April 2022 – Ann S. Epstein Writer

No to Netflix, Yo to Novels?

The value of Netflix stock dropped 35% in April after the service lost subscribers for first time in over ten years. Some pundits attributed the loss to Netflix tightening the screws on password sharing; others to folks going out more as pandemic restrictions eased. My theory: people have reset their mental bandwidth and now have room to read at length. I haven’t owned a television for nearly twenty years. I opted to read instead. By coincidence, however, I signed up for Netflix shortly before COVID. At the pandemic’s height, when anxiety peaked, I unwound each evening with a half hour or so of screen time. I still read, but not with the same concentration. Now that COVID anxiety has abated, I can again dive deep into books. So perhaps other Netflix subscribers are also hitting “reset.” Their spirits up, they’re settling down with a good book. More literary thoughts at REFLECTIONS.

Are Netflix subscribers resetting their attention spans from screens to books?

Why writers read: “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” – C. S. Lewis

Learn History Through Fiction: National Geographic’s “Dynamical Pictures” Damned

A character in my novel-in-progress collects old issues of National Geographic. When I was growing up in the 1950s, the iconic yellow-and-oak-leaf-bordered magazine took pride of place alongside the World Book Encyclopedia and Reader’s Digest Condensed Books in the Bronx apartment of our aspirational working class family. The magazine began in 1888 as a scholarly journal sent to 165 members of the National Geographic Society. In 1905, under the direction of Society President Alexander Graham Bell, it shifted to what he called “dynamical pictures.” The Board of Managers censured Bell for making the magazine “unscientific” but its popularity took off. The border was introduced in 1910 as an early attempt at branding. Color photos appeared in the 1930s. Today National Geographic has 40 million subscribers.

“Dynamical pictures” made the once-scholarly magazine “unscientific” but wildly popular

The yellow oak-leaf border was an early example of branding

No more oak leaves, only a bright yellow border

Bad Dad Tale: Heedless Father with Headless Wives

Henry VIII fathered an unknown number of children but acknowledged only seven as legitimate, among them Elizabeth I. He annulled two of his six marriages, beheaded two wives, and was the last Henry to head England. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

England has never been headed by a Henry IX

Toronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize

What I’m Reading: Blood Up North

My Goodreads and Amazon review of Blood Up North by Fredrick Soukup (Rating 5) – Hope Among the Hapless. Some people are bad; others are stupid. Some folks try to be good or smart but keep messing up. That sums up the hapless characters in Fredrick Soukup’s gritty, lowdown, yet often hilariously over-the-top novel Blood Up North, whose body count threatens to rival Hamlet. Don’t trust anything anyone says because they’ll change their story by the next page, if not the next paragraph. Cassie, the plucky protagonist, seems to have learned this, but out of her inherent kindness and/or search for love, she occasionally appears gullible. Whether she actually is, or merely joins every other character in taking the rest for a ride, readers will have fun following the plot’s convoluted twists and turns, even if, like me, you lose track of where they’ve been or might be going. As a fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Soukup’s ingenuity and ability to sustain the story’s momentum. What ultimately steers this book and makes readers care about the outcome is Cassie. She’s tough yet surprisingly vulnerable, competent with lapses of helplessness, a veritable venison stew of unresolvable parts. The girl has been dealt a lousy hand and deserves to outwit her tormentors, who are motivated by greed, revenge, and male ego. Root for her. You’ll be rewarded in the end.

Why writers read: “People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.” – Saul Bellow

Bad Dad Tale: Seesaw Sire

In Never Mind, a work of auto-fiction by Edward St. Aubyn, the father in an aristocratic family is manipulative, sexually abusive, and alternately cruel and apologetic. The cost to his son is depression and heroin addiction. For the story of another bad dad who messes up his kids, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Auto-fiction about a truly horrible father

Landing the Last Note or Word

Reading a review of concert pianist Jeremy Denk’s memoir Every Good Boy Does Fine: A Love Story in Music Lessons, I wondered how a composer knows what note, chord, or musical phrase on which to end a piece. That led me to ponder how a writer knows just the right the word, phrase, or sentence with which to conclude a narrative. Satisfying musical and literary endings achieve two goals. They resolve what has come before, offering a sense of inevitability that the ending is exactly as it should be. Yet, that final note or word also resonates beyond the work. As a writer, I know when I’ve “landed” the ending. I don’t have a map or GPS to steer me. I simply trust that I’ll eventually get there. See more thoughts about writing at REFLECTIONS.

Finding the right note to end a piece of music

Finding the right word to end a narrative

Why writers write: “Writers write not because they know things but because they want to find things out.” – Julia Alvarez

Bad Dad Tale: Diabolical Dictator and Dad

Failed dictator Joseph Stalin failed as a father too. After his son Yakov’s unsuccessful suicide attempt, Stalin mocked him, “He can’t even shoot straight.” When Yakov was captured by the Red Army, Stalin refused to trade a German officer to save him. Yakov died in a concentration camp, reportedly by throwing himself onto an electric fence. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Stalin killed millions and drove his own son to suicide

Bad Dad Tale: Bone-Breaker

Glen Waddle, in Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison, repeatedly and violently rapes his preteen step-daughter, once so badly he breaks her bones. A grim tale of poverty and misogyny that asks whether women can save the day. For the story of another bad dad — who tries to break a baby-making record — read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash. Fifty years later, he learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.