On one of the actual ski days, I took my son on a chairlift for the first time. No big deal…except that many lifts in Japan don’t have safety bars and this was one such archaic contraption. My poles quickly enacted, creating creases on son’s stomach. He was absolutely fine. More than that, he loved it. We went to the top of this tiny place called Hounoki Daira near Takayama, Japan. I had to trust that his ‘pizza’ wedge was strong enough not to send him off a cliff, which was possibly harder for me than it was for him.

On another trip, I spent six hours on two trains followed by a seventy-five-minute bus journey to reach the site of the Nagano downhill course. Its starting gate building was remarkably decrepit, and I thought of the Japanese economy in the nineties versus now as well as the two-week blip of an Olympics' existence (anywhere). A couple of nights in the solitude of a tatami room and powdery trails reminded me that we can each move through space and time like downhill ski racers, not knowing what conditions to expect but hoping for a clean and exhilarating run.

◆

Tactility is re-entering my everyday life through conscious curation beyond book reading. A small candle accompanies morning handwriting before the computer opens. I now subscribe to a weekly London-based newspaper (not so easy in Japan!) and a quarterly magazine of art and design. My stationery drawer is growing as well, as I try to write a biweekly letter to someone, somewhere. Finally, we have been creating occasional messy breakfast tables (at home or a cafe we cycle to) with said newspaper as well as journals, maze books, katakana practice sheets, and playing cards. A lounge-y breakfast feels luxurious and French. I often have two or three coffees and both breakfast and a morning snack before getting up.

◆

Sorry that this is not fiction.

I have been writing a lot, but this writing has been in so many abstract forms. None of them ready for moulding. Instead of editing, I am scanning the pages of the first novel I published in 2014 in order to change them to text. In that era, I published on Amazon under an old alumni email account. After painful emails and phone calls attempting to recover this account with the digital file that somehow got lost in moves and new devices, I’ve given up and am putting OCR to the test. The first chapter will be here for you soon and the rest will be on Lulu with free ebooks for my paid subscribers.

Recovering lost text makes one consider the process in dichotomies — the ephemerality / permanency of books, the function of writing as forward motion / archives of thoughts and imagination, the curiosity of words dancing on a page that are my own / now those of others.

I’ve also been working on my new project, a discourse exploring art, place, and the rituals of culture. These oppositional threads have made their way into my explorations. Excited to share this with you in a couple of months.

In a couple of days, I’ll be going on Substack Live with fiction author . I’m loving Ben’s latest serialization called Daedalia, and he’s been a great supporter of the fiction community through projects like Same Walk, Different Shoes, which I participated in a couple of years ago.

We will be talking about Fiction as a Daily Practice and sharing updates on our latest projects. You should be able to access the link here, and the video will be available after we record it. Pop on live to ask us questions in real time!

◆

Finally, I have been showing David Foster Wallace’s graduation speech — “This is Water” — for many years to my students at opportune times. This year, I chose to share it heading into mock examinations for my two senior classes. Some of them needed a little boost. I was hearing things like, Basketball season is over and I don’t know who I am anymore and, What do you mean, a weekend? They don’t exist until exams are over.

Anyway, they do get Hamlet, so I thought this message wouldn’t be lost on them. And it wasn’t.

Here it is — “Make your own meaning.”

Welcome back to this month’s discussion thread for subscribers. Today, I wanted to talk about why we write fiction and ask your thoughts about it. This follows a discussion last month on reading fiction as well as a recent guest post on ‘s publication where I discussed the evolution of my experience with publishing fiction on this platform. She has a weekly series where other fiction writers have also shared their fascinating responses, starting with her own.

Some of the reasons for writing fiction are similar to reading it. This might include feeling empathy, investigating ethics, seeking beauty or truth in the world, and other reasons we looked at last month. I think for some people, however, the reasons might be quite different or at least extend into different territories.

I wrote an article for The Writing Cooperative that examined this question from the perspective of several writers: Zadie Smith, Paul Auster, and Jacques Derrida (not fiction, but still applicable in the way he suspends reality in diving into philosophical and metaphysical concepts).

Some other considerations I’ve had:

⬩Quite a few studies have looked at the mental health benefits of writing despite the trope of the struggling, depressed writer. With fiction specifically, one is truly free to dive into one’s imagination for escape or conversely to flush out ideas and feelings related to one’s memories (or dreams and aspirations). One can play with the various decisions one faces or has faced in life, considering different outcomes. One can find humor or purpose in difficulty.

⬩Previously, I investigated the way I think writing can expand time in Writing Toward Immortality (with Derrida and Queen references). I believe that paradoxically in taking the time away from other parts of our lives to write, we can create a kind of reflection on our realities that allows them to have a bigger effect (or Deleuzian Affect perhaps) on the passage of our days and in the scope of our memories.

⬩I gave a lecture on the reasons I write fiction and the way it comes from my research in comparative literature and cultural studies. One reason I write fiction is to play with those ideas and think about them in new ways, whether it’s investigating culture’s connection to place or the way identity is impacted by borders. There are a lot of directions this can go in, but it’s at the heart of the writing I now do and what I look at in the podcast about layering fiction.

⬩A lot of (fiction) writers talk about a compulsion to write. I feel better if I write. I have to write whether I like it or not. I relate to this feeling. When I am writing, I am functioning better overall, but sometimes there’s also the danger to dive in too deep. Even though I’m someone who likes to / needs to eat every couple of hours, I can go most of the day with just coffee if I’m in the middle of some intense writing. I’m not suggesting that’s a good thing! In this jaunt of writing (etc etc etc) full time these past couple years, I’ve had some days where I think man, I didn’t really leave that bench. In addition to eating frequently, I’m someone who likes to / needs to move a lot. I’m convinced that this tethering to my work bench at times led to a stress fracture in my ankle, the first in thirty years as a competitive runner (and I’m not currently competing; but the ankle is fine now!). Essentially, I think a lot of this is about balance. For me, this writing works better in contained intervals, even if it’s nice to also have, say, unstructured time on a holiday or weekend to just go for it. wrote about this concept recently with eloquent rawness and I’ve had conversations with other writers about finding the balance between structure and freedom in one’s life to write.

