Jeremy Russell
My Writing Blog- Quotes Worth Keeping
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- Apr 06, 13
I’m putting these two movies in the same post because Jeff Daniels plays essentially the same character in both. They also came out in the same year, 2009. And not coincidentally they both have the word ‘man’ in the title.
These movies are about a man. He is struggling with middle age, coming to grips with his life and the choices/mistakes he made; he is learning to accept himself.
But at first he’s deeply unhappy. Despite being a successful writer, or perhaps because of it, he is an emotional child. He’s not a misanthrope — and therefore of no relation to the type we saw in Young Adult (2011). This guy actually likes people.
But he hates himself.
Because of his self loathing, he’s isolated, experiencing ennui, and in need of companionship. He’s a hermit and a sad sack.
In The Answer Man, he’s written a book of Q&A’s with God and now everybody thinks he can actually talk to God, only he can’t, so he’s living a lie. In Paper Man, he’s written a novel, and it was a failure, so now he’s having writer’s block and generally lamenting his unproductive life (he also never had kids). The misery leads to outlandish behavior, a.k.a. hijinks, until he meets a woman who sets him straight.
We’ve got this guy who can’t seem to figure himself out and acts like a jerk until he’s ‘fixed‘ through a positive encounter with a person of the opposite sex, in one case romantically and in the other case more father-daughter.
So why a writer? Why not make this man an office drone burnout (like Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt). Because writers in films are generally indulged their eccentricities the way ‘normal’ people are not. In fact, their idiosyncrasies are mined for entertainment value — and middle-aged writers especially are depicted as introverts struggling with inner demons (think Paul Giamatti in Sideways or Emma Thompson in Stranger than Fiction. For that matter, think of the protagonist of Adaptation or any movie penned by Spike Jonze).
By virtue of a certain artistic mystique, these characters allow the audience to indulge in empathetic sympathy for that neurotic self-torment we all engage in to some degree.
Notably, being writers also allows them to wax eloquent about things perceived as beyond the ken of everyday folks — in the case of these two films, that thing is spirituality and the extirpation of the heath hen. This is useful for the screenwriters, I guess, as it gives them a soap box.
Perhaps these everyman heros have to be writers simply because that makes them easy proxies for the screenwriter. And, therefore, to a lesser extent, us all. All insecurities manifest.
- Feb 27, 13
Writing While the Rice Boils assembled an impressive list of genre clichés you should be on the lookout for as a writer. They span every genre from Science Fiction to Romance, and even include ‘Literary Cliches,’ which brings to my next link…
The Millions has a list of clichés you can expect to find (and probably ought to kill with fire) in a literary novel. ‘Literary Fiction is a Genre: A List’ includes this illuminating illustration:
This is a “nothing happens” book, the former it girl of literary genre fiction. In my classes, I like to describe these stories as: “A man and a woman buy dishes at the store. When they get home, she goes to lie down, barely talking, something unsettling her. A dog barks in the distance. The man starts to put the plates away, and one breaks. The end.” What I love about this kind of narrative is that it’s often deliciously readable. How is that possible? Of course, this kind of narrative is a bit out of vogue — there’s a new it girl on the scene. It’s the same man and woman, but now time travel or zombies or tiny people who live in walnuts are involved. Raymond Carver is to blame for the popularity of the first kind of narrative, with his profound stories of small actions, uninterested as they are in directly exploring the inner lives of characters. That genius George Saunders is to blame for the latter: damn him and his faxing cave man!
Still, despite all that, sometimes clichés are awesome. No really. I’m reading Infinite Jest right now (and probably will be for the foreseeable future) and David Foster Wallace makes brilliant and varied use of a veritable lunacy of clichés. So much so that there’s a Wikipedia entry about it.
A more mundane discussion of the value of clichés can be found at Seth Grodin’s blog, where Seth concludes, “The effective way to use a cliché is to point to it and then do precisely the opposite. Juxtapose the cliché with the unexpected truth of what you have to offer.”
- Jan 23, 13
Most writing tips are redundant or repetitious, some are amusing; W.G. Sebald‘s rise above because they take into account literature’s historical progression and include quotable lines like, “be experimental, but let the reader be part of the experiment.” The list came via a friend of a friend, and it’s quite extensive. For brevity’s sake, I’ll re-post the only his advice on ‘Style’ and ‘Revision’:
On Style
- Every sentence taken by itself should mean something.
- Writing should not create the impression that the writer is trying to be ‘poetic’.
- It’s easy to write rhythmical prose. It carries you along. After a while it gets tedious.
- Long sentences prevent you from having continually to name the subject (‘Gertie did this, Gertie felt that’ etc.).
- Avoid sentences that serve only to set up later sentences.
- Use the word ‘and’ as little as possible. Try for variety in conjunctions.
On Revision
- Don’t revise too much or it turns into patchwork.
- Lots of things resolve themselves just by being in the drawer a while.
- Don’t listen to anyone. Not us, either. It’s fatal.
And for even more inspiration on editing, check this post from Flavorwire of “20 Great Writers on the Art of Revision.” To summarize: Rewrite it, murder your darlings, get the words right, and good luck.
- Oct 31, 12
Since it’s Halloween, I thought a little post about Shirley Jackson would be appropriate.
