Friday, February 29, 2008
Author, author ...
... Author vs. Work; Sainte-Beuve vs. Proust; Dorothy vs. Dan. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I enjoy literary biographies - and loved Richard Holmes on Coleridge - but I think the work reveals more about the writer than vice versa. I still think D.H. Lawrence was right when he said to trust the story, not the storyteller.
A little help ...
... for the paper of record from Jim Lindgren: The meaning of "natural born."
The Times piece mentions that the question was raised when George Romney, who was born in Mexico, ran in 1968. And it was dismissed, because his parents were citizens of the U.S. and the child of U.S. citizens is also a citizen, irrespective of where said child is born.
The Times piece mentions that the question was raised when George Romney, who was born in Mexico, ran in 1968. And it was dismissed, because his parents were citizens of the U.S. and the child of U.S. citizens is also a citizen, irrespective of where said child is born.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
More than just crime ...
... In Crime Fiction, the Crime is not always the point. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I'll have an idea ...
... soon enough: Will the Kindle spark an eBook device surge? (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
My former colleagues, in an act of extreme generosity, ordered one for me as a retirement present. As soon as Amazon has them back in stock I shall one. And I intend to write about the experience. So stay tuned.
My former colleagues, in an act of extreme generosity, ordered one for me as a retirement present. As soon as Amazon has them back in stock I shall one. And I intend to write about the experience. So stay tuned.
What kind of fool is he?
... The archbishop of Canterbury is a special kind of fool. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Two good questions ...
... What is science and why do we care? (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I wonder if Sokal "believes" in global warming? He should have followed his own scientific principles and done a bit of research in order to determine what genuine faith consists in, rather than just parrot the cliches of militant atheists. He could start by reading Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy, which he has probably never heard of. Of course, Henry Gee in his comment says all this better than I do.
Update: Dave Lull wonders if Sokal is in fact insufficiently skeptical and sends along Sokal and Bricmont: Back to the Frying Pan and Being an Absolute Skeptic.
Update: Dave Lull wonders if Sokal is in fact insufficiently skeptical and sends along Sokal and Bricmont: Back to the Frying Pan and Being an Absolute Skeptic.
That would be today ...
... and here I almost forgot: Remember those planets… however many there are - February 28, 2008. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Clauses and propositions ...
... Freedom For Religion.
Of course, Martha Nussbaum would never think of writing in a hostile and contemptuous manner about any religion - except Christianity.
Of course, Martha Nussbaum would never think of writing in a hostile and contemptuous manner about any religion - except Christianity.
Hear, hear ...
... On Wishes and Organisations.
Which is why I am neither pro- nor anti-feminist. I just like women, but then I was raised by my mother and grandmother (with an assist from my rather older brother). Such details count.
It is irrational to assume that what works in one culture would work in another. The irrationality is based on the notion of 'organising' a society. One can organise some things, but one can't organise the inclinations of an entire culture - the desire to do so indicates a failure to understand the meaning of 'culture'.
Which is why I am neither pro- nor anti-feminist. I just like women, but then I was raised by my mother and grandmother (with an assist from my rather older brother). Such details count.
Nige and I ...
... on the same page once again: Jane Says Every Mum Is Worth It.
Last week, while sitting in my eye doctor's waiting room, I had the opportunity to peruse a couple of copies of People magazine. You would think that, having worked in the features department of a major metropolitan daily for the last quarter-century, I would be thrice familiar with both the magazine and its featured players - but I had better things to do, mostly. True, I occasionally had to compile the gossip column and have some idea who the most notable celebrities of the day are. But looking at People's pages last week I was simply struck by how phony those in the photos looked. I kept thinking that our forebears were probably right to consign actors - along with tumblers and buffoons - to the status of servants.
Irreplaceable ...
... I should think: Who could replace Dawkins? (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I wonder if atheism is a necessary qualification. If not, then I would suggest Francis Collins. Of course, he probably wouldn't want it, being too busy practicing science to want to spend all of his time explaining it. Wonder if Dawkins will decide to do any himself once he has some time on his hands.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
I care ...
... but probably nobody cares that I care: Soft Skull Acquired, Nobody Cares.
I'm liking James Wood more and more.
I'm liking James Wood more and more.
The dangers of success ...
... Website: too popular to live - February 27, 2008. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Sad news ...
... Conservative Writer, Commentator William F. Buckley Jr. Dies at 82.
I first met Bill Buckley back in 1964. What impressed me most about him was what a perfect gentleman he was.
More here.
Here's the NYT obit (hat tip, Dave Lull) and a piece by Sam Tanenhaus: The Buckley Effect (hat tip, Paul Davis).
I first met Bill Buckley back in 1964. What impressed me most about him was what a perfect gentleman he was.
More here.
Here's the NYT obit (hat tip, Dave Lull) and a piece by Sam Tanenhaus: The Buckley Effect (hat tip, Paul Davis).
No fool he ...
... Robert Frost, Unplugged, Praised Rich Capitalist Fools, AP Says. (Hat tip, Dave Lull, from whom I stole the lead-in.)
News from Laputa ...
... Not to Complicate Matters, but ...
Focusing exclusively on the complexity of an issue enables one to avoid taking a moral position regarding it.
Focusing exclusively on the complexity of an issue enables one to avoid taking a moral position regarding it.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Come one, come all ...
... to an NBCC event Friends Select School tomorrow night at 7 to see Jen Miller, Daisy Fried, Ben Yagoda, Kermit Roosevelt, and me discuss who's reading what now, why reviews are important, and the finalists for this NBCC 2007 book prize. Can't beat the prize: It's free.
A worst list ...
... from Terry Teachout: The enemy of the best. Can't agree about Brahms's German Requiem, though.
Careful differentiation ...
... `Difficult, Up to a Point". (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have no problem with difficulty if it derives from the nature of the subject and not just the manner - or mannerism - of the writer. Obscurity is something else. A text may be richly ambiguous, suggestive of many, even conflicting, meanings, but that's not obscurity, which I see as simply a lack of clarity (for one may be clearly ambiguous).
We wish him well ...
... Bryan Abducted, The Drugs Don't Work - But There Are Signs Of Hope.
I thought there was more to that than met the eye.
I thought there was more to that than met the eye.
A nice notice ...
... for Mark Sarvas's Harry, Revised in Publishers Weekly - you have to scroll down a bit.
Mark has A FEW THOUGHTS ON REVIEWS, PROMPTED BY PW & KIRKUS. (Hat tip to Dave Lull for both links.)
