Micah Fry/Staff

Somewhere in a cloister, there is a nun who kissed Elvis Presley.

There must be some people in the world who live a life without surprises. Most of us, however, find that life unfolds in ways we never expected, showing us that absolutely anything is possible. Mother Dolores Hart of the Order of St. Benedict has lived just such a life, from kissing the King to working for her god.

In her new interview-format autobiography, “The Ear of the Heart,” an aging and respected nun tells a story almost too unpredictable to be believed. Born in 1938, Hart had a difficult start in life. She describes her early life as fraught with the troubles of alcoholism and the terrible effects it had on both her parents, but she is able to look back without malice. Dolores grew up to be as beautiful as them, moving toward a career in film and on the stage. In 1957, she made her debut in “Loving You,” starring with Elvis Presley. Her agent advised the press to call her the girl all other girls would hate, because the script called for her to kiss Elvis. As with any story that passes through the orbit of a star of that magnitude, the interviewer asked Dolores what she made of the King. She describes him very differently than others have, focusing on his gentlemanly qualities and his adherence to religion. Hart recalls an Elvis who was always ready with a Bible quote and did not try to seduce her.

The book leads Hart through recollections of stardom and increasing notoriety in the 1950s. in 1960, she appeared in the well-received film “Where the Boys Are,” which dealt with sexuality in a fairly forthright way for its time. In 1961, she appeared in “Francis of Assisi” in the role of Saint Clare. In the movie, she went through the process of investiture (the ceremony of becoming a nun) on screen, in an odd foreshadowing of the direction her life would take. Later, Hart does not recall that this influenced her decision to enter the order, but it stands as a remarkable signpost of things to come. She starred in several more films until 1963, when her life came to a crossroads.

“The Ear of the Heart” tells the crux of Hart’s life with a kind and open honesty. The interview format keeps the book conversational, almost confessional. She was engaged to Don Robinson and loved him. She had hesitantly said yes, accepting the ring and insisting on keeping it secret for six months. Her career was destined for greatness; one promoter told her she could be as big as Elizabeth Taylor. She had beauty, talent and that indefinable quality necessary to constructing the mythos of a movie star. She had a future and a person who loved her and wanted to marry her. The decision she made would shock everyone; instead of pursuing any part of that life, she entered a monastery and took vows to become a Benedictine monk. In the book, she explains simply that her faith was the only thing she could not live without.

This story is exhaustive but does not answer the question of why this story must be told now — or at all. Mother Dolores may not profit from the work herself, but perhaps this mining of Hollywood history can be made to benefit her mission for people suffering from neuropathy. Loaded with reminiscences of mega-stars and glossy photographs of bygone days, “The Ear of the Hart” will likely find its way into the hands of many old movie fans and makes a great gift for the aging Catholic in your life.

Contact Meg Elison at melison@dailycal.org.

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Phoenix Delman/Staff

“It never occurred to me that I could be one of those perverted monsters!”

So realized Chana Wilson, a blogger for The Huffington Post, during her story of self-discovery in a place where many young people first begin to notice their burgeoning sexuality — summer camp. After curiosity prompted her to consult her counselor about how lesbians actually have sex, her response (“with their knees”) brought Wilson this strange realization — as well as a curiosity about the lesbian lifestyle that never went away.

Wilson was one of many artists who spoke about queer life on July 28 in Kerouac Alley behind City Lights Bookstore. Curated and hosted by poet Michelle Tea, the Sister Spit literary series attempts to fairly portray, poke fun at and empathize with queer women and poets in the Bay Area in arenas beyond their sexuality. While originally a girls-only group in the ’90s, the “Sister Spit: Next Generation” spoken word and performance art collective has grown to include and represent all gender identities and sexual orientations. Poetry and short story topics at the event ranged from the pretentiousness of yoga culture to binge eating to haunted houses.

On writer Sara Seinberg’s decision to begin running, she said, “I was tired of being a shitty landlord to a good life.” Running later became a habit that has extended into her life far beyond just a mere fitness regime. From the joys of being completely unplugged (she would leave her phone and music at home) to becoming more aware of her body, Seinberg spoke of a new philosophy she’d gained from running — that of complete failure. “What other people think of me is none of my fucking business,” she said. “Runner’s high is an alchemy of wholeheartedness.”

