Tag: Books

Acid test essayist: Joan Didion (1934-2021)

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Her dry, acerbic approach to the subjects in Slouching Towards Bethlehem and other writings were invigorating at the time, especially when they reflected the hippie counterculture. I didn’t especially consider it New Journalism, much less its use of novelistic techniques. Tom Wolfe and Jimmy Breslin were already there, ahead of her, in my reading.

I didn’t keep up with her output, though, and returning to the early work I now see much that strikes me as dated and shallow. Maybe that’s a consequence of seeing national reporters come briefly into a locality and then write of it as if they have some authority, in contrast to what I know after longer residency.

More recently, reading Where I Was From, the account of her upbringing in central California, I felt her telling was more novelistic than actual nonfiction.

Here’s your chance to get my newest book for free

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 2 Comments

It’s not just a whole different way of looking at religion. It’s about intense life experiences and the ways we talk about them, hoping someone else will understand.

Quite simply, I believe everyone has a “religion,” even atheists. Just listen to ardent sports fans for examples from the secular side of the equation.

My book embraces that universal situation and then turns to the unique spirituality of early Quakers and the ways they used metaphor to guide each other in a revolutionary social transformation. Many of their advances you take for granted, no matter your labels.

Do take a look at my ebook Light Seed Truth at Smashwords.com during its annual July sales sweep. What do you have to lose? Remember, it’s free.

I used to find ‘sale prices’ puzzling

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

In my mindset, a product or service has a fair-value point. You know, it costs so much to make and distribute, even before factoring in a profit. If you’re selling it at a lower price, why don’t you keep it there all the time? Maybe my outlook reflects the one-price for all practice of Quakers who objected to the upper class who expected to get a discount over the poorer masses.

Beyond that, the concept of bargaining or haggling found in many cultures absolutely repulsed me. I still feel like poor artisans and farmers in those countries are getting cheated or at least cheating themselves.

Either way, I rarely buy much and usually shy away from the more expensive range of items. Quite simply, I’m just not a shopper.

In my two years working as a field representative for a newspaper syndicate, I did finally come to appreciate the need to have something special to motivate a potential buyer. We couldn’t offer “specials,” and in most markets, we no longer had competing newspapers vying for our latest product. It was frustrating. There was nothing to make an editor jump onto our latest comic strip or columnist or game feature, no matter how excellent these were.

In the book publishing industry, free advance reading editions and review copies were sent out in the hopes of creating a buzz, but for digital books, that is a more challenging effort. Giving somebody a coupon to order online just ain’t the same as handing them a paper book.

So just what can an indy author do to get reviews or, better yet, a word-of-mouth buzz?

Welcome to Smashword.com’s big July-long ebook sale, where writers opt to present titles at sharp discount or even free.

Remember, this year I have two recent works available for free and two other new works at half-price.

Check them out at my Jnana Hodson author page! And then look at many of the fine offerings by others, too.

Acid test essayist: Jim Corbett (1933-2001)

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Multilayered and deeply personal, Goatwalking: a Guide to Wildland Living is a rich blend of social activism, clandestine adventure, wilderness survival, political resistance, witness for justice, and spiritual growth and grounding.

It’s all based on Corbett’s experiences as a founder of the Sanctuary movement for persecuted Central American refugees. He escorted many of them on foot through the desert from the border to safety within defiant congregations across the Far West. On the trail, he was accompanied by milking goats who provided needed nurture – hence the title.

The book is as a much a journal as a history or social philosophy. As I found related elsewhere, when Corbett first came among Quakers, he knew more about Buddha than Jesus. But then, waiting for his next party to arrive at a remote chapel, he meditated on the crucifix on the wall before him and realized that if anyone could possibly know the terrors his charges had suffered, it was Jesus. Later, working with a dedicated priest, he was treated as an equal in everything but the serving of the eucharist – “I’m a Jesuit, a member of the Society of Jesus,” he was told, “and you’re a member of the Society of Friends,” or Quakers. “What’s the difference?”

His insights are as relevant today as they were when first published.

Consider that bold ‘John Hancock’ on paper

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

As a writer, I love what alphabet letters and words by themselves can do on paper, apart from any meaning. Just look at one man’s intrepid signature on the Declaration of Independence and try to imagine that document without it.

I used to love visiting a friend who was a professional calligrapher and type designer. This was her life’s work.

Are other writers also inspired by such visual artistry?

The Lilly rare book library at Indiana University puts on exhibits of historic volumes, not just their typography and inside pages but also their bindings, endpapers, and spines. This is part of a legacy every serious writer is indebted to.

In its reading room I delighted in periodicals from the 1700s as well as contemporary poetry broadsides, limited edition prints intended to be framed and displayed on walls or preserved in rich patrons’ collections. Who wouldn’t aspire to see their own work presented as such a creation?

And then there were the psychedelic rock concert posters for the Fillmore back in the 1960s. If words could dance, they certainly do so here.

~*~

Most people are baffled by the wealth that gets doled out to acquire a painting or even a bottle of very old wine. I’m not in their camp, either a collector or a scoffer.

I will, however, declare what some people spend for trendy items they assume will be valuable someday – baseball cards included – is utter folly.

What I will defend is those individuals who spend a fortune to preserve an exalted example of inspiration – and I worry about those who might use possession as an opportunity for ostentatious destruction. Consider the lost Buddhist statues in Afghanistan for the latter.

I raise this out of gratitude for those patrons who preserve examples of excellence.

~*~

While I lament the loss of the craftsmanship involved in the letterpress printing of my early days in journalism, I am recognizing that online design has come a long way in even the last decade. Much of it is truly striking. Still, even as an ebook author and a prolific blogger, I still hold a special place in my heart for fine paper that’s attuned to the words entrusted to it.

That said, what else do you know about Mr. Hancock other than his signature?

Just in time for the fireworks

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The poems in this rant aren’t in my usual voice, but they do address today’s political precipice, only from a slightly earlier historical perspective. And yes, that’s scary. Kinda like the Fourth of July fireworks that way.

For this month only, I’m offering the ebook for free at Smashwords.com during its annual July sales sweep. What do you have to lose? Remember, it’s free. I promise you’ll get a bang out of this.

Check it out at my author page at Smashwords.com.

 

This month only, FREE! At Smashwords

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Here’s your chance to get two of my most recent ebooks free, thanks to Smashword.com’s annual summer sales sweep.

Light Seed Truth is an original examination of ways we use metaphor to think about things that aren’t things or even energy – and that leads to many no-things that are intensely passionate for you or me or the people around us.

Also free this month is Trumpet of the Coming Storm,  a set of polemic poems I simply had to get off my chest.

In addition, I’m offering two other ebooks at half-price: Quaking Dover, a contrarian history of New England, and my playful Hamlet: A Village of Gargoyles poems collection.

To get you own copies, go to my Jnana Hodson author page at Smashwords.

Acid test translator and poet: Jerome Rothenberg (1931- )

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

My encounter with Technicians of the Sacred: A range of poems from Africa, America, Asia, and Oceana came about the same time I was taking up yoga in the early ‘70s. This sampler of so-called primitive peoples had a freshness I found stunning. Many of the translations were fragmentary, giving the sense of having just been excavated from an archeological dig. Others reflected my sense of discovery arising from the practice of meditation. These were unlike any poems I had previously encountered, and they altered my writing direction.

Thus, I was immersed in what he called deep image and ethnopoetics before I’d ever heard the terms.

I know it’s not his only book in my library, and I am anticipating looking for the others when we move many of our goods out of storage.