I’d love to see this go in whatever direction your writing takes you or the considerations you have in the time you spend writing fiction. (A few other links at the bottom.)

Leave a comment

🎙 The podcast series is coming back in a few weeks, so I’ll pause these discussion threads for now. Hopefully, the podcasts will lead to such conversation. The purpose of them is provoke in a similar with with some conversational ideas of my own or quotes from theorists and fiction writers that can allow us to think about the spaces of fictions.

∞ Here are a few other links related to today’s topic to spark some ideas:

https://becomeawritertoday.com/why-write-a-novel/#:~:text=Writing%20novels%20makes%20you%20more,fighting%20depression%20and%20mental%20stress.

https://www.goddard.edu/blog/goddard-mfa-writing/why-write-fiction/

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/everything-is-fiction

https://www.noobpreneur.com/2022/08/23/6-reasons-to-become-a-fiction-writer/

Welcome back to this month’s discussion thread for subscribers. Today, I wanted to talk about why we read fiction and ask your thoughts about it.

I spend a lot of my time reading novels or other forms of fiction as well as teaching them or writing about them. And then, of course, I write fiction as well. However, I think why we write fiction is another discussion. There’s some crossover for the reasons, in my case, but I think it deserves its own thread or essay.

Occasionally, I wonder if by reading fiction I’m just escaping reality, wasting time in some made up space. But most days, I find a lot of purpose and joy in it. I wouldn’t be who I am without all the fiction in my life. I find that this is the space where my mind can go deeper, play with ideas and move into understandings that I wouldn’t otherwise find. Sometimes it is also just that joy—a beauty brought to us by another human’s form of consciousness, giving us something else to see.

I will keep it shorter than usual to hear what you have to say and simply offer a few reasons for reading fiction:

to develop empathy

to escape / find joy / feel free

to find oneself / save oneself

to feel more connected to other people

to learn about other ways of thinking or cultures

to discover beauty

to avoid tragedy — personal, societal (heed a warning)

to give your brain a workout (and improve memory)

Why do you read fiction?

Alternatively, why do watch fiction? Or dive into fictions in other spaces than in books? (Is there a difference?)

And if you don’t read fiction, why not? (No judgment!)

Thanks for joining us today!

Related reading:

Harvard Business Review: The Case for Reading Fiction

The Guardian: President Obama says Novels Taught him how to be a Citizen

Forbes: Why Leaders Should Read Fiction

Psychology Today: Reading Fiction Improves Brain Connectivity and Function

Inc.: A Neurologist’s Secret Weapon for Keeping Your Brain Sharp as You Age: Novels

The Washington Post: Does Reading Fiction Make You a Better Person?

Reading is Magic Festival: The need for Diversity and Inclusion in Children’s Books

Timeless - With Felix Purat

Literature & The Road To Happiness

Dear awesome subscribers, As this day marks one year since my first post on Timeless, I wanted to give a mighty thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul alike. Writing on Substack has been an interesting path thus far. And a most rewarding one…

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2 years ago · 9 likes · 10 comments · Felix Purat

Just a quick note today to share a fun interview I was a guest for with of . Tom focuses on quirky travel and culture stories, mainly personal anecdotes, and has a new series of adventurous interviews called Speedy Boarding.

Although I’m not sure I’d call myself a travel writer, place and setting are an important part of my fiction and research. I published a Summer Travel series last year on The Matterhorn and generally love the intersection of my travels, life as a migrant, and the arts.

Not That You Asked

Speedy Boarding with Dr. Kathleen Waller

Welcome back to Speedy Boarding, a bi-weekly series on Not That You Asked that is great news for those of you who are getting sick of me. That’s because it’s a series where I ask some of my favourite writers on Substack eight quick-ish questions about travel. So, the vast majori…

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2 years ago · 20 likes · 12 comments · Tom Fish and Dr. Kathleen Waller

I also had the pleasure of interviewing Tom on the podcast last year. If you missed it, you can check it out here:

Thanks for checking it out and consider subscribing to Tom’s fun and informative newsletter! I’ve turned off comments for this post so we can all convene over on Tom’s publication.

Welcome back to this month’s discussion thread for subscribers. Today, I wanted to talk a little about the concept of adaptation and ask your thoughts about it.

From Online Etymology Dictionary:

c. 1600, "action of adapting (something to something else)," from French adaptation, from Late Latin adaptationem (nominative adaptatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of adaptare "to adjust," from ad "to" (see ad-) + aptare "to join," from aptus "fitted" (see apt).

The meaning "condition of being adapted, state of being fitted to circumstances or relations" is from 1670s. The sense of "modification of a thing to suit new conditions" is from 1790. The biological sense of "variations in a living thing to suit changed conditions" is by 1859, in Darwin's writings.

Often, when we think of adaptation, we think book —> film. How does the filmmaker interpret the language of a novel or dramatic text?

However, beyond this interesting artistic transformation to varying degrees of success that are often framed within the adaptation’s trueness to the original, there are other kinds of adaptations that are not as concerned with this likeness. Instead, they are potentially responding, subverting, updating, or generally playing with the original text in a variety of ways. Some of this may have to do with “variations…to suit changed conditions,” just like in the case of natural selection. Some of it, however, is also individual artistic choice.

Let’s consider Shakespearean texts for moment. Any production is an adaptation of the original. One must choose costume, set design, intonation, facial expressions, and more. Film productions are often referred to by the filmmaker’s name: “Zeffirelli’s Romeo & Juliet” or “Polanski’s Macbeth,” for example.

