Uncanny Valley

See Helen DeWitt's comment for a pretty sweet ...

2012-05-18T07:22:05.911-05:00

See Helen DeWitt's comment for a pretty sweet rebuttal: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/05/16/malcolm-cowley-life-coach/

Piggybacking on part of what she gets at, I think it's kind of bullshit that these quotes tend to take their measure of "writer" from "someone who makes it big as a writer." These quotes always seem predicated on the notion that writers make it big because they are passionate and ceaseless, but you, (student) (unpublished) writer, shouldn't want or expect anything of the sort from writing; if you're not doing it out of ceaseless passion, you're not doing it right. So you ought to expect to come to nothing, unless you expect to come to nothing just hard enough--in which case, you just might get to make it big.

Expecting nothing of writing is a pretty good position, in my opinion. But surely people can expect nothing and produce little. Or expect nothing and love writing little. Why would it make a difference? Those quotes would do better, I think, to dispel the idea that being a writer means anything beyond producing writing. I don't think there's much use in "being a writer" as a frame of mind. At any rate, it's when I try to think of myself that way that I get most anxious and messed up about the whole thing. I write, sometimes. I am many things before I am a writer. Maybe someday that'll change. I'll keep doing my writing and let it play out how it will.

SO HELP YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!! IDIOT

2012-05-15T15:31:42.911-05:00

SO HELP YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!! IDIOT

I hate that Bukowski poem too. Read it when I was ...

2012-05-07T12:18:24.990-05:00

I hate that Bukowski poem too. Read it when I was like 15 and even then, when I liked some of his poetry, I thought it was a crock of shit haha. The divinely-inspired-and-effortless writer doesn't exist, and it's unfortunate that so many people buy into the mirage.

However, I do think of it as an intense need/compulsion. Of course I don't think it's that way for every writer, but it's that way for me. I've never had any interest in doing anything else with my life. My desire to write has influenced pretty much every aspect of my childhood (and adolescence), so I wouldn't be the same person if I wasn't a writer/hadn't always intended to be a writer.

If I stopped writing now, I'd end up being a bookish housewife. I'm sure there'd be a nervous breakdown or two along the way, but I would never try to kill myself. I imagine it would be awful but I'm sure I'd manage.

Up until I was in my mid-thirties I had only writt...

2012-05-07T05:34:21.365-05:00

Up until I was in my mid-thirties I had only written poetry and never thought about myself as anything other than a poet. Then for three years I wrote nothing and I imagined that was me done. The ability to write had vanished but the desire had not. Then one day I sat down to try and write a something, an anything, simply to feel words flowing out of me again. What I ended up writing were two novels, back to back, within six months. It took five years to polish them into something I could publish but the hard work was all done at the start. Only it really wasn’t hard work; the words just appeared on the page like at no other time in my life.

Even after writing two books I still cringed at the thought of calling myself a novelist. It felt so pretentious. The poetry came back and I wondered if that was me done with prose. As it happens it wasn’t and I’ve written another three novels since but they have been very different beasts to those first two and I’ve struggled with all three of them. My problem is that I’m not a storyteller and so I start off having no idea where I’m going and see where I end up. And that can be scary. I say that I’ve started my sixth novel but I have no idea. That’s the problem about being online; you feel the need to tell people what you’re up to. I do know that this thing that’s buzzing around in my head won’t let me be until I give it some form; I’m just assuming that it will end up being a novel.

Life pushes so many roles in front of us—the husband, the son, the father, the employee—that it’s hard to look in the mirror and see ‘the writer’ and imagine that he’s the real me and yet the simple fact is that none of those other roles give me the satisfaction that writing does. If my wife died tomorrow I would stop being a husband—I’ve already stopped being a son and an employee—but the idea of not being a writer is quite terrifying. During those three years when I was unable to write I felt as if I didn’t make sense, as if I’d lost a significant part of myself.

If I couldn’t write again would I die? No, but I would be miserable; that I have evidence of. I don’t need to write every day though in fact I could subsist off a poem a month if push came to shove because I really don’t have a lot to say that I’ve not already said but the thought of never ever having anything to say again, that’s a horrible thought.

Action is not that complicated and gives space for...

2012-04-21T02:35:32.160-05:00

Action is not that complicated and gives space for the reader's imagination to take control.

I don't know if anybody else noticed this, but...

2012-03-26T12:51:51.557-05:00

I don't know if anybody else noticed this, but these are the lyrics to a Brand New song.

I <3 that poor dog.

2012-03-24T10:37:50.314-05:00

I <3 that poor dog.

Jac, it sounds like such a lovely book. I have a r...