Another artist, poet Carmella Fleming, sported an Amy Winehouse-esque beehive and spoke of Winehouse’s favorite topic: “I grew up, and all I got was a drug problem,” she sighed. Referring to two girls in love in her poem “These Girls,” a lyric too heartbreakingly personal not to be autobiographical, “Who are these girls, and how do they get away with behaving this way?”

One of the most strikingly flamboyant performers was DavEnd, a genderqueer songwriter and performer who took to the microphone in fishnets, a shiny blue dress and giant gold hoops. DavEnd began with jokes about the venue of the performance (“My friends asked me where I was performing, I told them ‘in an alley’”), then played accordion with utmost tenderness while singing about the process of self-acceptance: “I’ve been holding a match thinking I invented fire.” DavEnd is currently working on the musical “Fabulous Artistic Guys Get Overly Traumatized Sometimes,” otherwise known as “F.A.G.G.O.T.S.: The Musical!”

Two of the most unexpected performances were those by Mariko Tamaki and Brontez Purnell, the former an actor and comedian and the latter a writer, dancer and musician. Tamaki described her experiences with haunted houses and offered helpful tips — “Don’t buy things that look like they might be important to a ghost” — as well as advice for a younger audience: “The evil kid (at school) is never the goth kid playing magic cards at recess … They play magic cards with your soul.” Purnell, an Alabama native turned Bay Area musician, told “stories from down South,” beginning with the minglings of his anxiety and his desire for sex and food and then going back to his childhood. Of his mother’s involvement in church politics, he quoted her as saying, “The new preacher was as crooked as a Baptist minister,” to much laughter from the audience.

Sister Spit is an eye-opening, earnest look at a world that either remains hidden or is out in the open enough for us to no longer consider. Coming a month after the neon colors and drunken revelries of San Francisco’s Gay Pride Parade, Sister Spit is an honest reminder that queer culture is more than a celebration that takes place once a year — it is a way of life for many individuals, containing all the mundane, simple joys of our own.

Contact Mohana Kute at mkute@dailycal.org.

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Rachel Francis/Courtesy

It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and this definitely seems to ring true in the case of Rachel Francis, author of 2012’s “Life on Fire.” An up-and-coming writer, particularly in the styles of paranormal and comic fantasy, Francis has modeled her sophomore effort, “Proper Secrets,” quite remarkably on Austen’s work — in particular on her most famous work, “Pride and Prejudice.” The initial plot, even, matches that of “Pride and Prejudice,” as the novel begins with two sisters (who are also best friends) meeting a handsome stranger upon an excursion into town. They then discover that he has taken a house nearby and that their father has already invited him to dinner.

As the plot advances, however, and more is revealed about the characters and the world in which they live, it becomes clear that this is more than just an Austen copy. Set in an “alternate Europe,” Emily Worthing and her family live in Endland, which adheres not to Christianity but to a religion created by Francis that follows the Four Virtuous, the founders of Endland. Despite Francis’s successful efforts to create a story inspired by Austen, one of her biggest literary role models, Francis echoes Austen a little too closely: In Emily Worthing, the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet is clear; in Bridget, Emily’s sister, Jane Bennet appears. As the novel progresses, the story slowly but surely begins to pull away from the Austen arc but retains the bones of an Austen work. On the structure of an Austen work, Francis said, “I love how it is actually a very strict, bound form of storytelling. It’s extremely dialogue-heavy, and you get to illustrate a lot of social commentary just by using mannerisms and the dialogue and the characters.” Francis’s work is undoubtedly dialogue-heavy too — to the point that, at times, it feels mechanical and falters a little, detracting from the story by not allowing the reader to fully immerse themselves in it. Rather than creating a dialogue that allows the reader to perceive things that characters cannot and creates a sense of dramatic irony, Francis’s dialogue occasionally comes across as if the two characters talking are just going through the motions in order for Francis to inform the reader instead of establishing a genuine connection.

