Stephen O Connor

Stephen O'Connor is one of several promising young artists, from film director Bruce Robinson ("How To Get Ahead in Advertising") to writer Andrei Codrescu, who are using surrealism not to bypass our dulling consciousness in search of deeper truth, but to avoid the limitations of traditional storytelling. O'Connor in particular eschews the narrative because he disputes its assumption that characters evolve over time, affecting and being affected by their environment. Emphasizing images rather than action, moods rather than plot, O'Connor creates impotent characters who drift in the subjectivity of the moment, able to value something only once they have lost it. In the title story, for instance, a skier injured in an avalanche hallucinates about his wife; he imagines her taking him home (whose richness is suggested by overflowing baskets of apples and mangoes)

Who is responsible for the welfare of children? Question the next few people you meet and you may be surprised at what you'll hear. The first, automatic response is: "Their parents, of course!" And if the parents are unable to provide? More than a few people will firmly declare: "Then they have no right to bring children into the world!" Perhaps not, but even if the parents may be blamed, the children, who didn't ask to be born, are still there.

Who is responsible for the welfare of children? Question the next few people you meet and you may be surprised at what you'll hear. The first, automatic response is: "Their parents, of course!" And if the parents are unable to provide? More than a few people will firmly declare: "Then they have no right to bring children into the world!" Perhaps not, but even if the parents may be blamed, the children, who didn't ask to be born, are still there.

Stephen O'Connor is one of several promising young artists, from film director Bruce Robinson ("How To Get Ahead in Advertising") to writer Andrei Codrescu, who are using surrealism not to bypass our dulling consciousness in search of deeper truth, but to avoid the limitations of traditional storytelling. O'Connor in particular eschews the narrative because he disputes its assumption that characters evolve over time, affecting and being affected by their environment. Emphasizing images rather than action, moods rather than plot, O'Connor creates impotent characters who drift in the subjectivity of the moment, able to value something only once they have lost it. In the title story, for instance, a skier injured in an avalanche hallucinates about his wife; he imagines her taking him home (whose richness is suggested by overflowing baskets of apples and mangoes)

Compiled by Grace Krilanovich. SUNDAY Francesca Lia Block : The author will read and sign her new YA novel "The Frenzy. " Vroman's Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. 5 p.m. Free. (626) 449-5320. Peter Cole : The poet will read and discuss his National Jewish Book Award-winning anthology "The Dream of the Poem. " Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. 2 p.m. $5; members, free. (310) 440-4500. MONDAY Malcolm Beith : The author of "The Last Narco: Inside the Hunt for El Chapo, the World's Most Wanted Drug Lord" will present and sign his new book.

Teddy Papaoiannou grew up in Manhattan diners, and he can remember when a green vegetable was exotic -- a gesture almost suburban in its healthfulness. Over the years, the sands shifted. Iceberg lettuce receded; romaine emerged. In its latest iteration, his family's diner offers mesclun. Even so, Papaoiannou was caught flat-footed last week when he learned that New York health officials plan to ban the use of hydrogenated vegetable oil in city restaurants.

In an east Pasadena building where Sears, Roebuck & Co. once trained auto mechanics, Stephen O'Connor's team of 60 is working with valves and filters on a significantly smaller scale. O'Connor's 4-year-old company, Nanostream Inc., is developing ways for pharmaceutical companies to quicken the drug discovery process by automating and miniaturizing chemical and biological reactions in the lab.

In these uncertain times, venture capital investors still look with favor on Pasadena, attracted by the "hard science" work at Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Huntington Medical Research Institute, the nearby City of Hope and other institutions. As a result, Pasadena and neighboring communities are budding hotbeds of new companies pursuing discoveries in biotechnology, optical electronics and computer and material sciences.

As a creative writing teacher in one of this city's strapped public schools, Stephen O'Connor had a memorable student who, for all her promise, couldn't escape her family's poverty or illness. A gifted writer and actor, the teenager missed an audition--and the chance to attend the famed Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts--because her alcoholic mother needed her help at home.