just seemed friendlier. And sometimes I think I should have gone. You never know what can happen just by moving to a bigger pond. Probably this question has no answer except that you go where you can survive and write.

Still, living in New York as a writer.....city of dreams, right?

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

Review of The Singular Mark Twain

You would think a man who was one of the bestselling authors of his time would not have financial difficulties. Just finished biography The Singular Mark Twain and I was amazed that apart from marrying well and making very good money from his books and lecturing--he had to file bankruptcy and died with very little money that was squandered by his daughters. When reading Twain's biography you are struck at how much money he made and how much he lost. He had a penchant for making terrible investments, getting caught up in get rich quick schemes and basically being bad with his money. Sounds like a writer to me.


We assume that as writers there are those out there with the mythical pot of gold. Well, there are. People do make millions from their books but they also lose millions. Mark Twain even had his own publishing company, his wife was wealthy, he made a bundle from lecturing around the country, his books sold well, yet he spent the latter years of his life in debt. He did what most people do when they get money, he increased his lifestyle and traveled.

He also really believed he had the key to riches with several inventions. What is interesting about the Twain character is that he knew a lot of times what he was doing was not in his best interests. But he could not help himself. He ended up having to lecture for years to pay his debts from a bankruptcy and basically living abroad because he could not afford to live in the United States. Amazing that one of our premiere authors could not afford to stay in his own house. He coudlnt' sell it either and ended up practically giving it away. The crash of 1890 pretty much wiped him out. I guess there is nothing new under the son. Hard times are hard times. Even for those at the top of the literary mountain.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man will be out in January

Mark Twain and blogging

The first thing you realized when you read Mark Twain's biography is there is nothing new under the sun. He wrote satire and lampooned politicians and just about anybody else. And he was attacked for it. People attacked him in the press, in letters, personally, physically. He literally had to leave California because of people he had offended in various editorials. Then he would give satiric speeches to huge audiences that were comedic and cutting.

Cut to the modern writer of today. If you write on the Internet at all then you lay yourself open to all sorts of criticism. Write some satire or something political and it can get downright nasty. But mostly you end up with people sniping at you though the great firewall of the Internet. When else in life can you insult someone without facing them?

Writing a book is a much safer bet. The book comes out and you get a few reviews but basically people have to accept it for what it is. The very give and take of the Internet is much closer to Twain's kind of writing where people reacted quickly and let him know it. So far the bloggiing has been one of putting a piece out there and then having people react to it with comments. I wonder when people will have to start leaving town to get away from their critics?

William Hazelgrove's latest novel is Rocket Man.
"Funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
                                                    Chicago Sun Times

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/