Sweet Relief

The flood damage is nearly all cleaned up now (my parents gave me a dehumidifier as an early birthday present, and it now ranks as probably the second best birthday gift I've ever received) and several of my lost books have been replaced, so posting should resume regularly in the next day or so. The good news, I guess, is that I'm only two books behind, so it shouldn't be too much work to catch up.

I'm not generally "that sort of reader", but I am kind of disappointed that I will now have a crisp, new copy of Ulysses on my bookshelf instead of the well-used and much loved copy I had before. The old copy was as much a kind of trophy as it was a book that I read an enjoyed. Happily I don't fall into the books-as-trophies category too often (the only other two examples I can think of are Don Quixote and The Recognitions). You can go ahead and think less of me after this revelation, or not, as you see fit.

Posted by August on 07.28.08 at 2:13 PM | Comments (0)

Waiting For Hell (High Water's Already Here)

There was a tremendous rain storm earlier tonight, and my apartment flooded. This happens every time it rains, and normally it's just a half-gallon or a gallon of water near the outside door. Tonight several other leaks appeared while I was at work, and three rooms were soaked. Including the living room. Which is also the library. I haven't finished a complete tally of the damages (that may take a day or so; my apartment is quite crowded, and finding dry places to put things while I try to assess the damage is not the easiest task in the world), but I can already see that I've lost close to two dozen books, quite a few journals and magazines, at least two CDs and one DVD (The Princess Bride). In any event, things will be a mess here for a few days at the very least, and updates may not occur as regularly as they should.

Posted by August on 07.09.08 at 4:47 AM | Comments (1)

My Friend Nick is Missing

If any of you folks are in the Seattle area (hell, even if you aren't) please look at this:

http://community.livejournal.com/seattle/5056342.html

My friend Nick is missing. He's got a wife and kids and another little one on the way. Please, if you have any information at all, contact the authorities.

At the very least I hope you'll all join me in wishing for his safe return and sending prayers/good thoughts or whatever sort of fellowship you can in the direction of him and his family.

This site has also been set up to make more information available. Please keep your eyes and ears open.

Posted by August on 02.16.08 at 2:42 AM | Comments (0)

Some Good Luck

A couple of weeks ago I went with my friend Russian Dan to a cool little café called Moody Blues. They have great food, a cool vibe, and above all else, they sell books. Good books, actually. I picked up Julian Barnes' Cross Channel, a 1960s hardcover reprint of Tropic of Cancer, an old Penguin Pocket Books copy of Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust (which is what I'm reading now, actually; great little book), and a cheap hardcover reprint of The Reivers, also by William Faulkner. I paid five bucks Canadian for each book.

Except, the cheap hardcover reprint of The Reivers wasn't a cheap hardcover reprint. It was a first edition in amazing shape worth about $125 US dollars. I am quite pleased by this find. I would be interested in hearing your stories of unexpected finds.

Posted by August on 02.24.06 at 7:26 AM | Comments (0)

Selling Out

I love you all like family.

Now buy my CD.

Posted by August on 01.14.05 at 5:38 AM | Comments (0)

Help Aji

My friend Nikki has a cute little bunny who has been very sick. The vet bill is very expensive, and Nikki does not have a lot of money. If you can, please help out. Don't think of it as helping Nikki pay a bill, because that's not what it is. It's helping save the life of a wonderful animal who loves, and is loved.

Help Aji.

//edit: I should probably point out that Nikki isn't asking for money; she's having a yard sale.

Posted by August on 07.26.04 at 5:52 PM | Comments (0)

Check Out My Box

This came in the mail today from Maisonneuve:












The hand-crafted wooden box contained:

  • Issues 3-6 of the magazine (plus the current issue, because it was late)
  • A one year subscription to the magazine
  • Exposed Roots, a Canadian Aboriginal/World music 2 CD compilation (which is better than I thought it would be)
  • An 18"x24" wall poster
  • A pencil and notepad

All for just a touch more than a regular subscription.

I am very pleased.

