Brandywine Books
C.S. Lewis, the Irishman
Yesterday in 1898, C.S. Lewis was born in
Belfast, Northern Ireland. Perhaps, you think of him in a context of Oxford and Cambridge, England, and that's fine. Just understand that he was
native Irish. Belfast is celebrating him next week, and in January,
the Linen Hall Library will open an new C.S. Lewis book collection, donated by The C.S Lewis Association as "a long overdue tribute to one of Belfast’s most celebrated sons." Sherry points out this and other
notable births on November 29-30.
For balance,
John Derbyshire made an interesting statement the other day on his NRO diary. "Lewis, if anyone wants my opinion, was a very odd bird. Not the least odd thing about him was that for all his Anglicanism, tweed jackets, steam trains, nautical obsessions, bossy governesses, horrible schools, neglectful parents, and lack of interest in food and sex, he is more read and admired in the U.S.A. than in England."
Bully for us.
Classic Book Guides
Book recommendations abound. A National Review editor is urging everyone to read Doestoevsky's
The Brothers Karamazov, and the magazine's contributors have
compiled a long list to follow that one. For example, Frederica Matthews-Green recommends
Pictures and Tears, by James Elkins.
Art historian Elkins "posted inquiries in newspapers and journals, asking for stories from anyone who had responded to a painting with tears." A fascinating analysis of why contemporary viewers steadfastly resist the emotional pull of art. Instead of giving a coffee-table art book, give a book that examines how we respond to art — and why we don't.
On OpinionJournal.com the other day, Court Reporter Catherine Crier has a list of
five great crime books. Oh, look--classics. Her fourth pick is
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. She says:
Never mind the kitsch Broadway version: Victor Hugo's epic novel of the struggle between Jean Valjean and his nemesis, Inspector Javert, delivers a moving commentary on injustice, oppression and rehabilitation. Valjean is sentenced to prison for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. He is released only to commit a second minor crime. Javert vows that the act shall not go unpunished, and the chase is on. This grand drama, much of which is set against the political tumult of the French Revolution, is an exciting read that transcends its time. Hugo's words deliver valuable lessons about the inequities that shape so many lives today and the longing for liberty that we all share.
The Virtues of Harry Potter
Author Thomas Hibbs has a column in National Review Online on the
good moral education found in two recent movies based on books:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and
Pride and Prejudice.
One of the great advantages of Austen's fiction is that it gives the lie to our feigned classlessness. In our public morality, we talk endlessly about treating everyone equally and about the unimportance of money and possessions. But we make judgments all the time about money, income, looks, clothes, and possessions — nowhere more so than in our schools. Austin takes these matters seriously, but, since she takes virtue more seriously, she offers what we now lack, namely, a vocabulary for success and character. Despite its Victorian fascination with formality, Austin's world neatly dovetails with the world of contemporary teenagers. As Bohlin comments, "First impressions, battles of pride, the power of prejudice, pervasive gossip, and tensions between the genuine and the disingenuous in both friendship and romance are all quite real to" teenagers.
Some Monday Humor
I enjoyed the Thanksgiving holidays. I told my wife that all days in December were holidays, but she still declined to agree to baking quick-n-easy Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. I've been reading the Harry Potter books--in the middle of the second now. Loads of fun. I won't review them, but I may discuss some things sometime.
As for a Monday post, I saw this bit of thinking or grammar from an NYTimes review pointed out on another lit blog earlier this month--don't remember which. I wouldn't have caught it otherwise, because
the review is of Nicole Richie's book, The Truth About Diamonds. The reviewer reports, "In this thinly veiled roman à clef, which Ms. Richie said she wrote herself, more than a few characters bear a startling resemblance to people in her real life." In case that slips by you, a roman à clef is essentially a non-fiction story with names and places changed so that it appears to be fiction. They can be more complicated than that, but the idea is that the story comes with a type of note or key from the author in which he says if you know who I mean when I refer to Mr. Green and Mrs. White, then you'll know the truth behind my account. So the reviewer is stating the obvious.
