Living is a gamble, baby, loving's much the same

[sovay]

My poems "The Warm Past" and "bn ʾdnbʿl bn ʾdrbʿl" have been accepted by Mythic Delirium. The first takes its name from elisem's fossil coral earrings and is dedicated to the memory of Ely Kish, who painted the Smithsonian's "Life in the Ancient Seas." The second was a direct result of this Carthaginian stele; the title is a patronymic, naming the father and grandfather of the man who dedicated the stone. The mixed Punic-Roman name intrigued me.

Apparently I watched a lot of movies between my last re-read of Daniel Pinkwater's The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death (1982) and this latest one, because I recognized instantly the Laurel and Hardy short the protagonists come in at the end of—"in which Laurel and Hardy are destroying the guy's house, and the guy is destroying their car"—as Big Business (1929), which derspatchel and I caught earlier this year on TCM. It starts with Christmas tree sales and escalates from there. I can also now appreciate that this superlatively goofy novel contains some quite decent film criticism: "The thing about Laurel and Hardy movies that you can't get from the chopped-up versions on television is how beautiful they are. Things happen at exactly the moment they have to happen. They don't happen a second too soon or too late. You can even predict what's going to happen—and it does happen—and it surprises you anyway. It doesn't surprise you because it happened, but because it happened so perfectly." Lastly, now that I've verified the existence of Attack of the Mayan Mummy (1964) and Das Dreimäderlhaus (1958), I really think only about five of the films name-checked in the novel are fake and it's possible I think that only because I don't know as much about Mexican B-movies as I should. It's also possible there's some recombinant camouflage going on. To the best of my knowledge there is no Yugoslavian film called Vampires in a Deserted Seaside Hotel at the End of August, but the Belgian Daughters of Darkness (1971) is totally a thing. I have loved this book since seventh grade and I love that it only rewards re-reading, especially if you have been essentially living at an arthouse theater for a year. Highly recommended, especially if you like avocados.

Everything else about today has been really terrible.

Comments

[kore]

That is a gorgeous poem.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

...dedicated to the memory of Ely Kish

His memory made blessing. And lapidary art made poetry. Lovely.

*hugs*

Nine

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Vampires in a Deserted Seaside Hotel at the End of August

The title suggests it's spoofing Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August(1974), and probably some European vampire film that handful_ofdust can spot more easily than I.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

Pinkwater is brilliant, and Lizard Music is still my most fave of his works... because, singing the Purples..

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I need to read some Pinkwater...

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the poetry sales!

Clearly I need to read that Pinkwater book.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

Everything else about today has been really terrible.

< hugs >
I am so sorry.
I mean, you told me about some of it, but...yeah, renewed sympathy.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Highly recommended, especially if you like avocados.

This should be the title of something delicate.

[spatch]

I had a dream last night where we were walking with some friends down a street completely lined with movie palaces, and we were deciding which one to visit next based on the double features being offered. I have every reason to believe it was inspired in part by reading this post and the Pinkwater callout. Thank you so very much.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Pinkwater! I first read the two Snarkout Boys novels in the late 1980s, and have re-read them many times. The older I get, the more these books hit the urban-fantasy button for me. So much of the adventure in these books is tied to the characters' relationship to their city and (especially in the second book) their methods of transport and where they go and why they're going there. I've dreamed, many times, of a place that I'm pretty sure is Lower North Aufzoo Street.

Young Adult Novel has also rewarded occasional re-reads, once I got past high school and could appreciate it as satire instead of meanness. I read its sequels all the way through, once, and...I have no idea whether re-reading them might allow me to appreciate them as satire. I don't intend to try the experiment. They were, and this isn't a term I often use, depressing.