Flooding in the Biblioteca
August 15, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

On the evening of Thursday, August 7, due to the intense rain in the city, water began to leak though the fanlights in the Sala de Poesía (Poetry Room) and an audiovisual materials area, which caused some of the books, CDs, videos and audio books to get wet.

The water level in Sala Quetzal rose two centimeters. Water ran from Sala de Poesía to the Sala de Inglés, where the photocopier is. Fortunately the machine and books in this room did not suffer damages.

Damages caused by flooding:

257 books; 237 videos; more than 50 CD audio books; more than 20 cassette audio books; 8 shelves; plus chairs and the wooden floor.  If you want to help, contact chief librarian Juan Manuel Fajardo or Rosario Muñoz at the Biblioteca.

Two dynamic ladies at the Sala
By Kimberly Kinser

Authors’ Sala
Mercedes Arteaga Tovar & Marie Delgado Travis
Fri, Aug 15, 5–7pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
50 pesos

Mercedes Arteaga Tovar reads from her novel, Perfume de la Polvera, and Laura Josephs reads her translation, The Scent of Gunpowder, for tonight’s Authors’ Sala presentation.

Arteaga is well known in our community as the owner of the Restaurant Bugambilia and she is writing a book that tells the history of the restaurant and includes recipes. She has decided to have this book translated into English for the benefit of her patrons not raised on chiles en nogada and enchiladas verdes.

Marie Delgado Travis reads from her wide collection of poetry in both English and Spanish. A native of New York City, a “Nuyorican,” Travis spent 20 years living on her parents’ farm in Puerto Rico.

Both Arteaga and Travis are working on new fiction. Arteaga writes a modern story, this time, of a woman born in northern Mexico, educated in the US and her journey back to her native country. Travis is exploring the boundaries between memoir and fiction, magical realism and poetry and looking forward to continuing her career as a writer in a low-residency MFA program.

Please join the Sala in welcoming two talented women. It promises to be an evening of cross-cultural magic for the ear and heart.

Kimberly Kinser leads creative writing workshops at LifePath Center each fall.

Tom Robbins headlines Summer Literary Festival
By Alice Sperling

Summer Literary Festival
Authors’ Sala
Tue–Thu, Aug 19–21
Tom Robbins keynote address

Language is Not the Frosting; It’s the Cake
Tue, Aug 19, 6pm

Alan Rinzler keynote address
Weird and Wonderful Writers I Have Published
Wed, Aug 20, 6pm

Robbins-Rinzler on-stage book group
Thu, Aug 21, 6pm 


Hotel Real de Minas
Ancha de San Antonio and Stirling Dickinson
300 pesos for keynote addresses

Film Screening & Discussion

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Thu, Aug 21, 1pm & 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
50 pesos

If the world gets any smaller I’ll end up living next door to myself.


Using words to describe magic is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef.

Disbelief in magic can force a soul into believing in government and business.—Tom Robbins

The keynote addresses at San Miguel's first Summer Literary Festival are open to the general public, not just those who attend the full conference. Tom Robbins, who rarely appears in public, will present an historic keynote address on Tuesday evening. The second keynote address is by Robbins’ editor, Alan Rinzler, whose clients include Hunter Thompson, Tom Wolfe and Bob Dylan.

Robbins and Rinzler conduct an on-stage book group August 21, discussing Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates.

Admission to the keynote presentations are on a sliding scale—300 pesos or pay what you can. Tickets will be available at the door, beginning at 5pm. Please arrive early!

The full festival is an opportunity for writers, with workshops, small group discussions, a movie screening, receptions, dinners, coffee in the country and special events for San Miguel Literary Society members.

To see the full schedule and to sign up for all or part of the conference, visit www.sanmiguelauthors.com. Festival tickets also are available at Mail Boxes, Etc., Reloj 26.

alTirado

Due to scheduling conflicts, alTirado’s appearance at William Martin Gallery in Fábrica la Aurora has been changed to Thursday, August 21, at 7pm. The photographer and filmmaker presents his new book, San Miguel de Allende: A Pictorial Story along with his 32-minute documentary, Dia de Muertos, shot here in San Miguel.

