D&F's BLOGS

Latest entry on Freddie's blog!!

Off The Book — Beyond Fiction…

RELOADED!!!!

2013 has so far been a fantastic year as far as literature affairs are concerned. I’ve been able to finish a novel I hadn’t been able to read when I bought, I’ve managed to add some terrific pieces to my (loved and hated) improvised bookshelf, I’ve finally found what I needed in order to start writing my first novel.

There’s also a project that was postponed for too long, due to… well… agenda issues mostly. My agenda, of course, but also the cram packed agenda of another essential 33,33%: my iron-strong, genial co-presenter Dee-Dee! (Sorry Dee, but we all are percentages some time or other. The thing is not to be just a number, which of course you aren’t.)

I’m referring, you must surely have guessed, to the amazing “Off the Book – Beyond Fiction”!

Ups and downs... They mean nothing eventually

It could be a metaphor of how, if you struggle for what you want, you’ll surely get it. But, please, let’s not wax self-help. We were busy like hell, we couldn’t find a proper date to record the show, that’s all there is. It’s ordinary students’ lives, people… Holidays were the right time, obviously, and that’s why we could finally record it then. There’s no magic energy in the universe “conspiring in our favour,” it’s just outright common sense.

Mind you, it’s not that we don’t value the project and deem it a summer thing. It’s just that we have more time to organise, prepare, read, search and so on during the summer. Therefore, and as we want it to be as good as possible, we thought it best not to do it during rush-hour. Or, rather, rush-part-of-the-year.

James, Henry James

So, and as we had promised, we finally began with our season on American authors. The first one, we agreed, had to be Henry James. We both knew him, had read some of his works and there was plenty of material (by and about him) to analyse.

Dee-Dee designed our script and, off we went… Off the book, through a microphone, non-stop beyond fiction.

As far as a main corpus of works is concerned, we chose to concentrate on one piece each.

Dee-Dee, a self-acclaimed admirer of Jane Austen’s literature, chose James’ “Washington Square,” a piece many times compared to the former’s way of writing. James himself was not very fond of Austen, or so he said. Yet the novel, you will notice in the analysis we make, has many elements in common with “Mansfield Park,” “Northanger Abbey” or even “Pride and Prejudice.”

I myself chose what seems to be the most critically discussed work: “The turn of the screw.” I had read it and it struck me as a very skilful piece of writing. And I’m not referring to the florid, somewhat pompous, style that he uses (which to me, and for the show’s purpose, is of no consequence.) What I mean is that I find it admirable how he was able to write in such an ambiguous way as would keep generations and generations of readers wondering.

Then there are the spice-it-up sections: we had previously said the show was an example of how much fun literature can be. So we decided to go on doing what we did with Oscar Wilde’s episode and act out some excerpts from the chosen novels. You will hear me as a coxcomb and an ambiguous child and Dee-Dee as a governess, an ugly, stupid lady become wiser and an oldie. Please let us know what you think of our performances!

We also added a ‘surprise’ part, for which we prepare something to read to each other on the spot, without previous preparation. Dee-Dee’s jokes were really witty, don’t you think? As for me, well… I think the quotes I chose, out of context, sounded rather ridiculous. Maybe that’s how James wanted them to sound. That cats and monkeys thing, come on…

What the future holds

Now, for sure we have to record at least two more episodes on American authors. As discussed in the show, the most likely one is Louisa May-Alcott. But there’s always Mark Twain calling our attention, like a traffic warden blowing his whistle and waving up and down, left and right. We’ll see.

We cannot promise to do it in the near future, and I confess a detail: we have agreed to do it “God knows when.” Again: it’s because we want to do it as well as possible. And, to be honest, what could be better than “When God wants?”

Remember you can always comment below, tweet us @off_thebook or write an e-mail to offthebook.bf@gmail.com. Search for our YouTube channel offthebookbf, where you’ll find the previous episodes and more.

Stay booked!!


-----

Here's the latest entry fresh from Bones' Blabbering Blog, written by Freddie B himself.

