About Celestial Timepiece

Mission

Celestial Timepiece is intended to be a resource for fans, students, and scholars of Joyce Carol Oates's work. Begun in August of 1995 as a project to learn HTML, the site has since grown to rather massive proportions—eventually reflecting the breadth, if not the depth, of JCO's own massive literary project. Though the Internet has since become a highly commercial medium, this site attempts to remain true to the Internet's early spirit: to provide a free exchange of information, and to encourage discussion and scholarship among JCO's admirers around the world.

In constructing this site, I have had the good fortune to encounter a number of generous individuals who have provided valuable information, assistance, and encouragement. Notable among these are the world-wide members of the JCO discussion group Tone Clusters; Kathleen Manwaring, keeper of the JCO Archive at the Syracuse University Library; and most particularly, Greg Johnson, author, critic, and biographer of JCO. Joyce Carol Oates herself has been astoundingly generous in allowing me to use her material on this web site.

I should note, however, that this site is not "official." It is my own personal project, and, consequently, reflects my own sensibilities.

Name

Though JCO has written a poem called "Celestial Timepiece," this site actually took its name from a passage in her Gothic masterpiece, Bellefleur:

Celestial Timepiece was the largest quilt, but Matilde was sewing it for herself—it wasn't to be sold: up close it resembled a crazy quilt because it was asymmetrical, with squares that contrasted not only in color and design but in texture as well. "Feel this square, now feel this one," Matilde said softly, taking Germaine's hand, "and now this one—do you see? Close your eyes." Coarse wool, fine wool, satins, laces, burlap, cotton, silk, brocade, hemp, tiny pleats. Germaine shut her eyes tight and touched the squares, seeing them with her fingertips, reading them. Do you understand? Matilde asked.

Noel complained that Celestial Timepiece made his eye jump. You had to stand far back to see its design, and even then it was too complicated—it gave him a headache. "Why don't you just sew some nice little satin comforter," he said. "Something small, something pretty."

"I do what I am doing," Matilde said curtly.

History

See a visual history of Celestial Timepiece.

Myself

I am a reference librarian at the University of San Francisco.

page address:
http://jco.usfca.edu/about.html