Lit Talk: Kramerbooks' Miguel Aldaco

Of all those in the book community, none is cooler than the hipster bookstore employee. Knowing that he'd have the scoop on the indie bookstore scene in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, we went to Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe and asked a few slightly random questions of one Miguel Aldaco. The answers are below.

Nicole Crowder: I was curious about your tattoos. Can you tell us about those?

Miguel Aldaco: Yeah, I got these in San Francisco. Basically, I love monkeys, as you might be able to tell at this point.

Whitney Teal: Do you have a monkey, like a pet monkey?

Miguel: (laughs) Oh no, I would never do that. They’re not meant for pets. They’re basically—you have this guy, right, he’s a little bit in flux. He’s got the Bible, he’s got the booze. But you have this guy walking away from him, but also walking toward him at the same time.

Nicole and Whitney: Very cool.

Nicole: How long have you been working at Kramer's?

Miguel: A year and a half.

Nicole: What brought you here initially?

Miguel: Basically, my girlfriend was looking for a job. We just spent two years in the Middle East. She got her Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies so we figured why not come out here. But I think we’re having a tough time adjusting to the city even after this long. I think we’re thinking about moving to New York, to be honest.

Whitney: So does everybody. It’s the type of city people think about moving to all the time.

Miguel: (laughs). And then you get here and you’re like “maybe not.”

Whitney: So you were in San Francisco before you moved here?

Miguel: Yes, well technically I was living in Oakland.

Nicole: What kind of clientele do you see coming in and out of Kramerbooks regularly?

Miguel: Pretty mixed. To be honest, since we’re in a gay-friendly neighborhood we get a lot of that situation. I mean, really, everybody to be honest. It’s a tourist destination which is one thing that is kind of interesting. On the weekends we get a whole different crowd than we do during the weekdays. Different kind of folks all over: some kind, some not-so kind (laughs)

Whitney: You mentioned that Kramer’s is a tourist destination. Do you know anything about the history of the store or why people flock to it so much?

Miguel: Well, we were known back when the Clinton administration was in. We were subpoenaed by Kenneth Star to release the information about the books that Monica Lewinsky bought for Clinton. I don’t remember the exact name of the book, but the owner is in the other room; He knows the whole story. You could ask him. I think they’ve been here 20 years or something like that [Kramer's celebrated it's 30th anniversary in 2006].

Nicole: Do you have recommended titles that you like to read or a lot titles you’ve seen people buying lately?

Miguel: Yeah, one of the things that’s been kind of hot right is the book called Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo. I don’t know if you guys have seen that. It kind of gets into the idea of the way we’ve been handling aid being sent to Africa is totally wrong. She does it without getting personal and being really aggressive about the situation, but just kind of recommending what should be corrected. It’s been a pretty hot seller. There is another that’s my favorite book right now. It’s called Motherless Brooklyn [by Jonathan Lethem]. It’s about a kind of a tourettic detective. It’s more just about him trying to work his way through each situation. We all have our issues when we’re interacting with people, but for him it’s just so extreme. If he were me, he’d be tapping you on the shoulder constantly or something like that. It’s pretty hilarious, too. It actually gets pretty funny. It’s a tale of fiction, but it’s quite good.

Nicole: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, Miguel.

Miguel: My pleasure.

If you're interested in visiting Kramer books yourself, here's where you can find them:

Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe
1517 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036

--Nicole C.

Voices: Candide by Voltaire

Voltaire’s short novel, Candide synthesizes the main conflicts that brewed and erupted during the Enlightenment of the 18th Century: reason vs. rationalization.

Born François Marie Arouet in 1694, Voltaire’s formative years were spent in Paris, where he contributed to what would become the city’s long-standing reputation for protesting government and church doctrine. Francois Marie Arouet often expressed his detest of the French government’s lack of willingness to act on behalf of the poor. He worked as an assistant to a lawyer in Paris, was appointed as a secretary to the French ambassador in the Netherlands, kicked out for presumably trying to elope with a French refugee woman named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer, and thrown in and out of jail and exile by the French government—all before his mid twenties! It is after his incarceration inside the Bastille in 1717 that Francoise Marie Arouet assumed the pen name, Voltaire. Historians and writers have attributed the adopted name to many aspects of Voltaire’s early life, including its semblance to the name of his family’s boat “Airvault”. However, most feel the pen name speaks to “voltage” and "speed", and Voltaire’s penchant for quick wit and sharp retorts. He developed a taste for satire, and this interest—coupled with a growing anger over the lack of equality amongst men during 18th Century France—made Voltaire a key player and dangerous threat to challenging traditional thoughts.

At a time when the religious authorities had much more involvement in political policy, much of the leading thought was that everything happens in a rationalized way—for the good of all things. Enlightenment thinkers—Voltaire in particular—saw fault with this idea for a number of reasons. For one, rationalization was used as an enabler for church and aristocratic despotism. The aristocracy used the idea of rationalization to promote ongoing chains in noble rule. Church doctrine condoned prejudice and fear tactics by having witch hunts and public persecutions against persons with different religious ideologies. With this, there was a sort of blissful optimism that French society co-signed with because the church and the aristocracy wrote these acts off as being necessary. It is that sentiment exactly that Voltaire satirizes in Candide (optimism) through his blissful protagonist of the same name. At a time when science and theoretical ideas were developing, many Enlightenment champions found scientific evidence of why there were natural disasters, or why people died, to be more reasonable than simply saying they were means working toward the same good ending.

