Preggers and what I read whilst I became knocked up

I'm out of the habit of writing. A year ago I was in the habit of swimming. I thought I was creating a permanent habit, but instead I was creating a new life. Each time I'm pregnant, I felt happy and sad. I miss the physical lightness you lose when you have a baby growing but it's replaced by something magical.

Reading about Art Scene: "A Girl of the Zeitgeist", Janet Malcolm's essay about Ingrid Sichsy, 27 and newly appointed as editor of Artforum magazine. Made me want to re-read Anthropology of An American Girl by Hilary Thayer Haman and Girl walks into a Bar by Strawberry Saroyan.

Music Scene: Dana Spiotta's "Eat Me" and "Stone Arabia" (fictional music reviews were funny); Jay Mcinerney novel (Bright Precious Things?), "Tuesday Nights in 1980" by Molly Prentiss.  All good, but not in league of The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner.  Epic characters you think about after the novel ends.  I had a soft spot for the pretend bullshit artist, listing two-word titles for fictional biography.

Apocalypse parenting: Ben Lerner, Emily St Mandel, Heidi Julavits & Tom Rachmann working a vein initiated by Jennifer Egan in "Welcome to the Goon Squad" (platonic conception, apocalypse parenting, eighties nostalgia, kidnapped children on the lam). Transgender romances and trios (Sweetbitter, Eligible-Curtis Sittenfield, The Argonauts-Maggie Nelson). Elliott Holt's novel for lovers of TV series Stranger Things. Lauren Groff's "Fates and Furies", Nell Zink.

"Trouble" by Kate Christensen:  two female friends, one a rock musician share a lost week in Mexico City. "The Rise, the fall and the Rise" by Brix Smith Start, a Bennington College peer of Donna Tartt. Jonathen Lethem describes her at 18, punk and fully formed.  Open a restaurant if you have a strong personal vision. Campus novel, clash of class: The Romantics by Galt Neiderhoffer, Charlotte Silver.

Drusilla Modjeska's memoir of an Enmore Terrace, shared with Helen Garner, HG essay about Moonee Ponds; HG essay about passionately kissing random bloke at a uni party, Invisible Cities. Tessa Hadley.

Oz fiction:  An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire; Goodwood by Holly Throsby, Wolf and Dog by Georgia Blain, Six Bedrooms by Tegan Bennett Daylight. Canon of seventies Oz fiction, prompted by Geordie Williamson and Charlotte Woods: Glass Canoe" David Ireland; Kate Jennings, Elizabeth Harrower, "My Place". Ruby Langford. Violence simmers; separation of children from poverty-stricken parents; alcohol numbs; using words to intimidate. It's not a flattering portrayal of our colonial society.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anniversary of Grandad

When my youngest was very young, eldest thought his brother was Grandad reincarnated (same day of earth arrival separated by 96 years). As it happens, Grandad died on my nephew's birthday, which we celebrate each year, this year ate at to a pub that is okay but nothing special, compared to gaslight tavern, circa November 2004, as enthusiastically described to Guy.  Nephew agreed people who barrack for the Crows are like flat earthers-that's what was cool about GI Jazz: Melbournite's admiring my Tigers scarf.  SIL came by to pick up youngest who offered to help with chores if I didn't make him leave and told her he'd made himself baked beans and a chip butty, like a before character on a heart attack advertisement.  Meanwhile eldest has been unhappy ever since he headlined with his band, and now I feel like a bad parent for sending him to a Car clew camp. Right now, he's chatting on the phone about something being 'bad', his friend is asking 'how bad...
Read more

Little gems

This evening, I was reading to the kid. Every book I read at night time (and many books I read in the day) are about going to sleep. The message is getting through. When I read out the catchphrase "Do you need to go to sleep?" he closed his eyes and made pretend snoring sounds. So much fun! He had a busy evening rearranging baking trays and lego displays and trying to build the tallest lego tower that wouldn't fall over and eventually I found art invites and lego in the oven. I also decided to empty my handbag. Open bills. Sort my life out. Try and get back on track. This is all prompted by asking a colleague for something from her handbag (I shudder to think what-hopefully money, hopefully not a tissue) and seeing her sort through clutter that included the voting slip from 2010 Federal Election. Anyway, I found a diary entry, scribbled on paper, which I may have written here in different form: "Different films I've liked that have been 'mood' number...
Read more

My perfect hour (and giving music as presents to your 11 year old nephew)

Image
Tonight. Sometime between 5-6pm. When it was still light, light less, not yet faded. I was listening to ABC Classical and it was jazz hour. Exactly what I needed. The kid was slurping on his pasta, well occupied, I sat at the end of the table, staring forwards to the lounge and front garden and rose bushes, sipping my tea, thinking of how long it might be before my day ended, but otherwise in the moment.  I missed a gig because I was at the beach. Well good. It reminded me of packing up to leave hospital after giving birth. GIVING BIRTH! Yep, amazing miracle of life etc. Husband and I were lolling around, feeling like confident parents and Pavement were touring in March, and we wanted to attend, looked up tickets online, before we realised our media was 12 months out of date. Told my nephew about the Presets concert, felt bad about the fact I hadn't bought him a ticket or arranged to take him, though he's 11 and it's on a school night. But imagine how IN I would be. He to...
Read more