Category Archives: Uncategorized

It’s easy to get carried away by high-falluting ideals about the arts, but the biological fact is that we all have to eat. The link below explores the inequalities of incomes, even among acknowledged, prize-winning writers, and how there are … Continue reading →

Here’s Melvyn Bragg’s take on Edith Wharton’s the Age of Innocence and other novels. You can tell Bragg is blown away by Innocence, and well he might be: it’s one of the great novels of the twentieth century (see my … Continue reading →

… metaphorically speaking. Here’s an interview with the eternally workmanlike Michael Caine. Caine is talking about the skills of acting, and says that beginner actors will want to play drunks by consciously trying to slur their words and walk crooked, … Continue reading →

Here’s Wikipedia, crediting the Dadaists onto Burroughs: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique Here’s Burroughs himself, crediting himself and citing Johnny von Neumann of all people: https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/burroughs-cutup.html And here’s a quote from George Seaver, writing about his friend Apsley Cherry-Garrard (describing when he was starting … Continue reading →

It’s crossed my mind – a lot, actually, in recent months – that we might be witnessing the end of our civilisation, whether at the hands of climate change or a rejuvenated – and this time successful – fascism. If … Continue reading →

I’m not talking about tragedy vs comedy (answer: two, obv) here, or even genres like sci-fi vs crime vs romance, etc (answer: maybe half-a-dozen, everything else being the non-genre genre called “mainstream”). No, I really mean how many species of … Continue reading →

The UK Guardian had an important interview with the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami a while ago. See https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/11/haruki-murakami-interview-killing-commendatore. Of course, the article is mostly about Murakami’s writing regime, his personality, and his near-misses with the Nobels, because that’s what these … Continue reading →

Paul Gosar (Rep Arizona): Let’s go back at this credibility. You want us to make sure that we think of you as a real philanthropic icon, that you’re about justice, that you’re the person that someone would call at three … Continue reading →

Mildly better than the escalator to hell, you’d think. You’d be wrong. You’re always wrong. Everyone’s always wrong. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/14/elon-musk-backed-ai-writes-convincing-news-fiction I suppose we all start to look for new jobs, then. And new planets.

Very good (albeit a bit old) interview with one of the best screenwriters out there. I haven’t seen Duplicity, but damn I’m going to. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/03/16/twister-2