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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Monthly Archives: April 2014

Heroes Never Rust #39: Kids

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust

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Grant Morrison, Heroes Never Rust, New X-Men #135, sean ironman

Heroes Never Rust #39 by Sean Ironman

Kids

The cover to New X-Men #135 says it all. The X-Men (Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Beast, and Xorn), all teachers at Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning, stand around helplessly, each looking at another member of the team for an answer. Newspaper articles make up the background. The articles detail mutant discrimination. Quentin Quire, a student at Xavier’s and budding supervillain, says it best, “Didn’t humans provide the weapons which just killed sixteen million of our people in Genosha? Didn’t they just murder one of our greatest artists, Jumbo Carnation? We live under constant threat?” The X-Men, with all that they have done and all the battles they have fought, have not really changed the world that much. Discrimination is difficult to fight. It takes generations, and even then, it may never fully go away. Quentin is a frustrated young man. He’s turned to drugs and he’s angry. Bad things are about to happen.

New-X-Men-135In Grant Morrison’s first story arc on the X-Men, “E is for Extinction,” he killed Magneto, the X-Men’s long-running enemy. Magneto became more powerful in death because he became a martyr. In this issue, Quentin wears a T-shirt that says, “Magneto was right.” Contrary to popular belief, Magneto doesn’t really want to kill all humans. He will kill to protect his own, but he’s not a madman (not in most stories). While Xavier believes humans and mutants can coexist, Magneto thinks the two can never get along. Many times through the comics, Magneto wants to have his own land, a safe haven for mutants. That’s where he was when Cassandra Nova used Sentinels to attack, and Magneto was killed.

135

Quentin tells Professor X: “You’ve always encouraged us to dream…I just wondered what would happen if one of us had a dream you didn’t like?” That sums up the conflict for the “Riot at Xavier’s” storyline. A good school encourages critical thinking and not forcing students to think a certain way. Students are taught to question. A good teacher doesn’t shut down their students because they think something different than the teacher. When a supervillain comes out and attacks a city or a person, the X-Men can jump right in and fight. But what happens when a student begins to think like Magneto?

My favorite scene in all of Grant Morrison’s run on the X-Men is in this issue. The X-Men meet in Professor X’s office (and mind, it seems) to discuss Quentin. But what can they do? Wolverine says to wait for Quentin to grow out of it. Quentin, as we see earlier in the issue, has taken to the streets and attacked humans. How long can the X-Men wait? But they also can’t walk into the classroom and beat the child. If they turn him into the cops, then the institute will get bad press. If mutants are so hated, then bad press will tear the school apart.

The teachers turn to blame a drug called Kick, which Quentin has been taking. I think that shows the weakness of the X-Men. They can’t understand that one of their students believes something different than they do. While Kick is making Quentin a bit crazier and amplifies his mutant power of telepathy, he believes the X-Men’s way doesn’t work. Maybe in twenty years he could change his mind, as people do when they get older. But, now, he truly believes the X-Men aren’t doing enough.

New_X-Men_Vol_1_135_page_02_Special_Class_(Earth-616)

While Quentin’s story unfolds, we also get the story of the special class. Quentin puts together a five member team, similar to the original X-Men, and the special class also harkens back to the original team. There’s Angel, Beak, Basilisk (who has one eye), Ernst, Dummy, and No-Girl (who has no body). The special class doesn’t question the X-Men’s philosophy. They follow Xorn on a hike and camping trip. Xorn breaks things down into simple terms. He’s not teaching a philosophy. He’s teaching a way of life. When Basilisk asks why Xorn was imprisoned, Xorn responds, “Crime? There was no crime. I became strange and different. Like you, my difference made me a target of ignorance and fear.” Xorn is turning the special class toward his own end (which is made clear in a later story arc), but he’s not lecturing them. He tells the special class his story and leaves it at that. Maybe that’s what Professor X needs to do. Stop teaching in abstracts, in dreams, and just state his history. Leave it up to the students to decide their own beliefs. Maybe if you level with students, give them the freedom to decide, then they’ll come around. I don’t know. There are no easy answers to a student like Quentin Quire. If he’s going to go evil, if he’s going to strike out against humanity, that’s what he’s going to do. The X-Men will have to be ready.

