Sunday Night
Aug. 2nd, 2009 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nightdog_barksVery quiet day, mostly spent being grumpy because my shoulder was hurting. Apparently it is another of those "hello I am your body telling you you are getting old" things, gah.
Anyway. The cottontail bunny was back, and at one point it was stretched full length under one of the oak trees, nibbling on corn. Played with some fic. Did a little research on hospital morgues. Heh.
Also, read an interesting article on the Texas author Larry McMurtry. Text is under the cut -- I thought the paragraphs about how long a writer is able to write and about his childhood were particularly interesting.
Texan author Larry McMurtry thinks 30th novel may be his last page
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, August 2, 2009
By MICHAEL GRANBERRY / The Dallas Morning News
mgranberry@dallasnews.com
ARCHER CITY– For those who loved The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove, Aug. 11 may mark a defining moment in the life and career of 73-year-old Larry McMurtry.
That's the release date of Rhino Ranch, McMurtry's 30th novel, which he says may be his last.
"It's a finite gift, for sure," he says of novel writing. "I'm about at the end of it. I can write certain things. I don't think I can write fiction any more. I think I've used it up over 30 novels. That's a lot of novels."
McMurtry made the remarks during a recent visit at his home in Archer City. He huddled almost an hour with invited guests from the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, which is sponsored by the author's alma mater, the University of North Texas.
"Most great novels are written by people between 40 and 60, or 35 and 60," he says. "Not too many great novels are written by people over 75. Hardly any. Maybe Tolstoy."
Rhino Ranch represents a first for McMurtry, whose tetralogies include the powerful series that spans Moving On, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, Terms of Endearment and The Evening Star. (He also has written a Lonesome Dove tetralogy.)
Rhino Ranch concludes his only quintet, the other four volumes being The Last Picture Show, Texasville, Duane's Depressed and When the Light Goes.
"I call it Rhino Ranch," McMurtry says, "because it uses this project that's going on around Glen Rose. They're trying to save the African black rhino by bringing them over here ... to save them from being poached into extinction."
Amazon.com describes Rhino Ranch as the "poignant and striking final chapter in the Duane Moore story," which began in 1966 with The Last Picture Show; the Oscar-winning movie version was filmed here, on the windswept streets of McMurtry's hometown.
In Rhino Ranch, Duane discovers a new neighbor, "the statuesque K.K. Slater," whom amazon .com describes as a "quirky billionairess" who's come to Thalia (aka Archer City) to open Rhino Ranch.
McMurtry's career began in 1961 with the publication of Horseman, Pass By, which became an even more memorable movie, Hud, starring Paul Newman. The early 1960s were, he says, an era "when it was easy to get published. It isn't easy anymore. I was kind of lucky, and so I got some impetus and stayed with it."
He's famous not only for his books and scripts – he and co-writer Diana Ossana won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for Brokeback Mountain – but also for the more than 300,000 books that occupy the four storefronts known as Booked Up, in one-stoplight Archer City.
McMurtry claims to have not a single customer from Archer City and says his fellow citizens would prefer to see Booked Up packed up and gone. "They hate them," he says. "They're very uneasy about those books. They're not comfortable with all that knowledge being around."
His hometown, to which The Last Picture Show was "lovingly dedicated," hasn't changed much over the years. He calls it "a mean little oil-patch town, not welcoming to outsiders."
But attorney David Levy, the mayor of Archer City, was an outsider. A native of Oak Cliff, he moved to Archer City from a job in Vienna, Austria, in 2004. He's fond of saying that, until the Dollar Store arrived, the town he governs (population: 1,848) "was the kind of place where you could buy a signed first edition of Ulysses, but you couldn't buy a pair of socks." He says the town treasures Booked Up and respects the fact that McMurtry "wants to live a private life."
McMurtry's extraordinary collection occupies not only the welcoming storefronts of Booked Up but also his rambling, ranch-style home, which has no air conditioning – his choice – but does have its own cache of tens of thousands of books. The author also lives in Tucson, Ariz., and has another 5,000 to 6,000 books at his second home in Archer City, the family's historic ranch on the outskirts of town.
Just as McMurtry believes his novel-writing days may have reached the final page, he worries that books in the conventional form may have gotten there as well. He noted that Barnes & Noble opened an electronic bookstore on July 20 with a stunning 700,000 titles.
