Death in the Afternoon

The number of projects I have running simultaneously right now is sort of giving me vertigo. I keep ricocheting from Tzarist Russia to Cartoon high schools to writers on the Isle of Skye in the 20's to Jane Eyre-inspired short stories to bullfighting. Which is really what should be (but hasn't been) taking precedence this week, no thanks to the tech gods.  


But I have tried, working around my video editing nightmare, to steep myself again in my work for the various bullfighting/ Tercio de Muerte projects. I'm re-reading sections of Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon-- just the richest thing I've ever read. Every line. The book is one continuous underline. And so funny. Sometimes, you forget how funny Hemingway actually was. 


I have to say, I am just so endlessly fascinated by this project and the various media it has started to grow limbs in every possible direction. A radio drama, of course the musical, and who knows what else. But I dream of my invented Aries Brio and his sister Paloma, his lover Fernanda, and his wife Gemma, endlessly. With music and without, with visual, and then, in the heightened world of sound on the radio. 


One of my main goals-- aside from the fact that I think the subject is a relatively untapped gold mine, just begging for a sexy dance musical-- is to build up a more masculine voice in my writing. My stuff has always been decidedly feminine in tone and content, which by and large, I'm fine with. 


But as I move into my phd years and begin work on both the creative and research portions of my work, I'm going to be looking at literary boys' clubs. I'm going to have a lot more male characters on my roster and I need them to be amazing. So, Hemingway. Hook me up. Plug me in. Do it. 


Plus, I am just so intrigued. A great decline/decay of a tradition (as a descendent of Tennessee Williams and devoted lover of Faulkner, you know I'm into that!) cruelty mixed with a kind of majesty, the weird psychology and politics of it all... or to quote for you:


"Magical. Or disgusting. Few things in the world spark such a difference of opinion. Maybe marriage."





I confess, I'm more interested in bullfighting in the 1930's-1960's, but for further reading, this article about Alejandro Amaya is hot.