But some create a much different experience we can still - or perhaps even moreso - call adaptation. Consider O, the high school basketball version of Othello, or Ten Things I Hate About You, again an American high school version of The Taming of the Shrew. And of course there’s Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein’s adaptation of Romeo & Juliet into West Side Story. Some might call these adaptations and others would say they are responses or art inspired by XYZ.

Jane Austen novels also have adaptation versions as well as varying degrees of adherence to the originals. Other books like Little Women or Frankenstein have also sparked vast amounts of adaptations. Living was a film I recently enjoyed that takes a Tolstoy story adapted into a Kurasawa film then more recently adapted by Kazuo Ishiguro into a new film in 2022.

There are probably millions of examples of adaptations. Here are a few others:

• Filmmaker Ang Lee has intriguing and creatively interpreted adaptations of Zhang Eileen’s Lust, Caution and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

• Bradley Cooper’s adaptation of the original film A Star is Born was influenced by his personal interpretation related to his trouble with drug addiction

• Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption based on the novella by Stephen King (Darabont and King worked on several projects together and Darabont was aided by King’s Dollar Baby initiative, helping him achieve success by purchasing his short story rights for just a dollar)

• David Mazzucchelli and Paul Karasik’s adaptation of Paul Auster’s City of Glass into a graphic novel

The novel I’m about to serialize here - An Interpreter in Vienna - plays with Graham Greene’s The Third Man, which he wrote as a novella but with the intention of adaptation into a film by Carol Reed. My response doesn’t go as far as adaptation but plays with the history of spies and changing territorial control in Vienna as well as the way this history might manifest itself in everyday culture today.

In addition to the film being viewed by the protagonist within my novel, it seems to haunt many passages. The 1949 film about post-war Allie-occupied divided Vienna runs continuously in the city and there are several tours one can take related to the film. One might say it has become a part of the city’s identity. I was interested in this concept as well as the way this point in history might have influenced the culture and society of the Vienna I inhabited for four years.

**You can watch the film for free on PBS or the Internet Archive.**

Then there’s the film Adaptation from 2002, which I adore! I love the concept: filmmaker Kaufman wrote the screenplay after difficulty adapting Susan Orlean's 1998 nonfiction book The Orchid Thief in real life. So many layers of text and persona are created…we are left with both wisdom and laughs.

There’s a lot of theorizing about adaptation and I’ll link in at the bottom a few places to check it out if you’re interested.

Let’s consider some questions in addition to the guiding question - ARE ADAPTATIONS NEW TEXTS? —

1. Is it fair to the original author or creator if one adapts without permission (even after death)?

2. To what extent should an adaptation reflect the original work? (i.e. consider film adaptations of Frankenstein, or those that stray greatly from the original: Young Frankenstein, or even films like Poor Things and Edward Scissorhands. And can another novel - Frankenstein in Baghdad - be considered an adaptation of the original? Or is it a response?)

3. Do non-adherent adaptations make a new kind of art or simply a tangential experience?

4. Why is an adaptation not plagiarism? Or is it?

5. What is your favorite cross-medium adaptation? Which changes in mediums offer the most possibilities?

6. If you could adapt any text, what would it be and how would you do it?

7. In what (new) ways might an author or artist manifest an adaptation?

Choose one or choose them all. Feel free to move into tangents or ask your own questions and to share your work or other examples that might relate to the topic.

Thanks in advance for all your ideas!

Research articles:

https://lithub.com/art-doesnt-care-if-you-like-it-gabrielle-bellot-on-the-sandman-adaptation/

Cattrysse, Patrick, and Thomas Leitch. “A Dialogue on Adaptation.” Literature/Film Quarterly 46, no. 3 (2018). https://www.jstor.org/stable/48678578.

Johnson, David T. “Criticism, Crisis, and Adaptation.” Literature/Film Quarterly 37, no. 1 (2009): 2–4. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43797500.

Johnson, David T., and Richard Linklater. “Directors on Adaptation: A Conversation with Richard Linklater.” Literature/Film Quarterly 35, no. 1 (2007): 338–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43797327.

Semenza, Greg Colón. “Radical Reflexivity in Cinematic Adaptation: Second Thoughts on Reality, Originality, and Authority.” Literature/Film Quarterly 41, no. 2 (2013): 143–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43798943.

Coates, Paul. “Reframing ‘Persona’ and Adaptation.” Film Criticism 36, no. 3 (2012): 28–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24777834.

Elliott, Kamilla. “Rethinking Formal-Cultural and Textual-Contextual Divides in Adaptation Studies.” Literature/Film Quarterly 42, no. 4 (2014): 576–93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43798997.

Olney, Ian. “Texts, Technologies, and Intertextualities: Film Adaptation in a Postmodern World.” Literature/Film Quarterly 38, no. 3 (2010): 166–70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43797653.

Dear Matterhorn Readers,

Today, I’m sharing with you an interview I did for in December. Mike writes on Substack, filled with fiction and literary musings. I also enjoy reading his creative, insightful work and think Matterhorn readers would as well.

Answering Mike’s questions was a lot of fun! If you want to learn more about my literary tastes and background, please check out Mike’s post here:

Stories for a New Florence

Kate Waller on Literature and Culture

One of my favorite Substack writers is Kate Waller. I’m delighted she agreed to be interviewed. MGW: Kate, you’ve been writing on Substack since August 2022. What’s your view of the benefits of Substack for readers and writers? KW: Thanks for having me on your newsletter, Mike! Well, one thing I love about Substack is the community feel. You and I have been able to interact in multiple spaces, for example. The writing feels more alive to me in this way. It’s a place where even if you don’t write, you might be interested in engaging as a reader more deeply…

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2 years ago · 11 likes · 4 comments · Mike Goodenow Weber

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments on his post. I’ve turned off comments here on The Matterhorn so we can all discuss in one place. Thanks for reading.

