The Weekly Atticus (07/01/2017)

A recap of the week at Atticus Review, along with some extras.

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Dear ,Today's Weekly Atticus comes to you from Mixed Media Editor Matt Mullins. Next week, Atticus Review will be on vacation. Happy 4th, everybody! Delve into some of the archives from these Atticus Alumni!***There’s a great scene in Charlie Kaufman’s wonderfully meta film ADAPTATION where Kaufman (played by Nicholas Cage) sits at his typewriter and asks himself the essential writerly question:“To begin. To begin. How to start?” He thinks that coffee might help him think. But he should write something first, then reward himself with coffee.  “Coffee and a muffin,” to be specific.“Okay, so I need to establish the themes,” he says. Then… “Maybe banana nut. That’s a good muffin.”Here’s the scene:

An achingly familiar battle, right? Most writers have fought this fight. Maybe the greats, the true geniuses, the naturals, those who can tap the flow like a faucet haven’t had to deal, but I definitely have. It is the core dilemma, the one I call the absolute truth of “ass in chair.” And in the end there is no writing that gets done without it.You may be a head composer, that type who knocks drafts out in your mind’s eye – I often work that way when I’m making videopoems – conceptualizing, looking for shapes and angles in terms of elements and approaches, but when it comes time to do the making, regardless of what you’re trying to write or make, you must face the ultimate moment of ass in chair.And of course the first thing you want to do once you put your ass in that chair (at least the first thing I want to do) is stand right back up again. “Coffee and a muffin.” This is because the blank page is the mirror that asks, what do you want to mean? And you’re afraid the reflection of your words will let you and everybody else down. So you tell yourself you have nothing new or interesting to say. It's all all been said already. It’s all cliché. You cave in to the external distractions, the coffee and muffins of doubt.  But you can’t hide from the truth at the heart of this: Fear of failure.The usual writerly advice is to stick it out. Keep that ass in that chair and things will eventually happen. But here's what I say: Give in to distraction. Get that coffee. Have a muffin. Go for a walk, or a run. Knock out some dishes. Arrange all your knickknacks just so. But whatever you do, do it mindfully. Know that you are giving in to your distractions and instead of feeling guilty for it, think about why you need your distraction even as you engage in it.  Realize all this is probably because you don’t yet know what you want to mean. And be okay with it. Be okay with the idea that you may never completely know what you want to mean while embracing the idea that you will never stop trying to mean. That’s the key, I think: allowing your fear of not trying to eat your fear of failure. Because what remains after that meal is possibility, at least for me. And for me the moment that I embrace possibility is the moment I’m ready to put my fingers to the keys…We have a lot of good stuff up at Atticus Review this week including a new videopoem. We hope you enjoy.We're glad you're here.Matt Mullins, Mixed Media Editor

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

BURTON

BOOK REVIEW: Poetics of LossA review of SHE NAMED HIM MICHAEL by Heather RoundsReview by Katya Ellis"...a poignant meditation on life, grief, suffering, and a family’s quest to escape, heal, and find progression..."READ MORE

FICTION: PENNY STOCKSBy Nicholas A. White"One by one, Amanda added her thirteen pennies to a jar on top of the counter. She hoped that with enough savings her dad could buy the moon. That way when her mom returned from prison, her parents wouldn’t fight as much. Her dad walked into the kitchen, shaking his head while preparing his forearm for a weekly injection of steroids. Amanda didn’t recognize him anymore. It wasn’t only the effect of the steroids but the way he averted his eyes sometimes, as if he were constantly embarrassed."READ MORE

FEATURED POET: JAMES VALVIS"James is a great example of a modern poet who makes lyrically crafted narratives seem easy, and this month’s poems are no exception. All of these poems resonate with humor and working class humanity, even as they demonstrate to the shrewdest academic the subtleties of well-crafted lyricism, the tension created by strategically placed line breaks, and what happens when brain and heart become allies long enough to write a poem."READ MORE

NONFICTION: HIERARCHY OF LOVEBy Michelle Meyers"I have not felt unconditionally loved since my mother’s death, or not, at least, in a way approximating how safe, how encouraged I felt when she was still alive, when I could feel her touch against me, my ear against her ribcage, her heartbeat, her arms around my shoulders. This is unfair, I know, this judgment. Yet it’s the truth of the feeling, the feeling that the loves I experience now seem either conditional or hierarchical, different loves, loves that leave me wondering if I will ever feel as fulfilled again. I wonder if I will ever be as happy as I once was or if that’s impossible now, if that happiness is a limit I’ll only be able to approach but never meet."READ MORE

MIXED MEDIA: MAYFLY SATELLITESby Annie Christain and Gabe Ostley"I had a lot of fun collaborating with Annie Christain on 'Mayfly Satellites.' Her poem is dark, strange, creepy, and mysterious and it was a great experience working with her, discussing the imagery and getting the tone and mood right for this animatic. She supplied me with tons of reference imagery that I was able to spring off of with my skritchy skratchy pens and watercolors. Her choice of using the music of Dan Deacon was inspired and was the last piece of the puzzle. The poem is based partly on the story of The West Memphis Three... the rest is up to your imagination...."READ MORE

FILM REVIEW: A MOVIE YOU CAN DANCE TOA Review of Baby Driverby Alison Lanier"The whole of Baby Driver has a beat to it: it’s hard to recall a movie that matched its editing and acting so beat-for-beat, and a movie for which that tight attention to detail paid off as well. However, while the whole package gleams, some of Wright’s plays on heist-movie tropes don’t get the punchline they were aiming for."READ MORE

The latest news from Atticus Review author alumni! This month: Neil Serven, Robert Savino Oventile, Andrew Sargus Klein, Lori Sambol Brody, Zack O’Neill, Jan Maher, Jennifer A. Howard, Kathryn Holzman, Gwen Goodkin, Dewey N. Fox, Jacqueline Doyle, Anthony Isaac Bradley.READ MORE

Atticus Review will be off next week. Enjoy your 4th of July!