Mark has A FEW THOUGHTS ON REVIEWS, PROMPTED BY PW & KIRKUS. (Hat tip to Dave Lull for both links.)
Monday, February 25, 2008
Hmm ...
... No, the Pope is not a Darwinist, but what sort of evolution does he support?
I'll have more to say about this later, but cursory look makes me wonder how familiar O'Leary is with Teilhard. Schönborn's point about Teilhard is that the Jesuit paleontologist clearly believed that evolution was purposeful. He was also something of a neo-Lamarckian.
I'll have more to say about this later, but cursory look makes me wonder how familiar O'Leary is with Teilhard. Schönborn's point about Teilhard is that the Jesuit paleontologist clearly believed that evolution was purposeful. He was also something of a neo-Lamarckian.
Her wish ...
... is my command: Army of Davids or Serial Killers?
In response to Maxine's request for my review of An Army of Davids, here it is (if I do say so myself, it holds up, especially the last paragraph):
An Army of Davids
In response to Maxine's request for my review of An Army of Davids, here it is (if I do say so myself, it holds up, especially the last paragraph):
An Army of Davids
How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government and Other Goliaths
Nelson Current. 289 pp. $24.99
Like the baby boomers who still account for much of its staff, Big Media is perpetually nostalgic. It yearns to revisit the glory days of its opposition to the Vietnam War and, of course, Watergate. So it often portrays the war in Iraq as another Vietnam. But the analogy is facile - as Mark Twain is said to have observed, "History does not repeat itself; it rhymes. "
In the meantime, something very similar to what happened in Vietnam is happening - to Big Media. As Glenn Reynolds puts it in An Army of Davids: "Where before journalists and pundits could bloviate at leisure, offering illogical analysis or citing 'facts' that were in fact false, now the Sunday morning op-eds have already been dissected on a Saturday night, within hours of their appearing on newspapers' websites. "
Dissected by whom? By bloggers. Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, knows as much about blogging as anyone: He's the man behind InstaPundit.com, which on some days racks up as many as a half-million page loads.
Reynolds' highly informative book - a must-read if you want to have some idea of the direction things are taking - is about a lot more than the effect of blogging on Big Media. Its theme is "the triumph of personal technology over mass technology," which is a trend Reynolds believes is only "going to strengthen over the coming decades. "
Recalling that John Kenneth Galbraith's 1966 book The New Industrial State argued that the very size of big corporations protected them from both failure and competition, Reynolds points out that now, a mere 40 years later, "a laptop, a cheap video camera, and the free iMovie or Windows Movie Maker software (plus an Internet connection) will let one person do things that the Big Three television networks could only dream of in Galbraith's day, and at a fraction of the cost. "
That and other changes have come about with remarkable rapidity. Reynolds, sitting with a laptop in "a pizza place with 27 kinds of beer on tap, a nice patio and . . . a free wireless Internet hookup," is able "in less time than it takes the barmaid to draw me a beer" to look up the Hephthalite Huns, Tsiolkovsky's rocket equation, and "how much money Joe Biden has gotten from the entertainment industry. "
As recently as 1993, he wouldn't have been able to, because the Web was just getting started, Wi-Fi was only a couple of years old, and Google didn't exist. Most remarkable, Reynolds says, is that "the Web, Wi-Fi and Google didn't develop and spread because somebody at the Bureau of Central Knowledge Planning planned them. They developed . . . from the uncoordinated activities of individuals. "
Reynolds covers a lot of territory in this little book, from being able to have a state-of-the-art recording studio in your home for about $1,000 to "electronic privateering" in the war on terror, to video games' potential as teaching devices (likely to discombobulate teachers the way blogs have journalists). Reynolds knows how to pack a lot of information into a relatively small space and provides clear and concise explanations of such things as "horizontal knowledge" - "communication among individuals who may not know each other, but who are loosely coordinated by their involvement in something, or someone, of mutual interest. "
As a professed "transhumanist," Reynolds waxes enthusiastic on nanotechnology, planetary colonization, and "Scientifically Engineered Negligible Senescence. " But, like Ray Kurzweil - author of The Singularity Is Near, last year's big futurist book - Reynolds is well aware of the dangers that technological change can pose and favors taking reasonable steps to prevent such things as a terrorist-generated plague from happening.
The changes Reynolds chronicles have proved unsettling to a number of settled institutions, including government, corporations and the media. Reynolds, who knows his away around the First Amendment, thinks that "the press establishment's general lack of enthusiasm for free speech for others (as evidenced by its support for campaign finance 'reform') suggests that it'll be happy to see alternative media muzzled. "
"You want to keep this media revolution going?" he asks. "Be ready to fight for it. "
I think it will prove to be not much of a contest. As Reynolds knows, "open communication, quick thinking, decentralization, and broad dispersal of skills - along with a sense of individual responsibility - have an enormous structural advantage. " If Big Media could figure out how to partner with alternative media - putting together, as Reynolds suggests, "a network of freelance journalists" or "knit[ting] together a network of bloggers" - the outcome would be good for all concerned.
But that's not going to happen as long as corporate journalism continues to insist on ever more bureaucratic protocols, on making articles conform to some goofy packaging concept, and on a top-to-bottom command structure. It's as though a World War II army were marching through a jungle infested by guerrillas. Just like in Vietnam.
A fresh look ...
... at James Dickey by A.E. Stallings: Night Rhythm. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I'm not sure about this, though: "... the root of 'authentic' is violence--the Greek for murderer." True, authentic does mean perpetrator, the one who does something, and certainly applied to one who committed murder, but that doesn't seem to have been either its sole or principal meaning.
Sounds like ...
... a real piece of work: Alain Robbe-Grillet.
Robbe-Grillet's best friend and publisher, Jerome Lindon, was not delighted by the publication of the details of his liaisons with Mme Robbe-Grillet. Lindon was, the book explained, allowed to sleep with Catherine, but only Robbe-Grillet could beat her. Lindon seemed disappointed, according to Catherine Robbe-Grillet.
Luddites deserve better ...
... than to be lumped with greens: Environmentalists: don’t label them Luddites.
The Luddites were deeply concerned with unemployment; today some environmentalists openly call for a recession which will have the effect of people losing their jobs and becoming poorer. The Luddites expressed an embryonic revolutionary longing, for a decent life and for liberty; today a leading green writes: ‘Unlike almost all the public protests which have preceded it, [environmentalism] is a campaign not for abundance but for austerity. It is a campaign not for more freedom but for less. Strangest of all, it is a campaign not just against other people, but also against ourselves.’
