A November List
Hello from deep in the dissertation panic-writing—wherein I attempt to fully transition a mostly literary critical project about Florida literature to a mostly creative non-fiction project (still about Florida literature) in the span of about four months. The good news is that there’s now lots of research and little things I wrote that don’t really fit in the dissertation that can go live elsewhere (like maybe here! If you have missed my Florida dispatches, I think they’re coming back). The bad news is that I need to generate A LOT of writing pretty quickly so for this month at least, and possibly the next, inspired by my uncle’s birthday request last week for lists of favorite things, here’s a list of things I’ve enjoyed in the last month:
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans (2020). I am very excited that Danielle is judging The Georgia Review’s prose prize this year, and so in preparation to begin screening submissions (submission info here! It’s a great prize, and ALL prize submissions get MULTIPLE READERS), a few of us at work had a lil book club with her latest short-story collection. It’s simply good writing that tackles modern issues around race, work, incarceration, but is also funny and real without becoming maudlin. The title story, The Office of Historical Corrections, is a sneaky novella at the end of the collection, a welcome surprise to a lover of novellas (me) that plays with ideas of historicity, fact, and who creates and enforces the historical record.
Dickinson (2019-2021) with Hailee Steinfeld, Jane Krakowski, Toby Huss, and lots of great cameos. I watched this for the first time a couple of years ago, but when The Buccaneers, an Edith Wharton adaptation, came out on Apple TV, I found myself drifting back to it. Where The Buccaneers can’t seem to figure out where it falls between period piece and modernized spin (ala the 2006 Marie Antoinette)—which makes period-appropriate language sometimes jarring or stale sounding against the modern soundtrack and antics of the young women—Dickinson is not so much a historically-faithful telling of Emily Dickinson’s life as true to the spirit of her poetry. Like the best historical reimaginings, it acts as commentary on the period in which it is made, like the abolitionist writer, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who tries to run a free-black infantry unit in the Civil War but won’t stop chastising himself about centering his own whiteness when talking to black men. Weird, funny, amusing, a literary biography of sorts that had me re-reading Dickinson’s poetry for the first time since studying her for my comprehensive exams.
Spotify Daylists. I was a latecomer to Spotify, long faithful to the Pandora stations I made in high school and convinced that Pandora’s algorithm was better for discovering new music. While I still think Spotify leans a little too much on what I already like, the novelty of “daylists” has won me over, if nothing other than for the names they come up with.
Cooking pumpkin pie filling over the stove. I realize Thanksgiving has passed, but this was a Wednesday discovery, and maybe you like pumpkin pie all year round. I traditionally don’t like pumpkin pie—the flavors don’t quite sit right, the texture often isn’t what I want—but enough people around me this year do like it, so I made it. Basically, combine your spices (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove), brown sugar (I had date and coconut sugar so I used those), and pumpkin puree in a saucepan and stir continuously over medium heat for like 5 minutes. It drives off excess water and gives the flavors time to develop. Then you add your heavy cream and milk, bring it back to a simmer, and then take it off heat before adding your eggs. After filling my two pie shells, I had leftover filling that I baked in a little dish like a pumpkin spice custard. It would have made an excellent dessert with some crumbled ginger cookies and whipped cream.
Wakulla Springs Park. This Florida state park was a stop off on a drive this week. It’s close to Tallahassee and most famous for being the place where The Creature from the Black Lagoon and some early Tarzan movies were filmed. There’s an old lodge built in the 1930s that you can stay in, boat tours, a diving platform, and a restaurant with classic southern food—catfish and chicken with nice thin breading, hush puppies, fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits. It’s an excellent little bit of Florida history and Florida ecology.