Abandoned motels...the best is that motel right before stvens pass on the west side of mount pillchuck...late 70s was run down then closed...then year by year more an more dilapidated...imagine the sound billowing threw the mountain caverns an echoing out the longest train tunnel in the world ?
A favourite part from ‘Gen X’ for me is where a character explains how they’d get rid of nuclear waste by storing it in a rocket and firing into space. It was so similar to a discussion I’d had with a friend prior to reading the book that I had a weird sense of deja-vu when reading that particular scene for the first time.
P. S. Chuck, the Folio edition of ‘The Great Gatsby’ has arrived safe and sound and is now one of the - if not THE - snazziest books I own. Thank you again.
This is the building Portlanders most commonly think is the Paper Street house. It's gone now but was once my neighbor in that toxic waste part of town.
Interesting point. The SRO where Marla Singer lived -- The Sylvia? The Regency? -- is still there, but most were demolished for the Pearl District urban renewal.
Ironic how when you tear down SROs to build luxury condos, you end up with a homeless problem.
Ive heard about immediate families building multiple small houses on the same land. And I nearly roomed with a friend in a gorgeous farmhouse from the early 1800s. All the walls, including interior, are 3 layers of brick. She runs a raw milk crop share.
Just sharing in case it provides ideas for cramming poor people together. What about a cheap motel? Theyre still a thing. Or maybe some rich people down on their luck dont know each other, but theyre all subletting the same Airbnb?
There is an atrocious old hotel in the small town about 15 minutes south of me. It has been, for several decades, a crumbling heap where drunks get long-term room rentals and eventually die in their own stink. It’s inexcusable that I never thought to use it as the location for a story until now.
Boarding houses should make a comeback. Would provide cheap, nice housing and money for people with empty rooms. But you'd have to get rid of rental laws. And that won't happen. In Argentina they did and the market was flooded with rentals and rents dropped supposedly.
Have you read Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong? It’s kind of a boardinghouse novel in the sense that a very young man without any place to live starts living in a falling down dilapidated house owned by an old woman battling dementia. They take care of each other and they are both on the edges of society in the same way as you describe. And the social grouping requirement is satisfied with the addition of a fast food restaurant where the young man finds a job and interacts with others who are in liminal states.
On another note, back in early nineties NYC, my friends and I seriously considered buying a boarded up, broken tenement in the east village, but no amount of research got us closer to figuring out who owned it and how to buy it.
I almost included 'Slaves of New York' because it centers around the high cost of housing. But the characters don't share a central hub or boarding house.
ohhh… I completely forgot about that book. For the record, I think boarded up tenements in the lower east side went for about 65k in 1990. still unaffordable for art students with part time minimum wage jobs, but we had ambitions…
Wish I could claim it!!! Hope you’re doing well, Chuck!
Thank you. Doing better.
Abandoned motels...the best is that motel right before stvens pass on the west side of mount pillchuck...late 70s was run down then closed...then year by year more an more dilapidated...imagine the sound billowing threw the mountain caverns an echoing out the longest train tunnel in the world ?
I would love a copy!
Are you in the U.S. or England?
I have family (my uncle) in California who is cool with me having mail sent to him! (But I live in Canada!)
I do see that there are others here who claimed dibs so its totally understand if it makes more sense to go to them!
I’ll take it
Thank you! The book will go out tomorrow morning.
Now thank Nivethine!
Thank you Chuck! And thank you Nivethine!
Haha, glad to be a part of the book hot potato!
Received Generation X today. Thank you Chuck. Loved the bonus prizes. Stuck Egg onto the board above my writing desk.
Anthony? You in the U.S.?
Yes, NY
Do I have your address? If you want to post it here, I'll delete it in a heartbeat. Need your realish name, too.
❤️
A favourite part from ‘Gen X’ for me is where a character explains how they’d get rid of nuclear waste by storing it in a rocket and firing into space. It was so similar to a discussion I’d had with a friend prior to reading the book that I had a weird sense of deja-vu when reading that particular scene for the first time.
P. S. Chuck, the Folio edition of ‘The Great Gatsby’ has arrived safe and sound and is now one of the - if not THE - snazziest books I own. Thank you again.
WONDERFUL!!!!!!
In this post was I was reacquainted with the words “scuzzy” and “snazzy.” This is a good thing.
I'm always late, and I'm fine with that.
Chuck, I always presumed the house Tyler rents was inspired by the condemned Spanbauer workshop house.
It boggles the mind what houses have been pegged as the basis for that house.
This is the building Portlanders most commonly think is the Paper Street house. It's gone now but was once my neighbor in that toxic waste part of town.
https://vimeo.com/94880678?fl=pl&fe=vl
I have a soft spot for these silent witnesses to history.
My Baby Talk prize came today. Nobody does a package like you, Chuck. Truly spectacular. Thank you so much!! It made my entire week.
‘Salem’s Lot had a nice boarding house worked into the story.
That does clump many of the characters together and facilitate gossip.
We live in tents now, Sir.
No one mentions the SRO's all over old town...
Interesting point. The SRO where Marla Singer lived -- The Sylvia? The Regency? -- is still there, but most were demolished for the Pearl District urban renewal.
Ironic how when you tear down SROs to build luxury condos, you end up with a homeless problem.
Im writing a story right now about my friend Lyida who ran the SRO above voodoo doughnuts.
I would love a copy,and I finally got a laptop,your right typos are such a distraction.
Thank you! I'll post a new drop for writing samples, please repost a sample.
Now that you mention it, I believe I may be writing a boarding house novel, unbeknownst to me until reading this.
Thanks for the insight.
Lean into it.
Im 3 years too late for Gen X.
Ive heard about immediate families building multiple small houses on the same land. And I nearly roomed with a friend in a gorgeous farmhouse from the early 1800s. All the walls, including interior, are 3 layers of brick. She runs a raw milk crop share.
Just sharing in case it provides ideas for cramming poor people together. What about a cheap motel? Theyre still a thing. Or maybe some rich people down on their luck dont know each other, but theyre all subletting the same Airbnb?
I dunno. Just spitballing.
There is an atrocious old hotel in the small town about 15 minutes south of me. It has been, for several decades, a crumbling heap where drunks get long-term room rentals and eventually die in their own stink. It’s inexcusable that I never thought to use it as the location for a story until now.
I love this sentence:
"Hell is the town of West Palm Springs Village – a bleached and defoliated Flintstones cartoon of a failed housing development from the 1950s."
A classic Coupland sentence.
Boarding houses should make a comeback. Would provide cheap, nice housing and money for people with empty rooms. But you'd have to get rid of rental laws. And that won't happen. In Argentina they did and the market was flooded with rentals and rents dropped supposedly.
Have you read Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong? It’s kind of a boardinghouse novel in the sense that a very young man without any place to live starts living in a falling down dilapidated house owned by an old woman battling dementia. They take care of each other and they are both on the edges of society in the same way as you describe. And the social grouping requirement is satisfied with the addition of a fast food restaurant where the young man finds a job and interacts with others who are in liminal states.
On another note, back in early nineties NYC, my friends and I seriously considered buying a boarded up, broken tenement in the east village, but no amount of research got us closer to figuring out who owned it and how to buy it.
I almost included 'Slaves of New York' because it centers around the high cost of housing. But the characters don't share a central hub or boarding house.
ohhh… I completely forgot about that book. For the record, I think boarded up tenements in the lower east side went for about 65k in 1990. still unaffordable for art students with part time minimum wage jobs, but we had ambitions…