Monty Heying's Blog
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Sep.09.2012
NANKING is a thoroughly documented and well written account of Japan's unparalleled World War II atrocities centered in northern China. What magnifies Japan's criminal barbarism is the way it has gone unnoticed and unpunished for so long because of denial and repression and political influence. The...
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Sep.03.2012
Life is a tapestry of memories we
weave into place with each breath.
No one can be hired to weave it
for they wouldn’t know how
to render the scenes
unless we tell them, and
words don’t come equipped to
reach the places mem’ries can hide.
But, here are some favorites.
In Stockton,...
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3 comments
Sep.01.2012
Kesey's first book, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, is written in a more relaxed traditional style, but he must have been on LSD too long when he wrote SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION, because he's everywhere, even in a dog's head. (Tolstoy did that too. It's okay; I've been there too.)
It all happens in...
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Aug.29.2012
So, what was the truth about her missing name?
I attribute no particular thematic or plot significance to her lack of name, nor do I assign it any sexist implication. Her lack of a name is rooted in realism. It's the way workers referred to married women whose name they didn't know. That and that...
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Aug.26.2012
Greed is addictive.
The adrenaline from a dose of "success"
creates desire for another and another
in a destructive self-propelled spiral, like
the So-called Subprime Mortgage Crisis.
How many crises does it take
to prove regulatory controls
protect capitalism?
Every time they've been...
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1 comment
Aug.18.2012
A compassionate, intelligent, perceptive white woman who had never before written a novel captured a white glimpse into a small but representative segment of black culture in a way that lit fires in the minds of millions of readers and boosted a movement already in motion.
If a black writer...
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Aug.16.2012
Here are a couple of memorable passages:
“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will simply try to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped...
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Aug.11.2012
Taking what's on the page at face value, there is little evidence that Holly engages in prostitution. She was a "loose woman" by 1943 standards, but (how do you prove a negative) not a hooker.
A, if she were entertaining men for money in her apartment, "Fred" the narrator and other tenants, would...
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Aug.08.2012
Some question the modern relevance of The Catcher in the Rye, alleging its language and characters are dated. Some people say they can’t relate because the story lacks a linear plot or a main character that undergoes a transformation.Classic literature is always relevant but may exercise the mind a...
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Aug.07.2012
The teachers we remember are the ones who were really good and really bad. With Mr. Spencer and Mr. Antolini, Salinger delivers archetypes of these two extremes.
Salinger brands Mr. Spencer into our memory: [Holden's visiting Spencer in his apartment. He's been summoned there by Spencer, his...
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Aug.04.2012
There is a scale of sympathy that characters tread in the course of a story. We need to like or sympathize with our heroes and despise our villains. Flat characters are less interesting than those who are round, or complex. A hero with flaws is more interesting and real. "Nobody's perfect" and no...
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Aug.02.2012
The Catcher in the Rye and Ordinary People are about the same topic: a sixteen-year-old boy in crisis from witnessing the death of their brothers. Two very different books but similar in many ways. Why does one sell millions more? Why did OP get made into an award winning feature film...
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Jul.19.2012
We'd have fewer cases of teenagers going postal if CATCHER were used to teach about mental illness. Like John Voss in EMPIRE FALLS, and Andrew Clark in the cult film, BREAKFAST CLUB, Holden Caulfield shines a golden light on the teenager in crisis.
Try and view CATCHER as less about...
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Jul.16.2012
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/07/15/156779114/the-id-the-ego-and-the-superhero-what-makes-batman-tick#
Bruce and Holden both suffer obvious symptoms of PTST. Forgetting for the moment that both are fictional characters, what should be glaringly obvious to a mental health...
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Jul.09.2012
Aisde from the death Lennie and George's dream to own a small farm, there are five deaths in John Steinbeck's novella OF MICE AND MEN. The first three are of a mouse, an old dog and a puppy, but much can be learned by contrasting the tragic demise of the mentally retarded laborer, Lennie...
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Real happiness, genius and greatness are achieved only by discovering and remaining true to the inner, primeval and eternal voice of intuition. ...build therefore your own world, and as fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that world will unfold its great proportions.”
—R.W. Emerson ("Nature")
About Monty
Originally from Texas, I currently hail from the San Francisco Bay Area. My short stories and poems have won contests and been published in various literary magazines, including Forum and Synchronized Chaos.
My current novel-in-progress is based on my years...
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Causes Monty Heying Supports
CASA (...
Monty’s Favorite Books
To Kill A Mockingbird-Lee, Where I'm Calling From-Carver, The Glass Castle-Walls, East of Eden and Of Mice and Men-Steinbeck, The Joy Luck Club-Tan, Sophie's...
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