While Francis has been heavily influenced by Austen, she’s also drawn a great deal of her inspiration from the modern world and the spectrum of the way women are presented in books today, from “Fifty Shades of Grey” to Caitlin Moran’s “How to Be a Woman.” “My book definitely fits in on the spectrum (of recent books marketed to women that say that) feminism should be about women having choices,” Francis said. “You don’t want to tell someone either way how to run their lives, you know. You don’t want to go up to someone and say, ‘You must have a career; you’re not a real woman,’ and you don’t want to go up to a woman and say ‘You must have children, or you’re not a real woman.’ Either way is, in my opinion, still limiting. And my book, if it could say anything, I just want it to say, ‘Think. If your relationship is not giving you what you need, think about it and make that healthy choice.’”

It’s making these healthy, often difficult, choices that is at the heart of “Proper Secrets,” and part of what sets it apart from many of the other romance-novel offerings to women these days. Speaking about “Twilight” in particular, Francis says, “There was no real Bella there (in ‘Twilight’), apart from ‘I like to read books.’” Francis “was fascinated by the chords (Bella) was striking — with young girls especially. It’s fascinating. It’s unrealistic, but it’s fascinating.” “Proper Secrets” partially “came from a lot of the reaction I was seeing to books like ‘Twilight,’ for instance, where people, especially women, were craving romances that were more like addiction instead of healthy, normal relationships.” “Proper Secrets” and “Twilight” overlap in one area, a gripping love story, but elsewhere? “Proper Secrets” pulls far away with a strong, developed, admirable female lead and character development, but it still retains the fast-paced excitement needed for a good read.

Contact Tyler Allen at tallen@dailycal.org.

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Sasha Chebil/Staff

As he is a key representative from digital press beside three panelists still dedicated to printed works, it came as no surprise that Jon Fine, the director of Author and Publishing Relations for Amazon, received the brunt of the snide comments dealt at digi.lit, Litquake’s first digital literary conference.

The conference aimed to demystify the rapidly developing realm of digital publishing by featuring panels consisting of authors (both self-published and those represented by large houses), publishers and booksellers of both print and digital works. By juxtaposing their expectedly opposing views on the future of the industry, it became clear that all are surprisingly optimistic for the future of the publishing industry and the rising dependency on e-books. This panel on “The Future of Publishing” — in which moderator Brad Stone expressed the optimism in the absence of a question mark after the title — included Fine, the endearing Isaac Fitzgerald from McSweeney’s, a local publishing house and Charlie Winton of Counterpoint Press.

Fitzgerald was the first to curtail the potential animosity, noting his confidence about the future of the field and recognizing that it is “incredibly arrogant to think we’re the generation to crash storytelling.” Though Amazon and the e-book industry as a whole are typically discredited due to their low author salaries and occasional lack of quality, Fitzgerald maintains that he cannot “knock something” that allows authors to earn some money from their works denied by traditional publishing.

Amazon and the development of the e-book should be looked as a “proliferation of opportunity” to both produce and consume information rather than a destruction of the publication industry. Fine convinced the audience that with digital publications, “everybody and anybody can be an author.” The switch to digital publishing reduces the reliance on publishing companies, allowing for increased information on the market and giving readers more options.

However, when Stone asked Winton if he would be comfortable living in a world in which Amazon occupies “every square of the publishing chess board,” the tone shifted from one of cordiality to hostility. Winton moved from his rather passive acceptance of Fine’s claims to question what Amazon is doing to “promote the value” of intellectual property and its cost and creation. Fine assured Winton that Amazon does not devalue intellectual property from the authors’ standpoint and also argued that Amazon allows for an increased level of “discoverability” — which, although distinctly different from that of traditional publishing, continues to promote the value of intellectual works by connecting readers with quality material in a never-ending sea of information.

The panel eventually reached a common consensus that more is in fact better, and the often disdained e-publishing industry is allowing for that increase in information. While the panels throughout the day covered varied aspects of the changing industry, the combination of opposition and agreement found in this individual panel seemed to be reflective of the majority of the day’s presentations.

Contact Sasha Chebil at schebil@dailycal.org.

