The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
~ W.B. Yeats
The little gold boat was among a group of exquisite gold artifacts dating from the early Iron Age (1st century B.C.E.) found in 1896 in a farm field near Limavady, Northern Ireland. Because the objects were buried about 14 inches deep and covered in mud, ploughmen Thomas Nicholl and James Morrow did not realize at first that they were gold. The hoard included the boat, two necklaces, a bowl and a hollow collar called a torc. The plough damaged the boat so badly that a goldsmith needed to restore it. It measures 7.25 inches (18.4 cm) by 3 inches (7.6 cm) and weighs 3 ounces (85 g), has benches, oarlocks, two rows of oars, a paddle for steering, grappling tools, three forks, a yardarm and a spear. The boat and other objects in the horde may have been offerings to the Celtic sea god Manannan Mac Lir.
Read, read, read. Read everything–trash, classics, good and bad–Read! Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it.
Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”
Along with many battered editions of paperback mysteries, William Faulkner’s library at the University of Mississippi includes plenty of literary ballast. He drew writing inspiration from the Faulkner family bible, a neighboring estate’s slave ledgers and a range of classic works by writers from Joyce to Wilde, Melville, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Hugo, the Brontes and many more.
Mystery Paperbacks from William Faulkner’s Home
Famous for his long (sometimes called “run on”) sentences (including an 1,800 word, 6-page example in The Bear), Faulkner developed a distinctive style that showed he was not afraid to break conventional rules of grammar and usage. His fans often point out how the relentless rhythms of his sentences contribute to the reader’s sense of the South’s slaveholding history as riding roughshod over white-washed folklore. The community around his home, Rowan Oak, in Oxford, Mississippi, also provided inspiration with oral histories, stories and legends. Whatever you think of his work, Faulkner, like Ray Bradbury, was a student of both books and the world.
That’s why I made it a priority to visit the Faulkner House on a recent trip to New Orleans. Now the home of Faulkner House Books, this national literary landmark in the French Quarter was where the 27-year-old Faulkner briefly rented ground-floor rooms (bathroom upstairs) in 1925, found a mentor in writer Sherwood Anderson, had his first work published in a New Orleans journal and wrote his first novel, Soldiers’ Pay.
Amy Roil, Book Witch
How did Faulkner’s stay in New Orleans launch his writing career? Here’s a partial transcript published in the Melville House Books blog from one of the recorded public readings Faulkner gave while he was at the University of Virginia (now housed in the university’s archives and available for online listening). In answer to an audience member’s question about how he became a writer, he said:
…I’d always liked to imagine stories and occasionally put something down, but I was still—had not taken it seriously until I was in New Orleans. I was working for a bootlegger. This was back in the—in the twenties, and I met Sherwood Anderson, and we liked each other right away. We would meet in the afternoon. We would walk around the French Quarter along the docks, and he would talk, and I would listen. We’d meet again in the evening. We’d go to a—a nice patio or courtyard, and we’d sit over a bottle of whiskey, and he would talk, and I would listen. In the morning, I wouldn’t see him. He’d be in seclusion working. And that would go on day after day, the afternoons to walk and laugh and talk, and the evenings to—to drink and laugh and talk, in the mornings, in seclusion working. And I thought that if that was all it took to be a writer, that was exactly the life for me.
In the same question-and-answer session, Faulkner described fictional characters, or what he called “the people in the books” as his motivation for reading and explained how they inspired him to write:
I don’t really have favorite books. I have books that I read many times over and over, but it’s not for the book, it’s for the people in it. There’re certain people that I like to read about, just as you like to go into a room and spend thirty minutes with an old friend….
Faulkner’s friends, real and imagined, inspired him through a prolific and successful career as a fiction writer, poet, teacher, critic and Nobel Laureate. If you want to be a writer, take a tip from an old pro, read…then, “Don’t be a ‘writer.’ Be writing.”
Like most voyages to Ireland, my solo writing trip to the West Cork Literary Festival began and ended in Dublin. As a woman on my own, I wasn’t comfortable spending as much time in pubs as many tourists. Because I was free to follow my own whims and interests, I walked for miles, enjoying the city’s extroverted hubbub as an introverted outsider: eavesdropping on the accents and conversations, focusing on cultural and literary landmarks such as theaters and museums, and exploring its wild outskirts, from the mudflats near Howth to the glacier-carved valleys of Wicklow. Through my camera lens, I captured the city’s small details. Here are some miscellaneous tips:
Crowds: Dublin is popular, especially in summer. To beat the crowds, get up early and walk to your first destination of the day right after breakfast. Crowds are thickest on Grafton Street and in the Temple Bar area.