Sunday, February 24, 2008
One more time ...
... I stumbled upon this today while looking something else, and I link to not because of what I wrote, but because of the comments, which I hadn't seen: It’s Real (If You Think It Is): The Quantum Enigma.
A fresh take ...
... on The Writer and Hollywood.
I won't be watching the Academy Awards. I don't care who wins. I don't know if it's because I'm just not as interested in films as I used to be, or that I'm not as interested because they're not as interesting.
I won't be watching the Academy Awards. I don't care who wins. I don't know if it's because I'm just not as interested in films as I used to be, or that I'm not as interested because they're not as interesting.
Be very afraid ...
... If you want to know what life would be like without subeditors. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
I like the term subeditor better than copy editor, which is what we call them over here.
I like the term subeditor better than copy editor, which is what we call them over here.
And while we're at it ...
... let's hear it for Libraries and readers' groups. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Bryan reviews ...
... The Rest is Noise.
I am just now listening to Carl Ruggles's Sun-Treader, a great example of authentic musical modernism, in a splendid recording by Michael Tilson Thomas and the BSO. If orchestras played works like this more often, audiences would be better prepared to judge contemporary music fairly. (Frankly, little that I have heard has struck me as anything but the palest imitation of the sort of thing Charles Ives did - when it is even that good.) As for Boulez, his best music - Complainte du lizard amoureux, for example - is just a few timid steps beyond Debussy. I do not agree that "music was required both to reflect with jagged forms and conceal with rabid propaganda the murderous ravages of modernity." The best piece of music I know of that comments directly on an episode in the "century of death" is Bohuslav Martinu's Memorial to Lidice, written only a year after the Nazis wiped out a Czech village in retaliation for the assassination of one of their goons. It displays neither jagged forms nor rabid propaganda. It simply moves the heart and soul.
I should add that there is also on the Tilson Thomas record what is probably the best version of Walter Piston's second symphony, a fine work by an unjustly neglected composer. Of course, there are plenty of those. Audiences need to made familiar with works like Piston's symphonies, and those of Roy Harris and Edmund Rubbra, as well as knottier works like those of Ives and Ruggles. As it is, when they hear the premiere of a contemporary work, it's like trying to read an academic imitation of Finnegans Wake without ever having read Ulysses, or Faulkner or Woolf or Eliot.
I should add that there is also on the Tilson Thomas record what is probably the best version of Walter Piston's second symphony, a fine work by an unjustly neglected composer. Of course, there are plenty of those. Audiences need to made familiar with works like Piston's symphonies, and those of Roy Harris and Edmund Rubbra, as well as knottier works like those of Ives and Ruggles. As it is, when they hear the premiere of a contemporary work, it's like trying to read an academic imitation of Finnegans Wake without ever having read Ulysses, or Faulkner or Woolf or Eliot.
So you want to write for Nature ...
... well, learn how to write properly. It may help if English isn't your native tongue: Nature Network advice on writing style. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
The greener grass ...
... On Edward Thomas. British television coverage of politics must be truly awful if the appalling McLaughlin Group and Meet the Press seem lively by comparison. Perhaps it is because I am no longer young - and if so, it's one of the boons of growing old - but the current U.S. presidential campaign has struck me as paralyzingly dull. But Bryan is surely right about Edward Thomas's glorious poem. How can one finish reading that and give a tinker's dam about politics of any stripe?
By the way, take a look at the comment thread attached to that post.
By the way, take a look at the comment thread attached to that post.
Plus ça change …
... Coffee shops beat the office grind and Cafe Society. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Dryden would be quite at home: The English Coffee Houses.
Dryden would be quite at home: The English Coffee Houses.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Diane McKinney-Whetstone likes James McBride's latest: Haunting story of slavery.
... Carlin Romano objects to messing around with Will: Shakespeare with 'No Fear,' no flavor.
... I am impressed with Mary Beard's The Roman Triumph: A tradition not so well understood after all.
... Ed Pettit looks into metempsychosis: 19th-century tale of reincarnation had Poe's praise.
... and Rita Giordano is much taken with a new memoir: 'How could you . . . not be gay?'
... Carlin Romano objects to messing around with Will: Shakespeare with 'No Fear,' no flavor.
... I am impressed with Mary Beard's The Roman Triumph: A tradition not so well understood after all.
... Ed Pettit looks into metempsychosis: 19th-century tale of reincarnation had Poe's praise.
... and Rita Giordano is much taken with a new memoir: 'How could you . . . not be gay?'
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Together again ....
... Appleyard & Ashbery: Thinking, I Think, About Ashbery.
'I think I think but I don't think thinking is what it is thought to be.' I agree with Bryan. This is "a fine sentiment" (good word choice, too).
'I think I think but I don't think thinking is what it is thought to be.' I agree with Bryan. This is "a fine sentiment" (good word choice, too).
We interrupt ...
... our blogging because we are back at our old desk at The Inquirer clearing away email and passing along information needed by Mike Schaffer who has taken over the book beat.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Keats on retreat ...
... A Writer's Rout. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Henry and I obviously share a love of Keats. Keats at his best - and Henry is right that "in general, the quality of Keats’ poetry tends to vary in inverse proportion to its length" - is what poetry is all about.
Henry and I obviously share a love of Keats. Keats at his best - and Henry is right that "in general, the quality of Keats’ poetry tends to vary in inverse proportion to its length" - is what poetry is all about.
The flip side, I guess ...
... Not Reading An Iota in America. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I had quite different experience recently: The high point ...
I had quite different experience recently: The high point ...
Thursday, February 21, 2008
That's it ...
... for blogging today. Debbie and I are heading out to the orchestra - Mozart's "Jupiter" and Strauss's Alpine Symphony.
The big question ...
... for writers, is New York still a city of dreams? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Keep your eye on this Artistic Nirvana.
Keep your eye on this Artistic Nirvana.
Cheer up ...
... Life Is Good, Stephen Hunter declares. (Hat tip, Paul Davis, who writes about Hunter in A Samurai Sword Story.)
A name from the past ...
... Eustace Tilley, a man who knew how to dress.
And sadly, as Dave's link in his comment indicates, Harold Ross, Who he?
And sadly, as Dave's link in his comment indicates, Harold Ross, Who he?
Nige descants ...
... upon Feeling British and Dressed For Dinner.
I'd go a step farther and opt for formal dinner dress. But then I look good in tails - as I'm sure Nige does as well. Not that I favor any Dinner Suit Diktat - or any other Diktat - from the Office of the Supreme Leader.