And now that I've explained the joke, it isn't funny. Oh, I should find something else. . . . perhaps, I could direct new readers attention to a parody I wrote in May 2004. I probably should edit it before announcing it again, but--take a look at this suggestion of what a scene from
Left Behind might look like if written by P.G. Wodehouse within a Bertie and Jeeves context. Now, this is funny.
Giving Thanks After the Journey to a New Country
Our fathers’ prayers have changed to psalms,
As David’s treasures old
Turned, on the Temple’s giant arms,
To lily-work of gold.
Ho! vanished ships from Yarmouth’s tide,
Ho! ships of Boston Bay,
Your prayers have crossed the centuries wide
To this Thanksgiving Day!
We pray to God with fervent lips,
We praise the Lord to-day,
As prayers arose from Yarmouth ships,
But psalms from Boston Bay.
The end of a Thanksgiving poem by
Hezekiah Butterworth. Happy Thanksgiving.
Books and Words: Linkage
Got any verbage peeves? Are there commonly misused words or overly employed phrases which get your goat? Perhaps I should say
grok your goat. (But maybe I shouldn't.) Well, one of those words for me is
literally. If that's a word you enjoy laughing at, a new blog may scratch your niche.
Literally, the blog.
I just learned through the
Waterboro Library's blog (which used to link to here, but rebels must have taken over the template updates) that The Guardian's Tech blog has a
top 20 list of geek novels.
The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World are the top three. Voting may still be open, and commenters have noted that the absence of
Ender's Game is, um, un-right.
For those who care what the NYTimes recommends, they have published their
list of notable books from this year.
Amazon.com has their lists too, both
editors' choice and customer purchases. The editors choose Joan Didion's
The Year of Magical Thinking, this year's National Book Award winner, for their top pick. Last year, they choose the current Oprah Book Club selection, James Frey's
A Million Little Pieces. I wonder if Oprah will choose
Magical Thinking next year.
Sherry has given us her
Top 100 best (unfinished). It's much more classic than Time's list. I wonder if we could get some readers to debate Time editors and Modern Library editors on their top book choices.
Also, there are a couple blog awards up and running, neither of which have a category for lit-blogs. I don't understand that.
Evangelical Underground is one.
Weblog Awards the other. - phil
Monday Word Comics
I noticed some good word jokes in the funnies this week. If we don't keep up with the same comic strips, then I have something to share.
Last Thursday's "Get Fuzzy" demonstrated how much a
dork Rob Wilco is. Still, he had a great name for a Volvo.
A week ago, Pig in "Pearls Before Swine" confronted
his old enemy, Annie May. Will their feud come to an end?
And did you hear that the fourth Harry Potter movie was released in the States this weekend? Yeah, it was something like Harry Potter and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Or was it called Harry Potter and the Chocolate Factory? I can't remember now. Harry Potter and the Valerie Plame-Wilson Investigation? Oh, it was Harry Potter and the Final Ultimate Very Terrifying Revenge of the
Daleks! Yeah, that will be a good one.
We Need Purpose
"We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our suffering. We need as much something to suffer for as something to live for." - Eric Hoffer, philosopher
Secularism Won't Build a Healthy Country
No matter what the French do with their government or country, I think of Paris as a literary city. Maybe it has had a primarily negative influence on letters, I don’t know; but when I think of Paris, I remember something of William Faulkner’s visit there, of Gertrude Stein’s hospitality, or Les Miserables and Tale of Two Cities and The Scarlet Pimpernel. And Proust, you say? You are thinking that Marcel Proust had a wonderful love for Paris? Yeah, he was there too.
When I first heard of the riots this month, I wondered if I would learn what really caused them. Initially, the reports I read blamed poverty and immigration policy. The latest I’ve read quotes a leader in parliament blaming the immigrants’ polygamy for putting too many unsupervised children in the streets. I can’t or don’t want to work out the politics of the French riots. Look to the poli-bloggers for that. I’m a lit-blogger—unqualified and small-minded, but a lit-blogger nonetheless. So I have only a few cultural thoughts.
