That Trembling Sun
This one's got my new podcast about JD Salinger & faith, some deerlinquents, my annual conference-frenzy, & more!
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week I posted Episode 605 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. author and retired journalist/editor Stephen B. Shepard as we celebrate the release of Salinger’s Soul: His Personal & Religious Odyssey (Post Hill Press), exploring the life of JD Salinger and the hidden core of an author who became famous for avoiding fame. We get into why Stephen decided to chase this elusive ghost, why Salinger didn’t make it into his previous book about Jewish American writers, whether he believes Salinger’s unpublished writing will see the light of day, and why it was important that he approach the book as biography and not literary criticism (although he does bring a reader’s voice to the book). We talk about the lack of sex in Salinger’s fiction, the uncanniness of Holden Caulfield’s voice, Salinger’s WWII trauma, his rise to fame, search for privacy, abandonment of publishing, embrace of Vedanta & ego-death, and his pattern of pursuing young women, and how it all maybe ties together. We also discuss Stephen’s career as a journalist and how it influences his writing, what he learned in building a graduate program in journalism at CUNY, the ways we both started out in business-to-business magazines (he went a lot farther than I did, editing Newsweekand Business Week), how journalism has changed over the course of his career, the case of Philip Roth’s biography and what it means to separate the book from the writer, and a lot more. Give it a listen, and go read SALINGER’S SOUL!
Last week I posted Episode 604, feat. Benjamin Dreyer on the joy of good writing! We talked about his career as managing editor and copy chief of the Random House, his post-retirement perspective on that role, the authors he enjoyed working with, the success of his first book, DREYER’S ENGLISH: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style (Random House), and his plans for the followup, DREYER’S FICTION (!). We got into why he’s leaving NYC and looking forward to Santa Monica (and talk about the books that he can leave behind and those he can’t), the way that writing a Substack newsletter has made him a better writer, how the copy-editor’s role is to enhance the writer’s work, not to reshape it, how he feels about “weird” catching on this election season, whether the success of Dreyer’s English surprised him, the moment he KNEW it was a hit, and what his authors had to teach him about the process of writing his first book. We also discuss the tension within the pronoun section of DE (c.2019), how he hopes to revise it, and why the mind needs to catch up with the soul sometimes: all this & a lot more, so give it a listen! And go read DREYER’S ENGLISH!
Recent episodes: Nicholas Delbanco • Dash Shaw • Jess Ruliffson • Joe Coleman • Mirana Comstock • Anita Kunz • Shalom Auslander
That Trembling Sun
I’m headed down to Maryland this morning to host the annual conference for my trade association, but for some reason decided I’d still put out a new show and get you this newsletter. (I did mention last week that an interviewer referred to my ‘monastic’ devotion to all this.)
But the last few emails have had plenty of Gil-writing, so this time I figured I’d let both of us off the hook. Here’s a poem I read this morning; wish me luck for the conference:
Look back on Time, with kindly Eyes –
He doubtless did his best –
How softly sinks that trembling Sun
In Human Nature’s West – —Emily Dickinson, #1251
And here’s a pic of our greyhound guest Reggie, mid-yawn:
Instaxery
No podcasts last weekend, so no new Instax. After I get through the work-run of the next few weeks, I hope to get started with the text accompaniments so I can start making The Book That You’re All Going To Buy.
Artistry
I had an idea for a poem-comic this weekend, and made some sketches of fawn-aged deerlinquents for one of the panels. I tried making a clean ink drawing of one of them, but I like the sketchy versions more (esp. the bottom right one). 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/painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workouts, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art & an Instax.
I see it glitter in the sun / Then it’s freezing in the moonlight / Never look back / Never look back / Never look away,