___________

Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

 

In Boozo Veritas #39: Three of My Favorite Poets in Orlando

28 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in In Boozo Veritas, Poetry

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Amy Watkins, Danielle Kessinger, Fifteen Views of Orlando, In Boozo Veritas, Milk & Water, Satellite Beach, Susan Lilley, Teege Braune

In Boozo Veritas #39 by Teege Braune

Three of My Favorite Poets in Orlando

In case you haven’t noticed, I have been celebrating Poetry Month by dedicating each blog I’ve written in April to the art of verse. Furthermore, as this is In Boozo Veritas, I’ve attempted to find subjects that have a particular connection to drinking. Fortunately, poetry is rife with imbibers and alcoholics. Dylan Thomas is one of the most notorious among them, and tackling this challenging author was a feat that I found rewarding in its stretch of my analytical capabilities, though I’ll freely admit that I barely scratched the surface his dense and difficult work. I wrote a paper about The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in college shortly after discovering it, and having read this poem many times since then, I’ve long since intended to go back over the material and reexamine it with a more mature perspective. Small Batch: an anthology of bourbon poetry simply fell in my lap; of course, I felt compelled to share a book full of my two favorite things: poetry and bourbon. While trying to come up with a subject for my final blog of poetry month, I realized that I’ve missed an obvious topic. After all, living in Orlando, I share my community with many incredible writers, three of my favorite poets among them.

I first met Susan Lilley during the publication of Fifteen Views of Orlando: Vol. II as the collection was appearing serially on Burrow Press Review’s website.

Susan Lilley

Susan had taken the red-bearded bartender character from my own story “April 20, 2008,” named him Jordan, and given him a wonderfully rich history and family dynamic in her own story “Equinox.” I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a character I had based on myself interpreted by someone who didn’t know me, especially a writer of Susan’s caliber. Not long after, I attended a poetry reading Susan was giving in conjunction with the release of her incredible collection Satellite Beach published by Finishing Line Press and realized just how amazing and talented this woman really is. Rarely does one hear poetry read so naturally. Susan reads like she is speaking directly to you so that’s it’s nearly impossible not to hang on every word. What’s more, you begin to feel grateful that this poet is sharing such personal and profound moments with you in her audience. I was even more honored to share a stage with Susan at the speakeasy Hanson’s Shoe Repair when we read our joint stories from Fifteen Views of Orlando back to back. Satellite Beach is a collection worth reading over and over again, but I can say from experience that it is a rare and unmatched treat hearing Susan read these poems herself. No stranger to The Drunken Odyssey, you can listen to Susan’s interview with John King right here. She was even kind enough to take over In Boozo Veritas one week while I was on vacation. Her guest blog Writers in Festival Mode is a hilarious and nearly anthropological examination of the drinking habits of the literati when they get together for festivals and conferences, and if you enjoy her essays as much as I do, you can read more of them on the website The Gloria Sirens.

DSC05965

By now you are no doubt on your way to Bookmark It in East End Market, Orlando’s only independent bookstore focusing on local writers, to purchase Satellite Beach.

Satellite Beach

While you are there, do yourself a favor and pick up Amy Watkins’ brand new chapbook Milk & Water, published by Yellow Flag Press.

