Mojo's Experiment

From Moriah Jovan's Blog

1) Each week, starting Thursday, April 1 (April Fool’s Day!), I (mojo) will post a track that played a significant role in my books.

2) Use the track as a spark for some kind of creative activity. It can be a sketch, a paragraph from your novel, a tweet, a photo, an interpretive dance, a poem, a political blog post, a video. The activity can even change from week to week. The only requirements are that:

a) you leave some element of the project undetermined until you hear the track, and

b) the final creation has to be done by the end of the week, and

c) it has to be linkable.

3) I will then post links to everything everyone created by the time I post the next track the next week.

4) The Twitter hashtag will be #mojogce if you care to keep track that way.

I don't know how creative I am, but music is a part of what I do and what I am (more or less) so I will participate.

Lost Man Booker Prize (via http://www.lambdaliterary.org)

The shortlist for The Lost Man Booker Prize — a one-off prize to honor the books published in 1970 that were not eligible for consideration for the Booker Prize — was announced today and includes two LGBT authors: Mary Renault and Patrick White.

I'm not really familiar with Patrick White, but I am a fan of Mary Renault.

The Lost Man Booker is the brainchild of Peter Straus, the honorary archivist to The Booker Prize Foundation. He realised that in 1971, just two years after it began, the Booker Prize ceased to be awarded retrospectively and became – as it is today – a prize for the best novel of the year of publication. At the same time the award moved from April to November and, as a result, a wealth of fiction published for much of 1970 fell through the net and was never considered for the prize.

The six books are:

• The Birds on the Trees by Nina Bawden (Virago)
• Troubles by J G Farrell (Phoenix)
• The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard (Virago)
• Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault (Arrow)
• The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark (Penguin)
• The Vivisector by Patrick White (Vintage)

Although judges selected the shortlist, the winner of The Lost Man Booker Prize will be decided by the international reading public (That’s you and me!). Voting starts today and ends on April 23rd. The overall winner will be announced on May 19th.

Vote here for the novel you think you should win the Lost Man Booker Prize.

poetry corner

Catching Up

crossposted to Live Journal
I'm not live journaling,blogging, analog journaling or much of anything else at the moment. Took on too much, I have started haunting the HASTAC site because I found out about a Women and Gender History conference being held last week at UIUC and I took time off work to go as a treat. It was a blast...most of it was over my head and dealt with stuff that I have no clue about...I am abysmally ignorant in some ways. I claim to be a generalist, but I'm mostly just a lazy dilettante. The keynote speaker talked about Marxist/queer theory...apparently he is some kind of expert...but I no nothing about Marxism and very little about queer theory and/or practice.

There is a woman who posts at the HASTAC site named Cathy Davidson who is teaching a class called "This is Your Brain on the Internet" and the idea fascinated me. I downloaded the syllabus and bought some of the books. I've enjoyed the idea of being part of an online class since I was a part of [info]pernishus 's summer science fiction class a few years back. In any case, I came into the into the brain on the internet class about halfway through the quarter and didn't have access to the class blogs and nobody to talk to, but the reading is interesting.

The first book on the list was The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and then I watched the movie (well, I didn't watch the movie until today). The basic story is a man (the editor of Elle magazine, actually) who has a massive cerebral accident (stroke). He is totally paralyzed, unable to speak and he had to have one eye sewn shut. He still wrote this book, by having an assistant transcribe it for him letter by letter as he blinked for each correct one. I can't imagine how many times he had to hear the alphabet recited over and over. The book was beautiful, it was an act of prose poetry. The movie was also an amazing experience. Most of it was taken directly from the book, from Bauby's memories and from what he experienced as a locked in person, with nothing but his memories, his imagination and one good eye.

It freaked me out totally.

I have a crappy memory, huge holes...I hear Speaker saying, "not the brain damage bullshit again." (38 years ago March 4). I have been trying to stay present, but it's hard. And I have no real idea why I have avoided it for 50 years. It's hard to say what I mean; I know it's hard for other people to listen to me. (Writing is easier because for the past 19 years I have been expressing myself in writing...still can't talk about what is buried, because I am not exactly sure what it is). I have a sense of isolation, of being cut off...and there isn't anyone reciting the alphabet to me.

ISIS 120

Hopefully, by this time next week my malaise will be a thing of the past. So far it's been pretty spot on...started just before Feb 12 and since my birthday is Saturday I should be fine by next Monday.

I am trying to do readings for a class from Duke University called "This is your brain on the Internet." The instructor blogs, so I can see what she thinks and maybe what some of her students are posting. If nothing else, the reading list looks interesting. I decided to go to a symposium entitled "Mysterious Things" which has a Women and Gender History focus. Since I haven't bothered to keep up this journal for awhile, I think I will try to keep a record of my progress here.

First reading:
1. Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death, First Edition Thus. (Vintage, 1998).

One reason I am interested in "This is your brain on the internet" is my own brain problems. It will be 38 years tomorrow and I still have problems. I shouldn't bitch, I am pretty much fully functional. I'm not paralyzed like Bauby, my aphasia is mild enough that I can read, write, think and use the internet. I have a job in my field. I have a wonderful family who is loving and supportive, not to mention very tolerant of my quirks (like bouncing from interest to interest and not focusing on anything).

Reading Bauby's book made me feel like I am a real underachiever. His use of language is exquisite, particularly considering that he was dictating it with his eyes.