I'd go a step farther and opt for formal dinner dress. But then I look good in tails - as I'm sure Nige does as well. Not that I favor any Dinner Suit Diktat - or any other Diktat - from the Office of the Supreme Leader.
Maxine reviews ...
... Thirteenth Tale and Ice Trap.
I just knew Maxine would like The Thirteenth Tale. I reviewed it myself and liked it every bit as much.
I just knew Maxine would like The Thirteenth Tale. I reviewed it myself and liked it every bit as much.
An interesting blog ...
... at least some people will think so: The Painted Prayerbook. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Missing author report ...
... London has lost all its Ivy. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It struck me that was missing here is Compton-Burnett herself. Here is Ivy Compton-Burnett
on . . .
It struck me that was missing here is Compton-Burnett herself. Here is Ivy Compton-Burnett
on . . .
I just happen ...
Preview ...
... The Inquirer has been running excerpts from Lisa Scottoline's latest, Lady Killer.
Here's Chapter 1.
And here's Chapter 2, Part I and Chapter 2, Part 2.
Here's Chapter 1.
And here's Chapter 2, Part I and Chapter 2, Part 2.
Poetry and the maximum leader ...
... Two Poets View Cuban Roots.
I was a senior in high school when Castro took over. I still remember the summary trials and executions that were televised at the time. Raul Castro played a leading role in them. The thought then was that he was the ideological hardliner and Fidel would eventually rein him in.
Apologies to Hedgie ...
... a different sort of compost heap: Recommendation: Mike McGrath's Book of Compost.
Today's must read ...
... Why the Iliad matters. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Why then do men fight? For the same reasons that they always have: They like to and they have to. Sarpedon, a Lycian noble fighting on the Trojan side, goes into battle “like a hungry lion.” He has a visceral need for combat, to kill or be killed.
The master of almost ...
... or, Writing for Antiquity.
"Our audiences come to the theatre to be complimented on their goodness. They compare notes with the amiable characters in the play, and find a wonderful similarity of disposition between them. We have a common stock of dramatic morality out of which a writer may be supplied without the trouble of copying it from originals within his own breast.”
Sounds pretty up-t0-date to me.
Sounds pretty up-t0-date to me.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Superfluous man ...
... The Durable Mr. Nock. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Back in the summer of 1968, during my wandering scholar days, I lectured on Albert Jay Nock at Rockford College. Few people have influenced me more than Mr. Nock.
Back in the summer of 1968, during my wandering scholar days, I lectured on Albert Jay Nock at Rockford College. Few people have influenced me more than Mr. Nock.
Debatable issues ...
... Rus Bowden sends along a couple of links:
So You Want to Be a Writer and South High official on leave over sexy poems.
I think the mechanics of writing can be taught. After that, you're on your own. As for the other piece, well you can cast your vote.
So You Want to Be a Writer and South High official on leave over sexy poems.
I think the mechanics of writing can be taught. After that, you're on your own. As for the other piece, well you can cast your vote.
A frosty response ...
... to "a bunch of yahoos broke into Robert Frost’s cottage for a drunken party, doing considerable (and disgusting) damage": Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Big Brother Google ...
... Journalist Who Exposes U.N. Corruption Disappears From Google.
Interesting to see if the media takes up his case.
Interesting to see if the media takes up his case.
Final acts ...
... Ten extraordinary literary suicides. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
My first direct experience with death took place one Sunday morning when I was 11 and discovered that a man had killed himself in his car in front of our house. Later a friend would commit suicide after having my family and me (thanks to Dave Lull for correcting my grammatical lapse!) over for Easter Sunday dinner. And my second oldest stepdaughter's husband committed suicide just a few years ago.
Quite a review ...
... by Nigel Beale. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I have so far proved somewhat immune to the lure of James Wood - I'm not quite sure why - but this makes me feel the need to take another, closer look.
I have so far proved somewhat immune to the lure of James Wood - I'm not quite sure why - but this makes me feel the need to take another, closer look.
Another hackneyed phrase ...
... The Resistible Rise of 'If You Will'.
I think this is one Americans have adopted because they think it makes them sound British. For Americans, to sound British is the same as sounding intelligent. Like Bryan, I prefer "so to speak," but only in a humorous context - so to speak.
I think this is one Americans have adopted because they think it makes them sound British. For Americans, to sound British is the same as sounding intelligent. Like Bryan, I prefer "so to speak," but only in a humorous context - so to speak.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Founders online ...
... after all, everybody should have access: A tussle over the founding fathers' words. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
More than his faults ...
... A. N. Wilson on the life and letters of John Cowper Powys. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
During one of the bleaker periods of my life I read Powys's great autobiography. For some reason I was immensely cheered knowing that he had frequently walked through Germantown, the section of Philadelphia I was living in at the time.
During one of the bleaker periods of my life I read Powys's great autobiography. For some reason I was immensely cheered knowing that he had frequently walked through Germantown, the section of Philadelphia I was living in at the time.
Literary jocks ...
... Violent Author Discussion Breaks out During Penn-Cornell Game. (Hat tip, John Timpane.)
Identity crisis ...
... Being British.
An unspoken and unwritten identity that just feels like something is what a real identity is. Anything else is either affectation or impersonation.
An unspoken and unwritten identity that just feels like something is what a real identity is. Anything else is either affectation or impersonation.
Dumbing down journalism ...
... Are Americans Stupid?
It's not much of an article, really; more like a rant you might find on a mediocre blog. The most unkindest cut of all.
It's not much of an article, really; more like a rant you might find on a mediocre blog. The most unkindest cut of all.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Unfairly neglected ...
... Judith Fitzgerald.
I had a pleasant email exchange with Judith. I think she's quite interesting and orginal.
I had a pleasant email exchange with Judith. I think she's quite interesting and orginal.
Some poems ...
... by Poets from the U. K.
I notice the second is from Geoffrey Hill's The Orchards of Syon, which I reviewed - and which Hill read from when I introduced him at the 92d Street Y.
I notice the second is from Geoffrey Hill's The Orchards of Syon, which I reviewed - and which Hill read from when I introduced him at the 92d Street Y.
A discovery ...
... for me at least: re Russell Edson.
This is the first I've heard of Russell Edson, actually. Glad to have made his acquaintance.
This is the first I've heard of Russell Edson, actually. Glad to have made his acquaintance.
I can't answer ...
...Scott's question: Why He Left.
Though it might be too much to ask for, I, for one, would be interested in hearing the reasons why these changes were deemed necessary.