Transportation: If you get tired of walking, you can always take a city bus (just ask a local which one) or rent a bike. Buy a return fare on the Airlift 747 bus at the airport for the reduced rate of 10 E to cover your way there and back. To do a self-drive tour before or after Dublin, you can arrange to pick up and drop off your car there.
Architecture: Known for its Georgian architecture, the city is a photographer’s delight. You’ll find unique decorative flourishes on streetlamps, doorknobs and cornices, especially in the Merion Square neighborhood (where Oscar Wilde spent much of his youth), near the National Museum.
Green Door, Merrion Square
Neon: I also discovered some interesting neon signs scattered all over. Check out the vintage Happy Ring House for McDowell’s Jewelry Store at 3 O’Connell Street or the Why Go Bald sign at 3 Great Georges Street (said to be Bono’s favorite Dublin landmark).
Escape: The Dart provides rapid and cheap transportation from downtown to the outskirts of Dublin. Howth, with its eclectic dockside assortment of restaurants, colorful harbor with an array of working fishing boats and view to the protected island, Ireland’s Eye, makes a great evening destination to watch boats come in, see the sun go down and enjoy a seafood dinner.
Open-Air Pub: Friday night’s big in the pubs, and if you’re wondering why everyone’s out in the street, it’s because smoking isn’t allowed inside. If you don’t mind the smoke, it’s perfectly legal to enjoy your pint there.
New Food: After the Celtic Tiger years, some of the immigrants (mainly Polish) who came to work in Ireland stayed on. You’ll find many good, casual ethnic restaurants around town. Yum Thai is a quick place to grab a bite right across from the Duke Pub before the literary pub crawl. You’ll also find many self-serve cafeteria-style restaurants in the city center that serve fresh, locally sourced food. Many restaurants offer early bird specials. Google for hours and deals.
Film: The Lighthouse Theater in Smithfield Market is a hip place to see independent movies in a beautifully restored and updated historic area. (It’s right near the Why Go Bald sign, too.)
Parks: As most people know, the sun comes and goes in Ireland. When it’s out, people flock to Dublin’s beautiful public parks. St. Stephen’s Green, with its swan pond and statues of writers and political heroes, is a good place to relax and people watch.
Gifts: If you’re buying gifts, I recommend the Trinity College Bookstore, the Abbey Theater and Butler’s Chocolate (make sure you get the Irish whiskey truffles) on Grafton Street.
No outsider who followed the news of Hurricane Katrina could have predicted the Crescent City would recover its spirit so soon after the storm’s devastation. According to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, the August 2005 hurricane and subsequent levee failures flooded over 80% of the city to varying degrees. Water that rose just one foot in some parts of town submerged the tops of buildings in others. A year later the city’s population had declined to 50% of what it was in 2000. The storm damaged 70% of all housing in New Orleans and displaced more than a million people in the Gulf Coast region. Together, hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused almost $150 billion in damage. Although New Orleans’ population has risen to 74% of its 2000 total, Hurricane Katrina Relief is still seeking donations and volunteers to help restore the city and prepare for the next big (inevitable) storm.
Jocelyn Augustino
I first visited the Big Easy on a family vacation about a year and a half after the hurricane. The city was still suffering the disaster’s physical and economic scars. Widespread news coverage of the damage and looting following the storm discouraged tourists and reduced annual visitation from 10.1 million in 2004 to 3.1 million in 2006. During our week-long stay, locals thanked us for visiting over and over again. We felt welcome and safe and were entertained in typical NOLA style, with Creole cooking, brass bands, the French Quarter Festival, three Easter parades and historic walks under mossy oaks through Antebellum neighborhoods. We wore our Mardi Gras beads (a staple of parades throughout the year) with pride on our flight home.
Gay Easter Parade, 2010
Despite the 2010 British Petroleum Oil spill, New Orleans tourism has rebounded since then to almost pre-hurricane levels. But the post-Hurricane city has become wealthier, older and less diverse. While the influx of money can help the city’s redevelopment efforts, the increasing gentrification of the city’s neighborhoods has forced out low-income residents. A popular expression after Katrina said, “New Orleans isn’t the buildings, it’s the people.” Today, the city’s improved economic outlook is pitting them against each other.
I’m off next week to stay with friends for the 43rd annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. From its beginnings as a small event conceived to mirror the Newport, Rhode Island, and Monterey, California, jazz festivals, it now draws well over half a million visitors each year to celebrate “the culture of Louisiana with the combined fervor of a gospel hymn and the joy of a jazz parade.” This year we’ll dance and clap to music that reflects NOLA’s unique cultural gumbo pot of Native American, Creole, Cajun, Spanish, French and Southern influences. We’ll also be forced to choose between big-name artists like the Black Keys, Widespread Panic, Patti Smith, Willie Nelson, Tab Benoit, Jimmy Cliff, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Fleetwood Mac, Frank Ocean, Stanley Clarke, Los Lobos, Taj Mahal, Trombone Shorty and Aaron Neville. We’ll make wild hogs of ourselves with Louisiana delicacies from crawfish bread to crab po’boys, catfish almondine, alligator pie, fried chicken, red beans and rice, shrimp and okra gumbo and fresh shucked oysters. As they say in New Orleans, “Laissez le bon temps rouler.”
