6-Arts
By Jeffrey Wechsler
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/11/19
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
01/11/19
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Friday, January 11, 2019
ACROSS
1 Old gas station
freebie
4 One holding all
the cards?
10 “__ run!”
15 Texter’s
cautioning letters
16 Take to the skies
17 “The Phantom
of the Opera”
setting
18 Indigent ones
hiding among
bales?
21 Like much
ordinary history
22 Japanese volcano
23 Long walk
24 Author Jong
25 Ascended
28 Stark in “Game
of Thrones”
29 Holders of poor-
taste gifts?
31 Must
33 Presidential
nickname
34 Type of pitcher
35 Result of
smashing a
piñata during a
hurricane?
41 Food industry
headgear
42 Barrel contents
43 __ cuisine
44 Script for an
absurdist play?
51 PHL stat
52 Calls
54 Lavender asset
55 Gillette brand
57 Like Dorothy
Parker’s humor
58 Pollen site
59 Concept for
creating difficult
crossword
puzzles?
63 Gaucho’s tool
64 Gift to an
audience
65 “Road to __”:
Hope/Crosby film
66 Wee, jocularly
67 Ancient
eponymous
advisor
68 Ernie with irons
DOWN
1 Stately dance
2 Ancient Egyptian
deity
3 How one might
wax, but not
wane
4 Ambush
5 Passionate
6 Architect
Maya __
7 2002 W.S.
champs,
nowadays
8 Hydrocarbon gas
9 Kids
10 Traveler’s aid,
briefly
11 Censor’s target
12 Prepares for, as
a profession
13 Cited on the
road
14 Required from
19 Harbor sight
20 The Gershwins’
“Embraceable __”
25 Arid Asian region
26 Pair in a field
27 “Is it ever hot
today!”
30 Hudson and
James
32 3-Down pugilist
34 Count (on)
35 Foyer
convenience
36 Winter birth,
perhaps
37 Commonly
hexagonal
hardware
38 Not superficial
39 Purse relative
40 Pop radio fodder
41 London’s Old
Vic, for one
44 Corporate
source of the
Elmer’s Glue
logo
45 Random
individual
46 Agitation
metaphor
47 Wrath, in a hymn
48 “When!”
49 “Bam!” chef
50 Some HDTVs
53 1-Acr. marking
56 Book after John
58 Minute Maid
Park player, to
fans
60 Jewelry giant
61 Lavs
62 “Just kidding!”
Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
It came up in conversation a
short while ago that Verity and
I were reading the same book —
“Paradise Rot,” the debut novel of
the Norwegian musician Jenny
Hval. I asked Verity if she was
interested in co-writing about
Hval’s work, which is equally
split between her writing and her
musical projects, and would thus
match our respective backgrounds
in literature and music.
“Paradise Rot” is an enigmatic
novel: It seems to sprawl beyond
its 148 pages, extending its tendrils
into all sorts of aesthetic and
conceptual
quandaries.
Hval’s
music is no less complex, both
sonically and lyrically. It resists
immediate
comparison
in
no
small part because of its variety.
She’s capable of everything from
drone metal to twangy folk, and
frequently inhabits an in-between
space all her own.
Additionally,
Hval’s
creative
energies
strain
at
the
very
boundaries of the media she uses:
Her songs have a capital-P poetic
dimension as well as a narrative
and thematic thrust, and her prose
writing can have the amorphous
nature of her music, flitting and
shifting between tropes, forms,
and references and sometimes
just dissolving into a network of
sensuality and instinct.
I think we settled on publishing
a kind of longform conversation
(rather than a standard essay) in
part because of Hval’s insistence
of working on several levels at
once. It’s difficult to draw only one
conclusion from her work — really,
it pulls in all directions, slipping out
of the critical grasp right where it
seems most solidified. I think the
format of correspondence allows us
to explore her artistic output from
many angles at once, unbounded
by definite conclusions or single
threads to follow. We were also
inspired by the “Slow Burn” series
at Yale’s Post45 collective, which
takes the form of correspondence
between critics grappling with
complex works of art.
I’ve always loved talking to
people about what I’m reading or
listening to, and I almost always
find that it teaches me to think of
the work in a new way. For an artist
like Hval, fresh perspectives and
unsettledness seem uniquely suited
for providing insight in a way a
more linear argument wouldn’t.
— Emily
11/30/18
Espresso Royale State Street, by
the windows
Rainy
Dear Emily,
I
tend
to
salivate
over
structure,
which
has
never
felt like a particularly popular
or
pleasant
obsession
(albeit
useful). Jack Brandon will say
“Capricorn,” but I massage my
individuality by calling it a sort
of personal interest in world
building
(Jack
Brandon
will
repeat “Capricorn”). The person I
am in the School of Information is
not the one wandering the English
Department, and walking on the
street felt different when I got my
haircut. You know? The delta in
those experiences is so curious.
