And the Chosen Books are...

Sylvia - Leonard Michaels
In A Dark Dark House - Neil LaBute

Tune in next week for the next literary heist.

So It Begins

Summer has started - I'm moved in downtown and am now preceding with the 14 hour a day work plan in the hopes of reaching a new level of cultural appreciation. Today cultural appreciation means looking up the event coordinators at various New York law firms to promote a book about Gitmo. Did you know that the Skadden website is Communist China red? It actually hurt my eyes, and inspired me to read their mission statement! Today is Wednesday, which is press day here at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. This translates rather easily to the clerical work of a regular intern, but I don't mind because I can take any book from the press room that I want as long as there is more than one copy. I've already taken The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso, Spring Awakening, and The History Boys. But that was last week. It's two in the afternoon and I've got some serious decisions to make.

The Two Kinds of Decay is going to be on shelves this fall and it is going to be HUGE. One of the people I report to said that she feels its the best book the company has put out (as a whole) in a long while. It's sort of like The Year of Magical Thinking, if Joan Didion was talking about a personal affliction she had and therefore did not die. It's incredible. Amazon.com that shit now. You will be glad you did.

My schedule for the week at FSG is a mix of adult and children's content and publicity. I like the content part the best because I read about five manuscripts a day and then write reader's reports on them to suggest if they should be passed on to my superiors or not. That's right. If I say no, that's it. I write my reasoning in the report and then that author gets a form letter that reads (I'm paraphrasing here) but essentially 'thanks but no thanks'. I'd be lying if I said if that wasn't a bit of a trip. Also, I'm sort of amazed by the amount of crap I read. I mean, I knew that there was crap but I just don't get how some of these literary agents take themselves seriously. I have also developed new pet peeves, such as when a manuscript is described in the cover letter as a 'reincarnation of Faulkner' or 'F. Scott's and Augusten Burroughs love child'. I mean... what does that mean? I'd say more but I'm not sure where the confidentiality clause that I signed comes in, so I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

I love working in young adult content. The material is so much fun to read and I like being able to think about whether or not my twelve year old self would like this. I read a manuscript yesterday that was spectacular, I'm very excited about it. If it passes I can tell you some cool stuff about the co-authors. The young adult department is just a really fun place where I get to read up and coming gossip girl-esque novels and pretend like its an enriching work experience. It is awesome. And speaking of Gossip Girl...

I began working at Shakespeare in the Park which is wonderful, frustrating, exciting, and tiring. Hamlet officially opened last night, though I worked the invited dress on Sunday, and while the show is nearly four hours long (I'm now taking back the quips about August: Osage County) it is fantastic. The cast is so on it and the production is exciting and funny. It's tragic too, but I mean... its Hamlet. Hamlet himself is a nice chap who didn't mind when I quite literally fell over him yesterday whilst I was wiping down 1200 seats from the rain. He was rolling around on the ground doing his pre-show warm-ups. It was a bit awkward but we were cool and I guess we'll have something to chat about when we get blasted at Belvedere Castle. I'm quickly learning that there's an upside to everything. I knew that I was ready to work in theatre again and I can't imagine a better way than to have broken back in. There are so many different things about theater to love and I love talking to people about all of them. So again, you heard it first here: run, don't walk to The Public Theater's Hamlet at the Delacorte. Also, for those that are more into celebs than anything that has to do with Shakespeare Eleanor Waldorf is Gertrude. How awesome is that? And let me tell you, she plays the role exactly the same as Eleanor and it is PERFECT. Evil, evil women. Gertrude and Eleanor. Not the actress. She's sweet and always looks very put together.

Yesterday I had a very exciting run in pre-show whilst I was eating a hot dog in the pouring rain in the park. I sat down, trying to eat and shield myself from the rain when who sits down next to me but Kramer. Like Kramer Kramer. Michael Richards, from Seinfeld. Whoa. And he had a hot dog too. And he asked me about working at the Public (I was wearing my staff shirt) and told me that he was going to the show that night. Then I had to go because I finished my hot dog. It was very surreal and kind of made me wish that he hadn't gone crazy a few years ago because that would make the story infinitely cooler. Oh well. All New Yorkers lose it at some point.

I started work at 9:30 AM yesterday morning and fell into bed at 12:30 AM. It felt glorious. I apologize for the lack of blogging but it is not often that I have a computer at my disposal and the time to update all of you sufficiently. I hope that there still is an "all of you".

xx R

Ithaca is....

Actually, I don't remember what Ithaca is because I haven't been there in exactly one year. ONE YEAR. I still feel like I was only in England for about five minutes, I have no idea where this year has gone. I'm heading back to uni tomorrow to catch up with friends, and I have no idea what it is going to be like. I hope that it doesn't feel exactly the same as it did before. I changed so the rest of the world had to of changed as well, including Ithaca, right? Right. I'm excited but kind of nervous too because whilst I've been gallivanting across the United Kingdom everyone else has been here... in the states... taking real classes... so... yeah. Hmm...

So hopefully these next few days are the ones in which Ithaca truly is gorges rather than the myriad of other adjectives that can be used to describe the region. I suppose it is time to face the reality of having disembarked from England. For the past few days I've been drowning my sorrows in The Office and reveling in the wonderful world of Skype. Tonight I'm seeing TARA FITZPATRICK!! Love of my life, partner in both Harry Potter and show tunes crime, I am so excited to be reunited with her. Tonight we're going to spa and dish on all the gossip. Of the past year. Yikes.