Posted by August on 06.23.04 at 9:45 PM | Comments (0)

On Politics

I totally forgot that I was interviewed by Northern Life on the issue of youth voting.

Posted by August on 06.16.04 at 8:42 PM | Comments (0)

Carousel (or, Rather, [arouse|)

My Tom York Award winning story "A Story With No Title Whatever" has been picked up for publication in issue 16 of Carousel, a literary journal that I much admire.

Posted by August on 05.15.04 at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)

The Globe and Mail

My review of Rising to a Tension appears in today's Globe and Mail.

Posted by August on 05.15.04 at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)

My Only Resolution

I will have issue two of Wooden Fish up by the end of the week, or die trying.

Posted by August on 01.04.04 at 5:16 PM | Comments (0)

RIP Plastically

Fellow Yayhooray member Rich Baran (known as Plastically) was killed in a car accident this morning.

Respect and love. Rest in peace.

Posted by August on 10.29.03 at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)

Over and Done With

Yesterday was my last day of classes as an undergraduate at the University of Waterloo, and much to my displeasure, classes were cancelled due to the so-called ice storm.

On a slightly better note, Neil Gaiman posted a message from me on his blog. Scroll down to near the bottom of the April 4th entry.

Posted by August on 04.05.03 at 1:37 PM | Comments (0)

My Second Reading

Tonight was the awards ceremony for the UW English Department Awards. I received the English Society Creative Writing Award for Prose, and read the first three and a half pages of my short story, "A Story With No Title Whatever." It's the same story for which I won the Tom York Memorial Award. I wasn't sure how well it would go over; it was never intended to be read aloud. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so concerned. The reading went extremely well, and everyone laughed in all the right places, and were more boisterous than I could have hoped for.

You know, of course, that this is only going to encourage me.

Posted by August on 03.24.03 at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)

English Society Mixer

Every year, and lately every term, UW's English Society has a student/faculty mixer. It features a pretty good spread of food and an open bar. This term the budget was tight so the open bar became a cash bar near the end, but still: liquor flowed.

Not many professors showed up this term, which was a bit of a surprise, but many of those who regularly attend have been rather busy lately. All the same, it was a wonderful event. I met some new and interesting people, and connected with a few of my peers whom I knew, but only vaguely. Several friends who are no longer students came.

After the event a number of us wandered to a local pub called Ethel's, and the good time followed us.

I have posted a number of photos from the evening. I did not take them all.

Posted by August on 03.21.03 at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)

I Will Continue to Be Insufferable

I was informed today that I won the UW English Society Creative Writing Award for prose. I submitted the same story for which I won the Tom York award. The awards ceremony is on Monday afternoon.

Posted by August on 03.21.03 at 5:17 PM | Comments (0)

Guy Gavriel Kay

I should have posted about this on the fourth, when it happened, but I've been having difficulty organizing my thoughts. I think everything's straight in my mind now.

I met Guy Gavriel Kay recently when he was guest lecturer for a Forms of Fantasy class here at UW. The lecture was meant to be on the tools of the fantasy writer, and to a certain extent it was, but he spent most of the lecture discussing his book, Tigana.

I had not read the book (and I still haven't finished it), but I did have a question in mind. Since it's well-known that Kay's books are thinly veiled historical fictions, I asked him to comment on the ethics of using historical facts as source material for literature. I was rewarded with a long and confident answer. Kay once gave a lecture (later printed in issue 108 of Queen's Quarterly—you can read it here) on that very subject, and I knew he was passionate about the issue.

Kay sees the direct use of real people as an ethical failure on the part of the author. He sees it mostly as an invasion of privacy resulting from a sense of entitlement, that sense of entitlement resulting from an exhibitionist impulse. If we allow others to look in on our life (in the form of reality tv, certain internet fads, and other phenomena), should we not expect others to allow us to look into their lives? Kay thinks that no, we should not. He cites books like The English Patient, which portray individuals in a way inconsistent with what we know about them. What happens, he asks, to the real story? And that's a very good question.

