I was planning on having my Akira analysis done before today, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like that is going to happen. I have been extremely busy in my personal life lately, but I saw that there was still significant traffic coming into my blog, so I decided that it would be best to give you guys an update so that you don't think that I have forgotten about you.
First and foremost, I do want to thank all of my regular readers from all over the world. It's great when I look at my statistics and see that people are coming in weekly to read my blog. I originally started this blog to help prevent writer's block, but that seemed like a corny reason to create a blog, much less for people to read it. I figured if I wrote about things that I enjoyed reading, maybe other people would enjoy hearing and reading about it. It's been a lot of fun, and I love looking back on books that I haven't thought of in years. The second reason that I started this blog was because I was just finishing up a rough draft for my first novel, which I have been working through editing for the past couple of months. Since people would probably want to check out some of my writing before they gave me their money for a novel, I figured this was the best way to accommodate them. Soon I'll be posting progress on where I am with the book, but those updates won't be coming until around the end of the year.
What has been preventing me from working more on this site is a number of things. First, my long time girlfriend and I are expecting our first child. I mistakenly figured since I was going to be taking time off work, it would be a great time to start the Akira project. Needless to say, the baby coming has put a hold on that for a little bit. But that doesn't mean that I haven't been working on the analysis. I have a nice fat Moleskine notebook full of great observations, and being able to reread one of my favorite novels of all time has been a treat by itself. I'm hoping this weekend to get part 1 posted, but no guarantees.
Other than that, I have been reading lots of Ookiku Furikabutte, a baseball manga that is better known here in the states as Big Windup. If you haven't read it, I would definitely check it out. Mihashi is one of my favorite characters from any manga, and I take great delight in watching him grow from a timid protagonist into a top notch pitcher. Character development like that can be hard to find in Japanese manga, where upskirt shots and violence drive a good amount of the market. If you ever wanted to know how a manga is created, Bakuman by Tsugumi Ohba is a great read.
I will be starting a mailing list for my blog and book very shortly. If you want this blog directly sent to your email, drop me a line at adamlujan29@hotmail.com. This way, as soon as a new post is updated, it will appear in your mailbox as soon as it goes live here. It's a great way for you to be able to know exactly when something is posted here, that way you don't have to keep checking the page and wondering if something new has been written.
That's it for this time. I am glad that you all have been coming back for more content, and I will do my best to make sure that you guys get it. Take care, and treat each other well.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Hubert Selby Jr.
Most people have never heard of Hubert Selby Jr., and the fact that I have had to tell so many people about one author has always made me incredibly sad. Selby, known by his close friends as Cubby, is one writer who completely changed the landscape of fiction over 50 years ago, but his work is seldom taught in any curriculum; college, high school, or otherwise. When I do come across someone who also likes his work, it seems the same trends will hold true of what we both appreciate, and that is Cubby's honesty. The books always feel like real people, and they seem to take chunks out of your life while reading it.
I mentioned earlier how I had ditched school to read all of the Last Exit to Brooklyn. I'm not the only one who was transfixed by this story. In the introduction to Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky stated he read the book the week he was supposed to be studying for finals, and he ended up failing them because he wanted to finish the book. That's the passion that Selby fans have towards his work. His writing speaks to you in a rare fashion that can't be ignored, whether you enjoy it or not.
Hubert Selby Jr. was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York during the great depression, and his hard upbringing shone through in his writing. He wrote about survivors, and how hard it is exactly for one to survive when you aren't supposed to. I think this was because the deck was always stacked against Cubby. At 15, he faked his age to enlist in the Merchant Marines, and while at sea he contracted tuberculosis. He ended up losing a half of a lung, and was sent home and told to die. Determined not to have a wasted life, Selby started writing to pursue a career. He spent the rest of his life dedicated to that craft, and in the end, he published seven novels and three spoken word albums.
Selby's life story by itself is amazing. What the man produced on paper sticks out even more. While he only had a limited education due to leaving for service at such a young age, Selby still was able to piece together enough knowledge to get his prose written out. If he didn't know the word, it was spelled out phonetically. Due to not wanting to waste time while typing, he would use / marks to indicate apostrophes rather than spend the time to hit the shift key. Although it turns off most readers who write off Selby, it also shows people through a different lens. Cubby let the action carry the book and did not concern himself with the technicalities.
Selby, like many authors, unfortunately, lived the majority of his life in poverty. While in the hospital for his TB, he also developed a morphine dependency that followed him for years. Selby was able to kick the habit, even going so far as to refuse it on his deathbed, but he was able to revisit the theme of addiction with Requiem, which goes to show how much guts one would have to face a topic that hits so close to home, and not fall back into addiction.
