Truman Capote

[NOIRTRASH]

I bought his collected short stories for Kindle. I'm a huge fan of Capote, and have a paperback copy of these stories. Theyre marvelous composition.

His first published story is THESE COLD WALLS of 1943. Capote got his start at THE NEW YORKER, John O'Hara's short story publisher. THESE COLD WALLS is a tale of a sixteen year old girl who hosts a sex and liquor party at her home, and picks up several sailors from a bar. She lures on of the sailors to her bedroom, invites him to sample her charms, and slaps his face hard when he touches her.

Its about 1000 words of erotica, and reminds me of an erotic story O'Hara published with the same outcome. A teen invites a married guy to her bedroom, where she's naked, and screams her head off when he opens her door and steps in the room.

Did Capote copy O'Hara? I think so.

1000 words at LIT gets you laughed at, but the masters didn't pay attention to LIT authors.

 

[SamScribble]

I don’t think it’s the Lit authors who are the problem, James. It’s the Lit readers. You give them a nice compact little story and they say: ‘Yeah, that’s good.’ (Sometimes: ‘That’s very good.’) ‘Now … where’s the rest?’

It reminds me of the two old ladies at a Catskills resort, talking about the food.

‘The food here is terrible,’ one woman says.

‘Yeah, and the portions are so small,’ her friend adds.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I don’t think it’s the Lit authors who are the problem, James. It’s the Lit readers. You give them a nice compact little story and they say: ‘Yeah, that’s good.’ (Sometimes: ‘That’s very good.’) ‘Now … where’s the rest?’

It reminds me of the two old ladies at a Catskills resort, talking about the food.

‘The food here is terrible,’ one woman says.

‘Yeah, and the portions are so small,’ her friend adds.

hahahahaha

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I'm too long winded, and I ramble, I don't think I could write a 1000 word story.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Real rambling are loose associations with tangential points. The logic trail is a maze.

Your writing does not ramble. Its coherent and cohesive, that is 2what you write makes sense and holds together well. Stop beating yourself up.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

MIRIAM 1945

Capote's most famous story. Miriam is the ghost of a dead child who haunts an older woman.

Capote had genius for understanding how horror is always the interlude between life and death. And he wrote marvelous horror, like MIRIAM.


“Miriam,” she said, as though, in some curious way, it were information already familiar.

“Why, isn’t that funny— my name’s Miriam, too. And it’s not a terribly common name either. Now, don’t tell me your last name’s Miller!”

“Just Miriam.”

“But isn’t that funny?”

“Moderately,” said Miriam, and rolled the peppermint on her tongue.

Mrs. Miller flushed and shifted uncomfortably. “You have such a large vocabulary for such a little girl.”

“Do I?”

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Capote has another collection of short stories categorized as short fiction with historical guts, MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS.

Like Naoko, Capote collected shells and shiny stuff along the beach beside the Great Ocean of Truth, and cleaned them up.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I read Harper Lee released Truman Capote's teen years short stories, set to be published this month. They were close friends from childhood till she won a Pulitzer for her first book, and Capote scored with IN COLD BLOOD.

This odd pair might make a good contrast and comparison.

 

[sr71plt]

Or their works could be more or less identical--almost like the same person wrote them all. Well, except for the recently released earlier Harper Lee novel.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I read Harper Lee released Truman Capote's teen years short stories, set to be published this month. They were close friends from childhood till she won a Pulitzer for her first book, and Capote scored with IN COLD BLOOD.

This odd pair might make a good contrast and comparison.

Harper Lee wrote one of my favorite books, To Kill A Mockingbird of course.
This might be an interesting pairing!

Real rambling are loose associations with tangential points. The logic trail is a maze.

Your writing does not ramble. Its coherent and cohesive, that is 2what you write makes sense and holds together well. Stop beating yourself up.

Thanks!
But I do thin I can be wordy...long winded I guess.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

The teenage Truman Capote stories are out for 12.00 at Amazon.

I'll get a copy pay day.

 

[holliday1960]

The teenage Truman Capote stories are out for 12.00 at Amazon.

I'll get a copy pay day.

The high schools here (English III) were analyzing In Cold Blood last year. (I think they were analyzing Capote himself in some ways.) The kid came home all excited, like she discovered some new amazing author...I was reading Capote before I finished grade school.

When I pointed out that Capote didnt arrive on the noon train, she was a bit crest fallen. She seemed most fascinated about how drawn to and involved he was with the characters of In Cold Blood.