Called “that patron saint of oddballs” recently by Salon, the contradictions of Shirley Jackson are perhaps best summed up by her final, unfinished work, Come Along With Me.
Although The Lottery is an amazing short story that broke the minds of New Yorker readers when it was printed, and The Haunting of Hill House is a fan favorite novel, I think her oeuvre is too often defined by these particular works. Usually she wasn’t half that dark, even while dealing with eerie and sometimes supernatural themes.
Come Along With Me, the last thing she wrote, is as good a place as any to try to understand what I mean. The novel fragment is narrated by an unnamed woman who claims to speak with spirits. She arrives in a strange boarding house wanting to perform a seance and is accepted only with suspicion by the people of that place. She is an outsider, the stability of her psychology is questionable and her place in the community is far from certain. Woman, outsider, maybe crazy: These are traits she shares with almost all the Jackson heroines; they’re all a bit like good-humored versions of Sylvia Plath in The Bell Jar. And from their gently tilted perspectives we’re given a unique view of mid-century American society.
Consider this line from Come Along With Me:
He looked at me; I must say I like it better when they look at you; a lot of the time people seem to be scared of finding out that other people have real faces, as though if you looked at a stranger clearly and honestly and with both eyes you might find yourself learning something you didn’t actually want to know.
That’s the kind of perspective you find from Jackson, something utterly true and strange. Her stories shiver with an unreality that reveals the inherent complexity in even the most ordinary activity and then imbues it with bizarre connotation.
- Oct 02, 12
It’s been interesting times for literary prizes of late, what with the debate about the Nobel winner, and then the lack of a Pulitzer for fiction.
A recent New Yorker article by Michael Cunningham, “Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury,” made an awkward apology for the fiction fumble produced by this year’s Pulitzer committee, but did little to assuage bemusement.
Cunningham waxes eloquent on the philosophy of giving prizes in genera, as well.
It’s partly a question of what future generations will and will not overlook. What seem fatal flaws to one generation strike the next as displays of artistic courage. Who cares that Henry James went on sometimes at questionable length because he was being paid by the word? Who cares, for that matter, that Marconi merely invented radio transmission when his actual goal was to pick up the voices of the dead?
The three books put forward by his committee were given consideration by the Pulitzer judges, but “none mustered the mandatory majority for granting a prize, so no prize was awarded,” explained Sig Gissler, administrator of the Prize. “This is the 11th time this has happened in the fiction category; the last time was 1977. It’s unusual, but it does occur.”
Maureen Corrigan, another member of the selection committee, wrote an excellent and outraged response piece, “I’m angry on behalf of those novels,” arguing that to not award a prize is basically to dismiss the novels. And the point of a prize isn’t to diss the finalists, but to praise them.
More recently, the Guardian UK aired a complaint about a claim by the chair of the BBC International Short Story Award that all short stories need to have a twist. Of course they don’t and the complaint is valid, but even more interesting is the fact that the complaint’s author used it as a jumping off for a larger point:
Once again, the pronouncement that comes from the chair of this year’s distinguished panel of judges – writers and critics both, who have made a life out of thinking about fiction and what makes it valuable – is privileged over those other, more informed voices, to have the soundbite that carries.
There is tremendous tension surrounding all of these literary debates, and as author Elizabeth Baines put it in her Fiction Bitch blog, “A great pity if a good shortlist of subtle stories is belied by the crass but influential words of the chairman, and their literary project sidelined.”
What’s more, it strikes me that the only winners in these scuffles are people who think awards are pointless, such as this New Yorker online commenter posting under the name PETNARD:
Maybe, just maybe, we should stop even giving prizes like this. Sure it’s helpful for the unknown author, but, like the Oscars, college rankings, or any other award system, what’s the purpose of picking out “one best”? It’s an arbitrary and subjective process that artificially crowns just one best. What’s more useful, perhaps, is at the end of each year, list the best books published, regardless of how many (4, 10, 13, whatever). Pitting books of different genres, stories, styles against one another is as useless as pitting one actor against another who performed in very different stories and styles.
I find this a backwards perspective. Awards are like pro-wrestling. They’re not really real, but just because its phoney doesn’t diminish its value. Plenty of people love pro-wrestling. And the acrobatics can’t be faked. It’s not about determining a championship. It’s about the spectacle of it all, and the attendant attention.
What awards do is add value to artists and their expression. The Oscars would never not give an award, because they know this.
- Sep 08, 12
We’ve all heard the story by now of how the printing press revolutionized Western society and launched the Reformation.
Before Gutenberg, books were made by hand. Often by monks. Sometimes over the course of a lifetime. And each was treasured. The covers were embossed leather, wood or even ivory and studded with gems. While this pre-printing press-style scribing has not entirely died out, it’s now a curio.
Bookmaking as we know it today began with the printing press and, more importantly, movable type. Modern book styling was born from the ability to automate the printing process, although for a long time these books were still being bound individually. It wasn’t until the 19th Century the cloth book cover was finally invented.
Finally, the 20th-century mass-market paperback was invented and, combined with widespread literacy, helped launched the pulp fiction era.
At first pulp covers were wonderfully lurid and low-brow, even on high-brow books, but over time paperbacks became almost industry standard. Then the “trade paperback” and “literary paperbacks” made them respectable, a shift which set the tone for covers for many years IMHO.