I'm not sure why a heroin addict from New York was able to grab my attention with such force at a young age. I stopped questioning my tastes a long time ago, and Selby is one of those that I have come to accept as a deep love and appreciation for what he has done in my life. But there have been many people who I have given his books that hated it. I can see that side of the coin as well. It's hard to look at life when it seems so raw and meaningless. The majority of people who I know that read does so to escape, not think about more depressing shit, and Selby is the anti-feel good author. I don't suggest reading his work unless you like books like Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, or American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
Hubert Selby Jr. isn't remembered by the masses. He has never written a New York Times Bestseller, and he isn't brought up too often when discussing American writers. But his writing is still amazing, and so emotional that it should be at the very least peaked at. He is such a polarizing figure in American literature, and his work has shaped the way I have looked at literature for the rest of my life.
I mentioned earlier how I had ditched school to read all of the Last Exit to Brooklyn. I'm not the only one who was transfixed by this story. In the introduction to Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky stated he read the book the week he was supposed to be studying for finals, and he ended up failing them because he wanted to finish the book. That's the passion that Selby fans have towards his work. His writing speaks to you in a rare fashion that can't be ignored, whether you enjoy it or not.
Hubert Selby Jr. was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York during the great depression, and his hard upbringing shone through in his writing. He wrote about survivors, and how hard it is exactly for one to survive when you aren't supposed to. I think this was because the deck was always stacked against Cubby. At 15, he faked his age to enlist in the Merchant Marines, and while at sea he contracted tuberculosis. He ended up losing a half of a lung, and was sent home and told to die. Determined not to have a wasted life, Selby started writing to pursue a career. He spent the rest of his life dedicated to that craft, and in the end, he published seven novels and three spoken word albums.
Selby's life story by itself is amazing. What the man produced on paper sticks out even more. While he only had a limited education due to leaving for service at such a young age, Selby still was able to piece together enough knowledge to get his prose written out. If he didn't know the word, it was spelled out phonetically. Due to not wanting to waste time while typing, he would use / marks to indicate apostrophes rather than spend the time to hit the shift key. Although it turns off most readers who write off Selby, it also shows people through a different lens. Cubby let the action carry the book and did not concern himself with the technicalities.
Selby, like many authors, unfortunately, lived the majority of his life in poverty. While in the hospital for his TB, he also developed a morphine dependency that followed him for years. Selby was able to kick the habit, even going so far as to refuse it on his deathbed, but he was able to revisit the theme of addiction with Requiem, which goes to show how much guts one would have to face a topic that hits so close to home, and not fall back into addiction.
I'm not sure why a heroin addict from New York was able to grab my attention with such force at a young age. I stopped questioning my tastes a long time ago, and Selby is one of those that I have come to accept as a deep love and appreciation for what he has done in my life. But there have been many people who I have given his books that hated it. I can see that side of the coin as well. It's hard to look at life when it seems so raw and meaningless. The majority of people who I know that read does so to escape, not think about more depressing shit, and Selby is the anti-feel good author. I don't suggest reading his work unless you like books like Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, or American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
Hubert Selby Jr. isn't remembered by the masses. He has never written a New York Times Bestseller, and he isn't brought up too often when discussing American writers. But his writing is still amazing, and so emotional that it should be at the very least peaked at. He is such a polarizing figure in American literature, and his work has shaped the way I have looked at literature for the rest of my life.
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Why Write?
I couldn't pin down one reason why I have chosen to write. I used to spend a lot of my free time as a kid reading books in my room, so I suppose going there would be a good start. I would write a lot back then, but nothing ever too serious. I didn't expect really anybody to see what I had written, so it wasn't very polished. In fact, I didn't even think that my writing was very good until teachers in school would tell me they had liked it. This didn't really get me too excited. I figured teachers were paid to say shit like that. What was the point in believing it?
It wasn't until I hit high school that I saw a different way of writing, and it was a writing that struck a cord emotionally. The first experience I had was reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. I remember reading it, and thinking that not really a lot was happening; it was just two guys wandering through the desert while on drugs, but I recall feeling like I had to keep reading to see what was going to happen. I had never felt like this, and it was really addicting.
It continued on. In English class, I came across a story by Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron, and it made me start having these strange thoughts... What if I tried doing something like this? It wasn't boring or pretentious like a lot of stuff they made you read in high school, it was something that finally spoke to me. I am not saying that the stuff I was reading was bad, it just had never made me feel or think on this crazy level before. I remember looking up the story in my textbook many times before the semester was over, just to try to recapture that crazy flutter that filled my chest when I had finished the story the first time. I was chasing the dragon, but this high was a literary, and not a narcotic one.