2012-03-20T11:54:29.209-05:00

Jac, it sounds like such a lovely book. I have a review copy and I really am nervous to read it, but I'm going to, because I really like your writing and I don't think I'll be disappointed with My Only Wife.

Thanks so much, Robert. This is a really heartbre...

2012-03-20T11:18:05.646-05:00

Thanks so much, Robert. This is a really heartbreaking and lovely reason not to read the book. I support whatever decision you make.

I realize it's been a while since you asked, b...

2012-03-13T20:54:22.687-05:00

I realize it's been a while since you asked, but yes, the footnotes are available. However, at least in my version, you have to click the footnote, which then takes you to the note. I.e., the footnotes aren't simply at the bottom of the page/screen, but rather on a separate page entirely. Skipping back and forth can get tiresome.

I haven't even seen the physical version, actually... I wonder how those giant footnotes fit onto the pages -- or were they *end*notes rather than footnotes...? I'll have to take a look...

Anyways, having only read it on my Kindle, I must say that I couldn't have done it without the built-in dictionary, which makes looking up words trivial and fast -- without having to carry *two* tome-sized books around.

Great tips on healthy life, Thank you for sharing ...

2012-03-12T01:33:26.571-05:00

Great tips on healthy life, Thank you for sharing a great issue on pregnancy,
Regards,
Julia alrn

I admire Atul Gawande for delivering his speech ve...

2012-03-08T02:05:12.305-06:00

I admire Atul Gawande for delivering his speech very well. The excerpts from his commencement speech at Harvard Medical School was very inspiring and depicted reality. This only means that doctors are human beings who are not perfect and my commit mistakes.

Aw! She looks darling. And it was excellent meetin...

2012-03-04T17:34:43.130-06:00

Aw! She looks darling. And it was excellent meeting the two of you! Cheers, Adam

Reading this and looking toward pedagogy and AWP p...

2012-02-26T11:24:39.479-06:00

Reading this and looking toward pedagogy and AWP pedagogy related presentations in Chicago 2012.

You're amazing. Keep it up!

2012-02-20T03:59:03.295-06:00

You're amazing. Keep it up!

Awesome post, I want to check out a couple of your...

2012-02-20T03:58:15.047-06:00

Awesome post, I want to check out a couple of your other messages. Thank you!

Do you think the link to Alt Lit Gossip needs a ti...

2012-02-16T20:06:48.073-06:00

Do you think the link to Alt Lit Gossip needs a titty warning? ... Oh well.

It's great, Mike!

2012-02-14T21:59:04.624-06:00

It's great, Mike!

I love soundtracks; I noted his name at the end. C...

2012-02-06T04:33:48.255-06:00

I love soundtracks; I noted his name at the end. Come to think of it, a subtler soundtrack does tend to help where the material is outsized. But his score was vigorous in good places, too.

I've not seen the film and can't say I'...

2012-02-06T04:21:47.294-06:00

I've not seen the film and can't say I'm desperate to see it but I have heard the soundtrack and it is outstanding. Alexandre Desplat should be an Oscar contender as far as I'm concerned.

I don’t know about spacial reasoning, but vocabula...

2012-01-27T12:46:16.859-06:00

I don’t know about spacial reasoning, but vocabulary wasn’t my challenge. It was extracting words in that jumble of tiles. Unscrambling anagrams is what really helped me. Then I got more and more hooked on creating anagrams, as my blog will attest. BTW, [Finds Weird Throws] is an anagram for Words With Friends.
Leona

I know this post was made a long time ago, but I s...

2012-01-25T18:32:29.479-06:00

I know this post was made a long time ago, but I still want to address something about Other M. It's not really as bad as you're making it out to be. Some parts were overplayed, yes. Typically, Samus is silent, and that's what most Metroid fans are comfortable with. Given what she's gone through in her life, I can understand a bit of depression about her, but yeah, Team Ninja took it a bit too far. The story aside, This is a really good game, the control is good, it has pretty sweet exploration oppurtunities, it's reasonably challenging, at least for me. I call it the black sheep of the series, it's different, but not what I'd call bad. I won't say it's a game for everyone, but it deserves some credit, for audacity at the least.

Wow, nice post,there are many person searching abo...

2012-01-24T08:34:47.826-06:00

Wow, nice post,there are many person searching about that now they will find enough resources by your post.Thank you for sharing to us.Please one more post about that.

It's yours!

2012-01-22T00:48:55.396-06:00

It's yours!

I want to borrow the phrase "forthcoming from...

2012-01-21T22:21:26.489-06:00

I want to borrow the phrase "forthcoming from no one at no time."