Then came the copy machine revolution (full disclosure, my first publications were in zines), and now, of course, ebooks threaten to sweep away the need for a book cover entirely. Which, despite the old saw that you should “never judge a book by its cover,” is sad to some of us.
Things are changing. Book art is quickly becoming an anachronism. A new revolution is happening. Wikileaks has nailed its ninety-five theses to the castle church of the internet. There may always be images that help sell stuff, but that’s not the same.
In all the excitement I hope that we never forget that great book covers are something worth celebrating.
- Jul 28, 12
“… when writers put their work out into the world, they’re like kids bringing their broken unicorns and chewed-up teddy bears into class in the sad hope that someone else will love them as much as they do.” ’Nuff said. This is a fun article: read it here
- Apr 11, 12
Young Adult (2011) works on that shopworn trope of the writer as misanthrope to tell the story of a prom queen soured with age, returning to her home town to try to suck the life out of her high school sweetheart’s happy marriage. Meanwhile, she drinks too much and works on the final novel in a teen romance series. That’s the plot, but plot is the least interesting thing about this movie.
Instead it’s a character study of author-protagonist Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron), a woman self-absorbed to the point of absurdist satire. For screenwriter Diablo Cody there was something inherently progressive about portraying a woman this emotionally retarded:
I knew a lot of people like Mavis—not as malicious as her, but who are kind of slovenly immature like her, which is the opposite of the way we’re used to seeing women portrayed. I relate to that really strongly and wondered why we didn’t see them in movies. When the movie came out, sure enough, I had so many women tell me that Mavis reminded them of themselves—which I’m proud of, because it’s tough to admit that you’re like Mavis.
Cody goes on to compare her to a Kardashian, but why then was it necessary to make Mavis a writer? Why not make her a TV personality or some kind of dilettante (or both)? Well, we wouldn’t have that great title, for one thing, and for another the kind of books that Mavis writes form a sort of commentary on the kind of person she is.
Although Mavis does several things that are traditional of writers in the movies — struggles to put words into her laptop, eavesdrops for inspiration, and writes in voice over — she is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the similarly self-indulgent character of Hank Moody in Californication. She has achieved a modicum of notoriety as a writer, at least in her home town, but she has done it by writing someone else’s books.
She may be loath to cop to her true status, but Mavis is just the latest hack hired to tackle one of these never-ending series upon which the publishers continue to slap a popular author’s name (even after the author is dead), and then foist upon the YA market. I guess those books sell, because from what I can tell it’s an increasingly common practice.
In any case, Cody is using the novels — and the YA genre as a whole — as a metaphor for Mavis’s shallow, hollow self-involvement. Govindini Murty summed it up pretty succinctly in her Huffington Post analysis:
Charlize Theron’s Mavis embodies all the narcissism of modern popular culture. She’s obsessed with reality TV (the Kardashians drone on in the background of several scenes), a medium that has elevated the navel gazing of minor celebrities to the level of major entertainment. Mavis writes young adult novels that are only thinly-disguised relivings of her own high-school glory days, and she’s otherwise obsessed with appearances and shallow celebrity status. The film repeatedly shows Mavis studying herself in the mirror — either in depressed self-loathing after an alcoholic bender, or with vain self-satisfaction as she puts on makeup to impress her former boyfriend.
All of this comes together in one ridiculous, yet poignant scene: Mavis arrives at a bookstore in her hometown to find copies of her novels stacked together on a table. After she convinces the clerk that they’re her novels, despite the fact that there is a famous author’s name on the cover, he tells her this display is the final effort of the store to sell them, and nobody is buying.
Hiding her hurt, Mavis offers to sign the books to increase their value, but the clerk stops her because the books can’t be remaindered if someone has written in them. In one blow he crushes what little of her self esteem was left. And, of course, she tries to sign them anyway, because when they disappear so will the proof positive that she ever amounted to anything special.
- Apr 06, 12
A rare treat for pulp-o-philes: an interview of Raymond Chandler by Ian Fleming on the topic of “English and American Thrillers.”
Fleming comes across unpretentious and thoughtful as he tells Chandler about how he dashes off a new Bond novel in two months every summer, and then admits that that doesn’t contribute to the quality of the work. He calls Chandler the superior author and when Chandler demurs, Fleming proves his point with a surprisingly insightful commentary about what makes his writing work as entertainment and what makes Chandler’s writing a deeper examination of character.
My favorite moment though has to be when Fleming claims that “James Bond I never intended to be a hero. I intended him to be a sort of blunt instrument wielded by a government department who would get into bizarre, fantastic situations and more or less shoot his way out of them.” Put like that, 007′s adventures sound like a cold-war commentary as much as the spy fantasies they more clearly are.
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Posts
- May 03, 13
“I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.”
- James Joyce (to his French translator) - May 03, 13
“Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it.”
- Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood - Apr 07, 13
“…I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.”
- James Joyce, Dubliners - Feb 26, 13
“People who wandered the way of love found themselves in mad situations.”
- The Tale of Genji - Feb 20, 13
“I would just say to you as students who are supposed to be learning, that as soon as that book is gone from the library, do not walk — run to your nearest public library or bookseller and find out what your elders don’t want you to know, because that’s what you need to know!”
- Stephen King, Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing - Jan 21, 13
“Sometimes he finds out he believes something that he doesn’t even know he believed until it exits his mouth in front of five anxious little hairless plump trusting clueless faces.”
- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest - Jan 08, 13
“The only writers who have any peace are the ones who don’t write.”
- Stanislaw Lem, Hospital of the Transfiguration - Jan 02, 13
“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time. However, go in, community. New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions, and we wish you to enjoy it with a looseness suited to the greatness of the occasion.”
- Mark Twain, Letter to Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, Jan. 1863 - Dec 18, 12
“
Misery is comfortable. It’s why so many people prefer it. Happiness takes effort.
Also, courage. It’s incredibly comforting to know that as long as you don’t create anything in your life, then nobody can attack the thing you created.It’s so much easier to just sit back and criticize other people’s creations. This movie is stupid. That couple’s kids are brats. That other couple’s relationship is a mess. That rich guy is shallow. This restaurant sucks. This Internet writer is an asshole. I’d better leave a mean comment demanding that the website fire him. See, I created something.
Oh, wait, did I forget to mention that part? Yeah, whatever you try to build or create — be it a poem, or a new skill, or a new relationship — you will find yourself immediately surrounded by non-creators who trash it. Maybe not to your face, but they’ll do it. Your drunk friends do not want you to get sober. Your fat friends do not want you to start a fitness regimen. Your jobless friends do not want to see you embark on a career.
Just remember, they’re only expressing their own fear, since trashing other people’s work is another excuse to do nothing. “Why should I create anything when the things other people create suck? I would totally have written a novel by now, but I’m going to wait for something good, I don’t want to write the next Twilight!” As long as they never produce anything, it will forever be perfect and beyond reproach. Or if they do produce something, they’ll make sure they do it with detached irony. They’ll make it intentionally bad to make it clear to everyone else that this isn’t their real effort. Their real effort would have been amazing. Not like the shit you made.
”
- http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/ (via cartoonretro) - Nov 26, 12
“When good friends drink together, a thousands cups is too little; when the talk is not congenial, half a sentence is too much.”
- Mo Yan, The Republic of Wine - Oct 27, 12
“The relationship between man and liquor embodies virtually all the contradictions involved in the process of human existence and development.”
- Mo Yan, The Republic of Wine - Oct 27, 12
“As long as we were in love, we understood one another without words. But people are not in love all the time.”
- Albert Camus, The Plague - Oct 14, 12
“There’s no avoiding the inevitable. Not mass confusion, and not hemorrhoids.”
- Mo Yan, The Republic of Wine - Oct 03, 12
“It was the delight of the learned, the solace of the indolent, and the refuge of the uninformed.”
- Introduction to The Anatomy of Melancholy - Oct 02, 12
“The meaning of a story should go on expanding for the reader the more he thinks about it, but meaning cannot be captured in an interpretation.”
- Flannery O’Connor from a letter - Jun 28, 12
“But here’s what I’ve come to believe. That maybe it’s no different now than it ever was. Maybe it’s always the end of the world.”
- Jess Walter - May 13, 12
“The ones I want to see are precisely the ones you want to hide.”
- To no Chujo from The Tale of Genji - Apr 07, 12
“Temperaments are born, not made, and they cannot be changed, by time, nor training, nor by any other force.”
- Mark Twain - Jan 04, 12
“If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.”
- Yann Martel - Nov 02, 11
“I’m reluctant to cite any French literary theorists, for I hold them largely responsible for turning literary criticism into the laughingstock it’s become to most people outside the profession; 40 years ago they sashayed over like flirty foreign exchange students and began seducing English and American critics into making fools of themselves.”
- Steven Moore
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Tweets
- May 22, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @pattonoswalt And would Joyce truly appreciate 'nobitchassness'?
- San Francisco in a gorgeous new 30-seconds animation: Disney's "Big Hero 6" First Look Footage http://t.co/5Q4VHJsMt9
- This is Water (DFW): http://t.co/fCko8ZUCC2
- Quote Worth Keeping: "I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centur... http://t.co/EGdFMYnE3B
- @WhimEmery exegesis of cryptid apocrypha? #fakelore
- RT @brainpicker: The Nature of Fun – David Foster Wallace on why writers write, a timeless and regularly rereadable read http://t.co/nuhPDc…May 01, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Tom Waits/Cookie Monster - Hell Broke Luce: http://t.co/M7jfYZeJ2r
- ScanScape: Patton Oswalt's Star Wars Filibuster: I would totally watch that movie! http://t.co/kTSM5TVdpJ
- ScanScape: 60 Years of Casino Royale: The Guardian UK has Sixty years of James Bond's Casino Royale in picture... http://t.co/ODYRToQIyQ
- ScanScape: Irony Was Prohibited: From Soviet Censors to 'Occupy Abai': Interesting article in The Nation about... http://t.co/CzQV67jpT9
- ScanScape: What Is the Business of Literature? by Richard Nash: Interesting thought piece about the business o... http://t.co/eLxfFA63MR
- ScanScape: Johnny Rotten Watches "Katy Perry: Part Of Me": ... this ... is ... fascinating ... http://t.co/em0cx2WyId
- Quote Worth Keeping: "…I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real adventures, I reflected, do not ... http://t.co/CMRAnGwZH6
- Films About Fiction: 'Paper Man' and 'The Answer Man' http://t.co/vSM2XKLGos
- ScanScape: Lana Del Rey - Chelsea Hotel No 2: Surprisingly not unpleasant to listen to... http://t.co/WeMUSWM5OK
- Quote Worth Keeping: "People who wandered the way of love found themselves in mad situations.": “People who wa... http://t.co/AJG4T6BGZU
- Grievous commonalities, a.k.a. clichés http://t.co/W1Qr0vwKc6
- Quote Worth Keeping: "I would just say to you as students who are supposed to be learning, that as soon as that ... http://t.co/tfUZWTQqo6
- ScanScape: Petra Haden - "Superman Theme": http://t.co/cWPAPGt0
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Posts
- May 09, 13Disney's "Big Hero 6" First Look Footage
- May 08, 13
- Apr 29, 13
- Apr 12, 13
The Guardian UK has Sixty years of James Bond's Casino Royale in pictures
"It's 60 years since Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. His greatest fan, Mike VanBlaricum, examines how six decades of cover artists have fulfilled their mission to identify 007 on book shelves around the world. Here he introduces images from the world's finest private collection of Bondiana, now on display in Illinois." - Apr 12, 13
Interesting article in The Nation about the current state and status of Russian literature, "Oligarchs and Graphomaniacs."