Welcome to the first of a series of discussion threads for Matterhorn subscribers. I’m happy to have you here! It is your space as well. Please email me with discussion topics you want to see and take these questions in the directions you like. Or, just come say hi to everyone. :)

Local fictions

I think a lot about how the literature of a particular place both reflects and - at times - defines the cultural identity of a collective group as well as individuals. I find I respond in a different way specifically to the literature of my origins - New England. However, I also find that I understand my experience more in places I have since lived or even traveled to by navigating the local fictions of different shapes.

(Please note that ‘fictions’ here refers to anything that plays with the truth more freely, even non-fiction can contain elements of fiction. Fiction also takes many mediums. Generally, we can interpret it more openly. This is something I discussed on the podcast this season.)

When I was last home (that is, just outside Boston in Lexington, Massachusetts) over the Christmas and New Year holidays this year, I re-read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables. I was struck by his ethereal prose, which felt both other-worldly and modern. Hawthorne also attended the university I went to in Maine, and so his writing has been weaved through my education. The library I studied in was named after him. I have also loved teaching The Scarlet Letter in the past and have considered adding The Blithedale Romance to a course next year.

Somehow the family home, Puritan society, and town relations spoke to me of my own existence despite few similarities to my experiences other than a grounding in New England. However, I think there is something of an evolution of identity through time in a certain space, in conversation with the natural surroundings, that creates who we are. It doesn’t mean I am like Hawthorne, and hopefully I am unlike the characters! Eek. However, there is the unspoken soul of writing that seems to connect us.

Here are three excerpts I loved (available on Gutenberg):

Chapter II

Nevertheless, if we look through all the heroic fortunes of mankind, we shall find this same entanglement of something mean and trivial with whatever is noblest in joy or sorrow. Life is made up of marble and mud. And, without all the deeper trust in a comprehensive sympathy above us, we might hence be led to suspect the insult of a sneer, as well as an immitigable frown, on the iron countenance of fate. What is called poetic insight is the gift of discerning, in this sphere of strangely mingled elements, the beauty and the majesty which are compelled to assume a garb so sordid.

Chapter III

Some malevolent spirit, doing his utmost to drive Hepzibah mad, unrolled before her imagination a kind of panorama, representing the great thoroughfare of a city all astir with customers. So many and so magnificent shops as there were! Groceries, toy-shops, drygoods stores, with their immense panes of plate-glass, their gorgeous fixtures, their vast and complete assortments of merchandise, in which fortunes had been invested; and those noble mirrors at the farther end of each establishment, doubling all this wealth by a brightly burnished vista of unrealities! On one side of the street this splendid bazaar, with a multitude of perfumed and glossy salesmen, smirking, smiling, bowing, and measuring out the goods. On the other, the dusky old House of the Seven Gables, with the antiquated shop-window under its projecting story, and Hepzibah herself, in a gown of rusty black silk, behind the counter, scowling at the world as it went by!

Chapter XII

Holgrave had read very little, and that little in passing through the thoroughfare of life, where the mystic language of his books was necessarily mixed up with the babble of the multitude, so that both one and the other were apt to lose any sense that might have been properly their own. He considered himself a thinker, and was certainly of a thoughtful turn, but, with his own path to discover, had perhaps hardly yet reached the point where an educated man begins to think. The true value of his character lay in that deep consciousness of inward strength, which made all his past vicissitudes seem merely like a change of garments; in that enthusiasm, so quiet that he scarcely knew of its existence, but which gave a warmth to everything that he laid his hand on; in that personal ambition, hidden—from his own as well as other eyes—among his more generous impulses, but in which lurked a certain efficacy, that might solidify him from a theorist into the champion of some practicable cause. Altogether in his culture and want of culture,—in his crude, wild, and misty philosophy, and the practical experience that counteracted some of its tendencies; in his magnanimous zeal for man’s welfare, and his recklessness of whatever the ages had established in man’s behalf; in his faith, and in his infidelity; in what he had, and in what he lacked,—the artist might fitly enough stand forth as the representative of many compeers in his native land.

While at home, I also spent a lot of time listening to Noah Kahan whom my brother introduced me to. (Newsflash: he’s super big and I have been living in some kind of Swiss cave.) Kahan is from New Hampshire and often sings about his home, although it’s not always complimentary. Here’s an excerpt from “Homesick” and a couple other New England themed songs:

I would leave if only I could find a reason
I'm mean because I grew up in New England
I got dreams, but I can't make myself believe them
Spend the rest of my life with what could've been
And I will die in the house that I grew up in

Paul Revere’s ride climaxed just 600 meters from my parents’ house in Lexington. Like the elements of Hawthorn’s tales, Revere’s biography has little to do with me, but those stories you hear as a child shape you somehow and also create a common cultural point of relation. You can also read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem on the subject here. For other New England writers I enjoy, you can visit a couple of posts I did last year on Massachusetts, linked at the bottom. (i.e. Wharton, Melville, Dickinson)

Personally, I often write of New England as an elsewhere in my fiction rather than the main setting. However, I’m currently writing a novel based in Maine, inspired partly by Thoreau’s The Maine Woods. I’ve also had an idea for something that takes place in Thoreau’s Concord - a town with many layers of history, writer residents, and quirks like banning plastic bottles independently of the state/country.

And related to education and curriculum, I’m constantly navigating a local/global space of literary understanding for students as well as including examples of indigenous literature. It’s hard to do it all, but I find it rewarding to focus on both of these areas in an English curriculum and is something I’ve worked on for a long time.

In international schools I’ve worked at in the past, this is especially multi-dimensional when we consider the location of study, the students’ home literatures, and world literature. However, I think if we structure this understanding the right way it becomes a powerful way of understanding the world rather than an overwhelming force.

And now, the questions to guide our discussion. Feel free to go on tangents!

1. What fictions of home help you to understand yourself? Home might be where you’re from or where you currently reside (or both).