How long of the French distained the French culture and history, teaching multi-culturalism instead? I thought the world’s secularists disliked only American culture, so I was surprised to read that the schools in France sterilized their own history. There’s nothing wrong with being French. Loving your heritage and homeland is natural and good. If you are born and raised French, you have many things to be proud of, cultural details in which you can and should rejoice. Cuisine, language, countryside, art—many wonderful and thoroughly French facts and objects. I assume immigrants to France enjoy those things too; but if they don’t they should be encouraged.
That hints at the immigration problem with which France has struggled for years. I heard that the rioters first angry words were about throwing the French authority out of their suburbs. That and praise to Allah. Apparently, French police left these immigrant colonies alone for the most part. The night the riots started, the police entered these forbidden areas on a legitimate mission and their presence provoked two teenagers to hide in an unsafe area and accidentally electrocute themselves.
Can any country govern itself while allowing pockets of foreigners to live within its borders, generally unaccountable to its authority? When a family immigrates, they may sustain their cultural traditions within their homes or communities, but they cannot buck the authority of the host country. They must integrate into the new society. They must learn the language, understand the customs, and respect the law. If they seek employment in this new country, how can they avoid this simple integration? It doesn’t make them less Moroccan or Italian, but it does start to make them French. They live in France now; they should become French.
Tolerance only goes so far. We can tolerate many differences in families and regions within one country, especially from immigrants who can’t be expected to drop the old ways instantly. They need time to adjust, and some old ways don’t need to be dropped. But the law of one country is not based on the foundation of all. No matter how many perspectives we tolerate in polite society, the law of the land should enforce the fundamental philosophy of that land. Of course, if that philosophy is not rooted in true ideas about people, the world, and life, then the country will collapse on itself.
I wonder if this concept is ground zero in America’s cultural war. Reality is not what you make it. The truth exists and can be understood. The law should not be the mere rules of the powerful, but should build up a healthy society which is growing out of known truth: that all men have been created equal, the work of God the Father’s hands, and are designed to glorify and enjoy Him in freedom from the tyranny of other equally created men.
I don’t suppose secular France would recognize that description of reality. If this world is all the life we have, as they believe, then I suppose they would argue that all men exist by chance for the purpose of doing their own thing. I suggest such a philosophy is not what created the great art and culture of history. - phil
For the Visible Church
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
But now, O LORD, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand. (from
Isaiah 64 ESV)
Vonnegut: Terrorists Are Sweet
World's Susan Olasky points out an Austrailian interview with author Kurt Vonnegut in which he says it is "sweet and honourable" to die for your beliefs.
The Austrailian's New York correspondent David Nason
reports, "One of the greatest living US writers has praised terrorists as 'very brave people' and used drug culture slang to describe the 'amazing high' suicide bombers must feel before blowing themselves up." Vonnegut "made the provocative remarks during an interview in New York for his new book,
Man Without a Country, a collection of writings critical of US President George W. Bush. . . . In 2002, he was widely criticised for saying there was too much talk about the 9/11 attacks and not enough about 'the crooks on Wall Street and in big corporations,' whose conduct had been more destructive."
Olasky suggests this kind of language makes Vonnegut "the Pat Robertson of literature."
Speaking of literature,
Vonnegut apparently has said that the subject of all great books is "what a bummer it is to be a human being."
Today
I left work today telling myself two things. I don't want to complain anymore, and I don't want to live afraid of possibilities. I am the Lord and He is mine. I want to live free.
Andree Seu may have helped me with this. I'd like to meet her someday. - phil
Adrian Rogers, 1931-2005
[by way of
Stacy Harp] Dr.
Adrian Rogers, Memphis, TN pastor and author, has gone to glory.
From his ministry website: "Dr. Adrian Rogers, Founder of Love Worth Finding Ministries, Pastor Emeritus of Bellevue Baptist Church and a gifted man of God passed away in to the presence of the Lord early this morning after battling cancer and double pneumonia."
