A Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books, SF
June 13th, 2006 | Uncategorized
A sizeable crowd came to my reading at A Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books tonight. They had some particularly good questions. Martha, my literary escort, counted 83 people in the audience. It’s so wild being on a book tour with a big publisher. I’ve published books for years with small presses, and either they didn’t send me on a tour at all, or they sent me on a tour that I had to partially fund myself. And of course I’d be on my own, renting cars, finding bookstores, staying in peoples’ houses.
But with Houghton Mifflin, they have a literary escort in each city who ferries me around to things. Plus they’re putting me in really nice hotels. Here I am having my room service dinner after my reading tonight.
Earlier today I went by the Cartoon Art Museum to see the No Straight Lines exhibit. It was very cool seeing peoples’ actual original artwork. Here I am looking at a piece by Jen Camper. 
11 Responses to “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books, SF”
I hope you had a fantastic time in SF. Maybe I’m a bit partial, but a good audience excellent questions and feedback should be expected from the wonderful inhabitants of the City. I’m sooooo sorry to have missed your reading (and the “No Straight Lines” exhibit!) but I’m stuck in London for another few days…Till just after you’ve given your reading at the GLBT center in my lovely, foggy hometown, in fact. *sigh of dismay*
Thank you for doing the reading at Clean Well-Lighted. It was touching to meet you after reading your strip for all these years. I’m really impressed by Fun Home. I love DTWOF, but Fun Home is an entirely different endeavor. Knowing, let alone telling, the truth about childhood is difficult. I was struck by how your coming-out story deepened when you told it in the context of your family life. I’d read the version in your “collected works.” That was good, but knowing that you were also dealing with learning of your father’s sexuality for the first time and then grappling with his death during those same months, well, that’s amazing.
One of the most interesting questions in life is how any person came to be the way they are. We see the exterior and we see the present, but the interior and the past are almost always hidden. Last night I saw a slender, soft-voiced, sharp-minded butch woman. Those who know you better surely see something more or different. Through your work: the strips and the autobiographical material, you are giving the world remarkable insight into how you came to be this woman. Thank you, it’s a valuable gift.
Don’t forget to wave to us in Eugene on your way north Thursday. I’ll never forget the wonderful slide show at Mother Kali’s 6 or 8 years ago.
Absolutely! Eugene sends it’s love and best wishes for a great time in Portland. I am still wheeling and dealing to try to get up there! It would be fabulous to finally get to meet the woman who influenced my life in so many ways!
Thank you so much for speaking in SF! I went to see you tonight at the LGBT center. I really enjoyed listening to you read from Fun Home, and hearing all the details of how you draw each panel. I had no idea it was such a meticulous process involving digital photos! Your metciculousness and attention to details pays off, the book was beautiful, both visually and in its content.
I’ve been reading DTWOF for the past 8 years, but it was completely different experience to read Fun Home. I admire your bravery in telling such a personal story. I was absolutely thrilled to get a chance to meet you after years of being such a fan of your work. Of course when you signed my book I was too shy to say half the things I wanted to say… such as that you are amazing and brillant, and hot. Keep writing!! Come back to SF soon
In the background of the photo in the cartoon exhibit, am I hallucinating or is that a couple of DTWOF cartoons on the far wall?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zizyphus/166282496/
I’m also wondering what the good questions (and answers) were.. 🙂
Hi! Well, I managed to get out of England to see the talk last night — I tried to go to the 1pm signing too, but I must have been at the wrong Booksmith (I was on Haight?) Alison’s talk was actually remarkably like the videos here on the blog; partly due to the jetlag it was really surreal & I had to keep reminding myself we were actually in the same room & I wasn’t just watching this on a laptop!
Two things that were really different. First: she read chapters 1 & 4 of the book (which I waited for the event to buy so hadn’t read) while showing the drawings from a laptop projector. Sometimes she focused in on a drawing or drew out if it, so it had more Frank Miller / Japanese Animation / early Get Your War On kind of impact. It kind of made you realize how she sees her own work. In particular, she did that on the scene where they are all in church from Ch. 1, and started out on the back of the altar boys (? I’m not Catholic, they didn’t look as young as the altar boys in the movies, so maybe they have a different role) heads then pulled out until you saw just her father looking at them, then you saw the whole family. If she ever releases a multi-media version of the book where she does that more & reads her own text, I’ll buy the DVD 🙂
The other really different thing was being in a room full of like-me individuals. OK, this shows how uncool I am (or how butch) but I don’t think I’ve been in a room with 60+ dyke-ish females and
Whoops, character limit in comments! Fortunately, my browser saved the rest…
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The other really different thing was being in a room full of like-me individuals. OK, this shows how uncool I am (or how butch) but I don’t think I’ve been in a room with 60+ dyke-ish females and
The other really different thing was being in a room full of like-me individuals. OK, this shows how uncool I am (or how butch) but I don’t think I’ve been in a room with 60+ dyke-ish females and less than 20 men before. It was literally surprising to me to hear the high sounds of female laughter totally dominate the low male tones in such a large formal setting (not a locker room). But it wasn’t just gender that made us similar. Alison couldn’t believe we all really wanted to know the details of her working habits and said “are you all cartoonists???” No Alison, we are all nerds!!! (I’m so glad I am one… 🙂
Alison did seem a little overwhelmed by everything — loving it, but also the recluse dropped into the big crowd. She tended to answer everything honestly even when it made her uncomfortable, but then suddenly ask for another question, which we readily provided. Thanks Alison for exposing yourself like this, but do take some days out & enjoy yourself too!
She promised she is definitely going to write/draw another book like this, hurrah!
Yippeeeeeeeeeee!! We are on our way to Portland. The partner got the time off so Alison, here we come! 🙂
oh, I wish I were there!! or at one of the readings. no hope of it, so I can only write with longing . . . unless you come to Columbus, OH.