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About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

#99: Sept. - Oct. 2011 (Fiction)
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Suzanne

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About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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Literary career
The Vanguard Press published Oates' first novel, With Shuddering Fall (1964), when she was 26 years old. In 1966, she published "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", a short story dedicated to Bob Dylan and written after listening to his song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue."[11] The story is loosely based on the serial killer Charles Schmid, also known as "The Pied Piper of Tucson".[12] The story was frequently anthologized and was adapted into the 1985 film Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern. In 2008, Oates said that of all her published work, she is most noted for "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?".[13] Another noted early short story, "In a Region of Ice" (1967), dramatizes the drift into protest against the world of education and sober, established society of his parents, depression and eventual murder-cum-suicide act of a young, gifted Jewish-American student. Like a number of other novels and short stories in her body of work, this was inspired by a real-life incident, and Oates had been acquainted with the model of her protagonist. She revisited this subject in the title story of her collection Last Days (1985).

Oates's novel them (1969) received the National Book Award in 1970; it is set in Detroit during a time span from the 1930s to the 1960s, most of it in black ghetto neighborhoods, and deals openly with crime, drugs, and racial/class conflicts. Again, some of the key characters and events were based on real people whom Oates had known or heard of during her years in the city. Since then she has published an average of two books a year. Frequent topics in her work include rural poverty, sexual abuse, class tensions, desire for power, female childhood and adolescence, and occasionally the supernatural. Violence is a constant in her work, even leading Oates to have written an essay in response to the question, "Why Is Your Writing So Violent?" In 1990 she discussed her novel, Because It Is Bitter, And Because It Is My Heart, which also deals with themes of racial tension, and described “the experience of writing [the novel]” as “so intense it seemed almost electric”.[14] She is a fan of poet and novelist Sylvia Plath, describing Plath's sole novel The Bell Jar as a "near perfect work of art"; but though Oates has often been compared to Plath, she disavows Plath's romanticism about suicide and among her characters, she favors cunning, hardy survivors, both women and men.[citation needed] Oates' concern with violence and other traditionally masculine topics has won her the respect of such male authors as Norman Mailer. In the early 1980s, Oates began writing stories in the Gothic and horror genres; in her foray into these genres, Oates said she was "deeply influenced" by Kafka and felt "a writerly kinship" with James Joyce.[15]

In 1996, Oates published We Were the Mulvaneys, a novel following the disintegration of an American family, which became a best-seller after being selected by Oprah's Book Club in 2001.[13] In the 1990s and early 2000s, Oates wrote several books, mostly mystery novels, under the pen names "Rosamond Smith" and "Lauren Kelly."
Learn more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Carol_Oates
lindad_amato
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Re: About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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That was high praise from Mailer. He was quite the misogynist.
WildCityWoman
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Re: About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Carol_Oates

I just had a look at the wikipedia document online - that's quite a list of books she's published. Haven't read much of her stuff.
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Re: About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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Hydracropsychic ... I have never heard of that word until I look at the preamble to this book.

quote

This morbid condition has been known to render even the will of the active, robust man in
the prime of life temporarily invalid, as if under the spell of a malevolent hypnotist.

unquote

Well, I've been to Niagara many times; having been born, raised and lived in Toronto most
of my life, it was often a Sunday afternoon visit. Jeff and I often go out there, find a parking
spot on one of the upper streets and enjoy the scene. Which is a better way to see it, btw.
Especially in spring when there are few leaves on the trees - you can see more.

I've never felt 'hypnotized' by the falls, but they do have a certain 'draw'. While standing
beside them, my imagination goes wild.

I always found, if we stay overnight, and take a place close to the waterfall that I dream of
it a few days later.

You readers who have never been to Niagara might want to think about going if you are
on this part of the continent. It's something everyone should see at least once.

I love waterfalls of all sizes. Check my forums on the travel section of my site 'Wild City Times'

http://wildcity.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Travel

You will see where I've created many threads dedicated to the waterfalls of the world.

We just came home from a visit to Campbellford, Ontario where we got pictures
of 3 of them - Ranney Falls (viewed from suspension bridge), Healey Falls (a sobering experience to stand at the foot) and Crow River Bridge (really a set of rapids, but a great place to splash around if you're up for rocks and water).
WildCityWoman
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Re: About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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Here's our account of a visit in 2008 ... you'll see me there, beaming away besides my beloved Niagara Falls and wearing a brand new hat.

http://wildcity.proboards.com/index.cgi ... hread=3058
lindad_amato
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Re: About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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I remember visiting the Falls at about the age of 12. They are definitely a powerful experience.
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Re: About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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When Oates is speaking of those islands at the top of the falls, I'm assuming she's looking at them from the Canadian side. I've only been over to the American side a couple of times. The visit I remember most was in the winter and everything was frozen over.

I have some pictures from that time - somewhere ... I'll see if I can find them. But I don't remember having a view of that spot above the horseshoe.
lindad_amato
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Re: About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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Hello BookTalk members,
I will be leading the discussion of The Falls and I hope you'll get a copy and join us beginning Sept. 1. Here is a link to a comprehensive collection of reviews, critiques and interviews re. Joyce Carol Oates by the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/05/s ... .html?_r=1

I look forward to sharing thoughts with you on this engrossing look at life in the 1950's.
WildCityWoman
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Re: About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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Yeah - everybody - read! If you can't read it now, mark it as a TBR for the future.
miguel89
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Re: About the author, Joyce Carol Oates

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What about this author? Any good?

M.G.
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