Slog - Comments on Big words and good diction http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d Margit Rankin, the executive director of Seattle Arts and Lectures, reminds me of all the girls who always got As in my IB English class in high school. She has remarkable elocution and knows about the French epistolary tradition (authors writing letters). She is also nervous and boring. And she ruined what could have been a fine "conversation" with Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat last night at Benaroya Hall. I will not bludgeon you with the entirety of her questions. They all concerned bookish subjects like how Danticat "edges up against the line" between short story and novel. Whenever Danticat meandered... Copyright 2008 Tue, 09 Jan 2007 14:05:26 -0800 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:36:17 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by SEAN NELSON, EMERITUS Wasn't Josh Feit in a hardcore band called Squeamish Margit?

]]> SEAN NELSON, EMERITUS http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586383 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586383 Arts Tue, 09 Jan 2007 14:15:56 -0800 Comment by foghorn “Well, that’s…,” wince, end.

Ha! Nicely done.

]]> foghorn http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586436 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586436 Arts Tue, 09 Jan 2007 14:58:57 -0800 Comment by Wondering Willa Man this nails Rankin's personality on the head. She is a snore. She's the wife of a friend's friend's neighbor or something so I have met her socially and it's no better up close and personal. I'd rather have met the later Rev Dantica.

That said, I don't think that this is a unique experience in Seattle. Most readings/talks I've been to are all icing and no cake. The questions from the audiences seem to be steer clear of anything 'controversial' like the existence of the poor and brutalized or an opinion not held by sanitized sources like New York Times Book Review or New York Review of Books. Come to think of it, the last really smart and entertaining author talk I attended was Michael Eric Dyson about a year-and-a-half ago. The most boring question was posed by a over-educated Rankin type.

]]> Wondering Willa http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586514 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586514 Arts Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:55:11 -0800 Comment by Megan Well, to be fair, much as I dislike the over-educated pretentious type, I also know that I prefer these sort of questions to another round of 'What inspires you? Who is your favorite author? Are your characters based on real people?' and so on. I expect if the audience hadn't been such a good one, you might have been glad for even some pretentious twaddle.

]]> Megan http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586533 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586533 Arts Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:09:21 -0800 Comment by Papayas I love Danicat's books and I wish that I could have seen her last night. I did not know that her uncle died in US custody. That is such so terrible.

]]> Papayas http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586679 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c586679 Arts Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:06:39 -0800 Comment by Pretentious Brian That nails it!!! My entire notes of the evening were: "blah, blah, blah" -- because of Margrit! She doesn't understand that her entire job is to be INTERESTED in the speaker. Margrit wants to come off as the smartest person in the room -- but she's an idiot! Save us from Margrit! She should be "promoted" into another job.

]]> Pretentious Brian http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c587185 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/big_words_and_good_d#c587185 Arts Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:36:17 -0800