"There's going to be a generation who actually like physical books and who will continue to patronize bookstores such as the kind we have now. But I think that will end, by another generation."
As for his own reading, he spends most of his time re-reading. "I'm not reading for adventure. I'm reading for security." He's especially drawn to the diaries of the late James Lee-Milne, an English novelist, biographer and architectural historian.
"His diary is almost 60 years of the 20th century," McMurtry says. "It's a charming diary, and I read it over and over."
Having grown up in a ranching family, McMurtry says, "I don't ever remember being read to, at all." He says his first home was barren of even a single book, "not even the Bible." He attributes his career and his passion for reading solely to a twist of fate.
When he was 6, his cousin stopped by the family ranch en route to World War II. He gave McMurtry 19 books, which became "my library. Somehow, I learned to read spontaneously. I picked a book out of the box at random, and I've been reading ever since."
Original article here.
Anyway. The cottontail bunny was back, and at one point it was stretched full length under one of the oak trees, nibbling on corn. Played with some fic. Did a little research on hospital morgues. Heh.
Also, read an interesting article on the Texas author Larry McMurtry. Text is under the cut -- I thought the paragraphs about how long a writer is able to write and about his childhood were particularly interesting.
Texan author Larry McMurtry thinks 30th novel may be his last page
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, August 2, 2009
By MICHAEL GRANBERRY / The Dallas Morning News
mgranberry@dallasnews.com
ARCHER CITY– For those who loved The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove, Aug. 11 may mark a defining moment in the life and career of 73-year-old Larry McMurtry.
That's the release date of Rhino Ranch, McMurtry's 30th novel, which he says may be his last.
"It's a finite gift, for sure," he says of novel writing. "I'm about at the end of it. I can write certain things. I don't think I can write fiction any more. I think I've used it up over 30 novels. That's a lot of novels."
McMurtry made the remarks during a recent visit at his home in Archer City. He huddled almost an hour with invited guests from the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, which is sponsored by the author's alma mater, the University of North Texas.
"Most great novels are written by people between 40 and 60, or 35 and 60," he says. "Not too many great novels are written by people over 75. Hardly any. Maybe Tolstoy."
Rhino Ranch represents a first for McMurtry, whose tetralogies include the powerful series that spans Moving On, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, Terms of Endearment and The Evening Star. (He also has written a Lonesome Dove tetralogy.)
Rhino Ranch concludes his only quintet, the other four volumes being The Last Picture Show, Texasville, Duane's Depressed and When the Light Goes.
"I call it Rhino Ranch," McMurtry says, "because it uses this project that's going on around Glen Rose. They're trying to save the African black rhino by bringing them over here ... to save them from being poached into extinction."
Amazon.com describes Rhino Ranch as the "poignant and striking final chapter in the Duane Moore story," which began in 1966 with The Last Picture Show; the Oscar-winning movie version was filmed here, on the windswept streets of McMurtry's hometown.
In Rhino Ranch, Duane discovers a new neighbor, "the statuesque K.K. Slater," whom amazon .com describes as a "quirky billionairess" who's come to Thalia (aka Archer City) to open Rhino Ranch.
McMurtry's career began in 1961 with the publication of Horseman, Pass By, which became an even more memorable movie, Hud, starring Paul Newman. The early 1960s were, he says, an era "when it was easy to get published. It isn't easy anymore. I was kind of lucky, and so I got some impetus and stayed with it."
He's famous not only for his books and scripts – he and co-writer Diana Ossana won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for Brokeback Mountain – but also for the more than 300,000 books that occupy the four storefronts known as Booked Up, in one-stoplight Archer City.
McMurtry claims to have not a single customer from Archer City and says his fellow citizens would prefer to see Booked Up packed up and gone. "They hate them," he says. "They're very uneasy about those books. They're not comfortable with all that knowledge being around."
His hometown, to which The Last Picture Show was "lovingly dedicated," hasn't changed much over the years. He calls it "a mean little oil-patch town, not welcoming to outsiders."
But attorney David Levy, the mayor of Archer City, was an outsider. A native of Oak Cliff, he moved to Archer City from a job in Vienna, Austria, in 2004. He's fond of saying that, until the Dollar Store arrived, the town he governs (population: 1,848) "was the kind of place where you could buy a signed first edition of Ulysses, but you couldn't buy a pair of socks." He says the town treasures Booked Up and respects the fact that McMurtry "wants to live a private life."