I can only account for my own thinking, but it is perhaps worth noting that a book review section of some years ago would not boast a column on digital lit, but would feature genre roundups. Just a thought.
Though it might be too much to ask for, I, for one, would be interested in hearing the reasons why these changes were deemed necessary.
I can only account for my own thinking, but it is perhaps worth noting that a book review section of some years ago would not boast a column on digital lit, but would feature genre roundups. Just a thought.
Poetic succession ...
... A torch passed. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Here are a couple of Henri Cole poems:
Oil & Steel and Poppies.
Here are a couple of Henri Cole poems:
Oil & Steel and Poppies.
I wonder ...
... what can be done to stop them: Prozzze Update. Perhaps Bryan should resume his attempts to fix up Jeff with Amanda - who gets linked to in this post: Kurzweil and Human Equivalence. (Actually, do we really know what intelligence is exactly?)
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... yes, this will continue to be feature of this blog.
... Carlin Romano really doesn't like John Edgar Wideman's latest: Too little bio, and too much stale racial rage.
... but Mary Dixie Carter is impressed by a new biography of Ezra Pound: Irritating, captivating, quirky Pound. (Funny, I knew Pound had gone to Penn, but I hadn't realized he grew up in Wyndmoor, just outside Philly.)
... Vernon Clark likewise is impressed by Major Jackson's Hoops: Poetic nuances of Phila. (I regard this as one of my more inspired assignments: Vernon is a reporter who knows the city as well as anybody.
... Jesse Freedman is not altogether happy with Eric G.Wilson's Against Happiness: Celebrating melancholy, the essential artist's muse .
... but Katie Goldstein rather likes Arturo Pérez-Reverte's latest: Photographer becomes subject.
... Carlin Romano really doesn't like John Edgar Wideman's latest: Too little bio, and too much stale racial rage.
... but Mary Dixie Carter is impressed by a new biography of Ezra Pound: Irritating, captivating, quirky Pound. (Funny, I knew Pound had gone to Penn, but I hadn't realized he grew up in Wyndmoor, just outside Philly.)
... Vernon Clark likewise is impressed by Major Jackson's Hoops: Poetic nuances of Phila. (I regard this as one of my more inspired assignments: Vernon is a reporter who knows the city as well as anybody.
... Jesse Freedman is not altogether happy with Eric G.Wilson's Against Happiness: Celebrating melancholy, the essential artist's muse .
... but Katie Goldstein rather likes Arturo Pérez-Reverte's latest: Photographer becomes subject.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Fine distinctions ...
... On the Philosophical Discussion of Religious Topics. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
It would seem to me that the same would apply to non-believers concerning their lack of belief (which inevitably is itself a kind of belief).
It would seem to me that the same would apply to non-believers concerning their lack of belief (which inevitably is itself a kind of belief).
It's Saturday ...
... and I've just provided three links to good advice. I have much to do today, so blogging must be light for the remainder of the day.
And still more ...
... good advice: How to Wreck a Career in One Easy Lesson. (Just as I am about to link to this, I get an email from Dave Lull - with a link to it. Great minds at work once again!)
More good advice ...
... Buy This Book. I read it and I liked it. It's how I came to know that I'm a deathist, which, when you're my age, takes a certain amount of courage.
I wonder ...
... how many college reading lists these books are on: Five best satires of academic life. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Friday, February 15, 2008
What's in a title ...
... a lot, actually: Ben Macintyre on the art of a good book title. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
I've always thought Henry Miller had a good ear for titles: The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, Sunday After the War.
I've always thought Henry Miller had a good ear for titles: The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, Sunday After the War.
Best response ever ...
... to a copy editor: Ego sum rex Romanus, et supra grammaticam. (I am the Roman emperor, and above grammar).
—Sigismund, at the Council of Constance (1414), to a prelate who had dared to point out a few errors; Sigismund was born on this day in 1368.
(Via Today in Literature.)
That's good ...
... John Grisham has no illusions about writing. (Hat tip, Scott Stein.)
Neither do I (have any illusions about writing). Unfortunately, I didn't make $9 million last year.
Neither do I (have any illusions about writing). Unfortunately, I didn't make $9 million last year.
Interesting review format ...
... or do I mean formatted review? Colorful columnist takes on the Mafia. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
How blogging works ...
... see Jeff's Latest 2. Note the effect of Bryan's generous linking and posting.
Deadwood ...
... Media Madness in the City of Brotherly Love. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, so much for hopes that Dexter might agree to become one of The Inquirer's "name" reviewers.
Well, so much for hopes that Dexter might agree to become one of The Inquirer's "name" reviewers.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Submitted for your examination ...
... Socrates in the 21st Century. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
On the other hand, given this other piece Dave sends along, we could be Strictly Platonic.
On the other hand, given this other piece Dave sends along, we could be Strictly Platonic.
Light the fire ...
... or not: Vladimir Nabokov, his masterpiece and the burning question. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
And Dave Lull sends along More on Nabokov's The Original of Laura.
And Dave Lull sends along More on Nabokov's The Original of Laura.
Context is everything ...
... maybe the archbishop is getting a bum rap: Plausible Unavoidability.
An awful sentence, I would say, downright Orwellian in its vacuity.
But if what we want socially is a pattern of relations in which a plurality of divers and overlapping affiliations work for a common good, and in which groups of serious and profound conviction are not systematically faced with the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty, it seems unavoidable.
An awful sentence, I would say, downright Orwellian in its vacuity.
Something I missed ...
... a nice roundup (and not just because I'm included): Sunday morning with a coffee and cigarette.
But, speaking of me, I don't remember if I linked to this or not: Frank and Duane and me. I link to it now because it brought to mind this line of Oscar Wilde's: "To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
But, speaking of me, I don't remember if I linked to this or not: Frank and Duane and me. I link to it now because it brought to mind this line of Oscar Wilde's: "To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
Atheist damns cleric ...
... To Hell With the Archbishop of Canterbury, Christopher Hitchens declares. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The archbishop, who seems like a nice enough guy, has come off in this as a bien-pensant parody.
The archbishop, who seems like a nice enough guy, has come off in this as a bien-pensant parody.
Some years ago I attended a talk by the late Basil Pennington, a Benedictine abbot who had engaged in much dialogue with Buddhists (his monastery was near Hong Kong). He pointed out the commonest complaint he heard from them was that Christians brought nothing to the table. They wanted to get something from the Buddhists about Buddhist spiritual tradition and practice, but were insufficiently familiar with their own tradition and practice to have anything to offer in exchange. The good archbishop's readiness to concede ground to Islam makes one wonder how much he appreciates the ground on which he is supposed to stand firm.