Off the book: Unravelling literature from a brand-new point of view

The start of something new

Professional people do not usually do so, but as this is an informal project I feel free to reveal (some of) the project’s background details – more because chronology gives me a favourable structure than because I feel like it.

Like many other projects, this one was born out of the blue – DeeDee came up with meeting and discussing Jane Austen mainly due to three reasons. First, we met the Sunday before Jane’s 236^th anniversary and such occasions can’t be skipped when you love someone as much as we love Jane. Second, because both of us LOVE Jane Austen literally – maybe Dee does so more than me, but anyway... Third, because it’s a way for us to meet once more.

In the meeting, which was of course to relax and chat a little about... life, she suggested doing something about Jane’s anniversary the following Friday – a similar meeting, some reading, some discussion and good bye see you later alligator. But five days mean a lot, and a bigger scheme was coming. We finally couldn’t do it on the exact date, but we were really willing to do it and agreed to meet the following Sunday at some bar or wherever. It’s really funny – in a matter of three hours Dee told me she now wanted to do it in radio-show form. It was all so frantic and funny it’s almost indescribable. There was little time in fact, so I was worried how it all would come out – I had already done my research, I had taken down some notes, related some characters, described the most relevant aspects of the novels and almost everything necessary was settled – but there were too many holes to replenish – be a literature radio host? God!! That’s a real challenge! Even if it wouldn’t (thank God) be live broadcasting, it had to be really good not to go to waste – which of course none of us wanted.

The time has come

Sunday morning I was all excitement and expectation, in the prelude of what would come later that day. Isn’t it funny how, when something tops us with enthusiasm, we can’t stop thinking about it?

Now the moment of truth was really near, and I left for Rosario really early. The bus arrived there about an hour before than the time set. As a result I had to take a stroll out and about for a while, and then YESSSS! Here we are!! I went to the recording studio, whose address I won’t reveal on professionalism grounds haha ;).

Now we had to organise our material and fix what would come first, what second, what would go with what, who would say what and some (many) other details.

All things set, we started recording. We had planned to do a 30-minute show. But as nerves gradually went away, pleasure and fun started to rule and the result is what you can see: a sixtysomething minute show of pure literature discussed in a chatty, casual way. Allow me a brief moment of vanity: WOW!

An ever-growing project

In the breaks we took between sections, both of us realised (and confirmed with ever-growing determination) that the project was no crappy thing – I’m saying this because informal things are usually considered so, but I’ve come to realise it’s SO wrong... We had to make it happen, it had to be.

We made up our minds to take it as far as we could, so we arranged to make a logo, a website, and every other necessary item so as to get it going smooth. On a I-do-this-you-do-that basis, we divided tasks once more and agreed to work on them the next day, since the sole recording thing (well, it’s not just about that indeed...) had left us mentally extenuated. A specific kind of glowing extenuation, though.

I set off once more, homebound. I heard my cell phone music but I wasn’t really listening. I was thinking of what I had just gone through and what I would the following day.

What the experience left

I feel I have to itemise the feelings I have towards the show and the whole thing surrounding it so I won’t forget anything.

-  First of all, I feel I’ve done something I had always wanted to do. Even if I didn’t know, the appetite for literary-discussion meetings had always craved to come out. And this project comes to be the apex.

-  I think it came out much better than I had either expected or thought it would, and that makes me want more (insert Britney’s first single off Blackout lol.)

-  Having discussed it in good acquaintance makes it much more enjoyable. In fact I had also always wanted to do something literary with my mate Dee, and what we’ve done is more than I had expected in this respect too.

-  I found it enriching and mind-loosening. It not only helped me relax and enjoy, but also provided me (and will go on to do so) with experience in the professional field – even if it’s not paid or anything like that I think it’s invaluable for literary translators like I want to be (someday? Soon?)

-  It boomed a renewal in my literary thirst, which is always pleasant and mind-broadening and any adjective applicable to literature.

The final product

I have no more words –or rather, I don’t deem them necessary- to describe how I feel about the project. And, besides, I think it speaks for itself.