Senior year of high school was when shit really hit the fan. I discovered Hubert Selby Jr. After I had read that, it completely changed the entire landscape of reading and writing for me. I discovered him like most people discovered Selby in the 2000s, by watching Requiem for a Dream. I remember after watching it, reading the back cover of the DVD box, and thinking, "Jesus Christ, how was THIS a book?" I couldn't believe it. I couldn't ever picture anything like that on a written page. I had to find out more, so I jumped on my laptop and Googled everything I could about the movie, as well as the author, Hubert Selby Jr. I saw that he had written a book before Requiem, The Last Exit to Brooklyn, so I decided to pick that up and give it a whirl.
I had to wait until I got paid, which was about a week away, but I remember counting the days until I would be able to buy it. I even did a couple of dry runs, going over to the Barnes and Noble that was across from the Baggins sandwich shop that I worked at, looking over the shelves until I knew the placement of the book by heart. I could probably walk into that store blindfolded, and still be able to find that damn Selby book, and the closer I got to pay day, I felt my frenzy growing larger. As soon as my shift let out I shot over to the bookstore across the street. As soon as I purchased it and was out the door, I started thumbing through the pages, looking over the paragraphs in glances. It looked so different, unlike any book I had ever been given in school. The punctuation seemed all messed up, and some words weren't even spelled correctly, they had just been phonetically spelled out. It seemed so wrong compared to what I had always been shown and told about writing. I spent the next three days doing nothing but smoking pot and reading that book, but at the end of it, I can honestly say that I never looked at literary works the same way ever again.
After reading Brooklyn, I felt like I couldn't read the same books I had been reading. Once I had a peak into this kind of reading, I felt like I had to find all of the books I could that made me feel like Selby did. It turned into this strange quest to find these particular books that had certain criteria that were impossible to pin down. When I would tell some people how much I loved reading, I remember getting empty looks back. People don't really like to read anymore. They did in the 50s, maybe even all the way up through the 80s and the early 90s, but now when you ask someone what they read, they may give you a website or a Twitter feed that they follow.
But even with the disinterest, I still felt trapped. Books were my passion.
It wasn't long after reading all of this stuff that I started trying writing on my own. I had written a lot when I was a kid, but to be honest, I didn't think it was all that serious. It would mostly be a way to pass the time. But now, I felt like writing became an obsession.
For a while, I felt that a lot of the stuff I wrote was whatever I was reading regurgitated back onto the page. I feel a lot of young writers go through this because you are just latching onto whatever idea may come to mind. A lot of what writing is sometimes is just stacking ideas on top of each other, and seeing what fits. Worst case scenario, you don't have shit, but you still have the ideas that you can build upon later on if need be. Writing is trying to be resourceful. You try to make things work because you have a good idea, but you may not be experienced/skilled enough to pull it off yet. The important thing is that you work through this phase.
Why spend so much time working through this phase? I honestly couldn't tell you. A lot of times I felt it was because I had some strange standard when it came to my writing. I didn't want people to read what I wrote and think that I was bad, or that I was out there faking it. Some of the worst writing was the stuff you read where you knew the person didn't know shit, but they felt like they knew enough to pass it off in their work. Nothing is more insulting to a reader than this. But for myself, I just like it. I love writing things out, and reading things over and over again, and try to see how I can make the words fit better, or have the sentences flow smoother. It's an amazing thrill that I can't really find anywhere else.
It's reasons like that I started this blog and writing to publish. I don't feel the need to do it for fame or for getting rich. That's probably the most unrealistic goal that a writer can have. You may as well just spend all your money on scratchers and start going to town. I want to write because it feels natural, and I love doing it.
I feel some people were put on this earth to do certain things. I hope you all find the things that you were meant to do. It's an amazing feeling, pursuing what you love. Being true to oneself is very important, and highly undervalued in society. Once you find something that you love that much, don't let anything get in the way. Work through it, figure it out or make sacrifices somewhere else because you don't want to find yourself doing things you HAVE to do because you didn't do things differently.
It wasn't until I hit high school that I saw a different way of writing, and it was a writing that struck a cord emotionally. The first experience I had was reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. I remember reading it, and thinking that not really a lot was happening; it was just two guys wandering through the desert while on drugs, but I recall feeling like I had to keep reading to see what was going to happen. I had never felt like this, and it was really addicting.