2. To what extent should we study local — or more specifically indigenous — literature in schools? I realize this question can go in several directions, especially when separating local more broadly from indigenous. Answer in whichever direction interests you. That is, either about these tensions (local/indigenous) or as an and/both.

3. How does local literature (or film, etc.) reflect and create (your) local culture?

4. What examples of your own work relate to the idea of a home place or local culture in some way?

Thanks for thinking about these ideas and look forward to your thoughts!

Leave a comment

A few extra links to check out:

https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/icllae-19/125942860

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_literature

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/233167533.pdf

https://www.acla.org/localglobal-literatures-and-cultures

This is a conversation space in the Substack app or through the website that I set up exclusively for my subscribers — kind of like a group chat or live hangout. I’ll post short prompts, thoughts, and updates that come my way, and you can jump into the discussion.

I’ve also set it up so paid subscribers can start threads themselves.

To join our chat, you’ll need to go to the Substack website or download the Substack app, now available for both iOS and Android. Chats are sent via the app, not email, so turn on push notifications if you don’t want to miss conversation.

How to get started

1. Download the app by clicking this link or the button below. Substack Chat is now available on both iOS and Android.

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2. Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.

3. That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hi, and if you have any issues, check out Substack’s FAQ.

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A little over a month ago, I celebrated a year at The Matterhorn with you all. Today, I’d like to share the interviews I conducted over the year. The conversations gave me a lot of new perspectives about the arts and writing as well giving me a chance to connect in a different way with some people I already knew.

The interviews below include fellow Substack writers , , and . The list also includes a former teacher/conductor, student, undergraduate art history classmate, postgraduate cultural studies classmate, and colleague in the ACS (Association for Cultural Studies). Oh, and me, in a short interview from my alma mater in Hong Kong.

Soon, I’ll be unveiling this project’s new direction. There, we will have an opportunity for more casual real time conversations together as well as learning from special guests. Looking forward to it.

In anticipation, I’ve also migrated my podcast to be hosted here on Substack, although you can access it on Apple and Spotify just as before. Let me know if you have any issues accessing it. Substack allows me to really integrate future podcasts into my posts, including AI generated transcripts. Relatedly, my home page has been mildly ‘under construction’ recently. All will be revealed and next week, but you can check out the About page for a preview.

Hope you enjoy some of these interviews that you may have missed! Look forward to more enriching conversations like this in the future.

Subscribe now

Hello readers,

We talk a lot about internationalism and intersections of cultures in this publication. Do you consider yourself to have a dominant culture? What cultures are you a part of? Have you always been?

This summer, I’m bringing you a Summer Travel series. It’s travel writing, yes, but also questioning or noticing the way we encounter culture as we travel. Sometimes a culture I know very little about feels in harmony with my inner being; other times completely perplexed or at odds. I don’t mean this in a negative way. Likely with more understanding and time spent, I would feel more in harmony, or maybe I wouldn’t and that’s ok. I can still appreciate its positive qualities that just aren’t me.

I’m interested in the ways culture can enhance one’s identity, perhaps allowing one to access their authenticity rather than necessarily performing (although this is possible, too). Living in other countries has made me greatly aware of this; there’s no way to keep from picking up other cultures as a part of yourself (not that I’d want to reject them anyway). My son is decidedly a ‘third culture kid’, which has many benefits but perhaps also difficulty later when thinking about home and identity. I know that some of you also live in places you didn’t grow up, immersed in different cultures. Additionally, there are of course many cultures at play within any place and many other ‘subcultures’ that often transcend place.

I’m interested this week if you think you borrow from other cultures and in what ways? Is this something you have picked up through travel, reading, friendships…? How is it not cultural appropriation (or is it)? When does it become harmful or inappropriate? I’ve included some examples and opinions below, including Kim Kardashian’s grill and wearing Kimonos in honor of Monet at Boston’s MFA. Last month, we went back to the 80s to look at Voguing in this context.

I welcome any related thoughts, questions, or links here!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kate

A few links —

https://www.papermag.com/kim-kardashian-grill-internet-2651148594.html

https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/08/04/whose-culture-is-it-anyhow/borrowing-from-other-cultures-is-human-nature

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/the-dos-and-donts-of-cultural-appropriation/411292/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/24/white-woman-black-hairstyle-cultural-appropriation

https://ideas.ted.com/when-is-it-ok-to-wear-an-item-from-another-culture-and-when-is-it-appropriation-how-to-tell/

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35782855

https://theconversation.com/cultural-appropriation-when-borrowing-becomes-exploitation-57411

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/outrage-boston-museum-of-fine-arts-disgraceful-kimono-event-314534

A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is the desire to hold on to it: to possess it and give it weight in our lives There is an urge to say, ‘I was here, I saw this and it mattered to me.’

-Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel (2002, p. 2018)

Dear Matterhorn Community,

This summer, I’m changing it up a bit to offer a Summer Travel series about some of my experiences in travel, hopefully with some ideas about culture and the arts to go along with it. We’ve also just heard from Tom Fish, writer of Not That You Asked (recently featured by Substack!), on the podcast about this topic. Here it is in case you missed it:

Travel is something that me and my family prioritize when considering how to spend our time and precious funds. Part of our travel is now circumstance, since my British husband and I have made our lives abroad. Our family and friends are spread out…from America to Europe to Hong Kong and even New Zealand. So a lot of our travel is simply to visit people. But even in these experiences, it’s travel. Maybe we get deliciously lost a little bit less but we also get to travel through the eyes of a local, which is another kind of gift.

I’ve lived in seven countries, and I find that now when I go somewhere even for a weekend, I try to balance seeing the sights/sites and living like a local (as much as is possible without really understanding it!). And sometimes my best traveling is right down the street. You can discover new places all around you.

Some people travel through documentary and books as well. It’s a lot cheaper and easier on the jet lag! Travel can also be a massive pain. I’ve had several bad experiences, but my memories linger on the beauty of new landscapes, cultural discoveries, and all the people I meet along the way.

