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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
this was a collection of dairy entries. most of the entries were scattered and really vague, but it was divided into seasons which was an interesting division. for such a small book the last couple of pages really stuck with me.
Interesting premise. Easy to breeze through. I wonder if Scanlan kept the diary. I’d love to know more about the subject.
This little book contains the beauty of everyday life. Arranging an everyday existence into poetry reminding that everyone contains galaxies.
Beautiful and inventive but also empty of character and perspective. Strangely missing setting as well, considering how much of the narrative is about weather and seasons.
And yet I would recommend it highly.
And yet I would recommend it highly.
There's a BuzzFeed video that I'm obsessed with; I watch it so much because its conceit is so fascinating (especially to a snoop like me). In it, the vlogger buys a diary off eBay and proceeds to read it, as one would read a book. I think about this video all the time. I've searched and almost bought so many diaries.
That people make the internal external but then keep it secret...I love this concept. And I suppose Scanlan does as well.
I picked Aug 9—Fog up on a whim because it was on the new shelves at the library and I vaaaaguely remember reading about it. After start-stopping so many books this summer, I have been on the look out for something all consuming, and I found it in this. It's both so banal and so fascinating.
I can't stop thinking about the sentence "everything loose is travelling."
(this poetry in this book tastes like tomatoes)
That people make the internal external but then keep it secret...I love this concept. And I suppose Scanlan does as well.
I picked Aug 9—Fog up on a whim because it was on the new shelves at the library and I vaaaaguely remember reading about it. After start-stopping so many books this summer, I have been on the look out for something all consuming, and I found it in this. It's both so banal and so fascinating.
I can't stop thinking about the sentence "everything loose is travelling."
(this poetry in this book tastes like tomatoes)
‘Aug 9 - Fog’ is an interesting little experiment - somewhat fiction, poetry and non fiction all at once, this small book certainly defies traditional categorisation. I wanted to backtrack to this after enjoying Scanlan’s subsequent work, ‘The Dominant Animal’. I was interested in ‘Aug 9 - Fog’ before this, but always worried that it would be too abstract for me to enjoy. In certain ways, this turned out to be pretty on the money, though I don’t think this little volume is entirely without merit. Also given how short it is to complete, it’s hard to be too angry at it for all it’s faults.
I was definitely a little impressed that ‘Aug 9 - Fog’ managed to have a glimmer of a narrative within it. Though you could hardly talk about it’s story structure or it’s characters, you can easily describe what the book ends up being about - an old woman in the later years of her life watching it wind down around her. In this way, the book manages to have a surprising emotional component and some of the sentences really do express this beautifully, sounding almost like poetry. This leaves me not sure who to compliment, however. Does Scanlan deserve praise for picking out those sentences that sounded best, even if she didn’t write any of them herself? It’s almost like a mixed media art piece and with anything like that it’s easy to question how far the person who constructed it rather than made the components can be regarded.
Though the book was peppered with some lovely sentences and interesting sentiments sparsely throughout, I thought the introduction was maybe one of the most interesting parts. Scanlan talks about her decade long obsession with the diary, and I found myself thinking that a story about that would have been infinitely more interesting. Writing a narrative story about a woman’s inexplicable fixation, running it in tandem with her life and the life of the diarist, and interspersing this with actual excerpts from the diary as it actually exists could’ve been fascinating. Such as it is, the book just doesn’t have enough for anyone to grab onto, and changing it in this way could have been a great way to fix this issue and make it more tangible.
Overall, I was both impressed and disappointed with ‘Aug 9 - Fog’. It gave me more than I expected it could, but still not enough for me to really, deeply enjoy it. I understand completely why for most people it’s just a little too transient to enjoy - unfortunately, because it is. It’s definitely a shame, because I do feel like there is plenty of potential in the concept and the contents of the diary itself. Unfortunately such as it is, it remains an interesting little exercise and a pleasant 10 minute diversion from my day, but little else.
I was definitely a little impressed that ‘Aug 9 - Fog’ managed to have a glimmer of a narrative within it. Though you could hardly talk about it’s story structure or it’s characters, you can easily describe what the book ends up being about - an old woman in the later years of her life watching it wind down around her. In this way, the book manages to have a surprising emotional component and some of the sentences really do express this beautifully, sounding almost like poetry. This leaves me not sure who to compliment, however. Does Scanlan deserve praise for picking out those sentences that sounded best, even if she didn’t write any of them herself? It’s almost like a mixed media art piece and with anything like that it’s easy to question how far the person who constructed it rather than made the components can be regarded.
Though the book was peppered with some lovely sentences and interesting sentiments sparsely throughout, I thought the introduction was maybe one of the most interesting parts. Scanlan talks about her decade long obsession with the diary, and I found myself thinking that a story about that would have been infinitely more interesting. Writing a narrative story about a woman’s inexplicable fixation, running it in tandem with her life and the life of the diarist, and interspersing this with actual excerpts from the diary as it actually exists could’ve been fascinating. Such as it is, the book just doesn’t have enough for anyone to grab onto, and changing it in this way could have been a great way to fix this issue and make it more tangible.
Overall, I was both impressed and disappointed with ‘Aug 9 - Fog’. It gave me more than I expected it could, but still not enough for me to really, deeply enjoy it. I understand completely why for most people it’s just a little too transient to enjoy - unfortunately, because it is. It’s definitely a shame, because I do feel like there is plenty of potential in the concept and the contents of the diary itself. Unfortunately such as it is, it remains an interesting little exercise and a pleasant 10 minute diversion from my day, but little else.
I don’t do poetry. I’m way too literal to understand 1/10th of what a poet is trying to say.
But this. This is my kind of poetry.
Scanlan has distilled a 5 year diary (1968-1972) of an octogenarian from rural Illinois into the essence of Midwestern life on the prairie.
“Freddy & wife came here to dinner. She awful small and they are looking for stork.”
Wonderful.
But this. This is my kind of poetry.
Scanlan has distilled a 5 year diary (1968-1972) of an octogenarian from rural Illinois into the essence of Midwestern life on the prairie.
“Freddy & wife came here to dinner. She awful small and they are looking for stork.”
Wonderful.