Everything That Rises Must Converge
We've got a new podcast with Kate Maruyama, unexpected connections at a biotech conference, some new Instax, and a Flannery O'Connor moment
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 643 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. one of my fave guest/friends, Kate Maruyama, as we celebrate her wonderful new novel, ALTERATIONS (Running Wild Press)! We talk about the book’s long gestation / publishing history, Kate’s love of old Hollywood & costume design, closeted movie stars and how she told the story of a gay relationship in the ’30s & ’40s, and how it felt to write a non-horror horror story. We get into her own Hollywood experience in the ’90s, how it informs Alterations, and how it felt to repeatedly smash into the glass ceiling, as well as how ghosts creep into everything she writes, how older people become invisible but have stories to tell, and how important it was to have a champion in Toni Ann Johnson for this novel. We also discuss present-moment Los Angeles, the craft book about novella-writing she’s co-writing, the need to decolonize her writing students, the (maybe non-existent) influence of Jodie Foster’s Home For The Holidays on Alterations, the essay (PDF) she wrote around the decline & death of her mother, Kit Reed, and more. Give it a listen! And go read ALTERATIONS!
Last week I posted Episode 642, feat. writer and critic David Denby and his fantastic new book, EMINENT JEWS (Holt), which explores the impact on American culture of Jews Unbound through profiles of Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. We talk about how he selected his four subjects, the ways each handled the responsibilities of family against their careers, the difference between “Jew” and “Jewish,” and which one unfolded the most to him over the course of writing the book. We get into why Bernstein’s greatest role may have been as a teacher, how Mailer’s magnetism persisted way beyond its expiration date, how Friedan changed the world but was always challenged by her midwest upbringing, and whether Brooks was being disingenuous when he made musical numbers of our the Inquisition and Hitler. We also discuss judgements David made over the course of his career as a movie critic, what he did when he finally gave up reviewing and how he eased back into the cinema, why he revisited the Lit Hum course at Columbia a few years ago, after revisiting it 30+ years ago for Great Books, his take on my my lightning round of classic lit questions, his reaction to my parents taking me to History of the World: Part 1 when I was 9, and more. Give it a listen! And go read EMINENT JEWS!
Recent episodes: Peter Stothard • Cecile Wajsbrot • Keiler Roberts • Peter Kuper • Vauhini Vara • Craig Thompson • Ari Richter
Everything That Rises Must Converge
After recording two great conversations on Sat/Sun, I headed to Boston for the BIO Annual Meeting, a big biotech conference where I planned to meet with some of my member companies, pitch prospective members on joining, gather rumors and intel, and put on The Gil Show for people’s entertainment.
What I didn’t expect is having some deep conversations with people about our midlife (bordering on later life) crises. But it happened on Monday & Tuesday, first with a guy I’ve known for ~10 years but was never FRIENDS-friends with; we talked through a recent professional setback, and that led him to start talking with me about the matrix of professional, social, and personal life pressures he’s under. Not in a self-pitying way, but rather I think in hopes that sharing might unburden him a little and that I might have some advice or at least sympathy. I told him we can talk/correspond more after the show.
On Tuesday, I mentioned all this to a closer friend, a guy in the industry I’ve known almost 25 years, who’s Been Through A Lot, and I mentioned how tough it is for men — at least of our age — to talk about the strain, and our mental health.
He agreed, and we got to talking about how we’ve changed — esp. vis-a-vis our relationships to our fathers — and opened up about some of the wounds we bear and how we’re trying to heal them in our 50s. He & I had good conversations before, but standing in the middle of a huge exhibit hall, wearing suits and drinking crappy coffee, in the middle of a trade show that’s been described as “a singles bar for governors & venture capitalists,” we got to know each other in a much more profound way.
I thought the show would mainly be surface-/business-Gil, and that all my meaningful conversations were going to happen the weekend before, but this world’s full of surprises.
But now it’s time to head out. I’m meeting a past pod-guest/pal for coffee before going to day 3 of the conference, and after that I have a long drive home.
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Instaxery
I shot a couple on this weekend in Stamford and at Yaddo. Didn’t get any writing done for the book, but considered taking a few weeks off from the podcast & this email to just work on the GUEST/HOST book around 2024’s Instax pix, so maybe that’ll happen this summer. Both pod-guests like what I’m doing.
Artistry
Didn’t do any sketching this week; I have trouble sometimes. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
Let me know if you want to be on my postcard-a-day list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn or painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far. I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout-/meditation-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art and/or an Instax.
Spin me back down the years and the days of my youth / Draw the lace and black curtains and shut out the whole truth,