Home Again

Wow. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of packing, being with friends, saying goodbye, and the inevitable onset of the summer. Being back is strange, disorienting... albeit a bit depressing. I had really found a groove and even though I knew leaving would be difficult, I still didn't grasp the depth of what missing an experience really is. There was something so liberating about being on my own in a city with new friends that I couldn't help but fall in love with. I'm having some trouble over here, adjusting back. I've been busy though.

Yesterday was my interview at The Public for Shakespeare in the Park. It went very well and I shall hear officially next week, but I'm pretty sure I nailed a spot on staff. Which is wonderful. Monday I'm going up to Ithaca, Wednesday night I being the ICF Conference, which is an event that a neighbor and I are curating). That ends Friday. Saturday I sleep. Sunday I see the last show of Spring Awakening with Jonathan Groff with Alix. This is also the night that I inform him that we will be working together this summer and I will dazzle him with my charm. Monday I start work at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Again, wow. The Shakespeare in the Park gig starts the 27th, leaving me about a week and a half before I am working fourteen hour days, four days a week. Friday and Saturday I will still have work in the park, but not at FSG. I know it sounds like a lot but it feels really right for me at the moment.

Yesterday being in New York was wild. I was in a constant state of bewilderment but I pulled it together for the interview. Whilst I sat at the Astor Place Starbucks I met several of New York's finest... or at least the men that they perceive themselves to be. I even got a number in the first ten minutes I was there. I would say score, but trust me... this was no score. Not even a little bit. The city is every bit as exquisite as I remember it, and I cannot wait to thrive within it again. Cities for me are like a drug - I fall in love with all of them and find it nearly impossible to wean myself off. Just now I had to change my facebook network to New York, New York from London. I know that this seems trivial but I actually went back and set it back to London because I couldn't deal with the change just yet.

Everyone and everything around me is the same... but I'm so different.

Word Count: 1500

Halfway done, but no longer have any idea what it is that I'm writing about... am stuck in a Pullman themed hell... which, from what I've read up on the guy, is exactly the kind of thing the bastard wants.

I've thought of handing in a Nihilistic paper that simply states that "God is Dead", but I didn't think that my teacher would spring for it. However, if you multiply that word count by 1,000 than I am right on target. I see this as a viable option.

I also have received criticism on my thesis that I chose to ignore, although I'm pretty sure that it was onto something. Some people would call this counter-productive, but if words are still being written on the page at what point does the word count surpass the fact that you may or may not have a valid point? Discuss.

xxxR

PS A little red car with a megaphone just drove past my window saying "Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson, Vote for Boris Johnson" (For all of you at home, today is local elections in London) How's that for advertising? It also serves as an excellent distraction. Too bad I can't go out and kill twenty minutes by voting.

SOS... John Milton Has Over Taken My Being

Here is what I am currently working on. I would appreciate it if at least one of you would weigh in and let me know if this makes any sense. Also, if this makes your brain hurt... because mine is rattling and this is only the introduction. Look forward to MANY more postings today as I sit and contemplate The Fall. I know.. you're excited, aren't you?

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy questions the institution of the Church and the idea of obedience. Explained as a re-reading of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Pullman has stated that he wished for his own trilogy to be a version of The Fall for teenagers[1]. This is a critical point because obedience is a central issue in children’s literature and as far as Pullman is concerned, adolescence and the choices that are made during this time have the power to essentially alter the course of the universe. Pullman revises the Genesis story as a cautionary tale of obeying for the sake of obeying, seeking for humanity to be free, and warning them against autonomy. Few myths hold such great power over the world. The story of Adam and Eve answers fundamental questions that human beings have been asking since their conception. People seek to understand how the universe was made and why suffering has entered the world. People want to be able to classify their surroundings into orders, creating names, and noticing dissimilarities in order to make sense of the universe. Pullman reinterprets this story, concerning himself with the principality that the thirst for knowledge is more powerful than the threat of expulsion of the Garden of Eden. Pullman goes further with his interpretation of the story, expressing the immaturity of Adam and Eve[2] when The Golden Compass states “they were naked in the garden… they were children…” (Pullman, 371) The Genesis narrative is very concerned with the notion of separation and division. Pullman incorporates this into his story through the aspect of intercision, a process that the Church uses in order to remove sexual impulses from children in order to maintain their innocence (Pullman argues ignorance) forever, so the upcoming generations will remain obedient to the Church, without any free will of their own. Despite all of his reinterpretation for the Genesis story, Pullman does remain tied to the underpinning idea that a person’s most important journey is the one from childhood to adulthood. Pullman’s texts are an exploration of the passage from child to adult, good to evil, the consequences of knowledge, and the idea of moral responsibility[3]. Although Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy fundamentally reconstructs Christian theology, the notion of obedience remains paramount because it is inextricably linked to the moral and social consequences of coming of age.

---

[1] Chole BOFFY. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials: Paradise Lost and Found Again, 2006, p. 7

[2] Naomi WOOD. Paradise Lose and Found: Obedience, Disobedience, and Storytelling in C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman, 2001, 248

[3] Anne-Marie BIRD. “Without Contraries is no Progression”: Dust as an All-Inclusive, Multifunctional Metaphor in Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”, 2001, p. 112

Please send help.