Putting Yourself Out There as a Writer

Writers put themselves out there.  I never realized I would get such hate mail, people attacking me personally, saying such horrible things, over such innocent, humorous articles in a magazine.  It takes a lot out of you.

I thought that if I avoid politics, religion, anything controversial, I could make people smile.  But that's not true.  People seem to be looking for reasons to hate, reasons to make you feel bad.

Even this blog is just about classic book reviews.  I never criticize the authors, I only discuss the books themselves.  But I get more hate mail than positive feedback.  And the hate mail always attacks me personally.  It's like I have to walk in lock-step with whoever happens to be reading me, or else they feel the right to attack me personally.  People don't live and let live anymore.  It's all about total, 100% agreement with their point of view, or else you are a despicable person who must die.

I'll have to ponder this more before I can give some philosophical, helpful insight.  At the moment, I'm still stunned.

Update:

The local woman who sent me that email is Tathata Revis.  The email was extremely vile, and made sexual references to my daughter.  I don't know this person, but the situation concerns me.  She lives in the same small town as me, and who knows what she is capable of.  Certainly I wouldn't put it past her to contact me again, or try to contact my family.  Tathata Revis is the kind of person who would probably send emails to my editor to get me (or anyone she dislikes or disagrees with) off the magazine.  Her motto must be "Reach out and hurt someone."

Book Review: The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe (1794) Review Part 1

This is a classic Gothic Romance novel, and so far it has everything you might want in a Gothic Romance.  For those who don't know, this genre is all about dark, mysterious places and occurrences.  This particular novel is often held up as the standard of its kind.  If you want 18th century tales of castles, ghosts, secret passages, gloomy settings, evil villains and damsels in distress, this is your book.

The main premise is about a young woman, Emily, who lives an idyllic life, until all her props are taken away from her, one by one, and she soon finds herself forlorn, nearly alone, and held prisoner in a creepy old castle.  First her mother, then her father dies.  Next she is carted away from her beloved home and taken to (gasp!) Italy.  She misses her lover, she misses her sweet home, and she has every reason to fear for her life.

The Drones Are Coming!!

So you want to read a book but you don't want to go to the library or bookstore.  Sure, you could grab your tablet or smart device of choice and download practically anything in a few seconds.  But suppose you want the feel of paper, or perhaps a leather bound copy of some old classic.

Well, worry no more.  Soon, Amazon will have flying robots bring you a book quicker than the pizza can get there.  No, I'm not kidding.  Amazon Prime Air promises to use drones for deliveries.  And if you've noticed, these quadcopter drones are all the rage right now.  I've drooled over several myself, and watched countless videos of them.

The problem, I believe, will be that these suckers will get stolen left and right.  They are unmanned, just flying along, and someone shoots it out of the air, or grabs it when it's on the ground, or throws something at it when it's low to knock it out of the sky.  Good ones today sell for 400-500 bucks.  One that has GPS, is completely automated, has a 10 mile range, and can carry a few pounds will easily sell for a grand or more each.

But still, technology is way cooler each year.

Upcoming Posts - Changes

So much old literature is starting to bog me down.  I need something newer.  I'm starting to crave modern books!  So my master plan of not migrating to mid-twentieth century classics until 2015 has got to change.

I plan to start the new year with a few of the Gothic Romance novels I promised you, but then I'll jump right into early-mid 20th century books of literary merit.  I'm not saying there won't be a few modern genre fiction novels thrown in just to bug you, because it may happen.  Since that's what I write myself, I've got to stay current with what the public is reading.

Thank you for your support.

Audiobook Narration

Is it just me, or do you hate to hear an audiobook narrated with the "wrong" voice?  A British novel should not be narrated by an American.  A southern drawl should not be faked.  Mark Twain books should not be narrated by someone from Brooklyn.  And when I listen to Tolstoy, I prefer English with a Russian accent.

On the way to work the other morning, I popped in a CD audiobook of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  It was a standard midwestern American accent.  Boo!  That book is supposed to take us back to early Victorian England, and anything but a British accent just doesn't cut it.

As far as male/female, it should be based on the main character.  Normally, authors write main characters with the same sex as themselves, but not always.  I would expect Jane Austen novels to be narrated by a British female.  But Charles Dickens novels might be a British male or female, depending on the book.  And I certainly don't want to hear Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt stories narrated by anyone but a tough sounding American male.

Are you with me?  Good.

So anyway, what are you guys doing tonight?  I'm up for anything.

Book Review: An Upheaval, by Anton Chekhov (1886)

This was a great story.  Unfortunately it's been lost to history and only the opening few chapters remain.