If you want to enjoy and discover literature along, sitting on a couch while drinking a coffee, then you’ll certainly appreciate our work.

It’s homemade, it’s fun, it’s literature. It’s Off The Book – Beyond Fiction.

                                                                                          
"VERSATILE, HUMOUROUSLY WITTY": Off the Book takes to the Web 2.0 and goes... Beyond Fiction!
                                                         
by Delfina Morganti H.-

"Happy Princess and Prince, 2012."
Season 1, Ed.#2: OSCAR WILDE.

They began by arranging a modest get-together to pay homage to popular English writer Jane Austen on her 236th anniversary in December 2011— they ended up creating a whole radio project that would find shelter under the best-known generous hostess of the 21st century: the Web 2.0. 
They logged their blog, backed their Twitter bags, and off they went, beyond fiction, making their rightful way into the Youtube crowd.
Language professionals and co-producers "Dee-Dee Morgan" and "Freddie Bones" got off to a great start. For a one-hour programme on literature, they featured a surprisingly varied discussion packed with humourously read quotes and fun facts on their 1st edition of Selected British English Classics, their first season. In January 2012, they came back for more.
After their promising debut by the end of 2011, Freddie Bones and Dee-Dee Morgan proudly announced the release of their 2nd OTB edition: this time, they'd be going beyond prolific writer, Oscar Wilde.
                           St@y B○oked!

Youtube: Off the Book - Beyond Fiction

Twitter: @off_thebook

Gmail: offthebook.bf@gmail.com

Engaged in a favourite habit/vice of ours... Reading!

Available in video format on Youtube, this second OTB trail dwells on a wide range of Oscar Wilde's most famous works. As usual, OTB presenters introduce the chosen author by supplying their (alledgedly attentive, ever existent?) audience with some brief bio details on Wilde's life and legacy. After adding useful background on Wilde's favourite stratagem, Paradox, both Dee and Fred ask each other one or two personal questions that range from social prejudice against Wilde's sexual condition in Victorian times to the controversy around the effects of the legal trials on the author's alarming writings.

In between record periods...
"Phew, gimme a break!"

Excerpts from Wilde's unforgettable novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as from his touching short stories (The Remarkable Rocket, The Selfish Giant, etc.) are eloquently quoted along another original production of the ground-breaking radio event, Off the Book. And much like on their 1st edition, Dee-Dee Morgan and Freddie Bones artfully take turns to produce some of the wittiest comparative literary analyses— and how? By comparing and contrasting media products based on the authors they discuss and also by giving free reign to their inevitably free associations with many a motion picture and other related stuff. All of it, of course, with the mellifluous soundtrack from the latestst screen adaptations of their selected fiction just crooning in the background.
Altogether Off the Book—beyond fiction is a genuinely creative radio programme that dotes on the ever-lasting, highly-acclaimed lit classics in a brand new, versatile and humourously witty style. It has fun , it boasts culture and it's certainly got talent. Breath-taking quotes from the most memorable fictional characters fuse with a truly exquisite sense of humour by coproducers and presenters Freddie Bones and Dee-Dee Morgan. The improvised tenor of their debates find an outstanding 100% match with the absolutely relevant content from the material selected by their own scrutinising eye. The music, extracted from popular motion pictures based on works cited, is cleverly used to add to that sense of surreal, beyond-fiction-like atmosphere.

For those with a background in classics or those who are just after one, Off the Book—beyond fiction presents its modest yet lucky audience with an impossible-to-miss chance to "stay booked" and get down into the depths of literature—only to turn back and go, once and for all, far and beyond... fiction!☺☻

St@y B○oked!