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Mary Zheng/Staff

In the technology boom that was the ’90s, the Bay Area was buzzing with innovative start-ups, emerging IT companies and Silicon Valley excitement. Hidden in this expansive push toward the future of the tech world was a small community of San Francisco bookworms hungry for a city that had once been the pinnacle of the literary landscape. Enter Jack Boulware, one of the co-founders of Litquake. Litquake, a literary festival that began in the late ’90s, has now developed into a well-curated program of readings, conferences and talks. In an interview with The Daily Californian, Boulware talks about the changing world of publishing, the future of journalism and his love for the spirit of the Bay Area.

On the humble beginnings of Litquake: Litquake began in 1999 as a one-day festival called Litstock in Golden Gate Park. A small group of writers brainstormed this idea at the Edinburgh Castle, a Scottish pub in the Tenderloin, which at the time was hosting literary readings. One of the reasons we wanted to create a new festival was because in 1999, nobody in the Bay Area seemed at all interested in literature. We folded the festival when the economy crashed. But people liked the idea, and a year later, Jane (Ganahl, co-founder of Litquake) and I put together a larger committee and relaunched it as Litquake.

On the development of the festival: We had capped the festival at nine days total for some years, but we have added more programming throughout the year. We’ve launched a free podcast of live recordings from our archives, increased our programming for teens and expanded to include more national and international authors. We have franchised our closing night Lit Crawl (literary pub crawl) to several cities throughout the U.S. as well as London. And we have also forged sustainable partnerships with so many other arts and cultural organizations that, in some ways, the end result truly is a group effort from the entire Bay Area community.

On the so-called demise of publishing and journalism: People will always want to read physical books. E-books are only 20 percent of the total market, and that number seems to be holding for the moment. Journalism, however, is undergoing a massive change. It’s much easier to consume news online than via physical papers and magazines. I personally believe that people are not stupid, and they will naturally gravitate to a more curated news experience as opposed to “10 Photos of Cats Yawning” types of content. As with the music industry, the creative people are getting shafted right now. A magazine article that I would be paid thousands for in the 1990s would be a 300-word online story today. The pay would be abysmal, and the only standard for quality is the number of comments and shares via social networks. I hope that changes.

On what to expect at Litquake’s Digital Publishing Conference: The Bay Area is one of the country’s largest markets for books and reading. We are the acknowledged hub of technology. But there’s never been a local event that explores this intersection of both traditional publishing and digital publishing. Many people have asked Litquake over the years, “Where is the industry headed? How can I get published?” So in a way, we launched the digi.lit conference to learn why. We’ve assembled a stellar group of both traditional and digital publishing experts, authors, agents and booksellers to explore the future of how we read and write. We want to avoid the hype and hyperbole of many such conferences and give people some straight information … on where this intersection of traditional and new may lead.

On his love for the spirit of the Bay Area: Some people have said that Litquake could not have emerged in other cities. From the beginning, we were an all-volunteer organization, and for the most part, we still are. That’s a very Bay Area thing — to embark upon a project because you’re vastly interested in doing so and not just because it comes with a dental plan. The city is … the birthplace of blue jeans, television, Corn Nuts, slot machines, the fortune cookie, Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl,” mass-produced LSD, rock posters, personal computers and so many other things. I think once I start talking about Corn Nuts and LSD, it’s probably time to stop. Thanks for doing this.

Litquake will host digi.lit, a one-day conference that attempts to demystify the new digital publishing landscape by putting attendees in the same room with representatives from fifteen traditional and non-traditional publishers, on June 29 at SPUR Urban Center. The event will feature successful authors, respected agents and editors, graphic designers, marketers, and booksellers with a roster that includes Jon Fine (director of author and publisher relations at Amazon), author Neal Pollack, Salon and New York Times literary critic Laura Miller, Stanford professor, author and blogger Keith Devlin, authors from The Atavist and TED Books, Brook Warner of SheWrites, plus literary agents April Eberhard, Laurie McClean and Ted Weinstein as well as representatives from Chronicle Books, McSweeney’s, Wattpad, Byliner, Blurb and more. 

Tickets are priced at $225.00. To learn more, visit www.litquake.org/digilit.

Contact Addy Bhasin at abhasin@dailycal.org.