Dr. Albert Mohler blogs, "Dr. Rogers was a lion in our midst -- the man God used to serve as leader and voice for a great resurgence of biblical Christianity. He was a man of tremendous gifts, whose booming voice was matched by a gift for words and a powerful delivery. He dominated the pulpit as few men ever have, preaching the Word and calling sinners to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a modern-day '
Prince of Preachers' whose personal example served to encourage thousands of others to greater faithfulness in preaching the Word of God."
Tea in Your Chocolate
In a Fox News feature, I see that chocolate made with tea is big now. Last weekend, New York hosted a chocolate show. One candymaker said, "Tea and chocolate are a very good combination."
The reporter testifies, "And go well together they do, when it's quality chocolate and equally top-notch tea. Payard's Earl Grey dark chocolates are divine, as are the Missouri-based Bissinger's green-tea truffles with lemongrass."
Is that right? If I had the opportunity, I think I would try that Bissinger sweet, but the description, "green-tea truffles with lemongrass," sounds flat nasty. Have you ever swigged down some strong, bitter green tea? Dang. Maybe the chocolate lifts the flavor.
The Year of the Warrior, by Lars Walker
I hope the fact Lars Walker blogs with me on Brandywine Books does not taint any reviews I write of his works. I don't know him apart of our Internet communication, and he doesn't send me enough money to influence my opinion. I don't care that he's been accused of being
the best novelist blogger. My opinions are my own.
Lars'
The Year of the Warrior is a good, strong book. The story focuses on the narrator and his lord, both his cultural lord and his spiritual Lord. It follows Ailill, an Irishman who failed his training for the priesthood just before being taken away by marauding Vikings. The Vikings scarred him in complex ways on that day, and he wrestles with God over it for most of the story. He often thinks of himself as a failed priest, and this lack of confidence in himself and his faith deepens the story beyond swords and spells. Ailill is weak, even poor in spirit, but the Lord uses him despite himself.
His cultural lord, Erling Skjalgsson, is a unique Christian ruler in Norway who is still working through the application of biblical teaching to his turn-of-the-first-century society. In an immoral and violent culture of slaves and masters, Erling realizes his responsibility to be faithful to his mistress and sets up a system for emancipating his slaves that allows him and them to continue living relatively safe, stable lives. He relies on Ailill for instruction and guidance. (Did I mention that Ailill is no
Charles Spurgeon?)
Norse gods, demons, and their worshippers oppose them as well as other vikings who would like to have Erling's land. These are not shadows on the wall, capable of scaring only children. These are evil, ugly enemies as fully formed as the trolls of Beowulf or the devils of Hawthorne's New England. I don't think Lars crosses the line with description as some modern authors do, so readers interested in historical fantasy but who recoil at the vulgar details in much of modern entertainment should dip into
The Year of the Warrior. Still, the flesh and blood battle for justice and peaceful living is not whitewashed.
For all the exciting adventures and interesting people in Lars' Norway, I felt the book lacked an overall suspense. Though many scenes are compelling and many details go unresolved for most of the book, the story arc--if that's the right term--is weak. It can read like the account of an interesting life, a little disconnected. That's a minor weakness, though--essentially my only criticism.
The Year of the Warrior is enjoyable and worth shoving into the hands college students and fantasy or history loving adults. My wife said the characters are authentic and three dimensional, unlike those of the Christian novels she reads. And as you can see, I agree.
Monday Quizzery and Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving! It's that warm Thanksgiving season again, isn't it. Seems to come earlier every year. I wouldn't mind reading what menus you anticipate for November 24 or a unique Thanksgiving tradition you have. Feel free to comment on such seasonal topics.
My blogging this week and next will be light. I'm going to give my computer some personal time to reflect and refresh. But for now, I have a couple quizzes to offer as a Monday Post.