It continued on. In English class, I came across a story by Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron, and it made me start having these strange thoughts... What if I tried doing something like this? It wasn't boring or pretentious like a lot of stuff they made you read in high school, it was something that finally spoke to me. I am not saying that the stuff I was reading was bad, it just had never made me feel or think on this crazy level before. I remember looking up the story in my textbook many times before the semester was over, just to try to recapture that crazy flutter that filled my chest when I had finished the story the first time. I was chasing the dragon, but this high was a literary, and not a narcotic one.
Senior year of high school was when shit really hit the fan. I discovered Hubert Selby Jr. After I had read that, it completely changed the entire landscape of reading and writing for me. I discovered him like most people discovered Selby in the 2000s, by watching Requiem for a Dream. I remember after watching it, reading the back cover of the DVD box, and thinking, "Jesus Christ, how was THIS a book?" I couldn't believe it. I couldn't ever picture anything like that on a written page. I had to find out more, so I jumped on my laptop and Googled everything I could about the movie, as well as the author, Hubert Selby Jr. I saw that he had written a book before Requiem, The Last Exit to Brooklyn, so I decided to pick that up and give it a whirl.
I had to wait until I got paid, which was about a week away, but I remember counting the days until I would be able to buy it. I even did a couple of dry runs, going over to the Barnes and Noble that was across from the Baggins sandwich shop that I worked at, looking over the shelves until I knew the placement of the book by heart. I could probably walk into that store blindfolded, and still be able to find that damn Selby book, and the closer I got to pay day, I felt my frenzy growing larger. As soon as my shift let out I shot over to the bookstore across the street. As soon as I purchased it and was out the door, I started thumbing through the pages, looking over the paragraphs in glances. It looked so different, unlike any book I had ever been given in school. The punctuation seemed all messed up, and some words weren't even spelled correctly, they had just been phonetically spelled out. It seemed so wrong compared to what I had always been shown and told about writing. I spent the next three days doing nothing but smoking pot and reading that book, but at the end of it, I can honestly say that I never looked at literary works the same way ever again.
After reading Brooklyn, I felt like I couldn't read the same books I had been reading. Once I had a peak into this kind of reading, I felt like I had to find all of the books I could that made me feel like Selby did. It turned into this strange quest to find these particular books that had certain criteria that were impossible to pin down. When I would tell some people how much I loved reading, I remember getting empty looks back. People don't really like to read anymore. They did in the 50s, maybe even all the way up through the 80s and the early 90s, but now when you ask someone what they read, they may give you a website or a Twitter feed that they follow.
But even with the disinterest, I still felt trapped. Books were my passion.
It wasn't long after reading all of this stuff that I started trying writing on my own. I had written a lot when I was a kid, but to be honest, I didn't think it was all that serious. It would mostly be a way to pass the time. But now, I felt like writing became an obsession.
For a while, I felt that a lot of the stuff I wrote was whatever I was reading regurgitated back onto the page. I feel a lot of young writers go through this because you are just latching onto whatever idea may come to mind. A lot of what writing is sometimes is just stacking ideas on top of each other, and seeing what fits. Worst case scenario, you don't have shit, but you still have the ideas that you can build upon later on if need be. Writing is trying to be resourceful. You try to make things work because you have a good idea, but you may not be experienced/skilled enough to pull it off yet. The important thing is that you work through this phase.
Why spend so much time working through this phase? I honestly couldn't tell you. A lot of times I felt it was because I had some strange standard when it came to my writing. I didn't want people to read what I wrote and think that I was bad, or that I was out there faking it. Some of the worst writing was the stuff you read where you knew the person didn't know shit, but they felt like they knew enough to pass it off in their work. Nothing is more insulting to a reader than this. But for myself, I just like it. I love writing things out, and reading things over and over again, and try to see how I can make the words fit better, or have the sentences flow smoother. It's an amazing thrill that I can't really find anywhere else.
It's reasons like that I started this blog and writing to publish. I don't feel the need to do it for fame or for getting rich. That's probably the most unrealistic goal that a writer can have. You may as well just spend all your money on scratchers and start going to town. I want to write because it feels natural, and I love doing it.
I feel some people were put on this earth to do certain things. I hope you all find the things that you were meant to do. It's an amazing feeling, pursuing what you love. Being true to oneself is very important, and highly undervalued in society. Once you find something that you love that much, don't let anything get in the way. Work through it, figure it out or make sacrifices somewhere else because you don't want to find yourself doing things you HAVE to do because you didn't do things differently.
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