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Graham Haught/Staff

Published in 1956, Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl and Other Poems” is City Lights Bookstore’s most famous title. With its frank and vivid descriptions of drug use, “pubic beards” and people “who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists,” “Howl” garnered national attention and notoriety for Ginsberg and City Lights. The success of “Howl” and its riotous effect on literary censorship reflects the fundamental anti-authoritarian, free-speech, fuck-the-system philosophy at City Lights’ core.

City Lights is celebrating its 60th birthday this Sunday with a party in Jack Kerouac Alley, where there will be music, flash readings and special in-store discounts. Founded in 1953, City Lights began as the nation’s first all-paperback bookstore with an all-access inclusionary vision. What once served as a space for Beat literature forerunners like Ginsberg, Kerouac, Gregory Corso and William S. Burroughs to freely express their radical ideas, City Lights continues to function as “a literary meeting place” — as its masthead still proclaims.

Although City Lights remains at its original location in the heart of North Beach, the bookstore’s initial modest-sized storefront has expanded to now occupy three floors of the entire building. It carries a mix of paperback books and hardcovers from both major and independent publishers, including City Lights’ own publishing house, which is two years younger than its bookstore counterpart.

City Lights Executive Director Elaine Katzenberger explained the need for the bookstore’s corporate side to balance its “funky independent side,” which has dwindled comparatively since the ’80s. She asserted that “changes in the book industry sort of mean that if you’re going to survive, you have to actually learn how to run a business too. So we’ve all had to learn that.”

Still, Katzenberger assured, “I would say in terms of the ethos and the aesthetics and the spirit of the place — I feel like that remains pretty much untouched.” Katzenberger explained that the core of City Lights adheres largely to founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s principle and vision, which “really had to do with wanting to create a meeting place where people could come and encounter books and magazines and each other in a … populist environment.”

City Lights’ mission is composed, as Katzenberger referred to it, of a “two-sided coin,” with the bookstore and publishing house on either side. Katzenberger said, “The symbiosis of the two projects is part of the genius of why we exist all this time … It really has to do with those ideals about community and open access to ideas and also an open mind about what kind of ideas deserve access.”

While Ginsberg’s “Howl” is a proud symbol for City Lights, Katzenberger explains that there is more to City Lights than its Beat beginnings: “I think sometimes people think that City Lights published the Beats and stopped there, but that’s obviously not true.” The Beats were the counterculture voice of their time, but with each new decade comes a shifting counterculture. In this sense, while Beat poetry is no longer the center of City Lights, contemporary counterculture perspective remains the focal point. As Katzenberger said, “A lot of the sort of protest and resistance movements find ways (into) the books that we publish.” Current publishing endeavors revolve around antiglobalization movements, immigration reform movements and racial issues in America.

The anarchist heart of City Lights, a true literary and political landmark, gives the bookstore its rich history and continuous cultural relevance. The new decade of the beloved independent bookstore marks the persistence of its mission to represent the underrepresented, diversify voices, promote critical cultural thought and provide a crucial alternative to the ideas circulating in mass media.

Contact Denise Lee at deniselee@dailycal.org.

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Ransom Riggs/Courtesy

If you want a word to sum up Ransom Riggs’ “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” look no further than its title. Peculiar: strange, odd or unusual. Although not quite revolutionary, the novel’s subtle, peculiar twists on the popular fantasy and young adult genres took readers by storm in 2011 with a fine balance between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Jacob Portman is a typical adolescent living an uneventful life in Florida until the his grandfather’s traumatizing death, which launches our protagonist into an exploration of the man’s past. The teenager finds himself on a Welsh island and, eventually, in the company of some anachronistic, magical children who need his help against an lurking, unseen evil with ominous plans. And there’s a girl, of course. Saying too much would spoil the plot, but the story itself is not unheard of. The little twists — peculiarities, if you will — are what set “Peregrine” apart as a best seller among many similar works.

Peculiarity number one: photographs. Scattered throughout the novel are authentic vintage photos that add an element of reality to the work of fiction. A boy posing with a couple of dolls becomes a Doctor Frankenstein figure in the work, only more eerie and powerful. An already beautiful still of two silhouettes against a tunnel of light becomes the entrance to an alternate time dimension. Riggs is artful in his integration of the photos — which are intriguing alone — into a plot that gives them a whole new meaning. They are organically placed so that some even seem as if they were taken for the novel.

