Outside my window:
After weeks of hundred-plus days, rain signifies that one can go outside without roasting or feeling caught between sun and pavement. In Seattle, rain was the default and sun a rare treat. Tucson is the opposite; now I marvel gratefully at the rain, thinking that we often want a change from whatever we have, if only for variety’s sake.
Real work calls, and I have a proposal to write.
“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses a moment of experience from which to look ahead.”
—Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
“The world was to me a secret, which I desired to discover; to her it was a vacancy, which she sought to people with imagination of her own.”
—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
“We love horror stories because they’re not happening to us yet.”
—T.C. Boyle in a soon-to-be-published interview
I realize that I’ve developed a terrible habit of saying “interesting” during interviews, which is only apparent as I transcribe one conducted with T.C. Boyle last week regarding his new novel, The Women (more on that to follow). It’s interesting amazing how listening to or watching recordings of yourself reveals tics that would be almost impossible to notice live, since the person the recording takes the appearance of a separate being from the person you are.
“What’s the good of fighting critics? Mind you, some of them are very able… But only a few can form any opinion of a new work. Most of them are simply on the lookout for novelty. They hear too much, and they hear it the wrong way. They get like children who are peevish from having too many toys…”
“Nothing, nothing whatever really stands in the way of a creative artist except lack of talent.”
—Robertson Davies, A Mixture of Frailties
“Only one who has mastered a tradition has a right to attempt to add to it or rebel against it.”
—Chaim Potok, My Name Is Asher Lev
“Salman Rushdie, who discusses the infamous fatwa at interminable length, cites the importance in his fiction of going to the movies. Somehow one is not surprised.”
(Link added by me.)
—Their Way With Words in the Wall Street Journal.
To those who have written and those who have thought about writing and not: yes, more posts are on the way, though most of them remain in my head at the moment, and the stack of books on my desk will eventually be converted to post form. Thanksgiving break starts tomorrow, when I hope to employ some of that lovely, non-allocated free time to writing about The Mind-Body Problem (again), The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, and perhaps a few others.
The short version: both are recommended, although the former more than the latter unless you have a particular interest in the subject of social forces like to continue shaping the world, especially among the young.
With that teaser, if you’re impatient for more, check out some of the lovely websites linked to on the right.
“Don’t be misled by the appearance of the obvious. (That is the sum of my wisdom.)”
—Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem
The Story's Story 