Same person, different person.
There, not there.
Structure is a pretty hot take
in the literary world, especially
right now. We hate it. Poetry
challenges prose, which is in
turn challenged by prose poetry.
Creative nonfiction is a thing,
arguably the thing of the moment.
Genre-bending is a movement.
MFA programs are branding
as “experimental” and “non-
tracking.” Literati arranges such
texts on a round table between
fiction, poetry and pens. They
don’t label it.
—
Daily Arts Desk, next to a mason
jar of cranberry Red Bull
Fluorescent
I picked up “Paradise Rot”
because of its millennial bait cover
design and bought it for the Chris
Kraus endorsement on the back.
Millennials bend genres, Chris
Kraus bends genres, bending
genres turn me on (so sinuous).
Marketing did a precise job.
Except
for
the
fact
that
“Paradise Rot” is not a genre-
bender. It presents as a novel,
identifying as “fiction” on the
flyleaf. And it checks the boxes:
written in prose, organized into
chapters and arranged around
a classic storyline: Girl studies
abroad, is awakened sexually.
Formally, Hval isn’t all that bendy.
I felt like I went into “Paradise
Rot” all jazzed up for a circle and
got a square.
This
initially
effected
my
reading. I actively despise feeling
duped, even if I’m not actually
being duped (spoiler). So the first
impression I got from “Paradise
Rot” was that of its structural
failure. The plot is honestly
weak, which leaves room for the
characters to shine, but their
development seems both half-
baked
and
disproportionate.
(Why does the unremarkable,
third-string Pym take up so much
space?) For a square, it’s a pretty
bad one.
Once my geometry metaphor
angst wore off, though, I realized
this “novel” was hitting me like
a poem. While its structure fails
to deliver, Hval’s language slowly
and consistently designs a certain
atmosphere. Her highly sensual
descriptions (“my nails break,
opening up like clams and in
the finger flesh there are sticky
little fruit pearls”) and consistent
references
to
plant
decay,
moisture and general stickiness
subtly adjusted my emotional
thermostat.
At
the
end
of
“Paradise Rot,” the environment
in my brain, like the apartment
that Jo and Carral share, had
transformed. I was too distracted
by lines and corners to notice it
happening.
If Jenny Hval wanted to write
a poem, she would have written
a poem. If she wanted to write a
piece that resisted the distinctions
of prose and poetry, she would
have marketed “Paradise Rot”
as a genre-bender. She carefully
incorporated all the necessary
infrastructure
to
categorize
“Paradise Rot” as Very Much
Fiction, which is no casual effort.
You don’t just “do it as a novel” for
fun.
My lame brain wants the
impossible
—
an
answer
—
and I’m tempted to frame this
novel
as
a
structural
coup
d’état. Jenny Hval has written
something that glaringly meets
all the qualifications of a novel
yet operates like a poem. It’s like
a genre bending-genre bender …
rather than creating something
outside the system, she hijacks the
system’s own machinery to unveil
its categorization as construct.
My brain hurts. Write me back.
Xo.
Verity
—
12/3/18, a bedroom in Kerrytown
Dear Verity,
I have to admit that I’m much
less attuned to narrative structure
than you are. While I totally
agree with your assessment of
the novel’s plot, most of what I
got out of “Paradise Rot” was
the exhilarating rush of Hval’s
language,
her
poetics
and
fixations. I think every good
book changes, if temporarily,
the reader’s relationship with
the world. Accordingly, I found
myself paying closer attention to
the muddy patch of leaves in the
front doorway to my house, to the
tangle of plants in my backyard, to
the echoes of dreams as I get ready
in the morning. Jo’s porousness,
her inability to keep the world
from her mind, translated into
a sticky awareness of the world
around me as I read. I became
attuned to the forces of growth
and decay happening around me,
all the time; I felt the wind go
through me like a paper bag.
That having been said, my
largest
complaint
about
the
novel is that the structure didn’t
let the content be as windy, as
continuous, as it seemed like
it wanted to be. Its pacing and
especially its organization into
short chapters was at odds with
the subject matter and the style
of the prose. Jo’s narration felt so
interior and reliant on sensation
that I found myself wanting the
formal boundaries to dissolve, for
everything to mix together like
paint in a sink. Chapters truncate,
and there’s no truncating decay,
which is an inexorable downward
(and outward) flow. Hval seems
to be emulating that organic
structure without committing to
making her novel resemble it on
the macro scale.
