flitting on fiction

Tonight in my English seminar we did a reading of Top Girls by Caryl Churchill …. aside from the fact that it took somewhat longer than I’d hoped it, so we had to do some skipping to get through it in the time we had, it was a very enjoyable reading, I thought.  So much more fun than just reading it by yourself - but it is an interesting play either way. 

Top Girls was first performed in 1982. It features an all female cast, and follows a rather unusual structure that I thought worked quite well, but hubby didn’t much approve of - he thinks that plays should begin at the beginning, have a plot, and work towards a climax…. Top Girls begins with a dinner, at a restaurant, that includes Marlene, the only character that appears through the whole play, with 5 semi-famous women, all of whom are long dead, and from different eras. 

They include:

• Isabella Bird , a world traveler and author, who in spite of her poor health travels the world in search of adventures
• Lady Nijo , a thirteenth century Japanese concubine, who, after she loses the favour of the Emperor, becomes a traveling nun
• Dull Gret , a character from a painting by  Pieter Breughel
• Patient Griselda , a fictional character from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
• Pope Joan , who was allegedly, although a woman, Pope for 3 years in the 850’s (disguised as a man, of course).
  

After the dinner scene, the play moves to show Marlene at her job at an employment agency, and a number of other women, both working and not. The play serves as a commentary on the roles of women during the third wave of feminism , and especially during the reign of Margaret Thatcher . 

I very much enjoyed this work and am looking forward to reading - or better yet, seeing - more of Churchill’s works. 

I was thinking about what to write about in this blog today …. something to do with fiction …but something that doesn’t require too much brain power because I seem to be fresh out. 

But somewhere along the way while I was sulking about my cruddy day today, I remembered this book. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst is just the right sort of book for me today. I’m tempted, actually, to order a copy, since I no longer seem to have one. 

I was surprised to read that this book was first published in 1972!  It is definitely a classic. I remember reading it to kids at the camp I worked at, and later, to kids in residential treatment for behavioural issues when I was a Child & Youth Worker…. and of course, I read it to my own kids, as well. 

Now I am thinking that I shall have to buy another copy for the grandbabies…. yeah….right…that’s a good excuse, right?

Whatever works :) 

What are your favourite children’s books? The ones you think every kid should have?  

So….what ch’ya reading right now? 

I am mostly marking - started with almost 100 databases to mark …. all but about 25 left now, thank goodness. SOOOO  boring…although it does work well with Entrecard dropping… the length of time needed for 20 pages to load is about right for how long it takes me to mark each one… then I click through, close and open another batch while the next database is downloading. 

When I do have time to read though, this weekend, it needs to be The Imperialist , by Sara Jeanette Duncan , a Canadian author that I have yet to encounter in my studies. She was, according to Wikipedia , the first female Canadian journalist, writing for the Globe & Mail, beginning, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online (which is an excellent resource, by the way), in late 1884, using the name Garth. 

Other than those two activities, I also need to come up with a couple of appendices for my research application, and …. there’s something else but can’t think of it right now.. not good! Oh well…I’m sure it will come to me. Oh, and I do need to write some more blog posts, of course… am still on track for a post/day month on both this blog and on Back to School for Grownups . That will be a first. 

Anyone read or seen  The Country Wife ?  Written in 1675 by William Wycherley, The Country Wife is a restoration comedy that involves a whole lot of people sleeping with each other. 

We spent two weeks on it in the English course I TA …. last week’s discussion wasn’t so entertaining… but we had fun with it this week.  

We watched a (very silly/lame) youTube clip of highlights from a (musical?) production of the play …. which led to a great discussion about which actors we would choose to play the main roles, the many ways that it resembles modern day sitcoms (there are a lot of double entendres), and about the possible reasons it was not considered acceptable for production for centuries but has made a comeback….  which lead to some interesting observations about gender issues and who makes the decisions about what we see.

Oh, and we talked about the cover art, as well, which was interesting for me, given the whole public texts thing :) 

Not bad for a play written that long ago. 

Yeah, me too….which is why I am planning to enter The Writers’ Union of Canada Writing for Children contest .

Submissions are due by April 24… which could be a bit of a challenge for me, as I have a LOT of papers to write between now and then…. but as Ross reminded me when I mentioned it and said I was planning to “try” to do it, the reason I started this whole back to school thing in English was because I love to write… and if I never get to writing, what the heck is the POINT….  I need to commit to DO IT, not to just TRY. So…. I am going to submit a story before April 24, 2009. 

How about you? You DO have to be a Canadian  citizen or a landed immigrant to enter, though, sorry. 

The prize is $1,500 … plus the work of the winner and finalists will be submitted to three Canadian publishers of children’s fiction. 

The Writers’ Union of Canada is an organization that I am familar with - they support the Leacock Festival that I attend in Orillia every summer. I also attended a workshop they offered for aspiring writers a couple of years ago - it was a very worthwhile event. Someday, hopefully, I’ll be a full member - just need to get published a time or two first :) 

Anyway…. I have yet to decide what to write ….  how ’bout you?