Milk and Water

With this collection Amy has proved herself to be both an exciting, emerging voice and a poet who’s put in the time to fine tune her craft. The poems found in Milk & Water are flawless whether they function as brief poignant images or heart-wrenching narratives. Poems such as “Playa Linda” destroy the adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This vision of a daughter collecting seashells on a beach captures a pristine snapshot in fewer words than a hundred, proving that in this poet’s competent hands words are, in fact, priceless. Amy doesn’t need to tell us why this moment in time has stayed with her, why it deserves to be captured in a poem; the beauty of its existence is justification enough. On the other hand, poems with a more obvious emotional gravity such as “The Viewing” and “The Day My Sister Died,” both dealing with the tragic loss of a sister at an early age, work because they employ the same clarity of memory that make “Playa Linda” stand out. Amy is asking the reader to do more than simply grieve with her. Where a lesser author might merely inspire our sympathy, Amy demands empathy on a visceral, painful level. These poems do not shy away from pointing out the painful truth that the actions of people we know love us, actions meant for our own protection, just as often leave deep wounds and horrible scars. There is a sense of poetic responsibility in Amy’s work, and yet there is redemption as well, an emotional release that transcends explanation, a redemption that comes from the simple fact of the poem’s existence. As in Susan’s work, the reader feels grateful to be welcomed into a space this personal, and like Susan, she is an incredible reader of her own work. Each poem is imbued with a profundity that makes them all the more devastating for her straight-forward emotional honesty.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention my good friend Danielle Kessinger. I have considered Danielle my friend for several years, but only recently discovered just what an incredible poet she is. I was lucky enough to share the stage with her a few weeks ago at Literocalypse and was blown away by the sheer sound of her poems. As both a writer and a reader Danielle captures a musicality that is uncommon and all the more delightful for its rarity. Simply hearing her poems is an absolute pleasure. While Danielle doesn’t yet have a published collection that you can rush out and buy, she is a poet you would be wise to watch out for. I, for one, look forward to seeing her give another reading very soon. She and I spent a few hours yesterday drinking cocktails and keeping each other focused as we submitted our work to various lit mags. Hopefully an editor will see the same spark in her work that I do.

The literary community of Orlando, more so than any other city in which I’ve lived, is as warm and welcoming as it is full of talent. From Functionally Literate, to There Will Be Words, and Literocalypse, there is an arena for any number of diverse voices, established and emerging alike. I am lucky to consider each of these three poets, Susan, Amy, and Danielle, my friend. I would say the same of many other fantastic writers living here. Orlando is a big city with the neighborly charm of a small town. In other communities it is easy to get lost in the crowd, but here one only needs to follow a simple plan to meet the writers living among us: go to readings and start buying drinks. You’re sure to meet more writers than you’ll know what to do with.

___________

Teege Braune (episode 72, episode 75, episode 77, episode 90) is a writer of literary fiction, horror, essays, and poetry. Recently he has discovered the joys of drinking responsibly. He may or may not be a werewolf.

 

 

Episode 96: Rick Moody Event!

26 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode

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rick moody, The Four Fingers of Death

Episode 96 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I present Rick Moody’s recent reading at the University of Central Florida.

Rick Moody at UCF  TEXTS DISCUSSED

The Four Fingers of Death

NOTES

St Marks Bookshop Check out this indiegogo crowd-sourcing effort to bring St. Mark’s Bookshop to a new home in the East Village.

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Episode 96 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

The Curator of Schlock #37: Street Fighter

25 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, The Curator of Schlock

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The Curator of Schlock #37 by Jeffrey Shuster

Street Fighter: Yes, It’s as Bad as You Remember

untitled 3

Street Fighter. Oh boy. Part of the problem with this movie is that has too many characters. It’s like the director was trying to give each fighter from Street Fighter II equal screen time. As such, I can’ figure out who the protagonist is supposed to be. Take a gander at this roster: Ryu, Ken, Guile, Chun-Li, Sagat, Dhalsim, E. Honda, Zangief, Blanka, Dee Jay, Cammy, T. Hawk, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, M. Bison. I guess Fei Long didn’t make the cut.

Untitled

It’s just a bizarre task reviewing this movie. Street Fighter II the video game was iconic. It was one of those great Capcom arcade games, a video game that SF2 for the Super Nintendo just so I could have the privilege of getting my butt kicked daily by my older brother and my friends. I suppose the game was so popular that a movie adaptation was inevitable. I saw Jean-Claude Van Damme’s moniker on the poster and my teenage self said no.

Untitled 2

Twenty years later I’m reviewing this travesty and I can’t even think straight. Let’s start with what’s working in this motion picture: Raúl Juliá as M. Bison. It’s a villainous performance for the ages. It’s all about the bug eyes and cape twirling. There’s a scene in the movie where Chun-Li (Ming-Na) confronts M. Bison over the fact that he murdered her father and attacked her village. M. Bison doesn’t remember any of it.

He says, “For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.” Brilliant.

We’ll continue with what isn’t working in this movie: everything else. I guess the plot is M. Bison wants to conquer the world by challenging the Allied Nations which consists of the United States, Great Britain, and every other country in the world. M. Bison has hostages he’s threatening to kill if his ransom of 20 billion dollars isn’t paid. Bison also commences with bizarre experiments on some of the kidnapped soldiers. His goal is to create an army of super soldiers to help him conquer the world.

