Rick Simonson

Speaking of Islands
July 20, 2007

A few days ago, we had a little thing in here about Archipelago Books, mostly in response to the e-mail version of a multiple car fender-bender, but which also prompted some musing on the marvelous books Archipelago does.

One thing I have to confess drew me to Archipelago right away, even as I was hearing what they intended (this was at the beginning) to be about, was its logo. Where I live, those islands could be just down the (Puget) Sound, or around some strait, inlet, or Passage, from here, islanded part of the earth I live amidst. I think I once turned the logo upside down to see if it was really the Queen Charlotte Islands, north along the British Columbia coast, flipped over. It wasn't.

After that piece was posted the other day, it was rightly and kindly pointed out that islands 'connect spaces, people, and the writing they carry.' That they do. They also can stand, metaphorically, for time. They can be a funny mix of proximity and distance, which time mirrors, and which can be bridged/forded - or not. So it is, among other things, that it could be said that yesterday evening's lovely, moving, funny rounds of talk and tribute for Roy Overstreet (another time for more), which had such depth of feeling, represents one 'island'; and, the exuberant activities relative to the release of young Mr. Potter's culminating adventures, more or less twenty-four hours later, represent another.

There is a gap of time between the two. For this 'island,' I have one of those too-rare seize the moment chances to skip the joint, and be off on a sort of busman's field trip for the day. The most pleasant thing, in going up to attend some meetings at Copper Canyon Press, is that it entails a ferry ride, some driving over and around various peninsulas, a bucolic little valley (the Chimacum), and the traversing and sighting of many actual islands. (Islands actually are sighted every day in Seattle, but ...). Too little of this there has been, no real getting away, no being off the clock, as it were, since getting back from BEA.

The day will have its dance with time - there are the games that go with catching ferries (suddenly you become very aware of time), though a benefit of waiting is the time that allows for reading. We are packed for that. And, while rumor has it that I may be off the hook for duty when it's 12:01 and time for a certain book to go into waiting hands (I think there's a sense it's a bit late for me), it may also be that a nephew has his own plan in mind for my being there and making sure he gets his hands on it when the moment can happen. We'll see. 

Posted by Rick Simonson on July 20, 2007 | Comments (0)