What about you? Why do you travel — if you do? What do you discover about the world or yourself in the process? How do you document it? Anecdotes, lists, links…all fair play.

Have a wonderful week!

Best,

Kate

The Summer Travel Series

This summer, I’m doing a breezier version of the newsletter, taking you to some places I’ve been and engaging in discussions related to travel. I look forward to hearing about your travels and the way they reflect your ideas about culture, writing, and the arts.

Tom Fish from Not That You Asked

Today, I’m kicking it off with a conversation on the podcast about travel writing with Tom Fish. Tom writes the Substack publication called Not That You Asked, a travel diary about London and afar. In his words: ‘Think less navel-gazing and more awkward urinal encounters.’

Tom lives in London and spends most of his time in parks, restaurants, and the tube.

You can listen to our conversation through any of your podcast listening platforms, all linked through Podbean.

This past December, I shared one of Tom’s articles about a cool London bookshop as a guest post. His focus on international culture of the everyday and books (in this case) really connected with me in terms of what we’re looking at here on The Matterhorn. He takes us to other eclectic experiences such as: – encountering Berlin’s currywurst, a pork sausage whose relationship with pig is as passing and brief as a snog in a nightclub; discovering a dolphin called Fungie in the small town of Dingle, Ireland; chatting with a pizzeria owner in Ischia about the noise of Naples…and much more.

Related reading

• People do live in the palace in Split!

• Billy Bryson

Not That You Asked

Ireland Diaries: A dolphin dilemma

On the main street in Dingle, a small town in County Kerry, right by the harbour, there’s a statue of the town’s most famous son. He’s immortalised in bronze, and he looks very happy about it. He’s smiling from ear to ear, or he would be, if he had any ears. He doesn’t have any ears because he’s not a politician or a singer or even a Gaelic football pla…

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3 years ago · 7 likes · 12 comments · Tom Fish

Not That You Asked

Italy Diaries: Escape to Ischia

We’re on the run. We wake up in bed in the hostel in Naples and decide to flee. We’ve had enough of scooters and sirens, it’s time to leave. This is supposed to be our one full day in Naples. But one afternoon and evening has proved enough, and we’re running for the port…

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3 years ago · 8 likes · 4 comments · Tom Fish

Thanks for checking out our conversation! Feel free to share it with a friend or sign up for Tom’s newsletter. And do let us know what you think about travel writing, London culture, iconic places, and other parts of our conversation below.

Tom's Newsletter

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One of my professors in Introduction to Environmental Studies asked us this question. The course was taught by a biologist, economist, and philosopher who often debated topics in front of or with the class. It was a pretty cool interdisciplinary experiment.

Anyway, it was the white-haired philosophy professor who asked us. We each went back in time to various romanticized periods – Victorian, Roaring Twenties, Roman Empire, ‘free’ 1960s. Somebody said the present day (it was then 1999). Another said in about 50 years, after “everyone would be equal.” The philosopher challenged us with things like modern medicine, war, access to food and refrigeration, things like this. Then we pressed him for his reply, which was: as far into the future as possible.

We all looked at him like: what?!

Everything we ‘knew’ about the future was dystopia. Who makes movies about the future going right? The 1990s had films like Waterworld, 12 Monkeys, and The City of Lost Children. But our philosopher was not influenced by these. He had all hope in the human race’s ability to continue to progress and make the world a better place. Something about the setting made it especially poignant; we were all considering working on protecting the environment in some way, likely very aware of the harm being done to it.

So if you could live during any time period, when would it be? And why would you say so? You certainly don’t have to disagree with the philosopher.

Hope your weekend is off to a great start!

Best,
Kate

Here are a few interesting, related links:

https://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8908397/11-charts-best-time-in-history

https://www.ranker.com/list/best-time-to-be-alive-in-history/susanna-olson

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/learning/is-now-the-best-time-in-human-history-to-be-alive.html

https://mashable.com/article/best-time-in-history

The Matterhorn is also a podcast. Today I’m sharing the most recent recording with you. You can also subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts to receive new podcasts on Thursdays.

Last week on The Matterhorn podcast, I spoke with Kate Jones on the topic of Mother-Writers. It was such a pleasure to speak with this writer who has much to say on the topic and is an active part of the Substack community. Kate holds an MA in 20^th Century Women’s War Narratives and writes an online publication called A Narrative Of Their Own which you can find on Substack.

Whilst diving into the topic of parenting that we’ve been exploring on The Matterhorn this month, I was inspired and intrigued by Kate’s post entitled: “Wife. Mother. Other.” which you can read here:

A Narrative Of Their Own

Wife. Mother. Other.

English literary critic Cyril Connelly once wrote ‘There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall’, giving credence to the theory that having young children negatively affects an artists’ ability to create good art. It is a truth that many parents will acknowledge: having a young child in the hou…

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3 years ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Kate Jones

Last week, we looked specifically at Mothering. Kate is a mother of two and writes about the narratives of 20^th century women writers and the ways these intersect with current culture.  She is particularly interested in the ways in which women's narratives continue to inform conversations around gender, parenting, and feminism.'

Since the podcast went live on Thursday, the conversation has already become the discussion point of a book club in England! We would love to hear what you have to say about the ideas or please let us know if your writing group / book club similarly have a chat about it.

You can listen here to our conversation or click on the links for Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

Here are a few other links:

• Rebecca Mead on the Sandler article

• NYT on Julia Briggs’ biography of Virginia Woolf

• The All Around Reduced Personality (film mentioned)

Please share your ideas below related to the conversation topic or texts we discuss. Thanks for listening!

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I’ve been thinking this week about doing things live. Hearing music live, attending a yoga class in person, going to a work meeting in an actual office…

Even live-on-a-device is different from a recording. How is it different? Can you articulate the reasons live / live stream / recorded each feel different to you?

