Colin McEnroe Show: Making Connecticut A Character In Stories
How does a sense of place factor into a creative work?
Psychogeography was defined by Guy Debord as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals."
Psychogeography looms large in the work of writers. Try to imagine Baudelaire without Paris or Saul Bellow without Chicago or Faulkner without Mississippi. You almost can't picture it.
All writers are shaped by place, and they shape their places with their imagination.
Today, we'll talk to four writers about Connecticut and places within Connecticut and how those places -- both as stereotypes and realities -- shape their work.
I keep thinking I'm going to write the great Hartford novel, but I never do it. But I know how the great Hartford novel would go. Of course, there's another question: would anyone want to read the Great Hartford Novel.
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
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E-mail from Susan
What really strikes me about Hartbeat is their fantastic ability to create productions that are both topically and geographically relevant. While anyone can tackle important larger social issues such as the mortgage crisis as they did in one of their "Plays in the Park" last summer or the need for adequate urban housing re-development such as in the North End in their production of "Ebeneeza," setting each of their productions in Hartford helps the audience to relate more directly to the matter they are addressing.
With that local relevance and passion they clearly feel to serve the city of Hartford with their art, I feel a clearer call to action that no other community theater has ever inspired.
E-mail from R.M.D.
The question is not "What would James Joyce do without Dublin?" (although that's a good one), it's "What would Eugene O'Neill have done without New London?"
E-mail from Jim
The latest play that I wrote, Blessed Event, is set in West Hartford, and isit filled with local icons such as the Charter Oak Bridge and The Hartford Courant. Even though such things are only mentioned in passing, the local audiences (The play had its premiere in Willimantic) thoroughly enjoyed the references, and, I think, felt an ownership to the show because of these things.
The play has been published, and is now being promoted nationally, and I fear that it will lose some of its appeal when it loses the "local aire".
E-mail from Adam
I started listening to your show on my lunch hour today and can’t listen to the whole thing, but, if you are talking about Connecticut in books, you need to talk about Wally Lamb’s “I Know This Much is True”. Norwich and Eastern Connecticut were a big part of that book, which is one of the things I really enjoyed about it. And, although it was not a book, Mystic Pizza comes to mind as a screenplay definitely inspired by Connecticut.
I hope you get to these. I will try to listen to the re-broadcast tonight or the podcast.
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