Hey readers!
I just wanted to give you lovely people a quick update about why I seem to have completely vanished from my blog (I'm sad whenever I remember I haven't written a blog post since February). I spent a month after writing my Frozen post editing my third novel until it was in fine enough condition to have people actually read it, so my priorities during that period were that and schoolwork. During April, the finals crunch really set in. Now I'm taking a month-long class dedicated to reading Ulysses (by James Joyce) and practically nothing else.
For those of you who haven't heard of the book, Ulysses is an extremely experimental, dense, and complicated novel and takes a lot of energy to simply read, let alone respond to and discuss. For instance, last week my friends and I spent nine or ten hours reading a chapter that was eleven pages. Eleven pages. But I love the thing. I'm only halfway through, but I get the feeling it'll be up there with War and Peace for me (which is a huge honor).
I've still managed to be fairly active on Twitter, so during the next month, you can find me there (usually rambling about Ulysses). Once the summer starts, I should be back to updating this blog, which I'm excited about. Just because I haven't been updating doesn't mean I haven't been getting ideas!
See you in June!
-Morgan
Writer of YA and adult, fantasy and contemporary
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Update: Why You've Been Hearing Nothing but Crickets from Me
Posted on 8:54:00 PM by Morgan York
| 4 comments
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Good Luck on reading Ulysses. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 17, I had to write about James Joyce in my College Prep class. I thought I had heard of him, and as I had lost two weeks on the assignment due to chicken pox (oh, and just now, you're giving Vin Diesel a family picture in The Pacifier--more on that later), I was WAY behind on everything, so after trying to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I hit the Cliff Notes.
I don't recall much about the report I finally turned in (Double spaced, typed, not as easy as Word) but somewhere in my "research", I found something about Molly Bloom being a "father figure", so I included that in my report. Didn't faze me an Irish man being called Molly, I had heard a guy called Molly before, so I went for it.
And as an aside, I was scared of a book like Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake that seemed to have footnotes and toe notes and side notes and notes on notes....
So as I recall I got a good grade, an "A" I believe--Mrs Van Zandt was a wonderful soul and with her toilet cleaning little green men followers spread joy through the English department--and I happily went on with my life as the bullied nerd who around that time started writing his own novel about being bullied (still working on it).
So years later, much to my surprise, a movie appeared on cable called James Joyce's Women. Fionnula Flanagan was in it, and as I had a crush on her since Rich Man Poor Man, Book II, I had to watch it.
So more "much to my surprise," she's portraying many characters including Molly Bloom. Sooooo, not a guy after all! (thanks for the grade Mrs VZ!).
Fionnula is also in the 60s movie version of Ulysses.
So, Joyce has been with me all this time as an enigma, an (insert proper metaphor) on my intelligence and creative thinking. I congratulate you for working on getting through Ulysses. I heard Finnegan's Wake is worse, I mean, the best novel ever.
Now, as to why I am here...watching TV with my son (19) and he put on The Pacifier. Decided to look up the older actors playing your older brother and sister and wondered what was happing to them. I had noticed two names I had already looked up and one was you--because I looked up Cheaper by the Dozen several years ago (I love Bonnie Hunt!!!!). Your picture was still there as a kid, so I wondered if you were still working as an actor, saw the link to your blog, and now I am your 75th follower.
I design the books for one of my other inspirational English teachers, Mrs. Hall, from high school and for her partner, Doc Riley who I have worked for as designer/photographer when she was directing plays. Spent all of 2013 designing and editing the last book we worked on, an updated version of a book first published in 1992 about the Lucayan Taíno that met Columbus.
So I know the hard work you're going through in your writing--spent eight hours editing 5 pages on that Taíno book. Two of Doc's drama students, really good as actors, are successful authours, so I encourage you to stick with it.
Have a great day and my very best wishes for you.
Hey Hunter, thanks for your long comment! Yep, Ulysses is a toughie, but absolutely and completely worth it, I think. You do really have to commit to it, though. My suggestion is, if you're interested/haven't already, to go back and re-reading Portrait of the Artist in its entirety. It's a really excellent book. Dubliners, too, is great, and I'd say an easier read than Portrait.
ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence--our class watched James Joyce's Women a few days ago. Fionnula was incredible in it, and her version of Molly was amazing. She nailed the monologue (or what parts of the monologue they used).
(And I'm glad you love Bonnie Hunt! I love her, too!)
Re-read*, whoops!
ReplyDeleteI'm only here to read comments and blogs of random people and i got here on morgan's. hehehe. Hi Morgan, i really don't want to leave some words here because i actually think my english really sucks. I'm not an english person and i kinda love how my imaginations work while i'm on the loo and finish a good story of random stuff (things that come and goes) and when i decided to write it down, as i flush the toilet i lost everything too. As in all the gathered ideas, they were all set and ready to be written down.
ReplyDeletePlease give this comment a good laugh. hahaha