Claire Keegan

I've picked up Claire Keegan's two books of short stories, 'Antarctica' and 'Walk the Blue Fields'. The first won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. Treat yourself.

A Gender Thing

All six finanlists in this year's National Short Story Competition are female. I will never have a story published in MSLexiaMagazine and I will never be allowed enter for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Why does having a penis bar me from all these literary endeavours?

Perhaps I do a literary 'Tootsie'.

Zadie Smith

I've ordered Zadie's new book of essays Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays from Amazon. I'm sure I've read them all before, although her mum insists I couldn't have. Anyway, it'll be nice to have them all in the one volume.

Cormac McCarthy

I took another look at that Oprah interview with Cormac McCarthy. He is a great role model for a writer but I think I'd prefer Mark Lawson doing the interviewing. His interview with Alan Bennett on Front Row last week was a cracker.

The Loop

Great play on BBC Radio 4 today. Should be of interest to writers. Pick it up on the iPlayer.

Kevin Barry

I'm reading the Limerick writer's collection of short stories, There are Kingdoms on the advice of my tutor.

Mighty!

Workshop on one of my short stories

Experienced a first last night in having one of my short stories, 'Dealing with Jeff' discussed at a workshop in Birkbeck. Much positive criticism, which I found very helpful.

Colum McCann

Interesting review of Colum McCann's new book, Let the Great World Spin in the Guardian.

Hilary Mantel

I see the Booker Prize winner, Hilary Mantel is giving the 'George Orwell Lecture' on November 17 in my college, Birkbeck. I got a ticket. I am a great fan of Hialry Mantel and the late Mr Orwell. I loved 'Fludd' and 'Beyond Black'. They have a unique darkness and morbidity. I feel there is no point in listing the late Mr Orwell's achievements, other than to state that I wish he were around now.

Sally Gardens

A gentle refrain from Korea - words by William Butler Yeats.

Start of - "Incident in Havana"

“So what is this?”

“It’s just a key-fob torch*

“I will warn you once. Do not be insubordinate with me, this is a very serious matter”

(The short story is currently being edited)

©David O'Rourke 2009

Don't Get me Started

Don’t get me started on football

A sport knee-deep in cliche

But for players and owners

No good comes of this game

Don’t get me started on football

Don’t get me started on cricket

Lords won’t sell me a ticket

Panamas, mid-offs and maidens

Finance on a sticky wicket

Don’t get me started on cricket

Don’t get me started on Cheltenham

A throwback to “gentlemen”

and “lads”

Celtic tigers turned to kittens

As ever, a high count of cads

Don’t get me started on Cheltenham

Don’t get me started on MPs

Surprise is, anyone’s surprised:

So many of them try to squeeze -

truth for a private wheeze.

Don’t get me started on MPs

Copyright David O'Rourke 2009

Big Disappointment

I have tried to keep politics out of this blog, but I find that I am unable to resist commenting on this matter. It is reported today that Tony Blair is likely to be appointed President of Europe. Blair is a war criminal. He lied to his parliament about weapons of mass destruction and other aspects of the illegal war on the people of Iraq. The proposal must be rejected at all costs and Blair must be arraigned to the International Criminal Court in the Hague for war crimes, including that of aggression. Shame on Sarcozy of France and Merkel of Germany for supporting such an outrageous proposal. It compounds the sick-joke of Blair's appointment as "tripartite negotiator" for peace in the Middle East. Where is the George Orwell for the 21st Century?

Accepted

I've been accepted into Birkbeck College's MA Creative Writing Programme. As that great contemporary philosopher Frederick Flintstone would say. YABBADABBADOO!!! Perhaps it's as well I don't quote Groucho Marx on a similar theme.

Short stories

I've been reading short fiction this weekend: an excellent collection from the alumni of Birkbeck College, University of London, The Mechanic's Institute's Review no 5 (No. 6 will be published later this week) and a short story, "Land of the Living" by Sam Shepard in the current issue of The New Yorker with a peach of an ending. The MIR includes contributions from guest authors Ali Smith, Toby Litt - a lecturer on the Birkbeck MA CW programme - and Sarah Salway.