Youtube: Off the Book - Beyond Fiction

Twitter: @off_thebook

Gmail: offthebook.bf@gmail.com

______________________________________________

OFF THE BOOK – BEYOND FICTION’S BRONTË EDITION: A SEASON’S FINALE

Last but not least

The Brontë Edition of our beloved ground-breaking radio show put the icing to the cake: it was the third and last edition of the first season (on select British classics.) Recorded somewhat later than expected, but carried out in a great way, it made both hosts become rather melancholy, like it always happens at the end of an era. This didn’t, however, prevent their packing the edition with fun comments and hilarious moments, not forgetting their comprehensive analyses based on their own experience of the books dealt with as well as on some articles and fun facts found throughout the vast virtual sea.

Why the Brontë sisters?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Brontë sisters are part of the corpus of British classics. In addition, they are one of the most popular authors of that corpus. There are lots of people who have read the original novel, a faithful translation or a kids edition (in whatever the language) and learnt to enjoy the stories, get inspired (or even shocked by them) and relate them to some aspect of themselves – which is the ultimate goal of classics. Both Dee-Dee and Freddie are part of that massive group of people – which is not really surprising – and felt that the Brontës could not be overlooked.

As it always is with literature, this didn’t mean that we (the hosts, that is) loved all the works by the Brontës. But as it also always is with literature, including them in (and reading them for) the show helped wipe out some prejudices that we had as regards them.

Before

“Off The Book – Beyond Fiction” had already included some debates on Brontean novels in our first edition, where Dee and Fred compared and contrasted some of them with Jane Austen’s novels.

However, the analysis made there of novels like “Jane Eyre” was not deep enough and we thought it appropriate to prepare a full show dedicated to these enchanting Yorkshire women.

The corpus we chose to work from was, as usual, their well-known books as well as passages of letters they wrote, articles discussing their works, films and TV-series based on the novels and in fact everything we could find and deemed interesting to bring up.

As I said before, we didn’t like ALL of the Brontës pieces on equal grounds. In addition, the time factor was challenging. So once more we needed to divide the corpus and be some kind of a foil for each other. But I think that this way the result is much richer. If we read each and every novel, tried to get info on them and supporting material and so on in only a month, the quality of the show would be shallow and poor.

Hosts playing Heatchliff and Cathy
from "Wuthering Heights," by E. Brontë

During

As with the other two editions, we did enjoy a lot the making of this one. We found ourselves far more relaxed and cheerful, which I think reflects on the final cut. Let me tell that “Jane Eyre” is one of my favorite novels. So, in addition to relaxation and cheerfulness, I had extra excitement to do this edition in sight of that fact.

Perhaps you may wonder what we do between sections. Well, the answer is: take a while to chat a little, plan what we’re going to talk about next, take some photographs which will illustrate the edition. That’s basically it. As you can see, we’re having fun throughout and that’s what we want you to grasp: we’re not intending to be just another literature lesson. We experience literature at our own pace and want you to do so too.

After

I think I should speak not just about the “after” of this edition, but of the first season as well.

As for the edition, I can say that it was kind of exorcizing personally: it helped me forgive Emily’s “Wuthering Heights.” I was rather shocked by its constant violence and wildly passionate nature, and read it almost laughing at it for being so exaggerated. But the show was somehow a re-reading of this novel for me. I saw that even though the story may be somewhat awkward, the narrative technique was something brand-new at the time the novel was written. With that in mind, I’ve come to appreciate Emily more than I did. As for Charlotte and Anne, the show helped me increase my admiration and love for them and, of course, find new things in them too.

Now let me plunge into the show itself, as we are coming to an end and I feel reflections and reviews are mandatory.

I like to define “Off The Book – Beyond Fiction” as “a sample of how much fun literature can be.” Literature is all about discovering new visions and broadening our minds, and people –especially youngsters- miss this entire fantastic world just because they don’t read at all. Nowadays literature is thought to be dull, long, tedious and stupid by many. This is much more so when the piece features long sentences and complex structures and piles of adjectives. This can be emphasized when they have to read compulsorily. Now, wouldn’t it be better to come to terms and try to enjoy what we are reading? That’s one of the spin-offs, I think, of our lovely little radio show. If we can manage to make literature a little bit more comfortable, it will always be welcome.

I loved the process of our first season, and am eager waiting for the new one to begin. American authors: here we come!!!