We’ve had a lot of these conversations since the pandemic: What’s more convenient? What does research say about…mental health, carbon footprint, etc.? What’s cheapest? But today I’m interested in going deeper, to a really human level of experience, even call it your artistic interpretation.

I don’t want to suppose that ‘live’ is necessarily better for the purpose of this discussion either! I do a ton of stuff online that has a lot of value. But I’m looking less for rational reasons and more for sensory experiences, philosophical understandings, or anecdotal evidence.

I want to link an interesting piece written by Win Butler during the pandemic about performing live (yes, despite the allegations against him; I found it really compelling when it originally came out) as well as an article from The Chicago School on the way social media changes our perceptions. Other links welcome, even to your own writing!

Have fun with it and enjoy your weekend!

Kate

Today, I’m speaking with Terry Freedman about Oulipo and experimentation with writing, which are both part of a new thread on Terry’s Substack publication called Eclecticism: Reflections on literature and life. He will also be offering a workshop on this topic next month.

We had a really fun chat about Oulipo, writing styles, and teaching methods. Hope you enjoy it! Read below for all the links and further information.

Terry has spent his career in education, first as a teacher of Economics, then as a teacher of Computing, followed by spells in a government body, local authority and independent consultancy. He’s been a freelance writer in the field of education since 1989, and also writes about education, literature, writing and anything else that takes his fancy.

Eclecticism newsletter

What is OuLiPo? According to Poetry Foundation, it is:

An acronym for Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (Workshop for Potential Literature), a group of writers and mathematicians formed in France in 1960 by poet Raymond Queneau and mathematician François Le Lionnais. Unlike the Dada and surrealist movements, OuLiPo rejects spontaneous chance and the subconscious as sources of literary creativity. Instead, the group emphasizes systematic, self-restricting means of making texts. For example, the technique known as n + 7 replaces every noun in an existing text with the noun that follows seven entries after it in the dictionary. Notable members of this group include the novelists George Perec and Italo Calvino, poet Oskar Pastior, and poet/mathematician Jacques Roubaud.

But you can also hear Terry’s own take on it in the podcast. I’ve really been enjoying Terry’s prolific newsletter with many ideas about the writing process as well as fiction, tips, and letters.

Below is the podcast recording (this link to other platforms as well) and a couple of Terry’s free articles:

Eclecticism: Reflections on literature and life

Experiments in style index

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3 years ago · 3 comments · 𝚃𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙵𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚖𝚊𝚗

Eclecticism: Reflections on literature and life

Oulipo writing prompts

As I have written before, Oulipo is a writing movement that uses constraints in order to enhance creativity and generate new writing. Here are a few writing prompts based on, or in the spirit of, Oulipo techniques. In each case I’ve given an example of my own response to the prompt…

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4 years ago · 6 likes · 5 comments · 𝚃𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙵𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚖𝚊𝚗

• What is Oulipo? Via Poetry Foundation 

• Workshop link: https://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/writing-the-oulipo-a-taster

• The Guardian on Oulipo

• Origins of Experiments in Style on Terry Freedman’s newsletter: Eclectecism: Reflections on literature and life 

• Further examples 

Many thanks to Terry for joining me as a guest on the podcast! Let us know what you think here about the ideas in our conversation.

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The last couple of weeks, I’ve been diving into thriller books and TV series. What’s the best thriller film out there? Let us know what you think and a couple key reasons or details. They can be old or new and in any language. Even better if you can add a link where it’s streaming.

Thanks in advance for your viewing recs! Below, I’ve put trailers of a few of my favorites.

*Trigger warning: Dumplings (the last video) deals with abortion and fetuses (related to the China One Child Policy). The other films - by nature of being thrillers - of course have triggers, but not right front and center in the trailer like this one.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Best,
Kate

Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like work-in-progress or quick questions.

Go to Notes

How to join

Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to The Matterhorn: intersections of literature & art, you’ll automatically see my notes. Feel free to like, reply, or share them around!

You can also share notes of your own. I hope this becomes a space where every reader of The Matterhorn: intersections of literature & art can share thoughts, ideas, and interesting quotes from the things we're reading on Substack and beyond.

If you encounter any issues, you can always refer to the Notes FAQ for assistance. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Go to Notes

I also connect with readers and other writers in a more informal way on Instagram:

You can connect with me there if you like. Otherwise, the post comments or reply to my emails also work if you want to get in touch! Have a great day.

Today on the podcast, I’m speaking with Jacqueline Leung about what it means to be an artist. She is my first guest! Read on for some quirky stories related to the arts at the end of this post.

You can listen to our conversation on several platforms, all listed through the Podbean host site, now with a new trailer:

In the new era of super-advanced A.I., perhaps the question of artistry is even more pertinent. A recent NYT Opinion piece from Yuval Harari, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin suggested that computer-generated arts could put the entire human culture at risk. Aptly called “You Can Have the Blue Pill or the Red Pill, and We’re Out of Blue Pills,” alluding to The Matrix but perhaps also alluding to the recent soundbites from Keanu Reeves who tells he’s in all these sci-fi films not because he embraces it but because he wants us to fear it:

A.I. could rapidly eat the whole of human culture — everything we have produced over thousands of years — digest it and begin to gush out a flood of new cultural artifacts. Not just school essays but also political speeches, ideological manifestos, holy books for new cults. By 2028, the U.S. presidential race might no longer be run by humans.

Humans often don’t have direct access to reality. We are cocooned by culture, experiencing reality through a cultural prism. Our political views are shaped by the reports of journalists and the anecdotes of friends. Our sexual preferences are tweaked by art and religion. That cultural cocoon has hitherto been woven by other humans. What will it be like to experience reality through a prism produced by nonhuman intelligence?