I guess the hero of the film, Guile (Jean Claude Van Damme), is a UN soldier…or is it AN soldier? I can’t keep any of this straight. You know for a movie based on a fighting game, there isn’t a whole lot of fighting. We get a lot of explosions. There’s a fight with Guile and M. Bison at the end.

Untitled 3

M. Bison is wearing some sort of anti-gravity boots that allow him to fly. Guile beats him with the help of the other Street Fighters (I won’t repeat their names again). It’s late. I’m tired. And it’s finals week! Don’t watch this movie!

Five Things I Learned From Street Fighter

  1. Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.
  2. Villains should wear capes.
  3. If you’re turned into a green monster with orange hair, you have no reason to live.
  4. Super villains need food courts in their capital city.
  5. Kylie Minogue shows up in the weirdest movies.

___________

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47) is an MFA candidate and instructor at the University of Central Florida.

Loading the Canon #22: That’s Not What You Think That Is

24 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Art, Loading the Canon

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Constantin Brancusi, Helena-Anne Hittel, Loading the Canon, Princess X

Loading the Canon #22 by Helena-Anne Hittel

That’s Not What You Think That Is

Here’s a photograph of a work titled Princess X (1915-16). I want you to take a good, long look at it. Ready? Go.

Princess

Yeah. It’s okay to feel what you’re feeling. “Helena-Anne. That’s a penis. Why am I looking at a giant penis?” I’m not saying that it doesn’t look like a penis. It totally does. However, as we’ve been taught from an early age, things aren’t always what we think they are. Case in point, this sculpture. What if I told you that this undeniably phallic-looking work of art is (supposedly) modeled after a photograph of a woman? Nobody was gonna get that on the first try. I didn’t, that’s for sure. That is the wonder of the works of Constantin Brancusi.

Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) was a French-Romanian sculptor whose concentration was, as you might be able to guess, abstraction. He attended the Bucharest School of Fine Arts and studied sculpture. After learning of the works of Auguste Rodin, Brancusi traveled to Paris in 1904, where his first major work, The Kiss (1908), was created. He became internationally notable after exhibiting in New York City’s Armory Show in 1913. Brancusi’s works after The Kiss, such as Sleeping Muse (1912) became even more abstract. Two of his works were at the center of artistic controversy-Princess X was removed from Le Salon de Indépendants in 1920 on the grounds of obscenity, and Brancusi’s later work Bird In Space (1923) was refused the classification of “art” by the United States Customs office in 1926. Brancusi’s studio and the works within was bequeathed to the Museum of Art in Paris at Brancusi’s death, on the condition that it would be installed in its entirety.

Bird

Now, a bit more about Princess X. The jury seems to be out on who this is, or if it’s even modeled after anyone in particular. Some allege that this is a portrait of French princess Marie Bonaparte. Most of the articles I’ve looked through seem to at least agree on a feminine figure, if not a name. Encyclopedia Britannica reads that Princess X is “a portrait of an imaginary person that takes on a curiously phallic form.” The information in the catalog of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (where a polished bronze version  is housed) says that Brancusi, infuriated by the comparison of his work to a phallus, “ insisted the sculpture was a portrayal of a feminine ideal,” while the Guggenheim’s past exhibition catalog states that it was modeled after a woman craning her neck to look at herself in the mirror. This specific catalog goes on to read, “The neck is exaggerated in order to convey the self-awareness of this gesture. Dissatisfied with this version, Brancusi carved back the superficial details. The head became an ovoid on an arching neck and the supporting hand is reduced to a pattern.” (See? I do my research!)

Art will confuse you. It’s going to happen. You will look at a piece in a museum or gallery that will defy all logic in your brain, and you might short circuit if you try to make sense of it on your own (this happened to me when I started studying surrealism). That feeling of confusion, to me, is part of what makes this artist’s works so much fun to look at. Given so little as a title, you, as the viewer, are invited to look again at the form Brancusi has presented. Princess Xbecomes a bit more human. Bird In Space becomes an overly-simplified view of a bird flying sideways. His works are brilliant in its abstraction and simplicity.

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Helena-Anne Hittel (Episode 35, essay) earned a B.A. in Art History at the University of Central Florida.