Creationist

Priests get up to strange things these days - but attending a top creative writing programme and then receiving the blessing from the Great One tops it all.

Don't Go There

Don't even go there,
She said.
Why?

Don't go there.
Where?
I replied,

Don't

go

there;

Do you hear what
I'm saying to you?

Don't go there.
Huh?
Don't GO there.

But I'm only...
You're not list'ning to me,
She said

Tipperary,
I said.
Don't go there.
It's a...
long way,
I said.
DO NOT...
GO...
THERE...

So I didn't
Go there.

Copyright David O'Rourke 2007

John Updike

I'm half-way through the 'Rabbit' Quartet. John Updike certainly wrote beautifully. It can be quite raw; and certainly his protagonist Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom is a difficult character to stomach at times. Rabbit displays deeply sexist and racist tendancies. Attitudes that would be regarded as politically incorrect nowadays - including his unwavering support for the Vietnam War. The sex is raw. Yet the humanity and honesty of the narrative is transcendant. I wonder how black readers view his depiction of the character "Skeeter", a Vietnam vet who has distinctly 'Black Panther' and messianic leanings and appears to supply the eighteen year-old feral preppy, Jill with chemicals that hastens her downfall. As the author says in the Afterword '...the trip to the moon is the central metaphor. "Trip" in the Sixties parlance meant an inner journey of some strangeness.' Far out!

I spent the summer of 1970 working as a student in the United States (near Woodstock in Upstate New York). The zeitgeist depicted in 'Rabbit Redux' and Philip Roth's 'American Pastoral' has a familiar if dream-like resonance.

Creative Writing

Applied for admission to an MA in creative writing with an eminent university. Would be ecstatic to be offered a place. Feel I could excel in such a place. Haven't stopped scribbling: learn by doing, what? Reading a fair amount of good stuff too.

I heard Germaine Greer - last night describe "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" as a great book. Haven't got round to it yet, though I love the device of 'the unreliable narrator'. Must find the time...It's written that Professor Greer can be 'barking' at times. I believe such comments are penned by sexist journos in the night-time.

An aspect of the writing of the late David Foster Wallace is well covered in this piece. It's given me pause for thought. The Stanford link on Wittgenstein's thesis is illuminating - if a bit heavy going.

Hypochondria & Writers

Interesting piece in the Guardian yesterday about a 'malady' that has struck many creative people down the centuries, that is, hypochondria. Numerous examples are quoted - such as James Boswell, Marcel Proust, Charlotte Bronte, Andy Warhol, and of course, Woody Allen. I suspect the necessary isolation and self-analysis imposed by serious writing in particular, (they should get out more often) is conducive to the development of the condition; although there is a 'chicken and egg' scenario here - that is to say: are people who are attracted to 'creative' writing as an activity predisposed to the condition? It is not something from which this blogger is immune; although I barely want to limit my own occasional feelings of 'unwellness' in such a way. It might just be tempting fate.

Still. it's reassuring to be in such august company, even if one feels a bit of an impostor.

Luc Skyz

Watch out for this rapper. He has great natural talent as a writer and performer. I have known him since he was a lot shorter than his present 6'2".

Back from Summer

Returned today from 12 days in Vilamoura on Portugal's Algarve. It was great to experience real summer weather after that season failed to show up in the British/Irish archipelago. Of course the current showery climate continues in these higher climes.

I've had interesting chats with Ireland-born friends recently about the national identities of their England-born children. I think Nick Laird's piece in the Guardian is quite illuminating in this regard, although he is writing in a slightly different context

Passed

Passed the literature degree today [2.1].

What's next?

1. Just write.

2. Start an MA in english in October.

3. Prepare a portfolio for taking an MA in creative writing next year.

4. Do nothing - just watch tv and drink beer.

I continue to work full-time as well, no matter what happens (except in the unlikely event of bidding war for my unwritten novel).