How Bookish Are You? [
link]
Microsoft's Encarta Encyclopedia has "posed questions about some classic works of literature to find out just how much you know about these important novels. You may have read some of these books in school, while others are just so well known you may know the answer without even having read the book! Let's find out if you have literature on the brain."
If that's too simple or campy for you, try this one:
Stranger Than Fiction by Amy Leigh Morgan [
link]
Encarta describes this animal quiz as "It's often said that fact is stranger than fiction. That's especially true when it comes to the natural world. Take a look at the truths, half-truths, and outright lies listed below and see if you can tell the difference between them."
Happy Birthday
Sherry has a good post on . . . oh, what's his name?
He was born on this date in 1821. While he was at school, his father was murdered by his own servants at the family’s small country estate. He graduated from engineering school but chose a literary career. He was arrested and charged with subversion because . . . read on
Veterans Day
Thank you.Thank you.
Thank you.
For more well-deserved praise, follow
La Shawn Barber's links in this post.
And for anyone irritated at the popular American view of God's role in the world and His attitude for our country, let me say,
God Bless Iraq.
Oh, yes. I forgot another great veteran.
Thank you, Mr. President, for your good work.
Today
Today at the dinner table, my two-year-old rattled off a string of quoted lines she had apparently heard from the rest of us. She sounded like an electronic pocket game. Repeatedly, her little voice slurred out the words:
"There are peas everywhere! Don't fuss--My tummy hurts--Don't fuss. Awww, yuck."
I need to readjust the chip in her brain. So, what did you do today?
Selections for a Book Mobile
I occasionally think about ways bookselling could adapt to our current culture. Sure, a knowledgeable bookseller with a shop in a good location and a reliable, affordable distribution stream will have a good chance to succeed in today's market. But what about selling books out of the back of a truck. A book mobile, you know, like what libraries in rural areas have.
The selection would be limited, but the location may be ideal, reaching into a new market of less-than-affluent readers or would-be readers on the street or at their homes. I don't know how often a truck would drive down the same street, ringing a bell like the
Good Humor man. Maybe once a day, up and down each street. Maybe once every other day. Each driver should be able to place special orders from his mobile phone or digital assistance and guarantee delivery of most books the next time he drives by. That part of the service would be essential, even if it isn't used often.
Assuming we could sell books at good prices to folks in their neighborhoods, what titles would we sell them? If you can, pick 5-10 current, classic, or upcoming titles you think we should stock in our book mobile. For a start, I suggest:
- The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
- Beverly Lewis' Abrams' Daughter series
- Chronicles of Narnia Sets and extra copies of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
- Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat, by Naomi Moriyama
- English Standard Versions of the Bible
- At First Sight, by Nicholas Sparks
- No Place Like Home, but Mary Higgins Clark
- The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate, by Gary Chapman
- Who Made God? And Answers to Over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith, by Ravi Zacharias
- Trace, by Patricia Cornwell
I avoided political titles because I think I can safely rule them out for this experiment, and I named only one children's series, so there's lots of room for those. What do you think?
British Dagger Awards
An Icelandic author won this year's Golden Dagger award from the
British Crime Writers Association,
according to the Guardian.
Arnaldur Indridason, 44, pulls in £3,000 for his book,
Silence of the Grave.
Also, the
Dagger of Daggers award goes to
John Le Carre for
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. It was chosen as the Crime Writers' "top book of the last 50 years."
Only one thing can be said of all this: chilling.
Living in Satchmo's House
Terry Teachout is writing
a biography on Louis Armstrong, and he has given an interview on it to
Jerry Jazz Musician, an interesting jazz website with features and shopping.
What do you think America knows about Louis Armstrong thirty-four years after his death? TT There's more general awareness of Armstrong than you might expect, probably because of the Ken Burns documentary on jazz, and also because all of his most important recordings have remained available. But our collective sense of Armstrong as a character and as a personality doesn't get much below the surface -- not that his surface isn't a beautiful and wonderful thing, but there's more to him.
In 1944, Leonard Feather wrote, "Americans, unknowingly, live part of every day in the house that 'Satch' built." Can this still be said?
