It’s engagement season. You want to know how I know this? Because I live in the mountains, and for some odd reason when the humans want to profess their love, they come up here. I don’t know if it will ever stop being awkward when I stumble upon the proposals and have to sneak away slowly while these men say the cheesiest lines. We all know you’re lying. Luckily, no one really notices me, they’re too distracted by their… romance… excuse me, I gagged.
See, I’m not really into love. It seems like too much work. I’m quite comfortable in my cave by myself. I don’t have to share my berries with anyone, dishes are always done, and I don’t have to pick up dirty laundry off the floor. I never have to fight over where I’m going to eat that night- I know this is a problem for the humans because when couples go hiking they spend hours arguing about restaurants, to the point that I even want to yell out, “just pick a d*** restaurant, Woman!”
Every year, especially in the winter, I start getting kind of lonely. Then engagement season comes and I’m healed again. There’s so many people tramping up here to build their fires and set out flannel blankets; by the way- don’t act like all those pictures you set out are important, you always leave them behind! However, these pictures decorate my cave quite nicely, so maybe I shouldn’t complain about them. I even keep bets on which ones will last the longest. Neil and Molly- I’ve got a big handful of skipping stones riding on you, don’t screw this up.
Let me tell you, the best part of engagement season is the girls that say no. You can see it coming a mile away. She starts to catch on and gets real nervous. My cue to pull up a rock, get a bowl of pinecones, and let the drama ensue. It’s better than watching Big Horns knock skulls, and trust me that’s some quality entertainment. I always follow them back down the trail because the tense silence mixed with failed explanations is to die for!
Anyway, I hope the best for you recently engaged. Who am I kidding!? That’s a lie. But please continue to provide me with unequaled entertainment for the past few months.
Till next time Lovers,
The Squatch
English MA program, is currently an associate lecturer here at Idaho State University.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is a hilarious fantastical narrative that is at its heart about the importance of art in perilous times. Written in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, the novel was not allowed to published until the 60s. What is within those censored pages is a story of the devil visiting Moscow to torment its most pretensions and privileged denizens. His retinue includes a fallen angel turned hit-man and a daemonic cat with a love for vodka, chess, and firearms. The story that ensues is at times slapstick, at others spiritual and philosophical. This wondrous novel has since inspired such diverse writers such as Salman Rushdie and Allen Moore. It’s definitely an underappreciated treasure!
One of my goals over Christmas break was to catch up on my ridiculously long list of shows to watch on Netflix. Like a responsible person, I was going to start with those farther back on the list. However, when I saw Crazyhead get added to Netflix mid-December, I couldn’t resist. Crazyhead is a six-episode series created by Howard Overman (who also created the fantastic show Misfits), and this is British comedy-horror at its best! The show is about two demon hunters, Raquel and Amy, who are out to save the world from a mass possession. While an intriguing story line in itself, what really sets this show apart is the crude, laugh-out-loud humor, the fantastic acting, and the depth it delivers as it is as much about facing our inner demons as it is about physical ones.
about this. I just read Nancy Butler’s and Hugo Peters’ comic adaptation of Austen’s Pride & Prejudice (produced by Marvel Comics), and I really enjoyed it. In some ways, more than the actual book. In lieu of mounds of exposition we get really well-done drawing, and the pacing of the story is excellent. It de-emphasizes the role of the ancillary characters, including Elizabeth Bennet’s sisters Mary, Kitty, and even Lydia (as much as she can be de-emphasized, given her role during the final third of the story), and narrows the focus primarily the relationship between Lizzy and Darcy. Mrs. Bennet is still herself, but the added visual aspects helps to accentuates her personality. I would never recommend this comic adaptation as a substitute for Austen’s novel. No way. But Art Spiegelman did say that comics “are a gateway drug to literacy,” and I would suggest that Butler and Peters have created a gateway text, especially for teenagers or busy people who want to revisit Longbourne with new eyes, to the world of Jane Austen’s characters.
se recommendations might also be writers, some of whom like to write creative nonfiction. Assuming I am right (as I usually do), I wanted to recommend Dinty Moore’s book Crafting the Personal Essay: A Guide to Writing and Publishing Creative Nonfiction. It’s the kind of book that reads easily, despite being a how-to book. I mean, let’s face it, Moore is an accomplished writer, and his voice permeates the entire book in a way that is inviting and encouraging, while also being instructive. Moore provides an abbreviated history of personal essay writing, going clear back to Montaigne and incorporating Hazlitt and Woolf, while also mixing in advice from more contemporary writers in the genre. He also explains the different types of nonfiction, such as travel writing, spiritual writing, contemplative writing, etc., and gives a ton of writing prompts to help writers get started. I think English instructors who teach personal narrative in writing courses would do well to read, if not assign, this book, but for writers in the field of creative nonfiction, whether they just got here or are old-timers, Moore’s book has a lot of ideas that can infuse their writing with energy through fresh perspectives and approaches.
nd novel Armada, I realized that I am a huge fan of what I am terming video game literature. And what’s even better than a novel about a video game? One that also feeds our fascination with the 1980s (as Ready Player One did, and now The Impossible Fortress). Rekulak’s novel is Stranger Things meets The Breakfast Club, and it’s (no surprise here) awesome! In this novel, Billy Marvin, a fourteen-year-old computer geek, is pulled into a plan to snatch a copy of a Playboy magazine from a local mart; however, what Billy does not expect to find at the store is the manager’s daughter, Mary Zelinsky: a seriously skilled programmer. This is a story about video game design, geek culture, and adolescence, and it’s so good. You can even visit the author’s website and play a faux-8-bit adaptation of the computer game Mary and Billy design. The Impossible Fortress comes out February 7, 2017, so mark your calendars!
ISU's student Journal of Creative Works 