Book Fever
By Marcia Loy

Book Fever takes the pulse of Jane Austen

Why can’t we read Jane Austen? Two Guys Read Jane Austen! Because she could write. I mean that girl could write so the STORY (which Melville IS great at spinning, granted!) is a bonus and the WRITING is the great thing…

–Steve Chandler to Terrence N. Hill, Two Guys Read Moby Dick

Jane Austen is my favorite author. I first encountered her when I was about 25 and thought she was boring. Then at 35 I tried her again; I don’t remember why. This time I loved her. I’ve read all her books many times.

She lived in Hampshire, England, from 1775 to 1817 and wrote six novels. I love all of them. These three are my favorites.

Pride and Prejudice, 1813. This is an almost flawless novel, full of unforgettable characters, clever plot twists and like Steve Chandler says, that girl could write! From the famous opening sentence, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” it’s a page-turner.

Excerpt: (A conversation between Mr. Darcy’s aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh and Elizabeth Bennet)

“Let us sit down. You are to understand, Miss Bennet, that I came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose; nor will I be dissuaded from it. I have not been used to submit to any person’s whims. I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment.”

“That will make your ladyship’s situation at present more pitiable; but it will have no effect on me.”

“I will not be interrupted. Hear me in silence. My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other. They are descended on the maternal side, from the same noble line; and, on the father’s, from respectable, honourable, and ancient, though untitled families. Their fortune on both sides is splendid. They are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their respective houses; and what is to divide them? The upstart pretentions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune. Is this to be endured! But it must not, shall not be. If you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere, in which you have been brought up.”

“In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal.”

“True. You are a gentleman’s daughter. But who was your mother? Who are your uncles and aunts? Do not imagine me ignorant of their condition.”

“Whatever my connections may be,” said Elizabeth, “if your nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to you.”

“Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?”

Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question; she could not but say, after a moment’s deliberation,

“I am not.”

Lady Catherine seemed pleased.

“And will you promise me, never to enter into such an engagement?”

“I will make no promise of the kind.”

Emma, 1816. The title character must be one of the most lovable in all of literature. Emma  Woodhouse means well, as she goes about trying to arrange a romance between her friend Miss Smith and Mr. Elton. Miss Smith is willing but Mr. Elton has his eye on Miss Woodhouse. Things go from bad to worse. Emma chooses Frank Churchill for herself but finds he’s engaged to Miss Jane Fairfax. With some help from her wise friend Mr. Knightley, all comes out well in the end.

Excerpt: Mr. Woodhouse was fond of society in his own way. He liked very much to have his friends come and see him; and from various united causes, from his long residence at Hartfield, and his good-nature, from his fortune, his house, and his daughter, he could command the visits of his own little circle, in a great measure as he liked. He had not much intercourse with any families beyond that circle; his horror of late hours, and large dinner-parties, made him unfit for any acquaintance but such as would visit him on his own terms… Not unfrequently, through Emma’s persuasion, he had some of the chosen and the best to dine with him; but evening parties were what he preferred; and, unless he fancied himself at any time unequal to company, there was scarcely an evening in the week in which Emma could not make up a card-table for him.

Persuasion, 1818. Published after her death, her last novel deals with Anne Elliot, who several years before turned down the proposal of a young naval officer. Circumstances bring them together in this wonderful satire of the landed English gentry. Excerpt: Mr. Elliot was rational, discreet, polished—but he was not open. There was never any burst of feeling, any warmth of indignation or delight, at the evil or good of others. This, to Anne, was a decided imperfection.

Her early impressions were incurable. She prized the frank, the open-hearted, the eager character beyond all others. Warmth and enthusiasm did captivate her still. She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.

There have been some fun books updating the Austen stories. Jane Austen in Boca tells Pride and Prejudice with Jewish senior citizens, Mr. Darcy’s Diary is set at the time of the original, but tells it from his point of view. The Family Fortune is Persuasion set in modern-day Boston. The film Clueless is a delightful contemporary version of Emma set in a California high school. Bride and Prejudice is a Bollywood spectacular starring Aishwarya Rai as a farmer’s daughter in Amritsar. Mr. William Darcy is an American businessman.

Next week: More classics. Happy reading.

Marcia Loy is a member of the steering committee of the Authors’ Sala and a volunteer at the Biblioteca Pública. She can be contacted at marciabookfever@hotmail.com.