Facts about fiction: David Madden, an English prof at Sac State, is spending summer vacation and his upcoming fall sabbatical on something that will influence people but may not win a lot of friends. Madden is one of three editors of the Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Fiction, due to be published in 2010. If you follow literature, you know you can't do a book like this without making somebody mad. There will be scholarly essays on about 200 writers of fiction, and that's where the trouble begins. Who goes in? Who gets left out? "When you make selections, you are also deleting somebody," Madden said. For example, Tom Disch won't make it, even though his New York Times obituary this month quoted the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts as saying his work was "important" and "Swiftian." Aside from quibbles over individuals, literary dust-ups often occur over a volume that's perceived as too politically correct or untested, or by contrast, too staid and ossified. Editors and the publisher, Wiley-Blackwell, have aimed for a varied volume, Madden said. He's glad for that. It means he included authors like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. They're writers sometimes put in the pulp genre but who were hugely influential. Lesser-knowns like Paul West and Thomas Berger, author of "Little Big Man," made it, too. "It's figures like that I'm really pleased are in here," Madden said. It won't omit a couple of literary lights of local importance, either – Clarence Major and Joan Didion. And, no minor issue to Madden, the title page will have California State University under his name. "It brings a little recognition to the place." …
Waterfall follow-up: First, let's recap. Roger Berry did a wonderful sculpture in the early 1990s. "Water Wall" went on the corner of a city garage across from Cesar E. Chavez Plaza . A few years ago, though, it stopped working, jammed up by garbage or bird droppings. In February, Shelly Willis – the then-brand new public arts administrator – told us it would be evaluated by a hired consultant. And then? Well, we forgot about it. But Willis didn't. The city has been working on the issue. "Everyone loves this piece," Willis said. "Our goal is to fix it so it (can have) a really low-maintenance cost." They haven't figured that out yet, but she did secure $11,000 in city funding to go in and get the thing working again so they can get an idea what it will take to keep it working. We say, "Yay!" So does Berry, whose interactions with Willis have been positive, irrespective of whether "Water Wall" flows again. "I think we're lucky she's here," he said. …
Slide rules: Part of the snazzy new Antelope High School campus is an aquatic complex put in by the Sunrise Park and Recreation District. Not everything is going swimmingly, how-ever. The complex has three pools – a little kid pool with some splash toys, a competition pool for high school sports and PE, and a community pool that includes, among other things, a couple of tube slides. Just the thing for hot August days. But not so fast. Because this is a school facility, the state architect has to sign off, said Terry Jewell, Sunrise's district administrator. And, perhaps because not many school pools have slides, that's taking a while. "It's just dragged on and on," Jewell said. "Back and forth it goes" between state officials and slide manufacturers. If all goes well, they may have the competition pool ready for school use in September. If not, well, we don't foresee a lot of folks using the slide when it finally opens in November. Brr.
Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá at (916) 321-1987. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/alcala.