Just for the hell of it, here's a view diametrically opposed to Archbishop Williams's: John Quincy Adams Knew Jihad.
Just for the hell of it, here's a view diametrically opposed to Archbishop Williams's: John Quincy Adams Knew Jihad.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Let's hear it ...
... for these guys: And in this corner ... (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
And here, once again, is Climate Debate Daily.
And here, once again, is Climate Debate Daily.
Not meant for kids ...
... Aesop's translators have had varied agendas.
The Greek version referred to is, I suppose, Babrius. There are also Latin versions by Phaedrus.
The Greek version referred to is, I suppose, Babrius. There are also Latin versions by Phaedrus.
Another reason ..
... for newspapers (and others) to worry: The Coming Ad Revolution. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Good question ...
... Breaking Aurelian News.
I find it increasingly difficult to focus my attention on politics, period.
I find it increasingly difficult to focus my attention on politics, period.
Unholy trinty ...
... Andy, Art and Arnold.
My point is that a state initiative to produce artists is an absolute waste of time whereas one to produce audiences might just work.
Perhaps. But why does the state think it needs to do something about producing artists? Why not plumbers, who are at least as useful, and often enough more necessary?
My point is that a state initiative to produce artists is an absolute waste of time whereas one to produce audiences might just work.
Perhaps. But why does the state think it needs to do something about producing artists? Why not plumbers, who are at least as useful, and often enough more necessary?
All Kinds of Favors Fall From It ...
... Some Thoughts on Becoming a Blogger from Reginald Shepherd. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Maxine has some thoughts: An accidental journey.
This post has been bumped up.
Maxine has some thoughts: An accidental journey.
This post has been bumped up.
Great Art ...
... for the Greatest Numbers: Dana Gioia's Leadership Of the National Endowment for the Arts. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Free expression ...
... and the state: Mandatory Niceness. (Hat tip, Scott Stein.)
Somebody alert Robert McChesney (and Anonymous).
Somebody alert Robert McChesney (and Anonymous).
In search of ...
... a corpus delicti: Blogging and the "common reader." (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The search engine Technorati currently tracks "112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media" on the net. The number keeps growing. In the face of 110 million of them, simply by saying "all blogs are X" the person who utters (or writes) that sentence betrays themselves as foolish. ... It is pretty much impossible even to try to keep up with the blogosphere without reading widely in it -- only a newsfeeder allows you to do that systematically.
Well,
I found what Susan Hill is quoted as saying in the Vulpes Libris post that is linked to interesting:
Some bloggers see themselves as the same as book reviewers in the papers but they are not. You are unedited. You are uncut. You write about what you want not what they ask you to; you are writing in a more relaxed way. You do not stick to publication dates etc. or only new books.
Well, in the column I used to write - which was edited, of course, and by some very good editors - I wrote about what I wanted, I wrote (I like to think) in a pretty relaxed way, I didn't necessarily stick to pub dates, nor to new books. True, I was the assigning editor, but I also ran pieces by books that had come out decades earlier (ask Roger Miller). The primary aim of my column was to recommend a book I had enjoyed reading. But it didn't always end up that way. I was initially much taken with Paul Theroux's Blinding Light, but ended up hating it and saying so. The same was true of J.M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year. I read it because I thought I would like it - I had liked Elizabeth Costello.
I should also add that not one of my editors ever toned down any negative criticism I wrote.
The search engine Technorati currently tracks "112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media" on the net. The number keeps growing. In the face of 110 million of them, simply by saying "all blogs are X" the person who utters (or writes) that sentence betrays themselves as foolish. ... It is pretty much impossible even to try to keep up with the blogosphere without reading widely in it -- only a newsfeeder allows you to do that systematically.
Well,
I found what Susan Hill is quoted as saying in the Vulpes Libris post that is linked to interesting:
Some bloggers see themselves as the same as book reviewers in the papers but they are not. You are unedited. You are uncut. You write about what you want not what they ask you to; you are writing in a more relaxed way. You do not stick to publication dates etc. or only new books.
Well, in the column I used to write - which was edited, of course, and by some very good editors - I wrote about what I wanted, I wrote (I like to think) in a pretty relaxed way, I didn't necessarily stick to pub dates, nor to new books. True, I was the assigning editor, but I also ran pieces by books that had come out decades earlier (ask Roger Miller). The primary aim of my column was to recommend a book I had enjoyed reading. But it didn't always end up that way. I was initially much taken with Paul Theroux's Blinding Light, but ended up hating it and saying so. The same was true of J.M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year. I read it because I thought I would like it - I had liked Elizabeth Costello.
I should also add that not one of my editors ever toned down any negative criticism I wrote.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Something to howl about ...
... 'Howl' tape gives Reed claim to first. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
More here.
And still more: Gary Snyder on hitchhiking and "Howl" at Reed. (Another tip of the hat to Rus.)
More here.
And still more: Gary Snyder on hitchhiking and "Howl" at Reed. (Another tip of the hat to Rus.)
This is really nice ...
... from Jennifer Weiner. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thanks very much, Jen.
(Jen used to sit right next to me at the paper, and she once wrote a really nice piece about Debbie. One of my more inspired acts was getting Becky Sinkler, retired editor of the New York Times Book Review, to review Good in Bed.)
Thanks very much, Jen.
(Jen used to sit right next to me at the paper, and she once wrote a really nice piece about Debbie. One of my more inspired acts was getting Becky Sinkler, retired editor of the New York Times Book Review, to review Good in Bed.)
Thanks, Bob ...
... both for the kind words at the end and for making an exceedingly good point: Internet critic questions blogs' place in culture.
The exceedingly good point is this:
The exceedingly good point is this:
What Siegel omits is that for most intelligent, sensible adults, the Internet is only a service, not a way of life.
Some of us still read books, write letters, shop at real stores and make up our own minds about art, film, drama or music.
Tell that to Robert McChesney, will you.
Some of us still read books, write letters, shop at real stores and make up our own minds about art, film, drama or music.
The state of the media ...
... Carlin Romano on Robert McChesney: Big Fish and Small Fry. (I saw this on Arts& Letters Daily, but Dave Lull also sent it along.)
Yale First Amendment scholar Thomas Emerson also argued, writes McChesney, that in the 1930s nothing in the Constitution “prevented the government from establishing a completely nonprofit radio and television system.”
