tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post6667208765304416978..comments2024-03-29T12:05:09.910+07:00Comments on <b>Postcards from the End of [the] America[n Empire]</b>: Stewart Crenshaw, American IconLinh Dinhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00328959360983573810noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-38810248919105050992016-07-20T01:39:10.118+07:002016-07-20T01:39:10.118+07:00Hi Linda,
I don't write for reviewers or othe...Hi Linda,<br /><br />I don't write for reviewers or other writers. I write for the people I'd enjoy having a beer with. If you feel like like sending your reactions, I'd love to read them.<br /><br />Cheers!<br /><br /><br />LinhLinh Dinhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00328959360983573810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-40576917299175486462016-07-20T01:20:56.640+07:002016-07-20T01:20:56.640+07:00Hello, Linh. I think my favorite was "The Pl...Hello, Linh. I think my favorite was "The Plane Ride," with the idea that leaving the ground and looking down on the "tiny pains.". <br /><br />The imagery in all of the stories was so compelling, with little bits of humor to lubricate the flow. <br /><br />Well, I'm not a reviewer, but I did try writing down brief reactions to each story. I think you would be totally bored by reading them.<br /><br />I hesitate to say so, but it was like the box of chocolates to me ...<br /><br />LindaLJansenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15841902184663361182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-67606714646549127702016-07-18T11:33:14.271+07:002016-07-18T11:33:14.271+07:00Hi Linda,
Although the farcical is an undercurren...Hi Linda,<br /><br />Although the farcical is an undercurrent in my fiction and poetry, I'd not call myself an absurdist, simply because, nearly always, I'm striving for social and political meaning.<br /><br />In Blood and Soap, this search for a more hidden, more nuanced and, at times, paradoxical order can be seen most clearly in stories such as "Prisoner with a Dictionary," "Stewart Crenshaw," "My Grandfather, the Exceptional," "Elvis Phong is Dead" and "'!'" The last is undoubtedly the best short story I've written.<br /><br /><br />Linh Linh Dinhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00328959360983573810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-9809450945103937132016-07-18T10:49:04.700+07:002016-07-18T10:49:04.700+07:00Hi, Linh. Do you consider yourself an absurdist? ...Hi, Linh. Do you consider yourself an absurdist? Not being schooled in literary styles, that is what this story made me think of. Hopefully, that question is not insulting, the last thing I want to be. LindaLJansenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15841902184663361182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-57632222331642151742016-07-18T04:22:22.428+07:002016-07-18T04:22:22.428+07:00Exactly the kind of person who spent most of the t...Exactly the kind of person who spent most of the time he wasn't savouring champagne and caviar in reproaching others — incidentally: the very people he surrounded himself with — on grounds of their "privilege".<br /><br />It's irritating how history always rewards the most skilled among the masked mimers.<br />There is a rather wide number of real deep writers, poets, philosophers in the 20th century's Italy, but all they can come to hear abroad is clowns. The cheapest among the clowns.<br /><br />my name is linknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4284893230469697578.post-69777747375744631292016-07-18T04:18:58.265+07:002016-07-18T04:18:58.265+07:00"Dinh's gift is for constructing, in the ..."Dinh's gift is for constructing, in the manner of Italo Calvino, simple narratives that quickly frame larger questions; with a poet's timing, the author builds his stories to the one or few climactic sentences that brand them with unforgettable meaning."<br /><br />Calvino? Give me a break.<br />I am not aware of anytime in his life Calvino didn't tell/write the most convenient lie that was available.<br />You could see that the meaner the lie, the straighter his face in stating it.<br />He made a great career in politics, placing himself in the leftmost wing of the PCI — exactly what was needed then to "intellectuals". We are talking of the area that glorified the Stalins, the Tze Dongs and Pol Pots.<br /><br />And that's why, like Umberto Eco (a kind of moral heir of his), he's far more renowned abroad than real great writers (Pirandello, Verga, Pascoli, Quasimodo, and so on and so on).<br />I can't think of a character as far from Dinh as Calvino.<br /><br />my name is linknoreply@blogger.com