Well aware of the power of literature, the Soviets were even stricter censors than the imperial authorities had been. Many writers were killed or exiled, and many more were blacklisted. Soviet censors strove to eliminate not only political dissent but any hint of ambiguity. Irony was prohibited because it relied on potentially subversive double meanings—but also, as the writer Viktor Erofeev suggested in 1990, because it undermined the "serious view of literature as a social enlightener." The desperate Soviet attempts to control literature only affirmed its power. Meanwhile, writers and readers developed increasingly sophisticated methods of writing and reading between the lines. Some Soviet-era literature is so densely encoded as to be nearly incomprehensible to an outsider.
...... after a long period of political apathy, Russian poets are starting to understand that they can no longer abstain from politics. Medvedev, Babushkin and other young writers are struggling to reaffirm the link between literature and social change that was effaced by disillusionment and literary postmodernism. Meanwhile, some of Russia's most famous novelists played prominent roles in the Moscow demonstrations of 2011 and 2012. After Putin's most recent inauguration, Boris Akunin, who is famous for his detective novels, invited the public to walk with him through the city, from one literary monument to another. Thousands of people met him at the statue of Pushkin. Moscow's "Occupy Abai" camp sprung up at the feet of a statue of the nineteenth-century Kazakh poet Abai Kunanbayev. This was not the first time protesters had rallied around Moscow's literary monuments: during Khrushchev's Thaw, dissident poets recited in front of the famous statue of Vladimir Mayakovsky, one of the fiercest and most tragic utopian poets. Medvedev and other writers have revived the tradition, though they haven't received much attention. Fixtures at Moscow's political protests, they share with Mayakovsky the conviction that literature is necessarily political, and that writers play an essential part in making a better world.
- Apr 10, 13Interesting thought piece about the business of books from Virginia Quarterly Review.
So what was the business of literature, pre-book? There were words, for sure, and there was culture. There were books and there were writers. They were paid, in fact. Very well. But few writers of today would likely forgo the life of the twenty-first-century writer for that of a thirteenth-century writer.
Moreover, the role of the writer before Gutenberg was simply to transcribe. The writer’s purpose wasn’t to reimagine language—not gainsaying the existence of outliers such as Virgil. Writers were not thought leaders, conjurors of other worlds, conjoiners of emotion and aesthetic. Writers were the machines through which the word of God was reproduced and disseminated. Or, at most, the knowledge that humans had accumulated thus far—the myths, the legends, what is now called “folk wisdom.” They captured the store of human knowledge to date. The writer was the printing press. At most, it could be said that the writer was a representative of her generation because, quite literally, the writer faithfully reproduced the stories and beliefs of her time. Such were the trade-offs: a job for life, doing nothing but writing, but you were, in the words of the academics who study this period, a “trained scribal laborer.” A calligrapher.
- Feb 14, 13
- Dec 17, 12
- Nov 12, 12
If that didn't make you want to order some books, nothing will. - Nov 08, 12
I have always thought that the theme music was one of the best thing about any James Bond film. There are probably a half dozen Bond movies in which the soundtrack is better than the flick. Here's a ranking of them that's quite astute from the Atlantic Monthly (click through for all the songs).