Jacqueline Leung

Jacqueline is an award-winning pianist based in Hong Kong. She has performed and taught on four continents and as a passionate chamber musician, she is a founding member of the Phoenix Quartet. Jacqueline has a particular interest in unearthing and presenting lesser-known works, in particular, compositions by women composers. She has written articles on these topics and to date, she has recorded three solo albums with themes ranging from 1920s New York to Winter in Buenos Aires. 

Artist website: http://www.jacquelineleung.com/

Spotify page:

We have known each other since starting our MA in Literary and Cultural Studies together in 2009 at the University of Hong Kong. Jacqui and I had planned to do a show together without a particular subject in mind. She came up with the topic when she saw my IG post about the book - Tell Me I'm an Artist, by Chelsea Martin:

Keyword preview of the conversation:

• Ideas & music

• Snow (album)

• Creativity

• Cat interruption

• Solitude & collaboration

• Reactions to artists

• Art for art’s sake

I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as we did! You can listen to it on any of the spaces linked through Podbean or on the Podbean app / website itself.

Quirky stories about the arts

• Art in unexpected places — “Cleaners’ art collection transforms Hong Kong refuse point into gallery”

• The Matterhorn icon has been forcibly removed from Toblerone: “The Swiss government is forcing Toblerone to change its logo after the company outsourced production”; don’t worry! This publication is really written in Switzerland! (And any paid subscriptions are taxed in this country!) The part in this article about Italy remaining mum on the fact that half of the mountain is in Italian jurisdiction is interesting. Who owns this image? However, the chocolate is now being made primarily in Slovakia, so it is less poignant in argument.

• Hope for funding the arts? “New international laboratory aims to study and promote health benefits of arts activities for individuals and communities”:

  • “This is the WHO’s first-ever major initiative linking arts and public health, and it comes following the organisation’s 2019 report linking access to the arts with improved health. Based between NYU Steinhardt in New York City and the WHO's Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen, the lab’s ultimate goal is that the findings of its research will ultimately inform public policy across all 194 of the United Nations’ member states.”

• Some solutions for that funding already in LA — “Can LA’s Arts Sector Become More Equitable?”

  • “[Arts for LA] is also working on a set of recommendations for creating 10,000 living wage jobs in LA’s arts and culture sector by 2030, dubbed the Creative Jobs Collective Impact Initiative, which they will present to the LA County Board of Supervisors later this year. ‘We’ve been doing this at the local and state level,’ Herrera says. ‘We want the county partnering with state and private philanthropy to ensure that we don’t remain #259.’”

• In case you missed it, people are talking about the death of the English major (& humanities in general): “The End of the English Major.” I’ll be speaking about this topic with a few people on the podcast

• How can film houses survive if the very thing people pay a ton for - quality screening - is going downhill? “Bad Projection Is Ruining the Movie Theater Experience”

• Who’s coming to Art Basel 2023? Let me know if you’ll be in town this June!

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I’ve been thinking a lot about cancel culture in relation to quick responses to posts or headlines or people. Polarization. A lack of thorough reading or viewing. This kind of thing.

Two things recently made me want to dig deeper. First, I’ve been listening to The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling after it came highly recommended from Dr. Victoria Powell, writer of The Gallery Companion. WOW. Such a fascinating show about the way Rowling was first cancelled by certain groups especially afraid of or against witchcraft etc back in the 90s (and we get to go on some 90s rides, my fellow ‘older’ millennials…although a lot of it is pretty dark) and then from a variety of groups in response to her infamous trans tweets. However you feel about the tweets, I think you’ll find the show really compelling.

Then, on IG, I saw a post from Dr. Cornel West about an interview he did with Russell Brand called “Neoliberalism is Dying.” It had only been posted a few minutes before and already there were loads of comments about how dare he speak with the “devil”, with the anti-vaxxer, with a “right wing lunatic.” And maybe it was warranted; as Guardian writer George Monbiot says: “I once admired [] Brand,” but now he perpetuates “conspiracy theories” and uses dangerous strategies like “scapegoat[ing].”

Luckily, nobody seemed to be cancelling Dr. West, publicly at least, but they expressed disappointment in him. There was no way any of these people could have watched the video in those few minutes! And…the video, I thought, was actually super interesting and empathetic and…nuanced. The part about “wounded healers” vs. “wounded hurters” and their impact on society was especially poignant. It doesn’t mean I agreed with everything, but I found it thought provoking.

Nuance! We see so much black and white, this side or that side, kind of talk and media.

And is it the quick reactions, the ‘my way or the highway’ stuff that creates witch hunts? Are some witch hunts warranted? Should you listen to a ‘witch’? [I mean anyone - or news organization or political party - you feel you’ve done your research and decided you don’t like what they stand for…should you listen to what they have to say?]

Often I think: the internet has ruined us. We’re totally doomed. But then, hasn’t it always been like this? I used to teach Arthur Miller’s The Crucible about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 alongside several texts concerning the McCarthy Era (Good Night and Good Luck, for example) as well as post-9/11 terrorist ‘witch hunts.’ These were all well before social media. Weren’t the various witch hunts over centuries types of extreme polarization? Is it just that the polarization is now more visible? That there are billions more people on earth who can quickly funnel around something?

So essentially, to what extent should we ignore opinions we disagree with? Should we engage with people who are known to have opposing views or make false claims? Should we listen to opposing media or subscribe to newsletters from “the other side”? Can we engage with multiple views in a single piece of writing/video/conversation? (I wrote a piece called “Be Your Own Devil’s Advocate” that speaks to such idea.)

I’m not making a coherent point or statement, because I want to hear what you think. Maybe you have answers, hope, further questions, examples, articles to read. Anything goes. Please just consider we probably/hopefully have a lot of different views and perspectives in the audience. That doesn’t mean we should self-censor, but we can show care in the way we may argue a point even with a silent reader in mind.

Thanks even just for thinking about these questions. That alone is bound to help. Little ripples. Sorry, this is a super long discussion thread prompt! Hope your weekend is starting well!

Best,

Kate