 

 

Heroes Never Rust #38: The Next Generation

23 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust

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Grant Morrison, Heroes Never Rust, New X-Men, sean ironman

Heroes Never Rust #38 by Sean Ironman

The Next Generation

I love the X-Men. No matter how long it’s been since I’ve read new comics, when I come back, I read X-Men comics. I follow them even when I’m not reading comics. One of the reasons I like them is that they aren’t just fighting to fight or fighting to save the world (even though that does happen as a byproduct many times). They fight to live. They fight for equality. In 2001, Marvel Comics brought on Grant Morrison, one of the industry’s leading creators, to write­ New X-Men. At once, Morrison brought the X-Men into the 21st century, by not only bringing in new concepts, but by taking the characters back to basics. It’s one of my favorite runs on an X-Men title. While some stories are better than others, I find all to be great and worth reading. I’ll be taking a look at the strongest X-Men story Morrison wrote over the next few weeks, “Riot at Xavier’s.”

Untitled 1

Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning is the focus of the story arc, and for much of Morrison’s run. While it may be difficult for fans of the X-Men movies to grasp this, but the X-Men’s school was not really used for many years before Morrison focused on it. It may have still been referred to as a school, but other than the danger room, it had long stopped feeling like any learning was going on there. In New X-Men, the school acted like a private boarding school, just focused on mutants. The students, especially a young telepath named Quentin Quire, are the focus of “Riot at Xavier’s.”

If the purpose of a school is to get students to think critically, then what happens when students come to different conclusions that their professors? That’s the basic idea behind the story arc. It opens with Jumbo Carnation, the best mutant designer in the world, being murdered by five men. The students hear about it and tension begins to build.

Untitled 2

Quentin has a run-in with another student, Slick, who wrote a song about Jumbo. Quentin doesn’t understand how writing a song about the man’s death will help in anyway. And quite honestly, I don’t either. I’m with Quentin on this. He’s very easy to relate to, and that makes the story more powerful. He wants action, He’s tired of the world he lives in. He’s tired of just accepting things the way they are. He gets called into Professor X’s office, and, by then, he’s fed up. “Well, I livein the brave new world and it’s not as shiny and perfect as you’d like to think. You’re always selling this future that never arrives, you preach Utopia but you never deliver on this “dream” we keep hearing about.” It can be easy to think like Quentin. How many times have we heard someone say racism doesn’t exist in the United States today? Of course, it still exists. Everyday people experience racism in this country. We hear that things are getting better. And they are, in a way. But things still aren’t great. It can be easy to get fed up with the world. And Quentin does. He’s tired of waiting for this world he was promised. He’s going to take it.

In the end, at least as of the first issue, he doesn’t attack anyone. He doesn’t strike out against the world. He gets a haircut. It might not sound that bad, and in the end it isn’t. But it’s a start. He gets his hair cut to match an article that was in the Daily Bugle many years before, when the mutant “problem” was just beginning. The article is titled “Mutant Menace! Are they for real?” It features a picture of mutants with whips in a destroyed city. A threatening image of the future. Quentin starts his rebellion by taking back the offensive imagery and making it his own. It’s an empowering act for the young man. The first issue is just the build-up to the riot. Other than Jumbo Carnation’s death in the opening two pages, there’s no violence, no big villain fights. Just a boy who’s tired of being told the world is a better place.

___________

Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

In Boozo Veritas #38: Dylan Thomas, and Words That Leave Us Dumb

21 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in In Boozo Veritas, Poetry

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After the Funeral (In memory of Ann Jones), And Death Shall Have No Dominion, Caitlin Macnamara, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas, Teege Braune, The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower, The White Horse Tavern

In Boozo Veritas #38 by Teege Braune

Dylan Thomas:

