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ENTRY
Time + place
September 24, 2009
A reader of Oh! pointed out the story sets a spatial trajectory vividly giving a sense of the various cities and villages Zack explores, each a terrain upon which the protagonist can investigate various philosophical musings. I think the idea of ?spatial? and ?trajectory? implies time + place, in other words, the arc of a story.
A friend of mine wrote a book that illustrates the idea. Pat Hartman is the author of Call Someplace Paradise, and also an artist, publisher, and self-described situational anarchist and mystical libertarian (with a small L). Set in Venice (that?s California) in the late 70s and early 80s when Pat and her young daughter lived there, the memoir/story limns the characters and setting of the ocean-side enclave at a particular time. The time + place is a tribute to Venice that makes you ?wish you had been there and glad you weren?t.?
Written structurally like a diary, readers dip into and out of Pat?s life as she works as an oncology nurse, and observes and befriends homeless, home-made jewelry sellers, psychic healers, buffed beach bunnies and body builders, artists, writers, musicians, D-list actors?all drug-addled or spiritually high. She fills in the edges with nonsensical graffiti she finds (?Send condominiums charity again?), excerpts from the police blotter, overheard conversations (?Violence is totally against my nature, unless I?m backed into a corner.?), inane legislative attempts to clean up the area, and her own pithy comments: ?So much of Venice is beautiful to the eye, like the vacant lot, wrecked car and dilapidated shack composition I saw this morning, which cried out for the talents of a genius artist to do it justice.?
It?s Venice at the height of cocaine, roller disco, and celebrity sightings. Gay liberation is in full bloom, pagan poets and traveling vegans make the scene, and a real estate boom tears at the social and economic structure of the residents. Pat starts to write for the Venice Beachhead paper (www.freevenice.org) and things begin to get to her: ?Venice is starting to lose its charm for me, what with one thing and another.? Like garbage, rudeness, violent crime, and ?vanishing? murals. But she doesn?t know if she?s through with Venice yet: ?It still feels like home to me. Venice is kind of a Hemingway trip for me, a test not of courage in the trenches or the bullring, but a test of my ideals and of my compassion for mankind and belief in its inherent goodness, in the face of great evidence to the contrary.?
The story humorously, poignantly, and insightfully captures a place at a particular time, a time when you could ?stand out on Venice Beach in a tacky area and watch your life go by.? To read Pat?s book, contact her at: hartman(at)frii.com.
© 2010
September 24, 2009
A reader of Oh! pointed out the story sets a spatial trajectory vividly giving a sense of the various cities and villages Zack explores, each a terrain upon which the protagonist can investigate various philosophical musings. I think the idea of ?spatial? and ?trajectory? implies time + place, in other words, the arc of a story.
A friend of mine wrote a book that illustrates the idea. Pat Hartman is the author of Call Someplace Paradise, and also an artist, publisher, and self-described situational anarchist and mystical libertarian (with a small L). Set in Venice (that?s California) in the late 70s and early 80s when Pat and her young daughter lived there, the memoir/story limns the characters and setting of the ocean-side enclave at a particular time. The time + place is a tribute to Venice that makes you ?wish you had been there and glad you weren?t.?
Written structurally like a diary, readers dip into and out of Pat?s life as she works as an oncology nurse, and observes and befriends homeless, home-made jewelry sellers, psychic healers, buffed beach bunnies and body builders, artists, writers, musicians, D-list actors?all drug-addled or spiritually high. She fills in the edges with nonsensical graffiti she finds (?Send condominiums charity again?), excerpts from the police blotter, overheard conversations (?Violence is totally against my nature, unless I?m backed into a corner.?), inane legislative attempts to clean up the area, and her own pithy comments: ?So much of Venice is beautiful to the eye, like the vacant lot, wrecked car and dilapidated shack composition I saw this morning, which cried out for the talents of a genius artist to do it justice.?
It?s Venice at the height of cocaine, roller disco, and celebrity sightings. Gay liberation is in full bloom, pagan poets and traveling vegans make the scene, and a real estate boom tears at the social and economic structure of the residents. Pat starts to write for the Venice Beachhead paper (www.freevenice.org) and things begin to get to her: ?Venice is starting to lose its charm for me, what with one thing and another.? Like garbage, rudeness, violent crime, and ?vanishing? murals. But she doesn?t know if she?s through with Venice yet: ?It still feels like home to me. Venice is kind of a Hemingway trip for me, a test not of courage in the trenches or the bullring, but a test of my ideals and of my compassion for mankind and belief in its inherent goodness, in the face of great evidence to the contrary.?
The story humorously, poignantly, and insightfully captures a place at a particular time, a time when you could ?stand out on Venice Beach in a tacky area and watch your life go by.? To read Pat?s book, contact her at: hartman(at)frii.com.
