Erica Stephens

I woke up around 2 am last night, feverish with some ideas that were blowing around in my head.  I had been sketching before I went to sleep, so my sketchbook and pen were still sitting on my nightstand, easily within reach.  I grabbed them and sketched my ideas, thinking maybe there would be something in them that would prove fruitful in my waking hours (… that still remains to be seen).

This is nothing new – plenty of people keep a dream journal and sketchbook and practice this regularly.  What I found so fascinating when I woke up this morning is the process my sketches went through as I worked through them.  See the “tree” in the upper left corner?  That was the first thing I drew, while I was still practically asleep.  The ladder sketch came next, followed by that monstrosity of a “room” drawing there at the bottom.  The more lucid I became, the worse my drawing in darkness became.  How did I get all those little lines on that tree lined up while in a state of sleep, and I couldn’t even draw a rectangle once I woke up?

Sketching in the dark

You find all sorts of weird stuff in your classroom when you are a teacher. This is my favorite thing ever “left” for me when I taught my high school kids in Oak Cliff. The students were all pretty interested in our David / Marat lesson. Some chose to express their interest in a visual way. I have this framed on my wall now and will keep it forever.  Someday I will write an essay on why this is one of my favorite works of art ever made.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

As I move on to Book 2 of my 50 book challenge, I have decided this is a good opportunity for early reflection.  I’ve read The Great Gatsby before, as many people have.  It’s pretty standard public school book list material.  But I wanted to put F. Scott Fitzgerald on my list of ten authors, as I’ve never read any of his other works, and it was tough curating  five works of his without including this one.  Plus, they are making a movie version of it, and I thought it might be nice to have a little refresher before Carey Mulligan has a crack at Daisy Buchanan.

More than any of that, though, I realized when making my list that I remember almost nothing about this book, because I read it my sophomore year of high school, a whopping eighteen years ago (shudder).  I remember liking the book.  I remember thinking it was full of pathetic, hopelessly flawed characters, my favorite kind.  I remember thinking the writing was sexy.  But I was 15 and what did I know?  Now I reread it at 33 and find out if it can still light a spark in me.

Nick looked on at the moon, coming up over the hills.

“It isn’t fun any more.”

He was afraid to look at Marjorie. Then he looked at her. She sat there with her back toward him. He looked at her back. “It isn’t fun any more. Not any of it.”

She didn’t say anything. He went on. “I feel as though everything was gone to hell inside of me. I don’t know, Marge. I don’t know what to say.”

He looked on at her back.

“Isn’t love any fun?” Marjorie said.

“No,” Nick said. Marjorie stood up. Nick sat there, his head in his hands.

– An excerpt from “The End of Something”

That was published in 1925.  It is now 87 years later, and it is still exactly right.  That is precisely how it goes down when one person no longer loves someone they once thought they did.  I know, because I have been on both sides of that conversation.  In its most recent appearance in my life, I am heartbreak’s Marjorie.  That is what prompted this task of reading 50 classic works of American literature in a year.  My heart is broken and it needs a distraction.  I want to get lost in a world outside of my own.

The challenge: read 50 works in 2012, 5 each by 10 authors.

William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Absolom! Absolom!, Light in August, Go Down Moses

F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Crack Up

Ernest Hemingway – In Our Time, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Moveable Feast, Garden of Eden, Across the River and Into the Trees

Toni Morrison -  The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Jazz, A Mercy

John Steinbeck – Cannery Row, East of Eden, The Winter of Our Discontent, The Red Pony, Travels With Charley

John Updike – Rabbit Run, The Centaur, The Coup, Roger’s Version, In the Beauty of the Lilies

Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse 5, Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, The Sirens of Titan

David Foster Wallace – Infinite Jest, The Pale King, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, Girl With Curious Hair, The Broom of the System

Tennessee Williams – Battle of Angels, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending

August Wilson – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Gem of the Ocean

Up first:

In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Need a wacky/interesting gift for someone? If you are in Dallas, drive over to We Are 1976 on Henderson.  You’ll be supporting local/handmade and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find something great.  I was impressed when I went last week.  A few greatest hits:

Bones Salt and Pepper Shakers

Squid Tentacle Ring

Lots of interesting stationery

Has your mom / girlfriend / sister gotten her hair / nails / etc. done at the same place for years?  And do you actually know where that place is?  If so, good on you for being involved in their lives enough to know that.  You’re awesome.  Go get them a gift certificate for something they already regularly treat themselves to.  They’ll be moved that you took the time to notice.  Wanna up your game?  Include a note with it about how great they always look when they get their regular beauty tune-up.  (But don’t call it that.  Duh.)