From The English People on the Eve of Colonization : 1603 – 1630 (1954) by Wallace Notestein:
They [the Elizabethans] bought all sorts of collections of religious extracts and stories, narratives of how this man breaking the Sabbath was struck by lightning and how that woman on her knees in prayer escaped the fire that consumed her house.
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What, no vision of an angel in a piece of toast?
I would like to thank Carolyn Kellogg of the LA Times’ “Jacket Copy” blog for debunking (point by point no less!) the truly tired argument made by Lee Siegel of the New York Observer that — once again — fiction is dead.
Some of Kellogg’s points are true Ouch! moments, like when she debunks Siegel’s assertion that the New Yorker‘s much-criticized “20 Under 40” list of up-and-coming authors had spawned no counterlists. Kellogg hyper-links to multiple serious and satirical counterlists.
But, most of Kellogg’s critique is amusing because it reveals how remarkably incoherent and nonsensical Siegel’s arguments can be. He makes a muddled comparison of “obsession” and “clarity,” tries to contrast the past with the present by use of synonyms, depl0ys a definition of literary doom that fails analogy to other artforms, twice confuses the rise of non-fiction with the fall of fiction, and gets “issues of popularity, commercialism and literariness … all jumbled up.”
It’s a good read. Click it, because (as I just mentioned) it’s a good read.
Of course, considering Siegel’s proven disregard for the boundaries between reality and falsehood (Sprezzatura anyone?) it’s not surprising that he is unable to recognize the thunderous pulse still driving blood through the ever-quick veins of Fiction.
If birds ever created their own civilization, would the anisodactyls get weirded out shaking hands with the zygodactyls?
The Writer Beware! blog’s Victoria Strauss posted an intriguing piece based on a recent Twitter frenzy on the possibility that literary agents might bump their rates from 15 to 20 percent. The comments, as one might expect, are all over the place, with readers coming down on this or that (or the other) side of the debate.
Remember when you first heard the phrase “Happy Hump Day”? You were probably a teenager, as this is a work-world phrase and in the teenage years we start to be exposed more and more to the work-world realities from which children are relatively insulated.
And remember how disappointed your adolescent self was to learn that the “hump” only referred to the “hump in the middle of the week”? Well, Happy Hump Day anyway.
On to the roll!
♣ Alan Rinzler at The Book Deal offers tips to writers on how to make the most of a rewrite.
At the Magical Words fantasy fiction blog:
♣ Stuart Jaffe explains how to develop characters in vng-the-most-out-of-a-rewrite-tips-for-authors/”>how to make the most of a rewrite.
At the Magical Words fantasy fiction blog:
♣ Stuart Jaffe explains how to develop characters in very little space,
♣ Misty Massey tackles talking animals (well… she tackles the subject of writing about them), and
♣ David B. Coe posts part X of the “Writing Your Book” series: The Read-Through.
♣ S. W. Vaughn at Murder By 4 asks, “What’s your novel’s theme song?”
♣ Also, for anything interested in reading, watching, or writing “sword and sandals” fantasy or historical fiction, Meghan Sullivan has a great blog on Greek antiquity called Ancient Musings. Check it out!
At The Huffington Post, Anis Shivani interviews Colorado Review editor Stephanie G’Schwind to investigate the way literary journals are weathering the economic crisis and the internet revolution.
G’Schwind also discusses the impact of the MFA, and what sort of writing passes muster in her own journal’s selection process. A great read for writers: check it out!
Every once in a while, you read something that just puts a whole new perspective on things. Authors, prepare your Epiphany Hats!
At The New Yorker, writer Susan Orlean shares a true-life tale about the insane odyssey she went through during the editing phase of her first published book. Continue reading
Instigator – “The golfer got too close to the water hazard and never saw the big lizard coming.”
As almost any industry blog will tell you, the publishing biz is in flux. New formats, new challenges, new avenues to success have put every assumption and axiom of recieved wisdom up for grabs.
In the midst of all this chaos progress change, it is still possible to recognize an event that sheds new light on the evolving dynamics of publishing.
For example, promotional and marketing specialist Steff Deschenes has scooped up nearly a dozen literary prizes for her self-published commentary on everyday life, The Ice Cream Theory. In it, she compares different personality types with different flavors of frozen treat. Continue reading
First of all, let me do a favor for Jessica at BookEnds LLC, and literary agents everywhere, by reminding all of you prospective authors out there that a “novel” is a fictional narrative longer than 50,000 words. There is no need to say “fiction novel” and no reason to say “non-fiction novel.”
And now, let’s go on to the links! Continue reading