© 2010
COMMENTS
ARCHIVE
date (comments)
Review: Kissing the Mask
August 22, 2010 (1)
Jonathan Lethem: Writing at the margins
July 12, 2010 (2)
Review: Love in Translation
June 22, 2010 (3)
Jose Saramago
June 18, 2010 (0)
Marketplace of Ideas interview
June 11, 2010 (2)
Imagining Memory
May 6, 2010 (1)
Upcoming Los Angeles events
April 7, 2010 (2)
Time and energy
March 30, 2010 (2)
Review: Botchan
February 28, 2010 (2)
J.D. Salinger
January 28, 2010 (1)
2009 Reviewed
December 31, 2009 (5)
Review: The Word Book
December 12, 2009 (1)
Chaat and Chat event with OH!
November 6, 2009 (2)
Home at last
November 2, 2009 (2)
Los Angeles events
October 17, 2009 (1)
Poets and poetry
October 7, 2009 (1)
Time + place
September 24, 2009 (1)
The future of books
September 23, 2009 (1)
October book tour
September 6, 2009 (1)
Blogging at Powell's Books
August 28, 2009 (2)
The evolution of an idea
August 3, 2009 (1)
The Poetics of Motoori Norinaga: A Hermeneutical Journey
July 9, 2009 (2)
Tour debrief
July 2, 2009 (3)
Book tour events
May 18, 2009 (3)
Simply in the mood
April 24, 2009 (2)
Book tour
April 8, 2009 (6)
The Necessary Book
March 2, 2009 (2)
"Murder Makes the Magazine"
February 7, 2009 (3)
John Updike
January 27, 2009 (2)
2008 misc. (good news, bad news)
January 1, 2009 (3)
Publishing woes and query letters
December 13, 2008 (4)
Punctuation compunction
November 16, 2008 (3)
The Fountain of Youth (and other Ideas)
October 10, 2008 (2)
David Foster Wallace
September 14, 2008 (2)
Ending it all
September 12, 2008 (2)
The mystery of plotting, the plotting of mysteries
August 29, 2008 (3)
Blocking out the block
August 20, 2008 (3)
"What kind of books do you write?"
August 8, 2008 (2)
Theory of Satisfaction: Part 4
July 21, 2008 (3)
Show and tell
July 14, 2008 (3)
Theory of Satisfaction: Part 3
July 7, 2008 (7)
Advice for first-time writers (Barry Gifford and me)
June 30, 2008 (6)
Theory of Satisfaction: Part 2
June 18, 2008 (3)
To be or not to be
June 10, 2008 (6)
Theory of Satisfaction: Part 1
June 3, 2008 (6)
Virtual unreality
May 31, 2008 (4)
The purpose of this blog
May 21, 2008 (5)
Review: Kissing the Mask
August 22, 2010 (1)
Jonathan Lethem: Writing at the margins
July 12, 2010 (2)
Review: Love in Translation
June 22, 2010 (3)
Jose Saramago
June 18, 2010 (0)
Marketplace of Ideas interview
June 11, 2010 (2)
Imagining Memory
May 6, 2010 (1)
Upcoming Los Angeles events
April 7, 2010 (2)
Time and energy
March 30, 2010 (2)
Review: Botchan
February 28, 2010 (2)
J.D. Salinger
January 28, 2010 (1)
2009 Reviewed
December 31, 2009 (5)
Review: The Word Book
December 12, 2009 (1)
Chaat and Chat event with OH!
November 6, 2009 (2)
Home at last
November 2, 2009 (2)
Los Angeles events
October 17, 2009 (1)
Poets and poetry
October 7, 2009 (1)
Time + place
September 24, 2009 (1)
The future of books
September 23, 2009 (1)
October book tour
September 6, 2009 (1)
Blogging at Powell's Books
August 28, 2009 (2)
The evolution of an idea
August 3, 2009 (1)
The Poetics of Motoori Norinaga: A Hermeneutical Journey
July 9, 2009 (2)
Tour debrief
July 2, 2009 (3)
Book tour events
May 18, 2009 (3)
Simply in the mood
April 24, 2009 (2)
Book tour
April 8, 2009 (6)
The Necessary Book
March 2, 2009 (2)
"Murder Makes the Magazine"
February 7, 2009 (3)
John Updike
January 27, 2009 (2)
2008 misc. (good news, bad news)
January 1, 2009 (3)
Publishing woes and query letters
December 13, 2008 (4)
Punctuation compunction
November 16, 2008 (3)
The Fountain of Youth (and other Ideas)
October 10, 2008 (2)
David Foster Wallace
September 14, 2008 (2)
Ending it all
September 12, 2008 (2)
The mystery of plotting, the plotting of mysteries
August 29, 2008 (3)
Blocking out the block
August 20, 2008 (3)
"What kind of books do you write?"
August 8, 2008 (2)
Theory of Satisfaction: Part 4
July 21, 2008 (3)
Show and tell
July 14, 2008 (3)
Theory of Satisfaction: Part 3
July 7, 2008 (7)
Advice for first-time writers (Barry Gifford and me)
June 30, 2008 (6)
Theory of Satisfaction: Part 2
June 18, 2008 (3)
To be or not to be
June 10, 2008 (6)
Theory of Satisfaction: Part 1
June 3, 2008 (6)
Virtual unreality
May 31, 2008 (4)
The purpose of this blog
May 21, 2008 (5)