TT Yes, it is still true, although today, people are influenced by people who were influenced by Louis, rather than, for the most part, being influenced by him first-hand. To an extent that most people just don't get, Armstrong created the way that jazz sounds. He didn't invent jazz, of course, but he set the parameters within which it operates, and had an influence on every other kind of American popular music too. The house that we live in, the house that Louis built, is a rhythmic house. Our idea of what it means to swing is, to a great extent, his doing.
Olasky's History Book Recommendations
Marvin Olasky of World Magazine
recommends several American history books in response to reader response:
First, the list does not include books written as textbooks. Some books I recommend may be a reach for high-school students, but many would rather read harder stuff by good writers than the dumbed-down texts typically assigned them. . . . Second, I've left out books whose authors assume greater knowledge than we have of why specific events happened in particular ways.
Two or Three.net has prepared the list for links and scanning, which is the kind of thing I might do and now need not. I want to remember to read
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington sometime soon.
Found: Blogs
I found some new blogs just now.
Arevanye of
The Window in the Garden Wall is blogging the collected thoughts of C.S. Lewis. Her quote for today comes from Lewis' essay against pacifism:
I think the meaning of the words was perfectly clear--"Insofar as you are simply an angry man who has been hurt, mortify your anger and do not hit back"--even, one would have assumed that insofar as you are a magistrate struck by a private person, a parent struck by a child, a teacher by a scholar, a sane man by a lunatic, or a soldier by the public enemy, your duties may be very different, different because [there] may be then other motives than egoistic retaliation for hitting back.
I also pulled up Aaron's Lewis-styled blog,
The Wardrobe Door, which I'm sure I've heard of often, but haven't looked at until now. He is a
Mind and Media reviewer, btw.
At Tolkien Geek, Gary is
blogging his thoughts on each chapter of The Lord of the Rings. From
his 11-8 post, he writes:
And whatever happened to Wormtongue? Well, Tolkien wasn't quite sure when he would have him arrive. According to Christopher Tolkien in The War of The Ring, Theoden's advisor was originally supposed to arrive before the first time that Gandalf got there but his father later changed this to have him show up just after the flooding of Isengard. In the final version, he gets there that same morning that Merry and Pippin were "guarding" the gate. Shocked by what he finds, he tries to flee but Treebeard seizes hold of him. Gandalf had already warned the Ent that this wretch would be arriving soon. He makes Grima wade through the water, which is about up to his neck, and enter the tower of Orthanc. Here Tolkien makes some notes in his original draft. He writes: "Shall Wormtongue actually murder Saruman?" At this point, he is considering what Saruman's fate will be. It is not clear at what point he decided to advance this plot point to the end of the story.
Finally, here's an infrequently updated blog by
Tony Darnell who is learning to play the Irish or Uilleann pipes. You may be thinking of the hard Scottish Highland bag pipes; but the Uilleann pipes have a beautiful, mellow sound--still a soft drone, but more versatile than the Highland pipes, though I enjoy them too.
Why Praise Bad Poets
W. B. Yeats wrote this poem under the title, "To a Poet, who would have me Praise certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine."
You say, as I have often given tongue
In praise of what another’s said or sung,
’Twere politic to do the like by these;
But have you known a dog to praise his fleas?
Ancient Christian Church
This is too cool to pass up. If you haven't seen it elsewhere, read about the early Christian church found in Megiddo within or under an Israeli jail.
The Telegraph reports, "A large and superbly preserved mosaic with a Greek inscription referring to the "Lord Jesus Christ" and featuring two images of a fish - an early Christian symbol - was discovered during renovation work inside the prison at Megiddo, thought to be the modern name for the biblical site of Armageddon."
Here's another image of the mosaic. And
here's a close up of the center. I love it. - phil
Men Running, Singing, Drinking
For this week's Monday Post, let me point out a big advertisement. In fact, it's huge. It's the biggest I've ever seen, and if there were contests for such things, I'm sure it would win first prize at the fair.
