An outstanding post. The sentence "I would enjoy if every now and then when a woman did something that something were not immediately qualified as having been done by a woman" cuts to the very quick of a rampant problem in magazine journalism, namely wholesale jackassery. The fucked up thing is that of course the magazine writer always thinks women doing something is somehow extra badass points, writing things like "she's smoking hot, salty mouthed. . . and oh, yeah, she's also a FUCKING RACE CAR DRIVER" or "quail hunting ain't your daddy's sport anymore," with a picture of a woman in a tube top holding a shotgun.
Jack makes the excellent point that women have been involved in literature for a while before the Shopaholic series and Caren Lissner's epic
Carrie Pilby. The best "chick lit" [a term which we despise] book in our opinion, a distinguished one, is "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagan." People are prone to jabbering on about how blogs are an amazing new medium. But literally TEN CENTURIES AGO Sei Shonagan figured out that writing down lists of things that are great or bad, and short descriptions of things that happened, was a good sort of writing. Furthermore, there have been TEN CENTURIES in which people could have gotten the idea that short lists of things are interesting and fun to read, and one should put them in one's book. And yet, here we are, and most books are endless deserts of words that one has to slog through.
On we go. Jack's Massachusetts nostalgia rears its head as he recalls Shawmut Bank. We do, in fact remember said bank. In fact, kindly Mrs. Nelso who lived up the street from us was once presented with a bust of Shawmut himself, an American Indian complete with feather, in commemoration of her having deposited quite a sum over the years, or some such thing. She gave said bust to us, imagining no doubt that a young scholar should have a bust lying about in the book room. And indeed, we very much appreciated it, and did think it looked quite stately, and there it sits to this very day, his stern Algonquin visage surveying the books on Bonnie Prince Charlie and such that filled our bedroom as a youth, and still do today.
Later, our sister informed us that at Girl Scouts she learned that Shawmut was an Indian word meaning "good place to land a canoe." The tendency of white people to think that fairly short Indian words conveyed somewhat complicated concepts is testimony either to the fact that Native American languages were far more rich and descriptive than English, or that settlers to America weren't always getting the top-notch translators.
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Interested parties are informed that yet another Clinomania Conference will be held in the near future, the subject being "Jack's Blue Period? The Summer of 2004 In Clinomania." Suggested topics for papers include:
"From Logline to Film: Jack on Hollywood, in Conception and Execution."
"New Arrivals? Mentions of Associates on Clinomania."
"Foundering Boat?: A Critical Examination of the Future of Boat Studies."
We ourselves intend to lighten the mood at the Saturday banquet with our presentation of a series of artists' renderings, depicting what Jack's ideal city might look like, based on his opinions on design and architecture.
Entertainment will be provided by an impersonator of the late silent film star Irene Grossbard, who does the charleston and says her own name in a singsong voice for several minutes.
Location TBD, interested scholars are invited to RSVP.