This was a completely intentional effort, according to Riggs. In an interview with The Daily Californian, the author stated what he thought was most interesting about his work. “The photos,” the author deadpanned, then laughed. “I picked them as sort of a grabby thing that made people go like, ‘That’s weird.’” He explained, “I tried to keep one foot in reality with actual things that happened in history.” The photos add authenticity so that the novel reads more like a real-life narrative and less like a brick-sized fantasy novel of old.

This integration of history brings us to peculiarity number two: the novel’s twisting of time. Riggs doesn’t stick to pure history in “Peregrine”; he surpasses that, adding a time travel layer that allows for more possibilities. Growing up with the influence of “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Back to the Future,” Riggs is no stranger to nonlinear time. In his novel, he focuses on time loops, which allow for both alternate realities when they are broken and time travel when one jumps through them. Think of a cross between the films “Source Code” and “Star Trek.” The possibilities of time travel inevitably lead to questions of immortality, a timeless issue — pardon the wordplay — that “Peregrine” explores. Slight spoiler: The villains, predictably enough, are trying to render themselves immortal by manipulating time.

A notable nonpeculiarity in the novel is its main character, and this is indubitably vital to the success of “Peregrine.” Like in most YA novels, Jacob comes fully equipped with dry sarcasm, hormones and that chip on his shoulder of the slightly misunderstood — he’s a teenager. But unlike in most YA novels, in which the adolescent perspective can come across as whiny or just not believable, “Peregrine” has a protagonist who is likable because he is so honest and straightforward. It is easy to believe and get invested in his story, making “Peregrine” more of a page-turner.

So what’s next for Jacob and his author? “Well, I can’t give away too much,” Riggs said. “But the first book set up a lot of the world and its rules, and now we’re going to get a lot more action.” Much of the next book, “Hollow City,” takes place in 1940s London and picks up where the first left off, with Jacob and the peculiars looking to thwart their enemies’ efforts. In the meantime, readers can content themselves with the recently released paperback edition of the book, which includes an interview with Riggs and an excerpt of the sequel. The author will also be appearing at Books Inc. in Berkeley on Tuesday, June 11, at 7 p.m.

Contact Josephine Yang at jyang@dailycal.org.

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Tsar Fedorsky/Courtesy

Professor is the most prosaic of Noam Chomsky’s titles, but it explains how the octogenarian mustered the stamina to lecture at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland a couple of weeks ago for more than an hour (standing up, pausing once for a sip of water). The occasion celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Middle East Children’s Alliance. After cultural activist and singer Holly Near and the Peace Becomes You band opened with a brief set, Chomsky shuffled onto the stage in a navy sweater and khakis, head slightly bowed like a spent Charlie Brown. His talk, entitled “Palestinian Hopes, Regional Turmoil,” condemned “the astonishing level of U.S. support for Israeli action,” recapitulated the relationship between the United States and the Middle East during the past few decades and parsed recent statements made by Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. Aside from the rare anecdote (“Kids ask questions all the time, but my kids would ask a question and add, ‘Just the five-minute lecture!’”), Chomsky was untrammeled in his focus, discussing topics such as the Nixon doctrine, the Arab Spring, and WikiLeaks. The event was an unfussy affair with a deferential crowd. As expected, ticket rates got astronomically higher the closer you sat, creating a sort of inverse relationship between reaction and proximity to the stage: The farther away you were, the younger and louder you tended to be.

On imperialism: “If you take a look at the crimes, atrocities and horrors around the world, overwhelmingly they are the result of places where the imperial power drew borders for their own interests — irrelevant to the people who live there. Whether the centuries of imperial dominance can be unraveled without doing even worse harm — and if so, how — is not a simple question, but I think it’s an important task for the future to think about — if there will be a future in which we can even consider this question which is, unfortunately, not at all obvious.”

On secular nationalism: “The U.S., like Britain before it, has typically supported radical Islam. And there’s a good reason for that. Secular nationalism is dangerous. One danger is it might lead to democracy, and that’s very threatening. The other is that secular nationalism always threatens to take over the resources of a region, which is the only thing the West cares about — take them over and use them for the benefit of the domestic population, not for the benefit of the West, the oil companies, the small group of dictators who run the places for us.”

