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Tone Clusters: the Joyce Carol Oates discussion group archive

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Re: JCO: RE: Small Avalanches, the film

Yes! Very interested in seeing the DVD
Ed

 
On 6/27/07, Marie Kabala-Rejment <rejment@bredband.net> wrote:
Hi Lara,
Congratulations on both counts. Well-done! Let us know how we can buy the
DVD.
Cheers,
Marie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lara Fitzgerald" <vostok@sympatico.ca>
To: <jco@usfca.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 8:17 PM
Subject: Re: JCO: RE: Small Avalanches, the film


> Hello,
>
> My short film adaptation of JCO's short story, SMALL AVALANCHES recently
> won Best Narrative Short and Best Female Actor at the Brooklyn
> International Film Festival.  Here is the link:
> http://www.wbff.org/films/winners/
>
> The DVD will be ready by next week.
>
> Thank-you,
>
> Lara
>
>
> Gary Couzens wrote:
>
>> I contribute to a DVD website (www.dvdtimes.co.uk
>> < http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk>), so if you could email me a press release
>> offlist when you have one I'll pass it on. Thanks.
>>  Any plans for any UK screenings?
>>  Gary
>>
>>     ----- Original Message -----
>>     *From:* Cyranomish@aol.com <mailto:Cyranomish@aol.com>
>>     *To:* jco@usfca.edu <mailto:jco@usfca.edu>
>>     *Sent:* Monday, May 28, 2007 11:38 PM
>>     *Subject:* Re: JCO: RE: Small Avalanches, the film
>>
>>     Yes, please keep us posted on that DVD, Lara.  I intend to buy one
>>     also.
>>     Cyrano
>>      In a message dated 5/28/2007 12:41:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>>     vostok@sympatico.ca <mailto:vostok@sympatico.ca> writes:
>>
>>         Hi Steve,
>>
>>         The film will also be screened over the Labour Day weekend in
>>         Florida at
>>         the Central Florida Film Festival.  They haven't finalized their
>>         screening schedule yet, but I"ll let you know when and where
>>         it will be
>>         shown.  We plan to distribute the DVDs ourselves (producer and
>>         myself)
>>         and I'll post something about that too very soon.
>>
>>         Thanks,
>>
>>         Lara
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>     See what's free at AOL.com
>>     <http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503>.
>>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Tone Clusters: The Joyce Carol Oates discussion group
>
> To send a message to the group, email jco@usfca.edu
> To unsubscribe, email majordomo@usfca.edu: unsubscribe jco
>
> Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page:
> http://jco.usfca.edu/
>


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Tone Clusters: The Joyce Carol Oates discussion group

To send a message to the group, email jco@usfca.edu
To unsubscribe, email majordomo@usfca.edu : unsubscribe jco

Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page:
http://jco.usfca.edu/



--
Ed

Re: JCO: Missing Mom

Hi Eric,
I have now read Joan Didion's book that you recommended as a study of grief but, unfortunately, I was disappointed. It did not bring what I was hoping for (what exactly it was I don't know but something like Missing Mom) and it did not deliver what you described in your letter. I am sure it's a reflection on me and not on the book itself but since literature is a subjective field I thought I would share my comments with you.
I found her memoir a cold book, as if afraid of emotion, nearly clinical and spoken from the mind and not the heart. It was very distant, more like a "literary" textbook on grief than a personal account of one's loss. I could not relate to it although grief has been very much part of my life. There was no magic in it.
There was very little passion in it. Honesty, yes, perhaps but only guarded - as if the author herself did not want to acknowledge what she felt. She was behaving in a certain way and she was thinking in a certain way - but what did she feel? She felt responsible for not being able to save her husband from death, she missed him a lot, she analysed a lot, she tried to think, to know. Perhaps it was too painful to let herself feel but as a result the book lacks passion, emotion and empathy with those who may experience grief differently. I found it cold, intellectual and in a sense calculated.
Clearly, it did not appeal to me. Sorry!
Cheers,
Marie
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2007 3:16 PM
Subject: RE: JCO: Missing Mom

Hello Marie
 
I agree that Missing Mom is a very moving novel for the reasons you described.
 
