Really Random Tuesday #44: Edna O'Brien, Ebooks and Quotes

It's been ages since I posted a Really Random Tuesday post! Since I have some book-related news, I thought it was time for a new one.

Open Road, a digital publisher and multimedia content company based in NY, contacted me about the ebook publication of two titles by award-winning Irish author Edna O’Brien, August is a Wicked Month, a novel, and The Love Object, her first collection of short fiction.  Her work revolves around the innermost thoughts and feelings of women,  and their difficulties with men and with society as a whole.  Last year, I reviewed Edna O'Brien's short story, A Journey, for Irish Short Story Week (hosted by Mel from The Reading Life) so I've sampled her short fiction.  I'm eager to read her novel,  August is a Wicked Month, which The New York Times called  “a serious and moving piece of work.”

 

A few quotes from Edna O'Brien:

“Writers are always anxious, always on the run--from the telephone, from responsibilities, from the distractions of the world.”

“When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.” 

"They used to ban my books, but now when I go there, people are courteous to my face, though rather slanderous behind my back. Then again, Ireland has changed. There are a lot of young people who are irreligious, or less religious. Ironically, they wouldn't be interested in my early books - they would think them gauche. They are aping English and American mores. If I went to a dance hall in Dublin now I would feel as alien as in a disco in Oklahoma."
~ Edna O'Brien, Writers at Work, ed. George Plimpton, 1986

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I don't have any book winners to announce, and I'm not hosting any new book giveaways right now, but I have some links to exciting giveaways hosted by other book bloggers on the right side of my blog, so please take a look if you're interested.  To enter these giveaways, simply click on the book covers.

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Appearing on random Tuesdays, Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of.  If you're inspired by this idea, feel free to copy the button and use it on your own blog.  For other Really Random Tuesday posts, please visit Naida's blog, the bookworm, and Vivienne's blog, Serendipity Reviews.  Please leave a link in the comments if you’re participating and I'll add it to this post.  Thanks for reading!

We Bury the Landscape: The Art of Flash Fiction

Sometimes, more times than I'd like to admit these days, I feel sort of "old school".  I grew up typing papers on typewriters, and using correction fluid or tape for errors. The switch to a personal computer was pretty easy for me (I'm a huge fan of Apple computers), and I'm tech savvy enough to have a blog, but in some respects, I'm rather "old school".  In my mind, I still picture writers hunched over typewriters,  cigarettes dangling out of their mouths. (Not the healthiest image, thanks to Hollywood!) And flash fiction, also called microfiction, is a relatively new concept to me. I've heard of flash fiction (and have tried my own hand at some writing prompts, like Tess Kincaid's Magpie Tales),  and I enjoy reading short stories, very much, but what constitutes the essence of  short, short stories, called flash fiction?  What is flash fiction? Additionally, I noticed the word 'ekphrastic' used in reviews of We Bury the Landscape: An Exhibition-Collection, a new collection of flash fiction by Kristine Ong Muslim; I needed to look up this word.  Before I could attempt to write something about this author's work,  I had to do a bit of research.

What is flash fiction? Wikipedia to the rescue! Flash fiction is a style of fiction of extreme brevity.  Although there are no hard and fast rules or requirements for this genre, many pieces of flash fiction range from three hundred to one thousand words, although to Steve Moss, editor of the New Times, the requirement is exactly fifty-five words. The title of a piece of flash fiction is often short as well, seven words or less.  As for the term ekphrastic, it means a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art. 

We Bury the Landscape, published in 2012,  is a collection of one hundred flash fiction stories based on various pieces of art (mostly paintings), by writer Kristine Ong Muslim, whose short fiction and poetry has been featured in numerous publications around the world.  Her short, descriptive, intelligent flash fiction is ekphrastic; each is based on a work of modern or contemporary art, by artists like Salvador Dali, René Magritte, and Joan Miró.  Although the artworks were not pictured in my copy of the book, I did not miss them; it was easy to read and savor the power of her pieces, which are bold and evocative, sometimes humorous, and always to the point, in a way that must be unique to flash fiction. Because of the brevity involved, each word must be exactly right.  Her pieces are impactful, expressive,  and profound.  Here are a few lines from her piece, Colored Pencils, inspired by Paulo Rosa's coloured abynthesis--coloured pencils:

"Our eyes bleed a thousand colors as you push us against paper.  Funny how you think these strokes are yours.  They are our pain, you see, our stories." 

As I read We Bury the Landscape, I had a couple of questions for the author, which she graciously answered for me.  Fittingly, here is the micro-interview.

1) Why did you choose to write flash fiction?  How were you introduced to this genre?

KOM: I chose flash fiction because of its aesthetic quality – it can be forced to appear as a single block of prose. When I planned to write We Bury the Landscape, I imagined the artwork on the left page and the block of prose on the right. I also believe that there is no way I can make longer stories out of paintings. The story is already sort of pre-written for me. I am a big reader of clever, entertaining, pithy stories. Rhys Hughes is one of my favorites; he has clearly mastered the art of the flash fiction. The writers who introduced me to flash fiction were Bruce Boston and Bruce Holland Rogers.

2) What additional work of art, if any,  do you wish you'd also written about in this book, and why?

KOM: A Michael Whelan art! Michael Whelan did many of the covers of the books on my bookshelf. I should have done, at least, one mini-tale for one of his paintings. But alas, I already reached the 100-story mark when I realized the oversight. If I did a Whelan story, then I would probably choose this particular minimalist image. It’s called Passage Avatar. And it would probably be about a sentient gate wondering where everybody had gone.

Kristine, thank you for answering my questions, and for sharing this stunning collection with me. You, too, have mastered the art of flash fiction!

Your comments are appreciated as always.