- "Thunderball"—Tom Jones (from THUNDERBALL, 1965)
- Diamonds Are Forever—Shirley Bassey (from DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, 1971)
- Goldfinger—Shirley Bassey (from GOLDFINGER, 1964)
- Skyfall—Adele (from SKYFALL, 2012)
- You Only Live Twice—Nancy Sinatra (from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, 1967)
- From Russia With Love—Matt Monro (from FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, 1963)
- A View To A Kill—Duran Duran (from A VIEW TO A KILL, 1985)
- Nobody Does It Better—Carly Simon (from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, 1977)
- The World Is Not Enough—Garbage (from THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, 1999)
- We Have All The Time In The World—Louis Armstrong (from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, 1969)
- GoldenEye (Single Edit)—Tina Turner (from GOLDENEYE, 1995)
- All Time High—Rita Coolidge (from OCTOPUSSY, 1983)
- Another Way To Die—Jack White & Alicia Keys (from QUANTUM OF SOLACE, 2008)
- Moonraker—Shirley Bassey (from MOONRAKER, 1979)
- The Man With The Golden Gun—Lulu (from THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, 1974)
- Licence To Kill—Gladys Knight (from LICENCE TO KILL, 1989)
- Live And Let Die—Paul McCartney & Wings (from LIVE AND LET DIE, 1973)
- Tomorrow Never Dies—Sheryl Crow (from TOMORROW NEVER DIES, 1997)
- For Your Eyes Only—Sheena Easton (from FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, 1981)
- You Know My Name—Chris Cornell (from CASINO ROYALE, 2006)
- Die Another Day—Madonna (from DIE ANOTHER DAY, 2002)
- The Living Daylights—A-Ha (from THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, 1987)
Also, this Foreign Policy list of potential Bond villains from the real world is a trip. - Oct 26, 12
- Oct 26, 12
In her blog, FictionBitch, Elizabeth Baines summarizes what must have been a very interesting discussion at the Manchester Literature Festival on the evolution of the publishing industry.
In spite of the radically different views expressed, it seemed that all four editors were in agreement about one thing: that in traditional publishing there has been what someone called 'a race to the bottom' which has in effect made it difficult to make people pay for books, a situation which needs somehow to be turned around.
Recommended reading for sure. - Oct 08, 12
This Flavorwire collection of Famous Authors Funniest Responses to their Books Being Banned is a riot. For those who would ban books, consider Mark Twain's sage words: "Apparently, the Concord library has condemned Huck as ‘trash and only suitable for the slums.’ This will sell us another twenty-five thousand copies for sure!"
- Sep 17, 12
In case you forgot how cool he is ... here's a fascinating interview with actor LeVar Burton about his project to bring classic children's television to a new generation.
- Aug 14, 12
This exemplifies the current state of the Internet better than anything I've seen this summer. A video made by the original artist from a collage of all the video remakes and parodies of his own song that he found on Youtube.
- Aug 06, 12
- Jun 19, 12
This Foreign Policy article is brilliant:
For those who don't remember Bill Watterson's game theory masterpiece, Calvinball is a game defined by the absence of rules -- or, rather, that the rules are made up as they go along. Calvinball sometimes resembles recognizable games such as football, but is quickly revealed to be something else entirely. The rules change in mid-play, as do the goals ("When I learned you were a spy, I switched goals. This is your goal and mine's hidden."), the identities of the players ("I'm actually a badminton player disguised as a double-agent football player!") and the nature of the competition ("Iwant you to cross my goal. The points will go to your team, which is really my team!"). The only permanent rule is that the game is never played the same way twice. Is there any better analogy for Egypt's current state of play?
I recommend you read the entire thing! - Jun 16, 12
Okay, it's not really the doors, but this made me smile.
- Jun 15, 12
- Jun 10, 12
If you've seen, loved and laughed about the 80's cheese-ball Russians-invade-the-U.S. action flick Red Dawn (starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen), you'll appreciate this spam email that I received today. It's got insane scifi thrills, slapstick comedy and a message directly from Yahweh (albeit signed by "linda"), and it gets funnier and crazier as it goes. And I love love love the last line! (BTW, all links have been deactivated to protect against viruses).
Michigan Nuclear Explosion Confirmed,
PNN News Alert!
The following story is linked from here at Beforeitsnews.com For additional background also read this report.
Even more shocking, are the revelations that Russian troops are responsible this explosion! More info about this attack follows this message below and can also be linked to, here. Please share this with everyone you know, more attacks are planned, and are imminent!
(the following originates from naturalsociety.com)
Amid a number of reports of massive and bizarre radiation readouts coming from experts, eyewitnesses, radiation facilities, and a key choice news outlet, it has now come out that one of the largest nuclear bases is currently running a ‘nuclear containment exercise’. The Minot Airforce Base exercise, running in North Dakota, reportedly involves the use of B-52 aircrafts. The news comes after a developing story arose over the potential cover-up of a nuclear situation stemming from near the border of Indiana and Michigan.
Sources from near where the elevated levels of radiation were observed say that a Department of Homeland Security ‘hazmat’ fleet has been dispatched after ‘years’ of inactivity. The story first erupted after online geiger readings showed an unprecedented radiation spike in the area, with levels reaching as high as 7.139 counts per minute (CPM) over the average of between 5 and 6. While there has been no official reported cause of the spike, there has been quite a bit of foul play regarding the information being put forth by many media outlets, the EPA, and even radiation measurement centers. After the readings shocked viewers, the EPA quickly censored the ability to view the levels online. this also.
Thankfully, the readings were captured in a screenshot, which show the elevated levels far exceeding normal limits.
Measurements were recorded by a number of sources, though the growing publicity over the event has caused denial and censorship from not only the EPA but private organizations as well. The Radiation Network originally released an image showing an outburst in radiation levels stemming from the location, but later issued a special message on their home page stating that the readings were the result of an ‘error’. This, of course, is virtually impossible as the readings were confirmed by two entirely different locations. BlackCat and the Radiation Network both recorded the levels, meaning that the likelihood both of their systems failed at the exact same time and produced the exact same result would be dismal.
