J.W. Burleson photo / Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

PHB

My photo
Brooklin, Maine, United States
We own a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15 in Maine and a 1986 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 10 in West Texas. Also a pair of 1997 Volvo 850 wagons. Average age in the fleet is 28 years--we're recycling. I've published 3 novels: THE LAW OF DREAMS (2006), THE O'BRIENS (2012), and CARRY ME (2016). Also 2 short story collections: NIGHT DRIVING(1987) and TRAVELLING LIGHT (2013). More of my literary life is at www.peterbehrens.org I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for 2012-13. I'm an adjunct professor at Colorado College and in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. In 2015-16 I was a Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The Autoliterate office is in Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square, 2 floors above Dewey Cheatem & Howe. SUBSCRIBE TO THE AUTOLITERATE DAILY EMAIL by hitting the button to the right.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Detroit Iron. And a 1959 Buick convertible.


I'm not much interested in Fifties nostalgia---& it's been going on way too long, since about 1972, and there ain't nothing new to say. I don't need to see any more fuzzy dice or 1957 Bel Airs at car shows. And the meanings of the cars of that era have been deconstructed too often, and the cars themselves are usually over-restored. But a friend sent me a batch of photos, and encountering images of these lurid beasts here in prim Holland, land of the well-polished Land Rover, just made it plain, once again, how much dreamlife was invested in cars in the postwar era. Maybe nowadays the psychic hunger goes into handheld gizmos, like iPhones, with their apps. Dislike that word, apps. It's unappetizing. But these cars are remarkable and strange, aren't they? I always especially admired the '59 GM cars, all of them. See the Buick convertible below, black with red interior, always loved that color combination.









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