Culture Corner, Updates

Oh Hey, Big City Part 2…

As I mentioned on Tuesday, Marge Piercy would be reading at the Brookline Booksmith last night. Well after an hour and a half journey (no wonder I got off the Green Line as soon as I could), I managed to get to the reading on time.

Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy - SignedMs. Piercy read between 12 and 15 poems and they were all amazing, but perhaps it was her personality which shone through most. She started the whole reading off by putting a cover on the microphone and saying “practice safe-sex with microphones.” Not only was it hilarious, but it was genuinely adorable. This set the mood for her personality and her poetry. She was very quirky and it just added to her charm and presence. Half way through the reading she decided she was hot so paused and took her shoes off – it just made me smile. I’m not sure which poem was my favorite and if I had to choose one I’d probably say Deadlock Wedlock because of where my academic interests lie, but I really enjoyed, Football for Dummies, Collectors, One Reason I Like Opera, and Deadlock Wedlock.

The most interesting aspect, aside from the reading, was the crowd. I was the only male under 40 and was only one of maybe five. I was not in the least bit surprised there were that few (actually felt like there were a lot) because her main draw is feminists and women, even though her works cover much more. The only thing I found strange about the crowd was their responses to the poems. I’m not sure why it was, but they all sort of moaned/grunted at the end of the poems. I’m sure it was showing appreciation for the reading as Ms. Piercy asked all applause to be held after the first poem. It just seemed odd at the time.

I’m glad I went and I got a book signed for myself (seen above) and one signed for a friend in the UK. And I also met someone else who has the R2D2 Droid phone – kind of awesome!

Culture Corner

Oh Hey, Big City…

This is why I love living in Boston, a ‘big city.’

Yesterday I was desperately searching for five copies of Christopher Klein’s Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands for an event we’re having next month when I found out Emma Donoghue, author of Room, was in town doing a reading last night and question and answer session at Harvard Bookstore.

Title page of "Room" signed by Emma Donoghue Needless to say I was very excited. I have been patiently waiting for Room to come out in paperback for over a year and while my step-mom was visiting this past week she bought me a copy of it. If you haven’t heard of Room, it’s told from the perspective of five-year-old Jack, who is the son of a kidnap victim whose entire universe is one room. The book has gained increasing attention over the past year and won the Irish Book Award and appeared on the shortlist for the Man-Booker prize. Ms. Donoghue was brilliant, she was hilarious and serious and well spoken and had researched all aspects of the book and it made me very excited to actually get the chance to sit down and read the book.

But the icing on the cake of living in a big city, is that I found out Marge Piercy will be in town tomorrow night reading from a new book of poetry (The Hunger Moon: New and Selected Poems) at the Brookline Booksmith and needless to say I am very excited and will be going to get my copy of Woman on the Edge of Time autographed as well as a copy for a good friend in the UK. I wrote a paper on Woman on the Edge of Time that caused a bit of hoopla in my department and needless to say it will be interesting to see what she has to say.

In case you were wondering, I did find five copies of Klein’s book at the AWESOME Brookline Booksmith.