Novelist Lennon reads in Writing Seminars lecture series
Author of Mailman gives unconventional reading, complete with kids' songs in an entertaining evening event held in Gilman Hall
| |
|
Short, half-hour periods of quiet didn't exactly lend themselves to writing the great twenty-first century epic, so Lennon set out to write a series of short-short stories, one for each nap.
What resulted is the hilarious collection of a hundred such anecdotes, "Pieces for the Left Hand." As Lennon recalls, his editors expressed concern over the sales pitch for the book, fearing the idea wouldn't quite catch on with readers, and were brainstorming interesting ideas to market the work.
In came Lennon's musical alter ego, "Inverse Room," with an amusing, rather unorthodox solution to say the least. Lennon decided to release an accompanying CD, with a hundred short songs, each between five and ninety seconds. The book/CD compilation is in the process of being published in England, while publishers in America have yet to jump on board. Well, they'd better start.
Last Tuesday, Lennon read bits and pieces of his work to a highly entertained crowd consisting mostly of writing seminars fiction graduate students. In the spirit of the Hopkins workshop, Lennon decided to read only works in progress. which included a few short shorts and the first chapter from the novel he's currently working on, with a few tracks from his CD in between.
The stories' topics ranged from a friend's father who once had his fingers cut off by his own saw, to a meteorite that once fell into a family's back yard -- a series of lighthearted vignettes told with hilarious deadpan by the author. The songs he played represented his forays into the wide range of musical genres, with experimentations in hard metal, jazz, country and even children's music.
His children's material was much closer to something by They Might Be Giants than Elmo's Playtime. In fact, Lennon listed TMBG as one of his main inspirations. The band has released both a collection of humorous short ditties, and recently, a children's album entitled "No!" featuring such tracks as "I Am Not A Grocery Bag" and "I Am A Grocery Bag."
Lennon and his drum machine had the audience rolling with laughter with the songs "Take Off Your Shirt, Take Off Your Pants, Cover Yourself With Ants" and the political Barney spoof "I Hate Bush, But I Love You."
Lennon's friend has written a script based on the short stories, and will start filming this summer. He invited anyone around upstate New York who is interested in working for free to stop by. The true gem of the night was the selection from Lennon's new novel. His previous books, particularly Mailman and The Funnies have received rave reviews.
Mailman, his latest novel, about a troubled mailman with an unfortunate habit of reading other people's mail, has been described as brilliant and difficult. Lennon's humor is channeled in a very different way in his novels than in his short work--the material has the same sort of comic energy, but one that cuts much deeper, and effectively translates into strong narrative and very stimulating reading.