And now we have PBS and NPR. So what? McChesney's whole point is that he wants to make sure that people read only what he thinks it is important for them to read. I'll read what I feel like, thank you. If corporate media fail to provide people what they want, people will vote with their pocketbooks - oh, but they've been doing that, haven't they?
Yale First Amendment scholar Thomas Emerson also argued, writes McChesney, that in the 1930s nothing in the Constitution “prevented the government from establishing a completely nonprofit radio and television system.”
And now we have PBS and NPR. So what? McChesney's whole point is that he wants to make sure that people read only what he thinks it is important for them to read. I'll read what I feel like, thank you. If corporate media fail to provide people what they want, people will vote with their pocketbooks - oh, but they've been doing that, haven't they?
The Eye has it ...
... An 'Eye' for poetry, that is.
Pete Krok's book is scheduled to be reviewed in The Inquirer on March 2.
Pete Krok's book is scheduled to be reviewed in The Inquirer on March 2.
Ahem ...
... Frank Wilson’s Last Stand, Or How The Inky Managed To Squander Even More Sunday Readers. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I link to this because of Blackmail's comment that I "was something of a Tory critic." That would be Old Tory, Blackmail, as Bryan pointed out only last week.
I link to this because of Blackmail's comment that I "was something of a Tory critic." That would be Old Tory, Blackmail, as Bryan pointed out only last week.
Monday, February 11, 2008
A French response ...
... to "Bronze Inside & Out," which I mentioned in this link: Tough Guy.
Just so you don't miss it, here's the link Dave Lull sent along: Bronze : L'intérieur et Hors.
Just so you don't miss it, here's the link Dave Lull sent along: Bronze : L'intérieur et Hors.
The future of publishing (cont'd.) ...
... Publisher Tests Selling by the Chapter. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Weird ...
... Ask The Stage Directions To Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. (Hat tip, Scott Stein.)
Where's Gene D'Alessandro when I need him?
Where's Gene D'Alessandro when I need him?
Michael Crichton ...
... on Complexity Theory and Environmental Management. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
... there is nothing more sobering than a 30 year old newspaper. You can’t figure out what the headlines mean. You don’t know who the people are. Theodore Green, John Sparkman, George Reedy, Jack Watson, Kenneth Duberstein. You thumb through page after page of vanished concerns—issues that apparently were vitally important at the time, and now don’t matter at all. It’s amazing how many pressing concerns are literally of the moment. They won’t matter in six months, and certainly not in six years. And if they won’t matter then, are they really worth our attention now?
... there is nothing more sobering than a 30 year old newspaper. You can’t figure out what the headlines mean. You don’t know who the people are. Theodore Green, John Sparkman, George Reedy, Jack Watson, Kenneth Duberstein. You thumb through page after page of vanished concerns—issues that apparently were vitally important at the time, and now don’t matter at all. It’s amazing how many pressing concerns are literally of the moment. They won’t matter in six months, and certainly not in six years. And if they won’t matter then, are they really worth our attention now?
Rescuing a poet ...
... literally: Literary friends help a down-and-out Melissa Green. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
What have the Romans ...
... ever done for us? Well, there's the jokes: What made the Romans laugh?
Something related: A spectrum of jokes.
Something related: A spectrum of jokes.
RIP ...
... Ah Meng To All That.
Rather a hard life, when you consider all those celebrities she had to put up with.
Rather a hard life, when you consider all those celebrities she had to put up with.
Colleagues ...
... As I begin my first real day of retirement, I realize that what I miss most are my colleagues. They gave me quite a send-off Thursday (I'll be getting a Kindle soon, thanks to their generosity), and I didn't say much then, because I was engaged in a titanic struggle to keep my emotions (and tear ducts) under control. But I did manage to point out something that I think is worth repeating here: If you can manage find a way of earning a living that you like, you've got a good chunk of the personal happiness issue resolved, and an absolutely essential factor in that is your colleagues. Mine at The Inquirer were some of the brightest, funniest, and most caring people I have ever known, or can ever hope to know. I don't dare start naming names, because this post would never end. But right about now I would usually be having a chat with deputy features editor Michael Rozansky, one of the most perfect gentlemen I have ever met, and a hell of funny guy as well - I got some of my best lines from him, in fact. So may Michael serve as representative of all those people I no longer have the pleasure of spending my day with. Godspeed to them all.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Thanks to retirement ...
... I had time tonight to discover this: Boteach vs Hitchens: The Entire Debate on YouTube.
And that will be it for tonight, since I have review book to finish reading (yes, I haven't quite finished reviewing yet).
And that will be it for tonight, since I have review book to finish reading (yes, I haven't quite finished reviewing yet).
Getting in touch ...
,,, by clicking on my name to the right, where is says "Contributors," you will find on the left as you scroll down an email address.
Just in case ...
... I missed this (though probably Dave has linked to it somewhere here): Goodbye to all that.
Why I decided ...
... to retire. Lots of reasons, and I hope to get around to most of them eventually. One of the things I intend to do on this blog from now on is some Montaigne-style rumination. I suspect the great Michel wrote his essays in bits and pieces, thinking things over, and then continuing until he had finished tracing his train of thought.
To begin with, then, I had been thinking about retiring for a while, and had intended to do so by the end of this year for sure (always better to choose your time of departure yourself). The always perceptive Clattery MacHinery posted this the other day: The Long Abandon’d Hill, for Frank Wilson as he retires. In it he quotes from a piece I wrote last year about Jack Kerouac:
Reading Jack’s words after all these years, remembering how much they meant to me once, how I was sure I wouldn’t don any gray flannel suit and trudge to an office day in, day out, and knowing full well that tomorrow morning and the day after and after I’ll tie my tie and sit down at my desk yet again, well, it makes me wonder if I can still, even at this late date, salvage me some authenticity. Yeah, reading Jack has reminded me that living means more than just making a living, and that it’s always easier to get along by going along. As Ray confesses, “I had no guts anyway . . . .”
Kass Mencher, my friend Eric Mencher's wife, is the only person I know who read this and inferred - quite correctly - that it signaled my plans to retire.
I could have continued to get along by going along, but I didn't have to, and I sure didn't want to. So I decided not to.
There are, by the way, no villains in this tale, only policy differences between decent people of good will and common sense.
When The Inquirer's book section was folded into the Arts & Entertainment section back in 2001, one of the things I did was arrange to get space dedicated to book reviews on the inside of the daily features section. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays there was always a book review. Plus, we often ran reviews off the front of the section as well. For most of my tenure we have been running more than 400 reviews a year.
