January 2012
36 posts
December 2011
51 posts
In The Times this weekend, Marilynne Robinson wrote: “The great assumption of literary realism is that ordinary lives are invested with a kind of significance that justifies, or requires, its endless iterations of the commonplace, including, of course, crimes and passions and defeats, however minor these might seem in the world’s eyes.”
This is maybe the best definition of...
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What I'm Reading
There are two kinds of decay: mine and everyone else’s.
This is the usual sort of book about illness. Someone gets sick, someone gets well.
Those who claim to write about something larger and more significant than the self sometimes fail to comprehend the dimensions of the self.
Most people consider their own suffering a widely applicable model, and I am no exception.
This is...
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What I'm Reading
XXII. FRUIT BOWL
His mother was sitting at the kitchen table when Geryon opened the screen door.
—-
He had taken the local bus from Hades. Seven-hour trip. He wept most of the way. Wanted to go straight to his room and shut the door but when he saw her he sat down. Hands in his jacket. She smoked in silence a moment then rested her chin against her hand. Eyes on his chest. Nice T-shirt,...
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WatchSebastian Wernicke turns the tools of statistical analysis on TEDTalks, to come up with a metric for creating “the optimum TEDTalk” based on user ratings. Ha!
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What I'm reading
One Saturday in the month of August, you leave your home wearing your tennis gear, accompanied by your wife. In the middle of the garden you point out to her that you’ve forgotten your racket in the house. You go back to look for it, but instead of making your way toward the cupboard in the entryway where you normally keep it, you head down into the basement. Your wife doesn’t notice...
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I started writing a new book, which is tentatively called The Wrong Girl. I have abandoned The Typographer, which I have been working on for the past two-ish years. Breaking up with a novel is basically the same as breaking up with a person. You put so much of yourself into it, only to have it fail. I realized about 4 months ago that The Typographer wasn’t working, wasn’t the book I...
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WatchNew York Writes Itself: New York Types — The Art Directors Club is hosting New York Types, a letterpress art exhibition which brings to life real words heard by locals on the streets of New York. Snippets of real New Yorkers ‘conversations, quotes and stories will be presented on the walls of the ADC Gallery by letterpress artists.
Tom Waits
Interview at FILTER, with Tom Waits:
Whose opinions matter to you when you’re working?
My wife’s.
Because she’s your wife or because she’s your writing partner?
[Laughs] You’re good. Are you married?
No, I’m not.
Well see, that’s why you don’t know. Hey, look if you both know the same thing, one of you is unnecessary, right? But you have to...
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