My fascination with Capote is more about his personal life and his social circles. For instance, his relationship with Sunny Von Bulow and how openly he admitted to being an addict. He was quite a character himself in so many ways. I always felt a lot of people used him as sort of a court jester. Did anyone else get that impression?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

The high schools here (English III) were analyzing In Cold Blood last year. (I think they were analyzing Capote himself in some ways.) The kid came home all excited, like she discovered some new amazing author...I was reading Capote before I finished grade school.

When I pointed out that Capote didnt arrive on the noon train, she was a bit crest fallen. She seemed most fascinated about how drawn to and involved he was with the characters of In Cold Blood.

My fascination with Capote is more about his personal life and his social circles. For instance, his relationship with Sunny Von Bulow and how openly he admitted to being an addict. He was quite a character himself in so many ways. I always felt a lot of people used him as sort of a court jester. Did anyone else get that impression?

Capote understood the soul of writing, and the soul is the struggle a character embraces to get his psychic fix or payoff.

 

[holliday1960]

Capote understood the soul of writing, and the soul is the struggle a character embraces to get his psychic fix or payoff.

I won't disagree with that in any way, but looking at the social scene of the '60's, it wasn't uncommon for there to be a half a dozen social parties on any given night in New York. Society's elite competed for top draws that would ensure their party was the ONE to have attended. Capote was often the 'draw' for a party and while they masked it as being for his literary talents, I get the distinct impression that wasn't the real reason he was encouraged to attend. They exploited him as a novelty, and all the while, they were laughing at him behind his back.
I think he relished the fact that he ultimately had the last laugh though.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I won't disagree with that in any way, but looking at the social scene of the '60's, it wasn't uncommon for there to be a half a dozen social parties on any given night in New York. Society's elite competed for top draws that would ensure their party was the ONE to have attended. Capote was often the 'draw' for a party and while they masked it as being for his literary talents, I get the distinct impression that wasn't the real reason he was encouraged to attend. They exploited him as a novelty, and all the while, they were laughing at him behind his back.
I think he relished the fact that he ultimately had the last laugh though.

I agree.

And he frightened them. I believe he did plenty of creative work for others, who'd be ruined if the word got out.

 

[holliday1960]

I agree.

And he frightened them. I believe he did plenty of creative work for others, who'd be ruined if the word got out.

I'm pretty sure the word DID get out! They continued to deny it however.

I knew a man like Capote once... a fine fellow who was new to directing. He walked into a job where the office he inherited was a disaster! He was overwhelmed by the mess and he was under the misconception that I didn't like him for some reason.

I locked myself in the office over the weekend and worked non-stop, cleaning up and reorganizing the office for him. Monday, when he came in, everything was perfect for him, including running over 20,000 copies of various screenplays, all neatly filed. I got him a little coffee mug and set it on his desk with a card welcoming him to his new position. Since, I was essentially his boss at the time, and signed his paychecks, the man didn't know what to say to me. He said, "YOU did all this for me?" He just stood there and cried for a long time.

After that, we were best friends. Where I went, Jim went. He had a thing for neckties. He collected unusual ones and owned over 100,000 of them. A bit of a strange duck in some ways, but a brilliant man, and one of my closest friends. When I think of him, I think of Capote.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I'm pretty sure the word DID get out! They continued to deny it however.

I knew a man like Capote once... a fine fellow who was new to directing. He walked into a job where the office he inherited was a disaster! He was overwhelmed by the mess and he was under the misconception that I didn't like him for some reason.

I locked myself in the office over the weekend and worked non-stop, cleaning up and reorganizing the office for him. Monday, when he came in, everything was perfect for him, including running over 20,000 copies of various screenplays, all neatly filed. I got him a little coffee mug and set it on his desk with a card welcoming him to his new position. Since, I was essentially his boss at the time, and signed his paychecks, the man didn't know what to say to me. He said, "YOU did all this for me?" He just stood there and cried for a long time.

After that, we were best friends. Where I went, Jim went. He had a thing for neckties. He collected unusual ones and owned over 100,000 of them. A bit of a strange duck in some ways, but a brilliant man, and one of my closest friends. When I think of him, I think of Capote.

My idea of a file cabinet is a cardboard box I empty atop my desk.

 

[holliday1960]

My idea of a file cabinet is a cardboard box I empty atop my desk.

Me too! (at home anyways) But, when you work in the public, you have to be organized. My card board boxes are under my desk, in the corner, in the bedroom closet, and in the storage room. (I have quite a few of them.)