Another book I read recently which deals so powerfully with the subject of grief is Joan Didion's memoir The Year of Magical Thinking. It demonstrates how emotional response can't be regulated by rational thinking, how the physical presence of those we've lost can take up habitation in our minds and the way we live our daily lives. It's a beautiful form of tribute despite how painful a process it is. You may be interested in reading Oates' novel American Appetites if you haven't already which partly deals with grief and loss concerning a relationship between a husband and wife which was much more tumultuous than that which Nikki had with her mother. However, the daughter's way of mourning is similar in some ways to that of Missing Mom.
 
Eric



From: rejment@bredband.net
To: jco@usfca.edu
Subject: JCO: Missing Mom
Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 10:59:40 +0200

I've just finished reading "Missing Mom". I was truly moved by it maybe because I have recently experienced the death of my sister, with whom we were very close, and I could relate to Nikki's feelings so well. Nikki tried to impersonate her mother and I tried to impersonate my sister – like Nikki I have tried to become a new me.

The subject of death of the loved ones and our coping mechanisms to survive without them is quite painful to those who have been through it but maybe quite abstract to those who have not.

Has anybody read a good novel that handles the topic as sensitively as JCO?

Cheers,

Marie



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Re: JCO: RE: Small Avalanches, the film

Hi Lara,
Congratulations on both counts. Well-done! Let us know how we can buy the
DVD.
Cheers,
Marie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lara Fitzgerald" <vostok@sympatico.ca>
To: <jco@usfca.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 8:17 PM
Subject: Re: JCO: RE: Small Avalanches, the film


> Hello,
>
> My short film adaptation of JCO's short story, SMALL AVALANCHES recently
> won Best Narrative Short and Best Female Actor at the Brooklyn
> International Film Festival. Here is the link:
> http://www.wbff.org/films/winners/
>
> The DVD will be ready by next week.
>
> Thank-you,
>
> Lara
>
>
> Gary Couzens wrote:
>
>> I contribute to a DVD website (www.dvdtimes.co.uk

>> <http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk>), so if you could email me a press release
>> offlist when you have one I'll pass it on. Thanks.
>> Any plans for any UK screenings?
>> Gary
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> *From:* Cyranomish@aol.com <mailto:Cyranomish@aol.com>
>> *To:* jco@usfca.edu <mailto:jco@usfca.edu>
>> *Sent:* Monday, May 28, 2007 11:38 PM
>> *Subject:* Re: JCO: RE: Small Avalanches, the film
>>
>> Yes, please keep us posted on that DVD, Lara. I intend to buy one
>> also.
>> Cyrano
>> In a message dated 5/28/2007 12:41:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>> vostok@sympatico.ca <mailto:vostok@sympatico.ca> writes:
>>
>> Hi Steve,
>>
>> The film will also be screened over the Labour Day weekend in
>> Florida at
>> the Central Florida Film Festival. They haven't finalized their
>> screening schedule yet, but I"ll let you know when and where
>> it will be
>> shown. We plan to distribute the DVDs ourselves (producer and
>> myself)
>> and I'll post something about that too very soon.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Lara
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> See what's free at AOL.com
>> <http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503>.
>>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Tone Clusters: The Joyce Carol Oates discussion group
>
> To send a message to the group, email jco@usfca.edu
> To unsubscribe, email majordomo@usfca.edu: unsubscribe jco
>
> Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page:
> http://jco.usfca.edu/
>


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Tone Clusters: The Joyce Carol Oates discussion group

To send a message to the group, email jco@usfca.edu
To unsubscribe, email majordomo@usfca.edu: unsubscribe jco

Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page:
http://jco.usfca.edu/