On the U.S. role in establishing preconditions: “The Palestinians are accused of imposing preconditions on negotiations, so the U.S. administration will say we just want to negotiate, but the Palestinians are obstructive and that they insist on preconditions. The reality is approximately the opposite. The U.S.-Israel alliance imposes very strict preconditions. These are taken to be so obviously correct that they’re never even mentioned in the press, but they are not so obviously correct. One precondition — one crucial precondition — is that the negotiations should be, must be, run by the United States. That makes about as much sense as if Iran insisted that the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq … that the negotiations should be run by Iran.”

On U.S. rhetoric regarding settlements: “The U.S. history on this topic [settlements] is kind of interesting. In the early period of occupation, the U.S. also declared the settlements to be illegal. That changed under Reagan, when the violation of law was downgraded to ‘an obstacle to peace.’ And we can even further a couple of weeks ago with President Obama a few weeks ago visiting Israel, he described the expansion of settlements as ‘not helpful to peace.’ That leaves us in splendid isolation.”

On Israeli expansion: “It’s very crucial to notice that these areas being taken over by Israel step by step are going to be practically free of Arabs — in some cases, by direct expulsion. They would be linked to Israel by Jewish infrastructure projects, superhighways … which, of course Palestinians, will be barred from. So there will be no demographic problem of too many non-Jews in a Jewish state, no civil rights struggle, no apartheid struggle. If we want to do something about this situation, we have to face those realities — not live with fantasies and illusions.”

Contact Neha Kulsh at nkulsh@dailycal.org.

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Joan Marcus/Courtesy

({}) What does this look like to you? A vagina? Yes. Are you embarrassed? Maybe.

An emblem of sorts for V-Day, a global movement to end worldwide violence against women and girls, the purpose of this symbol is not shock value. Eve Ensler, the founder of V-Day, instead aims to eradicate the taboo surrounding open discussions of the female body and put an end to violence inflicted against women and girls. Ensler hopes to encourage people to speak openly about these topics and ultimately seeks to create safe spaces for women and girls to cultivate these conversations and fight against violence.

Ensler, a playwright, performer and activist, is the author of acclaimed play “The Vagina Monologues,” the success of which led her to form V-Day. Ensler has devoted her life to this anti-violence movement, lending her voice and presence to extensive projects across the globe. With V-Day, Ensler has succeeded in educating millions about violence against women and raised money to fund numerous anti-violence programs and safe houses for victims.

For someone who has so actively encouraged women and girls to embrace their bodies and eliminate the shame surrounding them, it might come as a surprise that Ensler herself has felt disconnected from her own body until very recently. Having endured years of distancing herself from her body, Ensler was prompted to become more aware of her body when she was diagnosed with uterine cancer at 57. She writes about this newfound relationship with her body in her latest book, a memoir titled “In the Body of the World.” In it, Ensler discusses both the shock and emotional catharsis of being diagnosed with cancer and the waves of emotions and revelations that ensued.

In her new memoir, Ensler discusses a direct connection between trauma and disease. She confronts her experiences of rape and abuse as a child by her father and the consequential effects on her life. As Ensler speaks of the process of undergoing chemotherapy, a method of treatment she initially feared and resisted, she perceives the treatment in a new light; with the help of a nurse who explained chemotherapy as a way to “kill off the perpetrator who got inside you,” Ensler visualizes the process not as a direct harm to her body, but as a means of purging the unsettled traumas still existing inside her body and soul.

Last week, KPFA Radio partnered with Pegasus Books to present a talk at the First Congregational Church in Oakland, where Ensler read excerpts from “In the Body of the World.” The book is organized into a series of “scans” — as in CAT scans — which resemble chapters, and Ensler said that, after chemotherapy, she could not imagine another way of conceiving her book.