He offered two solutions to the moral dilemma. The first solution, which was what he did himself, was to take the "flavour" of the people and time you want to deal with, but place it in a fantasy setting. If you wish to include tropes from the genre you may, of course. How many and in what way is completely up to you. I both like and dislike this solution. I like it, because it helps create more believable, literate fantasy, which is something I think the genre needs badly, if not mostly for its image. But I dislike it because it distances history and potentially reduces into mere scenery the reality of how our world and its people were shaped.

The second solution is one I like a little better. Kay sides with Sir Walter Scott; it is acceptable to use real historical people (living or dead) provided they are not "point of view characters," ie. they stay on the periphery. That way you can avoid putting words in their mouths, or portraying them in ways not consistent with what is known about them.

I have one concern, which Kay mentions in the essay, and thankfully he's a bit ambivalent about it: should we, as a society, impose limits on our artists (in this case writers)? My answer is no. While my own agenda as a writer is not overtly political enough to include real people as major (ie. POV) characters, I would hate to be deprived of the option of using them as such, even though I will probably never do so. I think it comes down to the individual writer, and how easy he finds it to look at himself in the mirror every morning, where the lines are drawn. My line is different from Guy Gavriel Kay's. Where's yours?

Posted by August on 03.15.03 at 1:15 AM | Comments (0)

We Want Some Too

Author and former editor of Broken Pencil Hal Niedzviecki gave a reading on campus this afternoon. Professor Gary Draper, who organizes the Canada Council-funded readings, had a class to teach, and could not meet Niedzviecki at the front entrance. Since I was loitering about doing not much of anything, Professor Draper asked if I would meet Niedzviecki and show him around/keep him amused for twenty minutes or so before the reading. St. Jerome's, the associate college where the reading was held, is pretty dull as far as buildings go, so there wasn't much to see. The three of us (Niedzviecki brought a friend) talked about reading habits, current affairs on campus, and Concrete Forest, the anthology of fiction by young Canadian authors Niedzviecki edited a few years ago. He was very polite, funny, and all around seemed like a really nice guy. He was also an excellent reader and a very good speaker.

Posted by August on 03.13.03 at 9:06 PM | Comments (0)

The Bawdy House

Last night UW's English Society held a Bawdy House at the Walper Pub in Kitchener. It was the first reading I've attended in which I've actually read rather than simply been read to. I read two poems, "Jessica" and "A Portrait of the Poet's Birthing-Bed," and a newly completed short story called "Love in the Age of Insecurity," which was very much in keeping with the spirit of the Bawdy House, and went over quite well. The audience laughed in all the right places, and gave me a very flattering amount of applause and post-reading kudos. I hope to attend more of these in the future.

Posted by August on 03.07.03 at 6:26 PM | Comments (0)

I Will Probably Be Insufferable for Several Days

Today I received a letter from Saint Paul's United College informing me that my story, "A Story With No Title Whatever", won this past year's Tom York Memorial Short Story Writing Award. I will be given a cash award of $300 at the Scholarship and Awards Community Dinner, on February 26th.

As you can well imagine, I am very pleased, and will most likely be insufferably full of myself for the next several days.

Posted by August on 02.19.03 at 9:08 PM | Comments (0)

Now is the Winter of... Something

Today there was much snow, and little rejoicing.

Posted by August on 01.16.03 at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)

Fresh Like A Box of Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern

I found, quite by chance (I was actually in search of a copy of A Tale of Two Cities, by the illustrious Mr. Dickens) copies of the first three issues of McSweeney's, which I purchased for a price which I can only define as exorbitant, but which of course I paid, though I can ill afford it. I am confident that I will be repaid by the contents of the magazines.

For those of you not familiar with the literary journal, I'm not sure how to describe it. Comically earnest? Sincerely ironic? It defies classification, except in terms of its intended audience, who are generally speaking wealthy white kids just out of college who think they know more than they do. This is why you will find the work of the talented but abnoxious David Foster Wallace creeping about its pages. Despite its best efforst, McSweeney's is actually quite good, and I recommend it to all who can afford it, and also to those who can't (good luck finding it; I got half my issues from used bookstores).

