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6.10.05
Culturally Speaking #66: Reporting from London, For the First But Not Last Time
By Sarah Stodola
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Okay, so I'm living in London for four months starting three days ago. And you can skip all of your thoughts about how I must be the dumbest person on Earth for coming to one of the few places in the world where the dollar gets you absolutely nowhere, because I am already way too aware of this fact.
Case in point: I went into the laundromat a couple of days ago, and a jumbo wash -- just the wash, no dry -- costs £4. That is, precisely speaking, $7.28...for one load of laundry. So if anyone sees me this summer and as they go to give me a cheek-kiss, smells a strange smell, all you have to do is donate a few pounds to me and that smell will probably go away.
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But then, today I went to a pub that opened in the 14th century, which is pretty cool, especially when you are American and you know full well that most bars brag about having made it to their two-year anniversary.
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Fellow Me Three editor Mark Grueter brought this David Brooks quote to my attention, from a recent Times column (he is speaking of aspirign writers):
"Entering the world of the Higher Shamelessness, they begin networking like mad, cultivating the fine art of false modesty and calculated friendships. The most nakedly ambitious - the blogging Junior Lippmanns - rarely win in the long run, but that doesn't mean you can't mass e-mail your essays for obscure online sites with little "Thought you might be interested" notes." --Yeah, that stuff never works...Writers, looks like you'll have to sleep your way to the top, just like Brooks must have in order to avoid all of that networking crap.
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Also from Grueter, a review of George Orwell in Stop Smiling.
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Looks like there is a shake-up under foot at Random House --
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The Village Voice has compiled its annual list of the 100 best cheap restaurants in all of New York City.
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I've been sleeping on friends' couches for the past month, so I keep starting a book from one person's bookshelf, reading 100 pages or so, and then moving on to the next apartment and the next partially read book. My partial book reviews are as follows:
The Corrections: I want to read the rest of it, but as for now the jury (or, um, just me) is still out regarding its level of greatness.
The Lovely Bones: A sweet read, but I would never call this a truly great novel. However, I should say that I am perhaps overly suspicious of books that have gimmicky premises -- I feel like the story should be harder to write, like the story shouldn't just present itself to the author.
'Tis: I loved the pages I read, but really, don't you think that a memoir containing this much detail has to be partially fictionalized? No one's memory is this sharp.Click here for the last Culturally Speaking.
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Sarah Stodola is the Executive Editor of Me Three. She can be contacted here.
© 2005 Me Three