Ensler read from her “scans,” including “Uterus=Hysteria,” a deft defense against the long-standing assumption that women are inherently overemotional, and “A Burning Meditation on Love,” in which she discusses the eager and often futile pursuit of love and acknowledging existing relationships. Ensler read these excerpts with conviction, emotional charge and playful, sharp and comedic timing; such is fitting, as the words she writes and speaks are equal parts funny, horrifying and tender — and all of it raw.

Ensler promotes understanding an “inter-reciprocal relationship” with the body — not to be afraid or ashamed of the body but to confront and embrace it. On the topic of receiving medical or emotional help, Ensler averts attention away from costly and often inaccessible resources. As with the message of V-Day and “The Vagina Monologues,” Ensler stresses the importance of women speaking out about their experiences and having the courage to communicate them with others.

Contact Denise Lee at deniselee@dailycal.org.

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Lisa Hanawalt/Courtesy

Lisa Hanawalt’s got a downright dirty sense of humor. Her new book, “My Dirty Dumb Eyes,” delves into nether regions, the therapy sessions of anthropomorphic figures and a Manhattan Toy Fair “full of serious adults in business suits with corporate accounts.” The book, which is a collection of illustrations and cartoons, features Hanawalt’s whimsical drawing style. It is as if a David Shrigley show was condensed into a blue hardcover book and rainbows were generously applied to it (Shrigley works largely in black and white).

If Hanawalt were to draw an illustration to represent her book, it might be an image of her own head bursting with anthropomorphic animals in bikinis, Ryan Gosling chewing on 246 toothpicks, Anna Wintour riding an ostrich, the entire cast of “The Bachelor” with thousands of clay finger statues — “visual puns, sort of” — and maybe a million plastic horses thrown in for good measure.

“My Dirty Dumb Eyes” blurs the line between childlike and adult humor. Despite being an illustrated book, this is not a book you’d share with your kid brother — unless your kid brother is into dick lizards and erect penises rising among swaying flowers, an illustrative pun on fertilization. This is an adult book for adults who never really grew up and perhaps need some help with transitioning. There’s heaps of Hanawalt’s help, thankfully.

For instance, Hanawalt’s “Tips for Living With a Significant Other” addresses the end of romance — “Prepare for the statistical likelihood of breaking up by labeling your possessions ahead of time” — with humor rather than moroseness. The accompanying illustration is of a table with items — dishes, books, cup — bearing “his” and “mine” sticky notes.

Hanawalt does a decent job of convincing us of her naivety, but we are reminded, as with the sixth illustration in “Tips for Living,” that her art is tongue-in-cheek — she is not as innocent as her drawings suggest. “Learn to communicate openly and don’t let bad feelings fester,” is damn good advice, but the accompanying illustration — of a woman stabbing at an angry-faced breakfast plate while her partner’s breakfast plate resembles a frowny face — is charming and elicits a giggle.

“My Dirty Dumb Eyes” is an inside joke that most any pop culturally-aware person can understand. This is a book for television watchers and moviegoers, for toy lovers and equine enthusiasts, for the artsy-fartsy and the artsy-farty; Hanawalt is a perfect scatological specimen, her humor bodily and strange. “The soldiers’ horses are marching against the backdrop of a firey sunset and one of them is pooping! I see the silhouettes of poops!” Hanawalt writes in her review of Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse.” Sure enough, her illustration depicts the magnificent fecal silhouettes. She finishes her movie review with four out of five horseshoes but others with kisses (“The Vow”), apes (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) or goslings (“Drive”).

There’s a lot to love in “My Dirty Dumb Eyes,” and there are some things that are more macabre and disturbing. Some of Hanawalt’s art inspires awe and fascination rather than laughter — particularly her anthropomorphic animals. One comic, “Control,” shows a cat and horse driving a car. Thanks to the cat’s self-assured reckless driving, an accident transpires. The resulting pileup features the distorted intestinal — literally intestinal — remains of the wrecked vehicles. “Extra Egg Room,” another anthropomorphic comic, is similarly gruesome — dozens of birds lay their offspring inside the shell of a horse bound for the sky.

If it doesn’t make much sense, maybe you’re not in on the joke. We get the feeling Hanawalt is laughing maniacally in her Brooklyn home, making thousands of clay fingers and drawing naked butts with abandon.

Contact Natalie Reyes at nreyes@dailycal.org.

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