McMurtry's extraordinary collection occupies not only the welcoming storefronts of Booked Up but also his rambling, ranch-style home, which has no air conditioning – his choice – but does have its own cache of tens of thousands of books. The author also lives in Tucson, Ariz., and has another 5,000 to 6,000 books at his second home in Archer City, the family's historic ranch on the outskirts of town.
Just as McMurtry believes his novel-writing days may have reached the final page, he worries that books in the conventional form may have gotten there as well. He noted that Barnes & Noble opened an electronic bookstore on July 20 with a stunning 700,000 titles.
"There's going to be a generation who actually like physical books and who will continue to patronize bookstores such as the kind we have now. But I think that will end, by another generation."
As for his own reading, he spends most of his time re-reading. "I'm not reading for adventure. I'm reading for security." He's especially drawn to the diaries of the late James Lee-Milne, an English novelist, biographer and architectural historian.
"His diary is almost 60 years of the 20th century," McMurtry says. "It's a charming diary, and I read it over and over."
Having grown up in a ranching family, McMurtry says, "I don't ever remember being read to, at all." He says his first home was barren of even a single book, "not even the Bible." He attributes his career and his passion for reading solely to a twist of fate.
When he was 6, his cousin stopped by the family ranch en route to World War II. He gave McMurtry 19 books, which became "my library. Somehow, I learned to read spontaneously. I picked a book out of the box at random, and I've been reading ever since."
Original article here.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 02:52 am (UTC)I feel I have a couple of novels in me. Stories that I've had swimming in my brain meats for a few years now. But I fear that writing fanfiction has made me a lazy writer. I've completely forgotten how to create my own characters, like I used to do in creative writing classes. I've gotten so used to writing about already established characters, heh.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:02 am (UTC)I adore my original characters, but at the same time I like putting them in fanfic so much that I think I'd feel funny writing about Martin Grey without House, or the David Wilson of 44 Candles without the Wilson family. You're right -- the established canon characters make it so much easier.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 04:02 am (UTC)Why am I thinking Asimov had something to do with 2001?
I give up.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 04:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 04:56 am (UTC)I've read Terms of Endearment and All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers, that's it. I didn't know McMurty co-wrote the script for Brokeback Mountain (which I still haven't watched).
I got a laugh out of what he said about his store Booked In. It sounds familiar.
I don't think physical books are going away any time soon.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 10:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:04 am (UTC)I certainly like his son's (song)writing well enough. :-)
In other news: Hi! I just got home from the barn.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:08 am (UTC)The argument I've seen for why physical books will last and remain is a pretty simple one that's backed by evidence. The introduction of the Cosette tape and CD haven't destroyed vinyl. While it's becoming more difficult to find, there are still those devoted to that medium over other forms of recorded sound for one reason or another. Additionally, if parents make the effort to get their children to enjoy books, the actual interaction found therein, there's going to be people lugging dead paper around for a good long while.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:24 am (UTC)Not to compare myself to Mr. McMurtry at all, because obviously there is no comparison, but the older I get the more difficult I find it to write stories. Vignettes and stand-alone scenes, I can write just fine. It's the full fic, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, that often escapes me now.
And yes on the dead paper, especially with the recent Amazon/novels of George Orwell dust-up.
ETA that I've just now realized you were talking about my shoulder pain. Another sign of rapidly approaching senility -- not getting things the first time round. ;-D
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:43 am (UTC):D
He also just told me Spanish doesn't have a word for the concept of "silly" - not as neatly as English does. Score one for the home team.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:16 pm (UTC)I always thought if I ever wrote a novel, it'd be composed of linked short stories. One of Laurie Colwin's novels was in that format, and it worked very well.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:10 am (UTC)And I've had one or two prospects, but also found THIS, which naturally happened in my erstwhile hometown of Tampa, Florida:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0729093stormy1.html
I didn't laugh out loud til I read her campaign slogan.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:25 am (UTC)Heh. God bless Florida. What would some of my Bad Guys (and Girls) do without it?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 03:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-16 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-16 05:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-16 06:13 am (UTC)I linked to that mugshot, too, because purely in terms of drawing he looked very... interesting during that earlier, coke-fuelled stage. Ditto for the Thin White Duke.