I abandoned roundups. I think they're cheesy. They also stoke the fires of the quarrel over genre fiction and "literary" fiction. As I see it, if a book is worth reviewing at all, it deserves to be reviewed by itself (which is not say you can't put together feature reviews of more than one book - but that's not a roundup).
I also thought that young adult books, which represent a growing segment of the publishing market, deserved some attention. So I asked Katie Haegele to do a biweekly column focused on just those. Here's a Greatest Hits Collection of them. Katie also did a biweekly column called DigitaLit, the point of which, as Katie puts it, was "to report on the places where traditional literary forms meet new media, and in effect create new forms." The young adult column was picked up by papers all over the country, and DigitaLit was going where a lot of people happen to be and no other paper has happened to notice. It's called news.
Finally, I think book review sections should be aimed at the common reader, and not get hung up on literary celebrity or academic fashion. To that end I put together what I like to think of as a repertory company of sound reviewers who wrote well and stuck to the point, never using the book as a pretext for addressing something else. Many of those reviewers were drawn from the blogging community - quite simply because, as I noted here a while back, I noticed that a lot of people in that community knew what they were talking about and could say it in a fresh and compelling way.
As it happens, the current newsroom management team doesn't see things the same way - which, by the way, is their privilege. Their job isn't to agree with me.
In any event, it was decided that neither the young adult column nor the DigitaLit column fit into plans that were being drawn up for book coverage. Sandy Bauers's audio books column was to be dropped as well. There is talk of bringing back genre roundups. The daily book reviews are long gone (but reviews can run during the week off the section front if there's space and a good enough reason).
There is also the desire to have a "name" reviewer every Sunday. That reviewer will have to be paid more, of course, and that will put a strain on an already diminished book budget, so it is likely that reviews taken from the wires will have to run in place of assigned reviews. Now I happen think one should read a review because of what it says, not because of who says it. Moreover, the upshot is bound to be that The Inquirer will end end up running far fewer original reviews and far fewer reviews overall. That will make it far less of a player in the book-reviewing business.
I took Katie out to lunch to tell her that her services would no longer be regularly needed, and I told Sandy the same about her column. By which time I had pretty much concluded that, mutatis mutandis, one further change was in order: To include me out. In fact, it would have been both intellectually dishonest and more inauthentic than I can bring myself to be to implement policy changes that I not only do not agree with, but that also run counter just about everything I had been doing. Bear in mind, too, that I was once a freelancer myself, so I understand the impact this decision had on Katie (you should all send her an encouraging word).
So that, in a nutshell, is how my decision arrived at critical mass.
To begin with, then, I had been thinking about retiring for a while, and had intended to do so by the end of this year for sure (always better to choose your time of departure yourself). The always perceptive Clattery MacHinery posted this the other day: The Long Abandon’d Hill, for Frank Wilson as he retires. In it he quotes from a piece I wrote last year about Jack Kerouac:
Reading Jack’s words after all these years, remembering how much they meant to me once, how I was sure I wouldn’t don any gray flannel suit and trudge to an office day in, day out, and knowing full well that tomorrow morning and the day after and after I’ll tie my tie and sit down at my desk yet again, well, it makes me wonder if I can still, even at this late date, salvage me some authenticity. Yeah, reading Jack has reminded me that living means more than just making a living, and that it’s always easier to get along by going along. As Ray confesses, “I had no guts anyway . . . .”
Kass Mencher, my friend Eric Mencher's wife, is the only person I know who read this and inferred - quite correctly - that it signaled my plans to retire.
I could have continued to get along by going along, but I didn't have to, and I sure didn't want to. So I decided not to.
There are, by the way, no villains in this tale, only policy differences between decent people of good will and common sense.
When The Inquirer's book section was folded into the Arts & Entertainment section back in 2001, one of the things I did was arrange to get space dedicated to book reviews on the inside of the daily features section. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays there was always a book review. Plus, we often ran reviews off the front of the section as well. For most of my tenure we have been running more than 400 reviews a year.
I abandoned roundups. I think they're cheesy. They also stoke the fires of the quarrel over genre fiction and "literary" fiction. As I see it, if a book is worth reviewing at all, it deserves to be reviewed by itself (which is not say you can't put together feature reviews of more than one book - but that's not a roundup).
I also thought that young adult books, which represent a growing segment of the publishing market, deserved some attention. So I asked Katie Haegele to do a biweekly column focused on just those. Here's a Greatest Hits Collection of them. Katie also did a biweekly column called DigitaLit, the point of which, as Katie puts it, was "to report on the places where traditional literary forms meet new media, and in effect create new forms." The young adult column was picked up by papers all over the country, and DigitaLit was going where a lot of people happen to be and no other paper has happened to notice. It's called news.
Finally, I think book review sections should be aimed at the common reader, and not get hung up on literary celebrity or academic fashion. To that end I put together what I like to think of as a repertory company of sound reviewers who wrote well and stuck to the point, never using the book as a pretext for addressing something else. Many of those reviewers were drawn from the blogging community - quite simply because, as I noted here a while back, I noticed that a lot of people in that community knew what they were talking about and could say it in a fresh and compelling way.
As it happens, the current newsroom management team doesn't see things the same way - which, by the way, is their privilege. Their job isn't to agree with me.
In any event, it was decided that neither the young adult column nor the DigitaLit column fit into plans that were being drawn up for book coverage. Sandy Bauers's audio books column was to be dropped as well. There is talk of bringing back genre roundups. The daily book reviews are long gone (but reviews can run during the week off the section front if there's space and a good enough reason).
There is also the desire to have a "name" reviewer every Sunday. That reviewer will have to be paid more, of course, and that will put a strain on an already diminished book budget, so it is likely that reviews taken from the wires will have to run in place of assigned reviews. Now I happen think one should read a review because of what it says, not because of who says it. Moreover, the upshot is bound to be that The Inquirer will end end up running far fewer original reviews and far fewer reviews overall. That will make it far less of a player in the book-reviewing business.
I took Katie out to lunch to tell her that her services would no longer be regularly needed, and I told Sandy the same about her column. By which time I had pretty much concluded that, mutatis mutandis, one further change was in order: To include me out. In fact, it would have been both intellectually dishonest and more inauthentic than I can bring myself to be to implement policy changes that I not only do not agree with, but that also run counter just about everything I had been doing. Bear in mind, too, that I was once a freelancer myself, so I understand the impact this decision had on Katie (you should all send her an encouraging word).
So that, in a nutshell, is how my decision arrived at critical mass.
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