Category Archives: Literature

Seduced by Story: The Use and Abuse of Narrative

Peter Brook writes in this 2022 book: * Seth Godin, who runs the Story Skills Workshop, much appreciated in the corporate world, posted his response to the events roiling the United States in the summer of 2020: “The way forward … Continue reading

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Senses of Style By Jeff Dolven (2017)

Here are some highlights: * Nonetheless the claim there are only interpretations is as flattening as the claim style is everything… * Style holds things together, things and people, schools and movements and periods. It makes us see wholes where … Continue reading

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The Rapid-Response Novel

Giles Harvey writes in the New York Review of Books: * Over the past decade, but especially since the epochal events of 2016, a growing number of writers have been running a sort of stress test on the form, stuffing … Continue reading

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Brave New World (8-15-21)

Here are my notes on the book: * At the end of the book, I had nothing. I had no comments. I had no reactions. I didn’t laugh or cry or have any emotional or intellectual reaction to the book. … Continue reading

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‘The Cat Person debate shows how fiction writers use real life does matter’

From The Guardian: “It was Graham Greene who wrote that every writer has a splinter of ice in their heart. I think he was right: you have to have it, otherwise you would spend all your time worrying about the … Continue reading

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