Bending Time

One of my favorite writers (and the subject of my fourth book), Charles Johnson, has just published a children’s book that he co-authored with his daughter, Elisheba. Bending Time: The Adventures of Emery Jones, Boy Science Wonder tells the story of a fifth grade genius who has discovered the secret of time travel. Emery’s best friend, his classmate Gabby, helps him as he travels back to the age of dinosaurs.

This book will be a good one for children, for it is not only suspenseful and quite funny but it also introduces some basic concepts of science, such as the properties of positrons and Einstein’s theories of relativity. More importantly, though, the story teaches the value of friendship and the importance of perseverance through adversity.

A nice bonus in Bending Time is that Charles has illustrated it himself. Although he is most famous today as an award-winning novelist and recipient of a McArthur “genius” grant, Charles actually began his career as a cartoonist and illustrator. His style might seem simple at first, but subtle details in the backgrounds of the pictures often add another layer of wit.

I recommend Bending Time for anyone who likes to read with his kids. It will make the perfect Christmas present!

The ALA in Boston

For me, going to a conference is a blend of the professional and the recreational. For example, last May I attended the annual American Literature Association conference in Boston, one of my favorite cities, which gave me an opportunity to spend some time working (attending a few sessions in my field) and relaxing (going to museums and pubs).

As for working, the highlight was chairing a panel at the session devoted to the Charles Johnson Society, which focused on Ethelbert Miller’s wonderful blog “The E-Channel.” For a year, Ethelbert and Charles Johnson had a wide-ranging discussion about art, aesthetics, politics, and literature. I can’t possibly sum up this conversation, so I simply encourage you to check it out. You won’t regret it.

For relaxing, I had two highlights: Touring the sites around Harvard, which always makes me feel smarter, and spending an afternoon at the Museum of Fine Arts. I always love seeing, in person, a painting that I've admired for so many years.

My supper the first evening:

My hotel was just off Copley Square, the site of the Boston Marathon bombing a month earlier. A very moving tribute, including the shoes of all the runners, went up almost immediately.

Another moving memorial is is to the men of the 54th Massachusetts, an African American regiment in the Civil War, located on Boston Common. They are portrayed in the great movie Glory.

At the Museum of Fine Arts, I got to enjoy the special exhibit of samurai culture and some of my favorite Impressionist works, including this wonderful Renoir.

My colleagues (and friends) on the panel to discuss Charles Johnson: Julia Galbus, Ethelbert Miller, John Parks, and Marc Conner. I wrote a brief report for the Charles Johnson Society about the panel, which you can read below.

We (Marc Conner, Julia Galbus, John Parks, Ethelbert Miller, and I) convened at 5:10 yesterday, in a room at the Westin Copley, Boston, for a panel about the E-Channel. We had an audience of around a dozen, which isn’t bad for these sessions.

Marc led off with a presentation that introduced the E-Channel and explained how it functioned for a year. He made the interesting point that Charles Johnson has always been an experimental author, one unafraid to try new voices and styles, so the Q & A format that led to the essays shouldn’t be wholly unexpected. It’s simply a new “room,” he added, in the house of literature that Johnson's constructing.

Julia then followed with a presentation that described how the E-Channel exemplifies the “spiritual friendship,” the kalyanamitra, that Johnson shares with Ethelbert. She suggested that the informal conversations, along with the more scholarly discourses, could even serve as an example of ideal friendship.

Next, John spoke about how the E-Channel can offer some epistemological answers for problems of everyday life. He also spoke about how Johnson's thoughts about Martin Luther King Jr. offer insight into the great man’s beliefs.

Finally, Ethelbert wrapped up the session by outlining how he came up with the idea for the E-Channel and why he approached Johnson for a year-long dialogue. He was his usual hilarious self as he described the task that he’d set for himself of “mapping” the mind of Charles Johnson and his later attempts to catch him off guard with some of his questions. He added that Johnson always brought him to ground by reminding, “We’re doing serious business.”

After a few questions and comments from the audience, we concluded the session at 6:35.

Meeting Charles Johnson

Charles Johnson, winner of the National Book Award for Middle Passage, is one of my favorite writers. In philosophical, yet lyrical prose, he spins tales of 19^th- and 20^th-century America with a voice that captures readers from the very first pages. Although his work is extremely imaginative, it is often grounded solidly in American history—specifically the history of African Americans—and instructs even as it delights. A Buddhist theme is often a subtle undercurrent, but his novels and short stories never become didactic.

I first met Chuck in 1995 when he returned to Southern Illinois University, where I happened to be a Ph.D. student in English, to receive an honorary degree as a distinguished alumnus. (Chuck has a B.S. in Journalism and an M.A. in Philosophy from SIU.) Although I was aware of his name when the Alumni Association announced the award, I hadn’t read any of his work, so I headed to the library to check out his fiction. What I read—especially Oxherding Tale and Middle Passage—knocked me out. I bought a copy of the latter and then stood in line to meet him when he came to campus a few weeks later. I later bought copies of the rest of his novels and read and reread them.

At that point, I was more fan than scholar, but in 2002, after finishing my third book, I realized that Chuck had never been interviewed at length, and I decided I was the man for the job. I first queried Chuck (after all, if he wasn’t interested, there wasn’t any point to the project), and after he gave his enthusiastic approval, I found a home for the proposed book of interviews at the University of Washington Press, which was delighted to accept it since Chuck had been a professor at UW for nearly thirty years.

Chuck and I then had two years of email correspondence as I formally interviewed him and informally got to know him. I also found dozens of other interviews with him—mainly from literary journals—and secured reprint rights for them. In November 2004, UW Press published the book, Passing the Three Gates, and hosted a publication party for Chuck and myself in Seattle. That would be the first time I would meet him in person, and I have to confess that I was extremely nervous. After all, how often does one meet a certified genius? One with a Ph.D. in philosophy and a shelf full of literary prizes? But I found him to be just as warm and generous in person as he had been in his emails.

Over the years, in addition to keeping up by email, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet with Chuck a few times at various conferences. In 2005, in fact, he came to my home institution, Dickinson State University, to give a reading and meet with students. The photo below is from that evening.

If you haven’t yet read the works of Charles Johnson, then you really need to head to your local library or log into your amazon.com account and get started, for I promise that you will find his fiction to be extraordinary, and, maybe, he just might change your life as he changed mine.