Published in 1759, Candide is about satirizing blissful optimism (or blissful ignorance as Voltaire might describe it) and hypocrisy. It is not wholeheartedly about one person, though Candide is the protagonist, but rather a cross section of groups that Voltaire wishes to criticize. Each character represents a different part of that cross section. Candide is the Every Man. Voltaire paints a portrait of a kind-hearted and naïve young man living in a castle with little to no worries. He has an equally naïve mentor named Pangloss who is well versed in “metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology” who schools Candide in the belief that everything is the “best of all possible worlds.” According to Pangloss, there can be no better world than the one we are in. If there were, we would be living there. It is evident that Voltaire is comparing Pangloss to and taking jabs at the famous philosopher Leibniz, who believed that God created the world, and thus created the best world possible for humans to live. The Grand Inquisitor that Candide encounters plays the role of the hypocritical church. Other characters like Martin leverage the philosophical rationalizations by interjecting more realistic viewpoints of the world.

With Candide, Voltaire essentially creates a tape recorder without a stop or pause button. Characters who are otherwise innocent endure terrible misfortune after misfortune. Voltaire’s delivery is stark and unyielding until the very last page. He in no way tends to mollify the plight of his characters. When they are mutilated, burned, tortured, raped, subjected to cannibalism, and all together left for dead Voltaire takes three paragraphs to allow you to collect your nerves before moving on to the next blunder. It’s not because he does not not care about or want a better outcome for his troupe; Voltaire is simply taking jabs at philosophical doctrine that waves its hand over human atrocities and says, “But it’s for the good of all things”.

In viewing Voltaire’s work and whether or not one agrees with his stance on rationalization over reason, the answer seems relevant. In reading any type of history on people, it is important to understand the context or the time frame in which the events occurred. The way most people view optimism in the 21st Century is not the same view of optimism—wayward or not—that Voltaire was lashing out against during the 18th Century. On the whole, churches in the modern Western world are not burning heretics at the stake for the public good. There is a larger divide between religion and politics, and knowledge across all fields is much more expansive.

The pace of Candide is steady, and Voltaire keeps your eyes wide and mind racing with every page. He strips back layers of society and removes comfort bubbles, and lays everything bare. Landscapes that started out lush eventually become barren battlefields. Even though Voltaire approaches the misfortunes of his characters in a raw manner, there are still pockets of soul and sympathy. When Candide, beaten down and near exhaustion, happens upon a dying Negro slave he feels the most empathy because he recognizes a man who is essentially helpless and innocent, and that despite being so he is not immune to the horrors of the world.

Despite satirizing optimism, Voltiare is not against it, as is evidenced by the book's ending. Candide stands in a garden reminiscent of the Garden of Eden and says to his surviving troupe, “Let us cultivate our garden.” To borrow a quote from Dr. George Hahn, Professor of British Literature Studies at Towson University, “And the book's final work is in a garden—where Candide now keeps his feet on the ground, unlike Pangloss, whose head is in the clouds. Thus, Voltaire affirms reason over rationalization.”

Oh Snap!: Fashionable Bookworms

Fashion blog couple Hanna & John from Sweden have been spotted indulging in new novels all across Europe. The couple vacation together in between semesters, and can most usually be spotted with a good book in tow. Check 'em out here

Literary Links

Works of fiction, book news and interesting tidbits to read...before you read.


New York City's library system faces 22 percent budget cut. (Library Journal)

"Ava's Apartment": a short story by Jonathan Letham. (The New Yorker)

Wintergirls, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, is possibly triggering, definitely thought-provoking, says Jezebel. (Jezebel)

The right to write about it: Hurricane Katrina in poetry. (Bookslut)

Ain't no stopping Colson Whitehead (p.s. Amazon calls his novel, Sag Harbor, the best of the month of May). (Omnivoracious)

Lifestyle Gumbo: Eatonville, Florida

[Eatonville restaurant, Washington, D.C.]

A delightful new restaurant has opened up here in Washington, D.C. this week. Now, we have restaurant openings all the time in our fair city, but this one is particularly special: It's inspired by Zora Neale Hurston!

Yes, Eatonville, which opened on Tuesday, May 12 in D.C.'s U Street Corridor is named after the legendary writer's Florida hometown and features Florida swamp-certifed dishes like Fish and grits (served with the fish of the day, buttery grits and collard greens), shrimp and sausage etoufee, and of course lots of crispy chicken, mashed potatoes and Cajun fries.

I had a chance to check them out on Saturday night, along with two of my friends. We were planning to go to Busboys and Poets (a fantastic, literary U Street institution that I'll write about later, I'm sure), but saw Eatonville and thought it might be a great change of pace.

It was packed, and we ate outside until it began to rain. Then we were moved to a long, family-style table with other patrons who had got caught in the torrent. My food was great (I was a little afraid to order the fish and grits that I wanted, so I opted for the safe choice of crispy chicken and cajun fries. Greens were also in the entree, but never arrived with my food.) The wait staff was very friendly, and I will definitely go back to sample other dishes.

[Zora Neale Hurston]

Sidenote: I just purchased a copy of the first Hurston biography in 25 years, Wrapped In Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd. I'm just a couple of pages in, but I'm definitely on the fence. Boyd's writing is extremely poetic and flowery, but I wonder if that takes away from the fact-based nature of the genre?

If you are at all of fan of Hurston, please, please, please get yourself to D.C. to take a look at Eatonville. Even if you don't eat, the beautiful imagery (all inspired by Hurston's life and works) are enough to keep you entertained.

Eatonville
2121 14th St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
202.332.ZORA


Check out this video, from EatonvilleRestaurant.com. The restaurant is searching for a few countrified chefs and decided to catalogue their quest on their Web site. Here's episode 1:

Eatonville Chef Search episode 1 from Electric Communications on Vimeo.