Chris Ernest Hall: July 2007 Archives
- 0a (spring '91)
- 0b (spring '92)
- 0c included in the 1991 Notebook (Dec. '91)
- 0d (1/4/92)
- I-1 the "Green Draft" (3/30/92)
- Ia Interim Summer Draft (7/23/92)
- II the "Abyss" Draft (10/3/92)
- IIa Interim Draft (3/28/92)
- III (5/11/92)
Tim’s collection of short stories and sketches about Santa Zita. Containing many of the same characters and situations, but with no clear narrative.
One reviewer said:
One reviewer said:
A mish-mash of alternative rock, meaningless sex, recreational chemical abuse, and third-rate philosophizing, appears to regard narrative as an “un-cool” artifact of the western civilization that has spawned the cultural forces of which this is the lamentable but perhaps inevitable end result.
Meandering, converging, diverging, always threatening to engage the reader, but never actually doing so, the collection is like a conversation with a random stranger who at first seems to be charming and witty, but is later revealed to be clinically insane. A conversation that one stumbled into, but is very hard to end. Every time it seems like it will, a new tangent is spun off. Like a never-ending sequence of beginning without finishing.
The problem with the Helen crying after running into Todd sequence is that it’s bathos, unearned emotion. We don’t know anything about their relationship, so why do we care that she’s sad?
So if Helen had a big crying scene, what could trigger it that would make sense to the reader? Maybe it’s not seeing Todd, maybe it’s her financial breakdown/debt. So that would be later. Combined with running into Todd, perhaps. But the first parts she shouldn’t be so fragile. Give the reader a chance to get to know her, to become friends with her.
So if Helen had a big crying scene, what could trigger it that would make sense to the reader? Maybe it’s not seeing Todd, maybe it’s her financial breakdown/debt. So that would be later. Combined with running into Todd, perhaps. But the first parts she shouldn’t be so fragile. Give the reader a chance to get to know her, to become friends with her.
Something I've been thinking about. Since the advent of television, professionally created narrative has become cheaper and cheaper.
Is the desire for narrative addiction? Should we classify television, books and other stories as an addictive substance? Should it be regulated? Should there be twelve-step programs?
Is the desire for narrative addiction? Should we classify television, books and other stories as an addictive substance? Should it be regulated? Should there be twelve-step programs?
Today I found my folder of earliest Notes For a Future Novel drafts. The earliest print-out I have is dated March 14, 1991 and contains only four pages. It contains the following scenes:
- Michael working on his novel for Helen late at night.
- Helen arriving him after hanging out with Roxy, falling asleep on her couch since room-mate Jennifer is having sex in their room (Jennifer is hand-corrected to Gretchen.)
- Michael in Helen’s section, discussing Bartleby the Scrivener and getting criticized by an ultra-liberal classmate.
- Helen meeting Roxy at the coffee shop and discussing their love lives.
UCSC is the deluded Eden-the City On the Hill, the new Jerusalem.As I recall, this is what I typed from memory after coming home from the real-life Claimstake. I had originally written the first few pages on my friend Matt’s Mac Plus while hanging out with my friends, almost transcribing directly what they were doing, but sadly that file has long since been lost.
While inserting the Helen of Santa Zita scenes back into NFFN, I realized i needed a scene from Tm’s POV in between two scenes of from Helen’s POV (her calling Tim, and then them hanging out together at Holly Street)-something that show Tim’s thoughts about Helen and his point of view about their estrangement earlier during winter quarter.
I then had the wacky idea of having the scene start with Tim hearing the Winger song “Madalaine” which triggers an involuntary sequence of memories of the past year—referencing, of course, the famous moment in Proust’s La Recherce du Temps Perdu where a single bite of a Madelaine cookie causes a long episode of involuntary memory. This is something I only know about second-hand, though, I’ve never actually read the book. So it seems like I should. According to wikipedia:
So I now ordered A La Recherce du Temps Perdus Vol. I from Amazon.com The most recent English translation by Lydia Davis, which apparently is highly recommended.
I then had the wacky idea of having the scene start with Tim hearing the Winger song “Madalaine” which triggers an involuntary sequence of memories of the past year—referencing, of course, the famous moment in Proust’s La Recherce du Temps Perdu where a single bite of a Madelaine cookie causes a long episode of involuntary memory. This is something I only know about second-hand, though, I’ve never actually read the book. So it seems like I should. According to wikipedia:
which makes it sound a bit like Notes For a Future Novel, actually. Only without the hair metal.At the risk of over-simplification, In Search of Lost Time can be viewed as a vast bildungsroman in which the neurasthenic narrator discovers that he is a writer after a lifetime spent distracted by society and love. It is also a meditation on time, memory and the superiority of art in recapturing past experiences. It is both a portrait of the artist and a discovery of the aesthetic by which the portrait is painted.
So I now ordered A La Recherce du Temps Perdus Vol. I from Amazon.com The most recent English translation by Lydia Davis, which apparently is highly recommended.
Works
Recent Writing
- 1989 A Novel: Tim and April walk to the liquor store
- Volume III: Helen meets Roxy for coffee at the Fremont College coffee shop
- Volume III: Tim walks back from Contemporary American Fiction
- Volume III: Helen conducts section, can’t prevent Michael from being dissed
- Volume III: Helen conducts section (HSZ version)