As the story develops, more information will undoubtedly come out on the subject. It appears that the EPA’s incognito takedown of the measurement results indicates that the agency, perhaps along with other government organizations, will vehemently deny that there was any real spike in radiation levels. The ‘failure’ message issued by the Radiation Network also shows that it is very possible that an organized level of non-disclosure may ultimately be the result until alternative media organizations continue to pry into the situation.
(the following originates from here and will soon be posted at www.prophecies.org)
A Message from our Saviour
June 09, 2012
“Treason from within: the Russian attacks on America!”
My Blessed Child, I am your Father Yahweh, yea Jehovah, Most High God! My Blessed Child, the alarm bells are sounding for this nation! Very great alarm bells! And, you, as a nation, are sleeping! For, a Trojan Horse has entered into this nation! You have widely opened your gates, and the Trojan Horse has entered in!
While you, as a nation slept, they worked; and still you are in the dark about their works. What is this Trojan Horse, and who are these, who have entered into your gates, whose works will have remained hidden?
I tell you that this Trojan Horse is the Russian Operation in your nation. Their true intents and purposes have remained hidden from you, the masses! And, their works have been in the dark; and sadly for you as a nation, the leader of this nation bowed to them! He broke to their demands and he opened wide the doors of your nation to these infiltrators.
Do not be naïve! The Russians, who supposedly came in for joint, military exercises, have not left; and their joint experiences have all been terminated, except for some very few.
Now, their experiences are known primarily to themselves and to a very few at the highest levels of your government. For, their collaborative efforts are to keep in power the one, who is in power over this nation.
And, their combined schemes are to destroy this nation and to put it totally into the hands of your enemies. Do not believe that the Russian troops have left! They have only gone underground.
You will see more underground nuclear explosions, like the underground explosion, which was reported in and around the Indiana/Michigan area. You have also seen that this nuclear explosion and its radioactivity were immediately covered up.For, when the Russians came, they brought nuclear devices.
Why would the Russians need to bring war planes into this nation; and why would you, as a nation, allow even one of their war planes to come into your nation?
When the Russians came, they brought nuclear devices. They brought explosive devices; and they intend to set off the New Madrid fault. They are viciously attacking the New Madrid fault zone with both nuclear devices and with their terrible weapons, which are known to cause earthquakes. They have also been busy setting fires and they plan to blow up nuclear power plants and to destroy dams.
They have been allowed into this nation for the sole purposes of destabilizing this nation! You will not recognize these Russian infiltrators. Their mannerisms and their training have been perfected so that they will neither be recognized, nor suspected as foreign.
They are on your streets, in your tunnels, in your cities, in your subways, and in your countryside; and they have been brought in, brought into your nation by a few at the very top of this nation, particularly by your President. For, he will use their instabilities to get his iron grip on your nation. And, he will use their money to keep his place.Soon, devastating explosions will rip this nation from one end to the other.
You opened up and you allowed these troops and these many explosions to be brought in through Russian aircraft and vehicles. The plot is from within and the great treason is from within this nation.
I am showing you their works. I am not just telling you their plans; for their plans will come to pass in great measure. I am showing you their works: fires in New Mexico; fires in Colorado, nuclear explosions and various kinds of attacks on the New Madrid Fault lines.
But, among their plans are planned attacks on your nuclear power plants, planned attacks on your dams and bridges, fires, fires all across this nation, many fires and explosions, and the planned release of poisonous gases! Yes, they plan to release the poisonous gases, and soon!
Now, you see! Now, you know! There is a president in this nation, who is a true Russian intelligence agent! He is one among them; and he has been one among them for most of his adult life.
Will one change the feathers of a bird? And, will this bird easily give up his power? He will not, for his controllers will not. And, his controllers are not just the Russians, but, as you know, his controllers also control the world’s wealth. Therefore, he will do as he is told to do; for he is Satan’s frontrunner, who controls the military and who will also bring this nation to its knees through the violence of this Trojan Horse; and also through the violence of the international banking cartel.
I tell you these important truths! For, soon, very soon, the poisonous gases will fill the skies and fires of all sorts will erupt all over this nation, fires and explosions, and a very great destabilization of the New Madrid Fault will take place.
And, you shall hear! Chicago is fallen! Chicago is fallen! Chicago is fallen, and so great are the numbers of the dead! For, Chicago is fallen and the city is broken, clean broken down! For, a very great earthquake will rip through Chicago!
Hear Me in this! The plans of their great works are to rupture the Great Lakes! See their evil works! See what they do! For, in this way, Chicago shall fall!
I am your Father, Yahweh, yea Jehovah, Most High God!
As witnessed, dictated and recorded this 9th day of June, 2012,
Linda Newkirk
Dear Ones, you need to be thankful for this message, and for all messages, which truly come from our Saviour. Once this message is posted on some internet sites, you will see immediately how the wolves come out to discredit and devour this message. Know them for who they are:NSA operatives, CIA operatives, foreign intelligence operatives, yes, human and non-humans, alike! They come out in great numbers to discredit these messages The war against me has been very great and this war against me is still very great.
The wicked make world decisions, which are based the messages, that our Saviour gives to me. You must not take His words lightly; and you must not think that you are entitled to know anything. He warns us as HE loves us, but many truly are not worthy to hear His words.
Make no mistake about it. These terrible things are coming upon this nation; for you will not hear His words.
Jesus, our Blessed Saviour, gave me His Holy Manchild, His precious child of light and fire on May 10, 2006! He is light and fire, even as our Saviour is light and fire.