I think 4 is a non-starter - especially as my super-digital-high-definition flat-screen Samsung TV died about 6 months ago and I really can't be bothered with the sheer boredom of dealing with the Argonauts who sold it. I bought my sister a super cheap Matsui or something in Dixons twenty years ago and it's still working perfectly. I do like beer though.

Oh, and I got the 'all-clear' from the doc today. Not a bad day really!

Malodourous Murdoch

Appropriate words from the fearless John Pilger in the recent edition of the New Statesman regarding the truly vile Rupert Murdoch.

Literary culture in Britain

Interviewed by the Chicago Tribune, Ulster poet and novelist Nick Laird was asked if he agreed with an American view that "Great Britain offers a more sophisticated literary culture than ours", replied
"Literary culture in Britain is pretty nasty and small. I'd better not say any more than that. America is wider and more accepting. "

Barbecue Summer

So the British Met Office is contrite about it's "long-term forecast" of a "barbecue summer" issued in June.

These people allegedly run the most powerful supercomputers but seem incapable of giving an accurate forecast one day ahead. Jerome K Jerome issued a warning in his gentle comic novel Three Men in a Boat on the fraud of weather forecasting 120 years ago. Plus ca change.

The Met Office cavil that the weather will not improve in August. Right then, where should I purchase the high-factor Ambre Solaire?

Doc Brown

Interesting to see my friend Doc Brown switching from hip-hop to stand-up - and making such a success of it. Nice piece in the Independent today. Check him out at the Edinburg Fringe. Sik!

JK Rowling's praise for Roddy Doyle

Nice to see Harry Potter's creator, JK Rowling heap praise on Dublin author Roddy Doyle. She describes him - on Oprah Winfrey's website - as a 'genius' for writing, as a heterosexual man so convincingly in the persona of a woman. She is referring to his novel on the theme of wife beating, The Woman who Walked into Doors. One of his few books I haven't read: must rectify that.

Moon and Mermaids

Mention of Limerick and today's date reminded me where I was forty years ago, as Apollo 11 landed men on the Moon for the the first time. I was in Foynes Co Limerick at Mermaid Week, a regatta for the Mermaid dinghy. The host was the genial Bob Mulrooney, who I'd met the previous year while teaching kids to sail on the Shannon. What a time! The "giant step for mankind" was unforgettable too.

Authors and telling the truth

I found this quite amusing. I had a long chat some time ago with recently deceased Frank McCourt (RIP) - author of Angela's Ashes - at a reception for Nick Laird's Utterly Monkey. Frank was terribly friendly and was interested in my experience at the Open University. Quite a few people in Limerick claimed his book was a fiction. I think they were possibly the petit bourgeousie who dreaded the tourist board's image of Limerick being diluted.

9 common words Women Use

9 common words Women Use

1. Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
2. Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
3. Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
4. Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
5. Loud Sigh : This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to #3 for the meaning of nothing.)
6. That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
7. Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome.
8. Whatever: Is a women's way of saying
9. Don't worry about it, I got it : Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking "What's wrong?" For the woman's response refer to #3.

When will they ever learn?

I noticed a few supporters of the British and Irish Lions rugby team (could they not come up with a more meaningful name for this team?) were dressed in the style of the British soldiers who defended Rorke's Drift in January 1879. What were they trying to say? Could it be 'we beat you South Africans then and we will do it again today?' In the event the Lions were defeated. Whilst the British apparently held out against larger enemy numbers at Rorke's Drift, the enemy were in fact the indigenous people, that is, the Zulu tribespeople; the British were of course the colonial masters and as such, exploiters of land and people. The army was ensuring South Africa remained part of the Empire, like much of the globe at the time. Colonialism caused misery in terms of slavery and death far and wide. Some will claim that colonialism benefited the colonised. This claim is usually made by the colonial power. It is not something to be lightly celebrated in carnival fashion by well-heeled sporting tourists. I have found colonial insensitivity almost endemic insome people. r.

The game was exciting for both sets of supporters. Many Lions supporters claimed that the referee was biased against them in allowing the last minute penalty, or indeed the earlier try which looked to be 'scored' by a player whose foot was illegally in 'touch'.