Words That Leave Us Dumb

On November ninth, 1953, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, already decrepit and ill at the age only thirty-nine years old, took a drink and had another. “I’ve had eighteen straight whiskies. I think that’s a record!” he announced and then fell forward dead at the table of his favorite New York City pub The White Horse Tavern; a fitting, legendary end for a man who cultivated his own legend as a drunken passionate rogue, philanderer, and doomed poet, a man prone to creating his own tall tales such as his claim that he and long suffering wife Caitlin Macnamara were in bed together ten minutes after meeting each other. Macnamara’s own assessment of her relationship with Thomas was less romanticized. “But ours was a drink story, not a love story, just like millions of others. Our one and only true love was drink. The bar was our altar,” she wrote in her 1997 autobiography My Life with Dylan Thomas: Double Drink Story. “Is the bloody man dead yet?” she asked as she arrived at St. Vincent’s Hospital were Thomas was lying in a coma from which he would not awaken. Perhaps a more fitting legend of the poet’s death is that, though alcohol had compromised his health in more ways than one, his autopsy revealed that his liver showed no signs of cirrhosis, the opposite of what everyone believed. In fact, Thomas’ final coup d’état came from pneumonia exacerbated by a preexisting lung condition. While alcohol may have endorsed his demise, it was not the actual assassin.

Despite his love affair with alcohol, its presence in Thomas’ work is limited and intermittent. Death, on the other hand, is the obsession to which he returns time and time again. His poetry chronicles an ambivalent relationship with the inevitable. In much of his most famous work, including “And Death Shall Have No Dominion,” “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower,” “After the Funeral (In memory of Ann Jones),” and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” amongst others, Thomas rails against his own demise and that of his loved ones all the while acknowledging the futility of such a lament. In “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” he says that

“Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.”

We see death portrayed, not only as a necessity and final conclusion of our birth, but furthermore, a moral action; it is the correct thing to do. And yet we know that in that “good night” our failings are made manifest; our deeds crumble as we are forgotten by those who survive us. In the end, our words, for all their weight and sanctity, were no more than words; they “forked no lightning.” If this was the fear of a poet of Thomas’ unfathomable caliber, then what hope do the rest of us have? Having memorized “Do No Go Gentle into That Good Night” years ago, I often recite it at bars as a litmus test of my own intoxication. If I can get through the final “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” without losing my place or forgetting a verse, I’ll order another drink. If I can’t finish the poem, I know it’s time to find a ride home. In other moments, I ignore my own advice and, overwhelmed by my own desire to “burn and rave at close of day,” I take a cue from the doomed bard and push through past the final horizon of decorum and good sense.

Poet Robert Lowell said of Dylan Thomas, “He is a dazzling obscure writer who can be enjoyed without understanding.” This was indeed my own experience when I first heard my English literature professor Jim Watt read “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” with a steady, emotional resonance that rivaled Richard Burton and gave me chills as he crawled towards that final image of the crooked worm. A mild, sunny day in early spring had inspired Jim to drag us all outside and there among blossoming flowers and budding trees he found an idyllic location in which to share this poem with a bunch of nineteen year olds, the same age Thomas was when he wrote it. I had been discovering and devouring literature faster than I could process it, but these words left an indelible mark on my imagination. When I came home for spring break I read it to my mom who responded that she didn’t understand a word of it. I admitted that I didn’t either, but loved it anyway. Over a decade later, having read it an uncountable number of times, I now think it is deceptively simple in its meaning, which is, in utterly complex language, an admission of the poet’s own lack of understanding. He sees the connection between his own youth and the fragile burgeoning flower, the never-ending cycle of death and regeneration, the force that drives and destroys everything without judgment or preference, that unites all, living and dying, into one existence, and he says in the face of this overwhelming epiphany that is no revelation, enlightening without revealing, “I am dumb to tell…”

If Caitlin was Thomas’ third love and alcohol his second, his true romance was with words. Thomas had said of discovering nursery rhymes as a child, “before I could read them for myself I had come to love the words of them. The words alone. What the words stood for was of a very secondary importance…” This is a poet who was never writing for the purpose of being understood in the first place. “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” may simply tell us what Thomas doesn’t know, but it does so in the most breathtakingly beautiful way imaginable. The rhythm, the enigmatic images, every word in every line is immaculate. If a life has meaning, it is most likely a meaning one has wrought out of it, perhaps unnaturally. Most likely this meaning is less significant than the simple fact of the life itself. What’s for certain is that at the moment of our inevitable deaths, the meanings to which we once clung will be lost forever. In Dylan Thomas’ incredible poems we find many meanings, most of which are constantly in flux, endlessly debated; more importantly, we find words. Words collected, adored, beaten, cursed, blessed, and finally arranged in such a way that they do indeed fork lightning, defeat death, and transcend personal legend.

