Lily Hoang
https://literature.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/lhoang.html
Lily Hoang has published some books and won some awards. She is Director of the MFA in Writing at UC San Diego.
This is a mess
Ever feel like this?
Like most writers, I have this knack for suffering, for being a complete mess. Maybe this is disclosing too much about myself, but I’ve had this conception that to be a writer—an artist—means that I have to suffer, that happiness somehow inauthenticates my “work.” Even though I know this is a myth, I fall for it every time. I’m a fool like that.
Violin Hating: Nerd Fight
A few months ago, I was on this really big nerdy Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto kick, and I listened to more versions of the piece than I’m comfortable mentioning, usually one after another like crack. Somewhere along the way, I found out about the Tchaikovsky Competition, which led me to a goldmine of translations of the concerto. Well, you know YouTube works, and one click led to another, until I’d watched all the finalists for the competition during its various stages.
A few years ago, Mayuko Kamio won. Here is an excerpt of one of the stages of the competition. It would seem as though everyone had to play Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy, which I don’t particularly care for, I much prefer Sarasate’s version, but whatever.
Her interpretation of Waxman is problematic, sure. Think what you will about her playing, what I care about most is how people responded in the comments section. They’re brutal. Most of them seem to have a working knowledge about music, though they’re probably not actually musicians. Many of them are racist. At least no one was blatantly sexist.
Action, Please
Action Books releases Don Mee Choi’s first book, The Morning News is Exciting. What a title, what a cover, I’m really looking forward to reading this book.
Also, according to Johannes Goransson’s blog, Action Books is looking at submissions from June 1-July 15. You have ten days to get that ms polished! Go!
Bad Entertainment
I read good books, listen to good music, but when it comes to TV, the trashier the better. I watch bad reality shows, like MTV/VH1 shit. Well, I used to back when I had a TV. Now, I just have the internet and I don’t care enough to watch that shit online, much less find the Canadian sites (show aren’t quite as easily accessible here as in the States). So come on people, fess up: What are your embarrassing indulgences?
How to Kill a Character
This is how the great Patrik Ourednik kills a character. Let it be a lesson to one and all:
Naiman died as stupidly as he lived. One day he decided to get a new washing machine for the cottage. But what to do with the old one? He loaded it into his car, drove into the forest, and rolled the machine to the top of the hill, intending to push it into a gorge; one garbage dump more or less, the Czech woods had survived worse. But no matter how hard he leaned into the thing, it wouldn’t budge, so, taking a few steps back, he sprinted forward, spinning around and throwing his haunches into it; the washer sailed into the gorge and Naiman along with it. Some nosy hiker discovered the body five days later, and the South Bohemian Tribune ran a brief obituary headlined “Expert Meets Tragic Death.”
Dyk gave a creaky laugh. Memories are the balm of old age.
Variations on Reading
I’m reading some books, sure. We’re always reading books, right? But for some reason, right now, I happen to be reading very big books and very small books. And that’s been the case for the past few weeks. Books are either 800+ or -150 pages. That being the case, I wanted to talk about the different experiences in reading big v. small books.
Old boys
It’s recently come to my attention that HTML Giant is an “old boys club,” or at least, that’s what I’ve been told. So here’s my problem: if commenters are right and HTML Giant is an old boys club, then what role do the women have on this site? I mean, I read HTML Giant pretty faithfully, and I have since long before I was contributor, and I’ve always thought the women play a very significant role. Their posts are thoughtful, funny, often profound. So wtf? If anything, calling HTML Giant an old boys club denigrates the women who post here and the women who read here. And that’s what I think.
The “Novelty” of Creativity
Here‘s an article at NYTimes about a dude mapping creativity in the brain. It’s a moderately interesting read. What caught my eye, however, was his working definition of creativity, which is noted as the “common definition of creativity”: the ability to combine novelty and usefulness in a particular social context.
The OED defines creativity as: Creative power or faculty; ability to create.
So, is creativity “novel”? I have some difficulty balancing the concept of creativity with “novelty,” which the OED defines as: “1a. Something new, not previously experienced, unusual, or unfamiliar; a novel thing.” BUT, but, then, later, “1e. An often useless or trivial but decorative or amusing object, esp. one relying for its appeal on the newness of its design.” This definition is much more pejorative. There’s something extremely problematic about thinking of creativity as a combination of “novelty” and “usefulness,” which the OED defines as: “Having the ability or qualities to bring about good, advantage, benefit, etc.; helpful for any purpose; serviceable.”
To say that creativity is a balancing of novelty and usefulness implies that what is novel (here, insert “new” rather than “trivial”) is inherently useless. How is newness or innovation useless? Furthermore, if this definition the NYT uses is in fact the “accepted” definition, what does this say about creativity as a whole?
the “cute” avant-garde
I have this thing against cuteness. Cuteness is dismissable, cast to the side as irrelevant. And I suppose, to be fair, what was the last cute thing you actually took seriously? There seems to be something inherent to cuteness that begs to be cuddled and pet, smooshed and distorted. Taken seriously, though, nah. Nope.