All of the high-level world leaders know of the holy manchild; and every high-level Satanist in the world knows of him, but few of you believe the truths of the holy manchild of Revelation Twelve.
These wicked ones have surrounded me with their antigravity crafts for more than nine years! Yes, they know; and they well understand what is taking place with me and with the holy, little son. They monitor my every deed and my every thought and they hate me more than anyone can every imagine! So, you should not be surprised to see them come out and attack me with their great hate and with their terrible accusations and lies! For them, it is far better for you to believe their lies; for if you believe these truths, many of you may repent, turn to our God and be saved!
This is no time to sleep! The sleepers will die in their sleep. For, the Kingdom of our God is now in the earth, even in its infancy; and this is no kingdom for the sleepers.
Arise, oh you Faithful Ones, and prepare to take your places in the Kingdom of Our God; for He calls to you.
Sending my heartfelt love to you all,
linda
Linda Newkirk
e-mail: lnewkirk_46@msn.com
website: www.prophecies.org
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 17277,
North Little Rock, AR, 72117,
USA
The following was sent into an alternative news site.....
May 24, 2012
Steve and Hawk,
I am a U.S. Air Force veteran of the cold and vietnam war. I guarded nuclear weapons and uploaded nuclear B-52 bombers at two Strategic Air cCommand locations in the U.S. during the early 70's. I was trained to recognize various types and configurations of enemy and friendly aircraft from that era I said this in order to qualify myself to you as to what I observed in Denver Colorado on May 8th. I had taken a business trip to Denver for a week and spent a week there in the Aurora section of Denver. On May 8th I entered a large park to walk my dog in Aurora at approximately 10 a.m. I noticed a large solid white aircraft fly over the park at approximately 500 ft and it was traveling about as slowly as a jet aircraft could fly without stalling. It banked right and turned to the side and I stood there watching it and trying to figure out not only what it was doing but exactly what type of military aircraft that it was. When it completed banking right I was shocked because I was now looking at a large clear cock-pit for at least two men and a nose confirguration that was uniquely Russian. I then realized that I was looking at a Russian Back-Fire Bomber that was painted completely white with no markings whatsoever. It seemed to be circling over the city either to observe Denver or even to be observed almost as if it were showing off. It then left the area and I never observed it again. Almost every day I observed U.S. F-16 traffic on after-burners flying low over the city. Usually these planes were flying in two's but once their were at least 3. Military helicopter traffic over the city was common all day long. I dismissed this as U.S. bases in the Colorado Springs and Denver area. I am still unsettled about what I observed on May 8th and I still possess an ominous feeling about it. When I returned to Indiana on May 12th I listened to Alex Jones and Hawk for the first time in a over a week. You both were talking about russian troops in Colorado around Denver and Colorado Springs. I can only believe now that I witnessed an element of this. Buy More Ammo. D.H.
Eyewitness To Russians At Fort Carson–Notice The Soldiers, Intelligence Handlers Action And Demeanor/From Listener
May 13, 2012
A week ago I was at Fort Carson on business picking up surplus equipment for the town I represent under a government program that gives surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies.
We’re going into what is commonly referred to as a boneyard as a group of soldiers were coming out through a small gate. I accidentally bumped into one of the soldiers and he turned and apologized in Russian, I took a quick look at his uniform and noticed that there were no insignias of any type or name tags.
Being that he told me he was sorry in Russian I responded no problem in German and received a very dirty look. At that time a man that looked like a 1950s KGB agent walked up to him grabbing him by the collar and shook him as he screamed at him.
“English, you idiot, English.”
By the time he finished yelling at him we were out of range and I couldn’t tell what else was said but this was a platoon size unit of young man that seem to be very fit and I would not doubt that there are members of the Russian special forces. I have a little experience in spotting soldiers as I was in the Army as a military police officer for 10 years.
Will return to the administration building I ran into someone I met after Hurricane Katrina and we began speaking as I congratulated him about his promotion “whose name and rank I will not divulge” he tried me to his office and we spoke for about 20 min. while our chief law enforcement officer was signing out the vehicles.
The conversation turns in the past and present as he was surprised to see me in the uniform I was wearing and I asked him about the Russian troops.
He started to stammer and he said what Russian troops? And my reply was the one I bumped into that study excuse me in Russian and his KGB handler who start raising hell with him.
He broke in to remind me that KGB no longer exist, on my reply was that, yes to KGB’s gone, but they’re using another name now and they are still in business.
He acknowledged that there were Russian troops on the base by head nod and asked him are they training with the 10th Mountain division again all I had for an answer was a head nod, then I asked why in the hell are we training the Russians with our best troops and he whispered that we are not training them, where training with them. At that point he said he was busy and had to get back to work, it was nice seeing me and get the hell out.
I think your assumptions on why Russian troops are on American soil training with US combat troops could be right.
The government knows that state and local law enforcement would most likely refuse an order to seize firearms from legal owners, and they only way to disarm the American public would be by force of arms by a an overwhelming force of military personnel. Being that we don’t have enough military troops they would have to resort to bringing in troops from other countries.
This is probably not news to you, but I thought I would send it anyway.
- Apr 10, 12
This site is a collection of "images created using a commercially available law enforcement composite sketch software and descriptions of literary characters." Awesome!