Schedule Your National Park Visit in the Off-Season
In wildness is the preservation of the world.
~ Henry David Thoreau
Since my first visit jostling for camping space in the summer tourist rush to Yosemite, I’ve developed a realistic respect for official warnings about overcrowding in U.S. national parks. As a child in Oregon, I was lucky enough to visit Crater Lake with my family at least once every few years. Looking down on that pure blue water from above always made me imagine how the first white men to see the “Deep Blue Lake” must have felt. Klamath Indians believed the god of the underworld lived there, and their legends describe the eruption of Mount Mazama, the 12,000-foot volcano that created the crater about 7,700 years ago. For me, Earth’s seventh deepest lake evokes a vision of our Water Planet itself, or what the crew of NASA’s Apollo 17 moon flight called “the blue marble.”
Blue Marble, Earth Seen From Apollo 17, December 7,1972
I experienced the wild joy of discovery again last month, as I looked out over Yosemite Valley from Dewey Point on our annual cross-country ski trip. With few people around, wind, White-headed Woodpeckers and Steller’s Jays provided the soundtrack for a slushy day of spring skiing. In just a few weeks, Badger Pass Ski Area would close for the season, and melting snow would flow down Yosemite’s steep granite walls into the valley’s famous waterfalls.
A little over a month later, spring would begin with a steadily increasing stream of tourists to the most popular destination in the third-busiest national park in America. Although it represents only one percent of the total park area, Yosemite Valley gets most of the park’s 4 million annual visitors, and National Park Service statistics show that over 80 percent arrive between May and October. Yosemite Valley’s small size magnifies peak-season problems that plague all the most popular parks: noise and air pollution from excess traffic, inadequate parking and overnight accommodations, and accidents that might be prevented if rangers had more time to enforce safety rules. Federal budget cuts add to these challenges.
Since the first Earth Day in 1970, striking a balance between preservation and recreation has become a priority not just for Yosemite, but for all U.S. parks. To help relieve the pressure, you should consider exploring the busiest parks before May or after October. For added incentive, day passes to any of the nation’s 391 parks will be free during National Park Week, April 21-29, 2013.
We have children who grow up without ever seeing the Milky Way. It’s sad.
~ Philip Herbert Cowell, British Astronomer
Long before the first century B.C., when Roman writer Marcus Manilius compared the Milky Way to a luminous ship’s wake, our galaxy inspired art, poetry and stories in cultures around the world. According to ancient Greek myth, the Milky Way was formed when the god Zeus tried to trick his sleeping wife, Hera, into nursing his illegitimate son, Heracles. When Hera woke up and pushed the baby away, her milk squirted across the sky.
Origin of the Milky Way, Jakob Tintoretto, 1575
In Metamorphoses, Ovid described the Milky Way as a street lined with the houses of gods. Since civilization began, people have described the half-circular arch we see from Earth as a way to heaven; a guiding light for Romans, warriors and pilgrims; the Silver River, Winter Street, Fair Cow’s Path, Way of the White Elephant, Route of Scattered Straw and Fence of Stars.
H. Heyer/ESO
Although the Greek Democritus claimed around 400 B.C. that the Milky Way was made of stars, no one proved that theory until 1610, when Galileo observed it through a telescope. In the 1800s, William Hershel (who discovered Uranus) tried to count the stars in the Milky Way to determine the galaxy’s shape. Since then, astronomers have learned that the Milky Way is a disc with spiral arms, made up of dust, gas and up to 400 billion stars. They named the black hole at its center Sagittarius A.
Side View of Milky Way from COBE, NASA
Although science has given us a better understanding of our galaxy, the awe-inspiring sight of what the Chinese called the River of Heaven has become rarer as modern society has become increasingly more urban and artificial lighting more widespread. According to the International Dark Sky Association, this light pollution is preventing up to 80% of today’s population from seeing this once-common, still awe-inspiring sight. It’s visible on any clear night from a dark location. You can get an even better view from any of the IDA’s eleven International Dark Sky Parks in the U.S., Hungary, Scotland or Wales, or dark sky places around the world. Happy starry sails!
), Faulkner developed a distinctive style that showed he was not afraid to break conventional rules of grammar and usage. His fans often point out how the relentless rhythms of his sentences contribute to the reader’s sense of the South’s slaveholding history as riding roughshod over white-washed folklore. The community around his home, 
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