Today also marked my first encounter with Krispy Kreme donuts. The store was bright and kitschy (one of these days I'm going to have to learn to spell all of these wonderful, hip words), and the donuts themselves melted in my mouth like the deep-fried pieces of fat they are. Quite good, really. The coffee, on the other hand, was so strong that I gave it my lunch money so it wouldn't beat me up. I went for a Frozen Original Kreme, whatever the hell that is. It was smooth, it was creamy, and it was sweet. What more can you ask for from a frozen beverage? Overall it was a good experience, but since it's a 20 minute drive from my side of the city, it's not an experience I will be repeating very often.

Posted by August on 01.07.03 at 8:39 PM | Comments (0)

I Shot A Man in Reno

Before the holidays Jon and I went to an Irish pub in downtown Waterloo. They had a man with a guitar, like most pubs in the area, and he sang folk classics, acoustic numbers from the '70s, and the odd country song (he was funny, too). When he played "Folsom Prison Blues", Jon leaned across the table and said, "If country music were as cool as Johnny Cash, I would listen to country."

Truer words have ne'er been spoken.

Posted by August on 12.31.02 at 1:48 PM | Comments (0)

Give the Gift of Literature

I was going through a box of old books before going to bed last night, and in my copy of the old Book of Common Prayer I found a bookmark that looks older than I am, in fact almost as old as my father. The bookmark, printed for a store in Fort Frances called The Book Stop, expresses a fine holiday sentiment, and I would like to share it with you.

Why Books Are Nice Presents

  • They don't require batteries
  • They don't give you a hangover
  • Easy to assemble and operate
  • Re-usable over and over
  • No calories
  • Available in a large variety of sizes and colour
  • No messy maintenance
  • Nothing to clean up when you finish
  • They don't make horrible noises
  • They don't wilt and die

Books are excellent gifts. Every year I receive them with open arms, and every year I give more books as gifts than anything else (sometimes more than all the other gifts combined). Share the love. Buy some books.

Posted by August on 12.25.02 at 7:36 PM | Comments (0)

Best Wishes

Yesterday Julianne and I drove from Sudbury home to Dryden, and it took us somewhere in the neighbourhood of twenty hours. Think about that for a moment. Twenty. Hours.

Actually the only truly difficult part was the last four hours from Thunder Bay to Dryden. I think Dryden heard we were coming and was trying to run away.

I've obviously not had regular access to a computer this last week or so, and my time online will continue to be irregular up until the fifth or sixth of January. If you have e-mailed me and I have not responded, this is why. Likewise this is why I have not e-mailed many of you. Or posted many entries. I will do what I can.

Finally, I want to wish everyone a happy holidays, a merry Christmas, or a cheerful x (where x=your celebration of choice, religious or otherwise).

Posted by August on 12.24.02 at 4:12 PM | Comments (0)

Harry Potter

Julianne and I went to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets tonight at Silver City. It was good (probably better than the first), but (maybe because I was a little used to the world) didn't seem to have the same sense of awe and wonder in it that the first had. Better acting and f/x, though. Kenneth Branaugh (sp?) wasn't at his best, but it was a surprise to see him in it to begin with. I'm looking forward to the third movie, but it's not going to be the same with a different actor as Dumbledore (sp?).

Posted by August on 12.18.02 at 3:15 PM | Comments (0)

Almost There

All the templates are up and built. I'm still of the opinion that the search and comment templates aren't what they could (or should) be, but I don't know enough about Movable Type's proprietary tags (are they proprietary?) to mess with them further at this point. After the holidays I'll take another look. For now it's enough that they work.

I'm going to Julianne's in the morning. The trip is eight hours via Greyhound, but I don't mind. I'll get some sleep, and maybe get some reading done.

Speaking of reading, I recently finished a project on Nabokov's Lolita for my Contemporary American Literature class. It's a little rough around the edges, but have fun with it anyway.

And as always, Wooden Fish is still accepting submissions for our second issue.

Posted by August on 12.15.02 at 3:14 PM | Comments (0)