No, that's not true.  But that's how I felt after reading it.  An Upheavel was wonderfully written, but ended rather abruptly.  I suppose Chekhov just had an idea he wanted to put on paper, even if it never developed into a full novel.  Chekhov is known for his extensive writing.  In a little over 20 years he wrote hundreds of short stories.  So if any of them feel unfinished we shouldn't blame him.  Just be happy we get a taste of his wonderful writing.

An Upheaval is a perfect example of that.  You are quickly drawn into the story of a young governess who has to choose between harsh treatment by her mistress or returning to a simpler, if poorer, way of life.  She is an instant heroine, and instantly likable.  That shows great talent for Anton Chekhov to have a character grab readers in such a short amount of time.

Halloween Village

This is what I've been doing instead of posting reviews.  This little gem took weeks to carve and paint.  It's my first one.  Maybe next year I'll expand.  Maybe by next year my wife will have forgiven me for spending a boatload of money on these expensive little "Spooky Town" houses and things.

Update: Video does look bad, I know.  It looked great before uploading.  Don't know how to make it higher quality.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Suggested Reading List

The story takes place in the mid 1930s.  F. Scott Fitzgerald was in a bad way.  He was battling alcoholism and depression.  His wife, Zelda, was admitted to the Highland Hospital of North Carolina.  While staying at the Grove Park Inn, in Asheville, NC, he fired a revolver in a suicide attempt.  After that, the Grove Park Inn wanted him to leave, but allowed him to stay if he had someone to look after him.

Enter Dorothy Richardson.  Dorothy was both his nurse and companion.  The story goes that he eventually became friends with her and wanted to help her literary growth.  So he gave her a list of 22 books that he recommended.  Richardson wrote at the top of the list the following words:

"These are books that S.F. thought should be required reading."

Book Review: Notes from Underground, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1864)

In the book Notes From Underground, the term underground refers to an emotional place where people live.  The narrator of the story is a representative of a type of people who are full of thoughts and feelings but spend most of their life not expressing them.  Those thoughts well up and take hold of them.  They do not interact with their fellow man as they wish they could, but instead evolve elaborate scenarios of both real and imagined wrongs and triumphant ideas for expression and retribution.

That could sum up the entire book, but this isn't something we want to sum up.  Notes from Underground is not the sort of book to be glossed over and stuck back on a shelf.  Dostoyevsky's writings are brimming with ideas, thoughts, truisms, and interesting factoids on life.  But there's a devil of a time to pull meaning out of most of this book.  It's a rambling discourse on God knows what, for parts of it.

Book Review: Notes from Underground, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1864) - Pre-Thoughts

When reading Notes From Underground, it is required that you wear a black turtleneck shirt, beret, and dark glasses.  Goatee is optional.  You must sit in a dark café discussing revolution.  Someone must appear on stage telling bad poetry about death.  B-Y-O-Bongos.

Beatnik?  or Russian Revolutionary?

I don’t know why I always had the impression, just based on the name, that Notes From Underground was something beatniks would read, something to do with Russian revolution and philosophy, and socialism, perhaps.  Maybe the name Dostoyevsky is the cause – his name conjures up images of deep metaphysical, philosophical discussions.

Either way, get ready because I'm going to read this book.  I'll report back from time to time on my progress, and let you know if I feel my personal philosophy being swayed in any way.

Coming Soon: H. Rider Haggard Months!

A tribute to the father of modern treasure hunting adventure stories!

H. Rider Haggard started an entire genre of books when he wrote King Solomon's Mines.  Late July and August, 2013, will be dedicated to reading as many of his books as I can squeeze in.  Here are some I will read.

• Allan Quatermain (1887)
• She (1887)
• Cleopatra (1889)
• Nada the Lily (1892)

I will also try to read these others, if I have the chance.

• The World's Desire (1890)
• Eric Brighteyes (1891)
• Montezuma's Daughter (1893)
• The People of the Mist (1894)

Book Review: Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy (1895)

Master and Man is the story of Vasili Andreevich and his servant Nikita.  Both men set out on a journey to a nearby town and are caught up in a snow storm.  This is a character study that focuses mainly on the master, Vasili Andreevich.  His character evolves during the course of the story and Tolstoy charts those changes for us.

Book Review: How Much Land Does a Man Need, by Leo Tolstoy (1886)

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

This was a parable.  Based on the title, I assumed it would be a social commentary, perhaps an essay on socialism or communism, the sharing of wealth and land.  I assumed it would be a way to demonstrate that people only need enough land to feed their families, and the rest of the land should be shared out to others.

But it turned out to be nothing like that at all.  It was a parable about a man who wanted more and more land, who was tricked by Satan at every turn because Satan kept telling him (in the form of other people) about cheaper land someplace else.  He moved from place to place, buying land, selling it, then buying more.  He ended up in a bad way, and died trying to gain more land.

