The Amazing Talking Bookshelf

Jun 10 21:44 UTC 1994

The Talking Bookshelf: 

  I am going to Texas next week, and want to ask members of the Books
Conference if they know any really interesting books about Texas or
Texas/Mexico.  When I looked at the list of Items on the Conference, I
decided that I could ask in any number of them, but a concept for a new
item came to me:  What if you could walk up to a book shelf and ask it a
question.  This bookshelf (Grex) might not be all-knowing, but surely could
provide some interesting and informative answers.

And So: 

  Oh, Talking Bookshelf, Library of Con-Grex, (Proper form of address,
optional!) do you know of any brilliant books about Texas, fiction or
nonfiction, that I just have to read while laying in my tent evenings in
the 110 degree heat of twilight? 

  This item welcomes answers, comments and new questions any time!

response 2 of 25:

Jun 11 00:09 UTC 1994

Thanks for the suggestion on the travel guide, and thanks for the clever
comment.  But I've been told by very close friends that a little cleaver
is dangerous thing.  Pun filter=on.

  I know that Mirlyn could cough up "Texas" titles until the cows come
home (cows do still come home?)  but that is far too by the numbers for
The Amazing Talking Bookshelf.  What we have here is a failure (oops)  I
mean a *forum* to communicate.  Mirlyn is the Atomic Clock.  The Amazing
Talking Bookshelf could be Mr. Clock of Captain Kangaroo fame.  (Or Ms.
Clock).  Never sure where the hands are pointing, but plenty of
interesting things to say.  (or Punny Rabbit) Pun filter=stuck.

(Those were *very* close, *very* personal friends.  And they were holding
the cleaver!)

response 4 of 25:

Jun 11 06:13 UTC 1994

Great!  We (greenops & I) have R.G.'s from Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, New
York...  and will have to add Texas.  It seems T.A.T.B. works best when it
has a wealth of specific information to go on.  rcurl's channeling worked
well because he, like few I know, has a wealth of information to draw
from; and it doesn't hurt that he has a backchannel line on some of my
interests.  <>   Still interested in good Texas fiction, history,
natural/social history....  Whatsay, bookshelf?

response 6 of 25:

Jun 11 16:03 UTC 1994

A book I mentioned somewhere else, "Blue Highways," is about the author's
experiences driving around the country on back roads.  There's a rather long
section about his experiences in texas, as i recall, which you might
find interesting.

response 8 of 25:

Jun 11 17:33 UTC 1994

Greenops just told me offline (as in talking in person) that I should read
"Friday Night Lights", by (?), which is about high school football in
Texas. I might read that when I get back, because I know some of the
subjects where not thrilled with that particular book.

response 10 of 25:

Jun 12 05:54 UTC 1994

And, don't forget _The Texas Rangers_, by whats-his-name.

response 14 of 25:

Jun 14 04:02 UTC 1994

There's bound to be a ton o' Alamo movies and literature around...
any that are particularly noteworthy?

response 16 of 25:

Jun 14 11:43 UTC 1994

Just looked at !more /u/omni/2.  That's a pretty good road map.

response 18 of 25:

Jun 15 01:46 UTC 1994

I vaguely remember my grandmother (or maybe an aunt or two) saying of
_Giant_ something like "I sure never met any Texans anything like *that*".
This was when it was (fairly) new - I was a child at the time.  I never
read it myself, but I wouldn't count on it for an accurate picture, if I
were you.  (I also remember Europeans whose idea of Chicago, where I grew
up, was a cross between cowboys-&-Indians and Al Capone, if that makes
any clearer the kind of thing I mean.)

response 20 of 25:

Jun 15 04:29 UTC 1994

Sure:  And then the author is (was?) from Kalamazoo, Mich.  And then there
is the Hollywood factor.  On the other hand, Texas is a big place, and
maybe your Grandmother really *hadn't* met any Texans like that.  In any
event, my "Giant" experience is likely to be post-facto.  So, I'll be
older, if not wiser.  Texas is such a large literary symbol, striking a
ready-made broad, deep chord.  I'm sure many authors have used Texas as
setting for figurative purposes. 

  In the movie "Apocalypse Now" Vietnam served as the setting for Gilgore's
madness.  The movie was criticized as not representing the real Vietnam,
but the movie was based upon Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" set in
end of the last century Africa.  Conrad witnessed much of what he used for
"Heart of Darkness" in which a passage describes a gunship mindlessly
blasting the bush, searching out an unknown enemy.  This was all
translated into the psychological symbol served by Vietnam of
the early 1960's. 

  I wonder what Ferber experienced in Michigan which led her to invent
Texas in her fiction.  Or maybe she spent a lot of time there, and just
got it all wrong (by your grandmother's estimate), to no purpose?

response 22 of 25:

Jun 15 10:00 UTC 1994

There's the possibility that she wrote it with the intention of getting
Texans mad so they'd buy lots of copies & say how awful it was.  (In fact,
I think I remember reading some critic using that book as an example of
that phenomenon in contemporary literature - worthless book designed to
make minor sensation to boost sales by word of mouth.  Now, again, *I*
never read that book, & am not the one judging that it is a good example
of such.  I've certainly read some, though, so he's correct that the type
exists.)

response 24 of 25:

Jul 9 06:13 UTC 1994

That's a start. After the arf! bow wow!, it takes time and a suitable
substrate, such as kitty litter from ground stalactites. But you will
have to wait for the book....