Peter S. Beagle: THE LAST UNICORN - California Writers Club - Berkeley Branch; Kincaid's Jack London Square; Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991)

California Writers Club (Berkeley Branch) was formed in 1909 after writer Jack London and a few literati met and discussed writing while picnicking high in the woods above Oakland. CWC is the nation's oldest professional writing club, and very helpful to struggling writers in The Bay Area providing a support/critique group, FIFTH GRADE stories contest, creative nonfiction group and a chance to publicize your book or screenplay (contact Dave Sawle). See website for details.
www.berkeleywritersclub.org or Barbara Ruffner for a membership application. Monthly meetings are held the third Saturday of the month from 10:00a.m. to noon at the Event Loft of Barnes & Noble in Jack London Square.

Peter S. Beagle, whose last book, THE LAST UNICORN, has sold 5 million copies was an extraordinary speaker. He reflected on his childhood. As the son of Polish immigrants, he was raised in NYC, in proper American style, i.e. he blames his father for getting him hooked on books. He took his first snort in the 1940s. His mother didn't help: "Reading is cheaper than dope." (If you have access to used bookstores or a library card, right?). Doomed from the start, he was born into a family where artists were "like cockroaches." As a struggling writer, he had chutzpah at an early age. To feed his family of four (he married a woman with 2 children), he stole whole cases of salmon with an air of authority. Does he know Lenny Bruce's definition of chutzpah, I asked during the Q&A that followed. A man who has just slain his parents appears before the Judge pleading for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan.

Peter relied on the kindness of friends and family and luck came his way in the form of a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. He became a fantasy writer ("I tried not to be!"). He recounted that when he was in the Stanford writing program in the 1960s, a feisty Frank O'Connor gave this verdict on a short story, Come Lady Death: IT'S A BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN STORY. I DON'T LIKE IT!

Peter quoted Sturgeon's Law in regard to genre writing -- this time, science fiction. "90% of science fiction is crap" a reader warned. Ted Sturgeon: "90 % of anything is crap." (I would say 99.9%).

Peter took time out from his writing schedule to join us for the ever-popular salmon lunch at Kincaid's on the Square. He's putting the final Midas touch to his book, I'M AFRAID YOU'VE GOT DRAGONS. I asked Peter which book was the absolute best he has written. THE INNKEEPER'S SONG.

At Kincaid's PBS regaled us with jokes, reminiscences, lucid memories of great writers & musicians. One, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), requires rereading: "Children don't read to find their identity. They don't read to free themselves of guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation. They have no use for psychology. They detest sociology...they still believe in good, family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation and other such obsolete stuff." (Nobel Prize banquet, Stockholm, 1978).

After the meeting, back in SF, I asked a friend, is the unicorn a symbol of the unattainable? Not when there's a cross on it, he said. But who invented the unicorn, said silly I. HARRUMPH. Do you think there's a patent for it???

Maybe not a patent, but there definitely was an inventor of this fabulous animal with a horse's body and a single straight horn, which is featured in the Medieval French tapestries at the Cluny Museum in Paris. Who conceived of the image of the unicorn. A Greek, possibly a Roman.

Next month at CWC, Jody Carl Weiner, retired criminal defense lawyer-transplant from Chicago, will read from his published work, including a piece he had published in California Lawyer magazine about Coco, the orangutan, who was hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit back in the 90s. The California lawyers loved the piece. See you there! Contact Jody at jodycarlweiner@aol.com, for more details about this event on February 17, 2007.