Book Review: The Christmas Tree and the Wedding, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1848)

I won't lie to you, this story sort of disgusted me.  I'm sure that was the purpose.  Imagine seeing a cute little 11 year old girl.  Then imagine planning to marry her.  I shouldn't use the word "plan".  Scheme would be better.  Connive.

Having a narrator was just a way of telling the story, he plays no part in the story except as an observer.  He went to a Christmas party, got bored with no one to talk to, and watched some children play.  One of them was a pretty little 11 year old girl.  It came out that the father had already set aside a large amount of money for her dowry.

Book Review: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1877)

The Dream of the Ridiculous Man is what modern readers of Dostoyevsky crave.  Forget mysteries or thrillers.  They want something they can speak of while using the word “metaphysical”.  If they can say that to their friends while describing the inner meanings of this story, it’s a winner.

So here we have a short story that is a thin allegory of Dostoyevsky’s thoughts on the meaning of life.  I warn you now, if you want a fun story, an entertaining plot with whacky characters, you’re looking in the wrong place.  Dostoyevsky uses a very brief tale of a suicidal man to do nothing more than describe a journey for meaning.  This was his last short story, written just a few years before his death.  There are obvious Christian elements in the symbolism.

June is Russian Month

As you know, all of 2012 and 2013 were dedicated to reviewing 19th century literature here at The Literary Rambler.  This month I will specialize in 19th century Russian literature.  Sorry, I won't have time for such monsters as War and Peace or The Brothers Karamazov, but I'll at least get my feet wet with some of Leo Tolstoy's and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's shorter works.

I will also read these guys:

• Anton Chekhov
• Alexander Pushkin
• Nikolai Gogal
• Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
• Ivan Turgenev

As always, I'll review them with a modern eye, not the flowery, fawning simplicity of a 3rd year lit student.  I won't give you the typical awestruck review because these are giants in literature.  I'll be honest, as my readers have come to expect from me.  But Russian literature has something to offer that Dickens, Austen, and Twain do not.  Their culture was unique, and their world evolved from something far different than ours.  We want a taste of their history, their concerns, and their thoughts.  And isn't that why we read literature?

Manly Months - One Final Thought

I know we're done with Manly Months but I had a few more examples to share.

Here is everyone's favorite Victorian Historian, Professor Patrick Allitt, discussing the tough schooling that boys received in Britain in the 1800s.

The two most famous [schools] and two of the most ancient were Eton and Harrow...The Duke of Wellington had claimed that the battle of Waterloo, back in 1815, had been won on the playing fields of Eaton.  What he meant by that was that the tough schooling which the young gentlemen had been given there had prepared them for their roles as army officers and enabled them to prevail in the situation of the battle itself.  Eaton, especially in the early 19th century, was a very hard school indeed.  A merciless discipline was enforced by the master on the boys, but also by the older boys on the younger ones.  They had a system called fagging which really amounted to a kind of slavery in which the younger boys were completely at the mercy of the older ones and could be bullied and beaten by them without any redress at all.

Manly Months Conclusion

When Men Were Men

Manly Months is done.  We spent April and May reading manly 19th century literature, and you might be surprised at just how rough and tough our ancestors were.  Believe it or not they didn't all sit around sipping tea and eating cobbled oats.  I know, they wore those lacy looking shirts and all, but don't define them by their frilly fashion sense.

Here are the books I managed to read and review:

• King Solomon's Mines, by Sir H. Rider Haggard (1885)
• Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling (1897)
• Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad (1899)
• The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane (1895)
• The Black Arrow, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1888)
• The Frozen Pirate, by W. Clark Russell (1887)

Only six books, I wish I could have finished more.  Here's a list of others I could have added to this list, and still plan to read:

Book Review: The Frozen Pirate, by W. Clark Russell (1887)

This is one of the better books I read during Manly Months here at The Literary Rambler.  It's the story of adventure on the seas, of treasure and survival.  It starts out with some of the boldest action language I've ever seen.

The storm made a loud thunder in the sky, and this tremendous utterance dominated without subduing the many screaming, hissing, shrieking, and hooting noises raised in the rigging and about the decks, and the wild, seething, weltering sound of the sea, maddened by the gale and struggling in its enormous passion under the first choking and iron grip of the hurricane's hand.

That's what W. Clark Russell was known for, and that's why people read him.  I first heard about him from the Sherlock Holmes story, The Five Orange Pips, which had Watson reading a Russell book.

Book Review: The Black Arrow, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1888)

The Black Arrow was a harrowing tale of a young adventurer, trying to find his true love.  It's set against the backdrop of the War of the Roses.  You don't have to know anything about the history of the period, the author feeds you any details necessary.  For the most part it's not a bad tale, just a bit long winded.  That may not make a lot of sense because it's a small book - only about 80,000 words, 220ish pages.  But it felt like it just went on and on.