___________

 

Teege Braune (episode 72, episode 75, episode 77, episode 90) is a writer of literary fiction, horror, essays, and poetry. Recently he has discovered the joys of drinking responsibly. He may or may not be a werewolf.

 

 

Episode 95: Rick Moody 2!

19 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Memoir, Music

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Daft Punk, David Bowie, John Lee Hooker, Music, One Ring Zero, rick moody, The Black Veil, The Four Fingers of Death, The Next Day

Episode 95 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to fiction writer and one-time memoirist Rick Moody,

Rick Moody at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Photo by John King.

Plus I share his prose reading “Metal,” with music by One Ring Zero.

One Ring Zero

TEXTS DISCUSSED

 Read Rick Moody’s 14,000 word essay about David Bowie’s The Next Day here.

The Black Veil

The Four Fingers of Death

David Bowie's The Next Day

As Smart as We Are
 Nigh Sleep Death

John Lee Hooker, putting The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, in their places, when he was 72 years old.

This soundtrack with John Lee Hooker playing with Miles Davis is deliciously good.

Hot Spot Soundtrack

Check out Episode 39, with my first interview with Rick, here.

NOTES

gabriel-garcia-marquez

 R.I.P., Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

St Marks Bookshop

Check out this indiegogo crowd-sourcing effort to bring St. Mark’s Bookshop to a new home in the East Village.

 ___________

Episode 95 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

The Curator of Schlock #36: DOA

18 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, The Curator of Schlock

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Devon Aoki, DOA: Dead or Alive, Eric Roberts, Holly Valance, Jaime Pressly, Kung Fu

The Curator of Schlock #36 by Jeffrey Shuster

DOA: Dead or Alive

Ninja Ninja Ninja

Untitled

 I remember an episode of Kung Fu The Legend Continues where the bad guy (who I also believe was Kwai Chang Caine’s half-brother) was gathering an army of reincarnated villains from Earth’s history. There was this one dude who was supposed to be the reincarnated Jack the Ripper and this lady who was supposed to be the reincarnated Lizzie Borden. Anyway, I think the bad buy had some magic pendant or bell, and was hoping to channel the forces of darkness to become all-powerful or something. Caine stops him and all is right with the world once again.

You know, super-villains in kung fu movies don’t always have to use sorcery to achieve their ends. I can think of no finer example than 2006’s DOA: Dead Or Alive from director Corey Yuen. In the movie, Dr. Victor Donovan (Eric Roberts) has opted for science as his means for world domination. Using nano-bots, he will record the fighting moves of the greatest martial artists from around the world and download them into a pair of sunglasses.

Untitled 4

With those sunglasses, he’ll become the ultimate, unstoppable fighter. Before all that of course, he’ll need a tournament to lure the best fighters in the world to his island paradise.

Untitled 1

And who are these martial artists? There’s Kasumi, a shinobi ninja princess (Devon Aoki) who leaves her ninja clan to attend DOA to find out what happened to her missing brother, Hayate. Hot on her trail is Ayane, a ninja assassin sworn to kill Kasumi if she leaves the clan. Another ninja, Ryu Hayabusa, follows Kasumi to the tournament to also investigate what happened to her brother. I think he was her brother’s best friend. He may also have a crush on Kasumi, but that neither here nor there.

We also have Tina Armstrong (Jaime Pressly), a superstar pro wrestler who wants to prove to the world that she isn’t fake.

Untitled 2

Her father, Bass Armstrong (Kevin Nash) was also invited to the tournament and he doesn’t have a problem with being a superstar pro wrestler. They fight on a raft in the middle of a pond and Tina wins, moving herself up in the tournament. There’s also another contestant by the name of Zack who keeps flirting with her. She knocks him into a stone railing as a reward.

Let’s see. Who else? There’s Christie (Holly Valance), a master thief and assassin.

Untitled 5

She and her lover, Matthew, have decided to attend the tournament because of the millions that lie hidden on the island somewhere. There’s also Helena Douglas (Sarah Carter), the daughter of the man who invented the nano-bots that will help Dr. Donovan take over the world. Dr. Donovan had Helena’s father murdered, but she doesn’t learn that until much later in the movie. One of the computer geeks has a big old crush on Helena. She also wears roller blades.

