“He reads them exactly the way you imagine them, or even read them aloud yourself: conversational, matter-of-fact, and incidentally just touched with Boston. He’s who you’d cast to play him.”
reblogging parisreview
writing
/ˈrʌɪtɪŋ/
noun
1. the activity or skill of writing.
“parents want schools to concentrate on reading, writing, and arithmetic”
2. the activity or occupation of composing text for publication.
“she made a decent living from writing”
Crash
“We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind—mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. For the writer in particular it is less and less necessary for him to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer’s task is to invent the reality.”
Paul Thek: Notebooks
“Thek [was] an avid keeper of journals, producing over a hundred between 1969 and 1980. Complex and varied, the journals form an intimate and often intense portrait of an energetic mind. Most are written in ordinary school notebooks, with routine accounts of Thek’s days punctuated by emotionally raw passages of self-reflection, analysis of his closest (and, at times, most troubled) personal relationships, and as time progressed, evidence of a growing paranoia. In perfect script, he copied page after page of writings that he admired by Saint Augustine, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, William Blake, and others. Copying was clearly a meditation for him, a spiritual exercise and, as such, an antidote to anxiety and to what he knew was his own pettiness and anger. But the journals are full of moments of joyful exuberance and artistic bravura as well: celebrations of sex, silly word games, and a range of visual expression, from simple marks and comic sketches to intimate, exquisite watercolors of the sea.”
Adriaen Coenen’s Fish Book (1580)
“Selected double-page spreads from Adriaen Coenen’s Visboek (Fish Book), an epic 800+ page tome on all things fish and fish-related. Coenen began work on this unique book in 1577, at the age of 63, and in three years gathered an unprecedented amount of information on the sea and its coasts, coastal waters, fishing grounds and marine animals. The information was largely gathered in the course of Coenen’s daily work in the Dutch sea-side village of Scheveningen as a fisherman and fish auctioneer and, later on, as wreck master of Holland (allowing him access to every strange creature that washed ashore). Coenen was also a well respected authority in academic circles and used this reputation to receive learned works on the sea from The Hague and Leiden, copied extracts from which find their way into his Fish Book.”
To critics of BBC’s Margaret Thatcher story broadcast
“There is no need for me or any writer to justify or explain herself to people who have no interest in fiction except when it feeds their dim sense of being injured in some way.”
Initial, “Epistolae, etc.”: Spain, 15th century via The British Library, Public Domain.
Reading in Late Summer.
I have several books on the go at once. I like print best, but these days it’s good to have a Kindle book on the phone for emergencies and an audiobook in the car. I read a lot of comics as well, it should be noted, though I can never get enough of them.
Recently finished:
Boxers/Saints by Gene Luen Yang (x) – I have mentioned this here before. Wonderful, beautiful, simple, complex. A very personal, magical realist take on the horrific events that unfolded in China at the turn of the century. It’s in two volumes so he could present a story from either side. The cross over like Moon Knight and Hulk. It made me want to read the Bibliography. Yes, basically.
The Mighty Avengers, Vol.5: Earth’s Mightiest (x) – I’ve been getting these superhero collections out for my son and pre-reading them to see if I approve. This was a bit complex for him, and not because the plot was difficult, but they’re using this form where each image is like an oil painting, but with huge amounts of text per panel. I would say it took me about twice as long to read a page of this as it would to read a page of prose. But, you know, I’m probably not in the target demographic. Also, someone needs to go back to Drawing Ladies school, sorry. Jeez.
Essential Avengers, Vol. 9 (x) – Again, proof reading this for the younglings. This is the era of stuff I probably read when I was their age. They both found it difficult to read. The removal of the colour destroys a lot of the composition, and flow, if these had been draw in black and white they would’ve used more black. Also the attitudes and culture in them is far too antiquated for a 10 year old. Why is everything like this? Makes you realise the world is making progress. But again interesting from my perspective, this contains the origin story of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, and the Vision just cracks me up. They really need to think about that colour thing when they reprint though. This stuff is meant to be for kids. HELP THEM.
The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (x) – Interesting from a technical point of view of layout and story structure, execution of plot in short form etc. But, yes, content bleaker than bleak. the violence, hatred and misogyny drips off the page and kinds of nullifies any benefit mentioned earlier. Wasn’t prepared to recommend it to anyone I know. In the preface Tatsumi asks not to judge him on these early works alone. Almost interested enough to see what else he did, maybe.
My Man Jeeves by PG Wodehouse (x) – Ashamed to say this is my first Wodehouse. It’s taken me a while to get past the poshness. But worth it. Very pleasant. Although I felt slightly mugged by the stories about some other dude who also happens to have a butler.
Currently reading: Slaughterhouse Five (x), Written on the Body (x), The Brothers Karamazov (x), A Game of Thrones (x).
List of things.
1. Honeyblood
Heard this tune when walking past the radio at work, I only heard a few seconds and I was completely hooked. The album’s great (buy it). This track is called Choker, been listening to it a lot.
“This song is loosely based on a short story by Angela Carter called ‘The Bloody Chamber’.
Mostly, it’s about not letting anybody **** you around, even when they are trying to kill you. **** that ****.”
(via)
True to form I discovered them days after they had played Bristol. Curses.
2. Playlists/Cassettes
I recently met a old and dear friend of mine, who I do not see enough of. We used to communicate with compilation tapes. So when he came over he brought a CD of stuff he was listening to. So I made one for him. I had completely forgot about he process of this, the rise and fall, does this song work well before that one, do those three tracks work well together. Listening to it over and over to see if it worked.
Does anyone do that anymore, apart from DJs. It’s a beautiful thing. We got Spotification and even iTunes before that eating that decision process up for us. I know there’s places like 8tracks still around for this, but still.
3. Facebook can be useful
I recently reposted 70/365 on my Facebook and it inspired an exchange of how it could be be transferred into film. These two classics were posted as a steer for the concept.
and Feeling My Way by Jonathan Hodgson
4. Boxers/Saints
Recently read Boxers/Saints by Gene Lueng Yang. It’s a two volume magical realist semi-history of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1899. Each book is told from a different perspective. It’s very personal and manages to say a lot about history and what is remembered underneath the story itself which is compelling.
5. Somebody App
I’m not sure if I have mentioned this here before. Artist and writer Miranda July made a messenger app that, instead of sending a text direct to the recipient, will locate someone nearby using GPS and then gets them to pass on the message verbally. You can give instruction for emotional tone, and so on.
The actual app is here: http://somebodyapp.com/
and there is a rather crazy short on how it can be used here:
I’m currently on Android, so you can’t try on me.
6. Sprautumn
..and I decided to put my face on all my profiles, not sure if it’ll make people relax because I’m obviously a human or give them the spooks. I call it my Bat Country Portrait.
7. I remembered Vine
Then I forgot it again.
Coxy is still on telly. Don’t miss it.
Hand and Machine
“And so maybe the way human beings combine these random snippets of information to create something new, maybe the connections we make and the way we remix the things we know and transmit them to others are what gives us the edge over the machines. Maybe our creativity is the real key to our survival. We can take that information and not just reduce it, we can make something new out of it. And the machines can’t do that. Yet.”
– Julian Simpson (@)
Paul Greer 