I might give Hval more credit
for bending genre than you do,
though, or at least I think she
plays with genre expectations in
interesting ways. Even though
the novel often works like a poem,
it makes sense to me why it was
“done” as a novel. The promise of a
plot set me up to interact with her
writing differently than I might if
“Paradise Rot” had been done as a
long poem or a film. The novelistic
“infrastructure” is a signal for
the reader to experience the text
a certain way: We are to assume
that all of this is happening, not
as a metaphor or a stand-in for
something
else,
but
literally.
Poems are slippery as to their
literal meaning, prose is concrete,
or at least seems so ...
BOOKS DIALOGUE
A conversation, in decay
I think we settled
on doing a kind
of long-form
conversation ... in
part because of
Hval’s insistence
of working on
several levels at
once
VERITY STURM
Daily Book Review Editor
EMILY YANG
Daily Arts Writer
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW
Artists’ Instagram pages are
riddled with their beautiful
finished
photographs,
drawings, paintings, etc. I
rarely ever come across photos
of
the
countless
canvases
thrown in the trash or the
numerous photographs where
the lighting was too low or the
model wasn’t posed the correct
way. I sit on chairs every day of
my life, but seldom do I think
about the engineering and
logistical work it took to create
those chairs. We are hardly
ever exposed to the progress
of a final piece of work. Most
of the time, we only see the
final piece of work itself. Yet,
we must realize that through
analyzing progress, we can
learn a great deal about not
only final pieces of work but the
process of creation itself. The
value in this examination is
largely what inspired the Ann
Arbor Arts Center’s upcoming
exhibit: “Works in Progress.”
“I think the act of bringing
an
idea
into
its
physical
manifestation
is
beautiful,”
said Sophie Yan, a curator for
the event. “Works in Progress”
is a celebration of the process
of bringing functional works
to
life.
This
free
exhibit
features
fashion,
graphic
design, furniture, architecture,
industrial design and more.
The 25 selected participants
include working professionals,
students and internationally
exhibited
designers.
The
“Works in Progress” exhibit’s
opening party is an event for
any one who values the beauty
found in “the process.”
Yan has been making things
since she was a little kid.
Studying interior design in
college and going on to study
3D graphic design in graduate
school, Yan now works as
a
hybrid
interior/furniture
designer
and
fabricator
at
Synecdoche,
a
design/
architecture studio in Ann
Arbor. It is through Synecdoche
that she became involved with
the Ann Arbor Arts Center and
“Works in Progress.”
“‘Works in Progress’ started
when I met up with Matt
Rosner, a fellow designer in
Ann Arbor, and we talked
about organizing a show as a
way of getting local designers
talking to each other and
fostering a community,” Yan
said. “I got my partner, Chris
Czub, involved since he has
experience organizing events.
I pitched the idea to the Art
Center and they had an opening
in their exhibition schedule
so it kind of all worked out
perfectly.”
“I liked the idea of showing
process
materials
and
unfinished work as a way of
gaining insight into the artist
or designer’s practice,” Yan
said. “The original purpose
of the show was to foster a
community, so I thought that
this would be a good way to
get folks talking to each other.
Besides, I feel that we as
audiences always see only the
finished result and often the
developmental work that went
into it goes unnoticed. I wanted
to celebrate that for once.”
The show is intended to
be a discussion space for
creators and designers as well
as to showcase the progress
of works of art. Yan will be
showing some textile samples
that she has been accumulating
in her studio over the years.
A large part of the show
focuses on both the beauty
and the chaos in creation.
While Yan believes the act of
bringing an idea into a physical
manifestation is beautiful, she
said “The process of getting
there, however, is sometimes
chaotic. Ideas have a tendency
to bounce off of each other
and grow exponentially. Not
every idea deserves to be fully
realized, and the hard part is
often knowing when to move
on from something and when
to push through and commit. I
like to experiment openly with
different
materials
without
thinking about the end result. I
end up with lots of half-baked
ideas waiting for the perfect
application.”
As creators, it is important
to see the process of other
creators and how that process
can or cannot apply to your
own work. “Works in Progress”
is
an
exhibit
for
anyone
interested in the behind-the-
scenes of creation. The opening
party is an event for creators to
network with one another and
discuss the design process as
well. For a Friday night filled
with creative thinking and
discussion, I’d suggest heading
over to Ann Arbor Arts Center.
You may leave wanting to scrap
some of your old ideas or bring
a brand new idea to life. “Works
in Progress” will be on display
at the Arts Center from Jan. 11
to Feb. 9.
ALIX CURNOW
Daily Arts Writer
Seeking beauty and chaos
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
“Works in
Progress”
Opening Night
Jan. 11, 2019 @
6-9 p.m.
Ann Arbor Arts
Center
Free
6 — Friday, January 11, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com