Untitled 6

I guess I’m supposed to be going somewhere with this review, but there are just too many characters. Needless to say, Eric Roberts gets his butt kicked by the end of the movie.

Untitled 7

Plus, there’s a scene where the lady fighters play volleyball on the beach, with an official DOA-labeled ball and net. What more could you ask for from a kung fu masterpiece?

Five Things I Learned from DOA: Dead or Alive

  1. Don’t let evil scientists inject you with nano-bots. They’re not doing it for your benefit.
  2. Supervillians tend to stash their cash in giant Buddha heads.
  3. Ninja assassins don’t mess around. They’ll actually try to kill you.
  4. If you see imaginary cherry blossoms float about in front of your eyes, it means you’re in love.
  5. Corey Yuen did the impossible. He made a movie out of the DOA Dead or Alive video games.

___________

Jeffrey Shuster 2

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47) is an MFA candidate and instructor at the University of Central Florida.

 

Heroes Never Rust #37: Man or Monster?

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Fantastic Four, Heroes Never Rust, sean ironman, Unstable Molecules

Heroes Never Rust #37 by Sean Ironman

Man or Monster?

Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, is the focus of the final issue of Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules. The cover is of Ben unconscious with a bloody lip and with a small panel of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman laughing at The Thing who’s on his knees and covering his face in defeat. The issue begins with Ben’s girlfriend smashing dinner plates, telling him to rot in hell, and storming out. While this could be thought of as Ben’s issue, the opening is layered with Reed Richards’s interiority.

“Science relies upon observation. The more data one collects, the more likely one can predict future behavior. But what happens when behavior belies all known data? When there is chaos where there should be order? Must I surrender to the premise that the only constant is randomness and instability? Can I accept these implications of how illusionary the world we’ve conjured for ourselves is? How easily it can come apart?”

We’re never told why these characters are in the situation in which we find them. We get hints about Ben Grimm’s time during the war. We don’t know why Reed is dating Susan. Or why Susan would want to date Reed. Or what happened to Susan and Johnny’s parents. They are all messed up and can’t see their way out. Susan flirts unsuccessfully with a young colleague of Reed’s. Ben unsuccessfully hits on a woman at a diner. Reed wants to marry Susan and practices his proposal even though it’s obvious he doesn’t even understand love.

Untitled 1

Reed wants to organize life. Everything must have a purpose, must make sense. He doesn’t understand the world and attempts to figure out it out. He wants to sit and watch from the outside.

But that’s what he comes to learn. There is no observer in life. He’s a part of it. Reed runs late to the dinner party Susan throws for Reed and his colleagues. By the time he arrives, he finds Susan and Ben in the bedroom making out. It wasn’t planned. Susan and Ben weren’t sneaking around behind Reed’s back this whole time. Actually, Ben is more remorseful over what happened than Susan. So many things had to happen to get the two to that point. So many random things.

Susan finds Johnny gone (He’s on the beach getting beaten up from issue three). Reed’s running late. Ben can’t fit into the crowd downstairs and searches for Susan, who’s crying over Johnny having run off. Reed comes home two minutes after Ben and Susan start kissing. It just happens to be the night Reed wanted to propose to Susan.

In many stories, these coincidences wouldn’t work, or at least would feel more contrived. Coincidences can be difficult to write. Characters decisions should drive the story forward. But Unstable Molecules is able to manage it because the coincidences still revolve around characters’ choices and it becomes part of the story, instead of trying to trick the reader into not noticing.

Johnny is gone because Johnny chose to run off. Reed chooses to propose. Ben chooses to come to the party and look for Susan. Susan chooses to kiss Ben. They all happen in the same night because that’s life. What one person does affects another person. We’re not separate creatures. We share the same space. Our lives pull and push against other lives. We’re connected.

Untitled 2

That’s what Reed had wrong this whole time. He realizes he was studying life from afar instead of realizing he’s a part of it. His life affects another life. It might seem like coincidence or randomness at first. But it’s not. Everyone is in control of the choices they make, but those choices affect more people than just that one person. A choice I make today affects someone else. In turn, what that person does affects a third. And so on down the line. We’re not bouncing off of one another. We’re bound together.

___________

Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

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