Observe The Big Ad.What does this have to do with anything? Well another ad indicates,
some things need no explanation.
What is News?
Newsman Dan Rather answered that question this year on Larry King.
From the transcript:
If you believe as I do, and as many reporters do -- and Woodward and Bernstein, you know, in their core, they believe it -- that news is what somebody, somewhere, doesn't want you to know that the public needs to know. All the rest is just advertising, just to paraphrase what some Canadian press baron said.
Now, look at today, just for a second. How many stories out of Washington do you think are anything but advertising for somebody's point of view? I would say, at least eight out of 10, probably nine out of 10, come out from a handout, conveyer belt. So the question arises, and to ask the question is not to suggest that I know the answer, but the question arises, is the press -- electronic and otherwise -- is it doing its job today or is it cowed? Is it reluctant? If you like it (INAUDIBLE)...
I think many of us would like the press to be more inaudible; but to the point, who is this somebody who doesn't want us to know various news stories? I suspect it's The boredom Maven (She Who Must Be Revered). "Don't listen to that sniveling twit whine about current events! Turn off the TV and play with the children, or I'll crack your head with my shiny stick. Or maybe a banana."
National Written Wirting nightmonth
By posting
some writing quotes on Collected Misc., I learned that not only is this
National Novel Writing Month, tonight is
National Drunken Writers Night. The descriptive post on Abroad-abroad.org is titled "Blogging While Intoxicated," which I'm sure occurs year round, but tonight writers and non-writers are encouraged to scrawl something after downing a few. But for tonight, "No post-editing is allowed," she says. "You can spell-check as you go, backspace and delete, and edit along the way, but there is to be no editing after-the-fact. I want first drunken drafts, people."
This is Zeitgeist, right? - phil
Speaking of Boycotts
In light of
Lars' recent comment on boycotts, did you hear about the"girlcott" of Abercrombie & Fitch? Sure, A&F have been an offensive company for several years, encouraging binge drinking and varieties of fornication in their catalogs, but this time around a
group of girls in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, have declared what they call a girlcott of the clothing company over some t-shirts. Apparently, messages like "Who needs brains when you have these" on shirts strikes the girls as degrading. "Blondes are adored. Brunettes are ignored" is another one.
Why do I mention this? Because the girlcott has succeeded, reports
Keith Plummer of The Christian Mind. A&F has agreed to stop selling the shirts. Plummer asks, "How long do you think it will take for A & F to forget this lesson?"
A few months, maybe a full year. Just a guess.
Newsday.com reports, "Last year, after the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team failed to win a gold medal, [A&F] sold T-shirts with the phrase 'L is for loser' next to a picture of a gymnast on the rings. Those shirts were pulled from the racks after USA Gymnasts called for a boycott."
Today
Today, I prayed. One of my friends is terribly ill, though improving without the diagnosis of various specialists. I pray she recovers whether or not they figure it. But more than that--at least a little more than that--I pray she and her little family feel the everlasting arms around them.
This is the valley of the shadow of death. Be our comfort, dear Lord. Let us hear your voice leading us through to sunlight and water beyond. - phil
Writers on Writing: Franklin P. Adams
"Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all." — Franklin P. Adams, journalist and radio host
As an example of imagination, Adams has this poetic variation on a teacup hurled during breakfast. - phil
Writers on Writing: Roxanne Henke
Having reviewed a couple of Roxanne Henke's books on BwB, interviews of her stick out to me. Here are some quotes from an attractive blog called
Novel Journey by Gina Holmes, who writes supernatural suspense.
Roxanne Henke: "I think self-doubt is the plague of most writers."
What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?“The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of a chair.” I don’t know who said it, but they knew what they were talking about. [The writer who said this was feminist Mary Heaton Vorse]
What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve heard?You have to be inspired to write. Baloney…writing is a “job,” and it doesn’t happen unless you show up and work at it.
Reviews of Henke's books on this blog:
After Anne and
Becoming Olivia
