Showing posts with label A Writer's Journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A Writer's Journal. Show all posts

Saturday, 28 March 2009

Owning thousands of unread books (Gabriel Zaid)

"Those who aspire to the status of cultured individuals visit bookshops with trepidation, overwhelmed by the immensity of all they have not read. They buy something that they've been told is good, make an unsuccessful attempt to read it, and when they have accumulated half a dozen unread books, feel so bad that they are afraid to buy more. In contrast, the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or desire for more."
— from Gabriel Zaid, So Many Books (Los demasiados libros, 2003), 2003, translated by Natasha Wimmer, 2004.

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Der größte Feind der wahren Kunst (Grillparzer)

„Die sogenannte moralische Ansicht ist der größte Feind der wahren Kunst, da einer der Hauptvorzüge dieser letztern gerade darin besteht, daß man durch ihr Medium auch jene Seiten der menschlichen Natur genießen kann, welche das Moralgesetz mit Recht aus dem wirklichen Leben entfernt hält."
- Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (1791-1872)

Link zur Auswahl seiner Texte: Gutenberg Archiv (Dt) - Franz Grillparzer

Some Ideas On How To Overcome Writer's Block

What do you do when you're stuck in a rut? Here's how some working writers responded upon being asked how they cope with writer's block. Their tips can be found in Terry Bisson's May 13th, 2008 article "Writer's Block Moves" under www.writersdigest.com, as well as a wealth of other information and recommendations.

Here's the link: Writers's Digest - Getting Past Writer's Block

Check it out!

Friday, 2 May 2008

Ray Bradbury im Gespräch

Ray Bradbury, 88-jährig, poetischer Geschichtenerzähler und Science-Fiction Autor, im Gespräch mit Denis Scheck (Druckfrisch-Sendung vom 06.04.2008, ARD)

Mit "Fahrenheit 451", seinem ersten Roman, wurde Ray Bradbury 1953 auf einen Schlag als Meister der Sciencefiction weltberühmt. Den Roman verfilmte Francois Truffaut in 1966.

Link:
Ray Bradbury im Gespräch

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

The Decline of the Reading Public

Here's another helping from Gore Vidal's highly readable memoir "Point to Point Navigation" (Abacus, 2007, previously published 2006 in USA by Doubleday, and 2006 in Great Britain by Little, Brown).

"The best of our literary critics was V.S. Pritchett. I find fascinating his descriptions of what the world was like in his proletarian youth. Books were central to the Agora of 1914. Ordinary Londoners were steeped in literature, particularly Dickens. People saw themselves in literary terms, saw themselves as Dickensian types while Dickens himself, earlier, had mirrored the people in such a way that writer and Agora were, famously, joined; and each defined the other.

In London, Pritchett and I belonged to the same club. One afternoon we were sitting in the bar when a green-faced bishop stretched out his gaitered leg and tripped up a rosy-faced mandarin from Whitehall. As the knight fell against the wall, the bishop roared, "Pelagian heretic!" I stared with wonder. Pritchett looked very pleased. "Never forget," he said, "Dickens was a highly realistic novelist."

Today, where literature was movies are. Whether of not the Tenth muse does her act on a theater screen or within the cathode tube, there can be no other reality for us since reality does not begin to mean until it has been made art of. For the Agora, Art is now sight and sound; and the books are shut. In fact, reading of any kind is on the decline. Half the American people never read a newspaper. Half never vote for president - the same half?"

(From "Point to Point Navigation. A Memoir 1964 - 2006", page 4.)

Der beste Autor

Der beste Autor wird der sein, welcher sich schämt, Schriftsteller zu werden.

- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (Eintrag Nr. 192, aus: Menschliches, Allzumenschliches - Ein Buch für freie Geister, 1878.)

Link:
Projekt Gutenberg (Dt) - Nietzsche, Aus der Seele der Künstler und Schriftsteller

Sunday, 27 April 2008

BROCKEN Ein Buch in der Entstehung

Die Entstehung eines neuen kollaborativen Buch-Projektes von Ralph D. Lichtensteiger und George H. E. Koehler kann auf der Webseite Brocken Dossiers verfolgt werden.

"Brocken" stellt diverse noch in der Entstehung sich befindende sowie bereits verfasste Einträge eines sich hinstreckendes "Work in progress" in einer Blog-Version vor.

Aus der Projektbeschreibung:
"Ausgehend von einer zentralen Annahme Sören Kierkegaards, die Wahrheit sei subjektiv und die Subjektivität sei die Wahrheit, fühlen wir uns berufen unsere Anmerkungen zu einer subjektiven Kultur- und Philosophiegeschichte zu leisten.

In unserem Zeitalter der technischen Reproduzierbarkeit bleibt das Individuum und die individuelle Perspektive dennoch das kostbarste Gut der Kultur, und wird zukünftig, in Opposition zur virulent orthodoxen Verabsolutierung im Prozess der Geschichtsschreibung, DAS KOSTBARE der Kulturgeschichte werden.

Als Gegenentwurf zur Erfindung der traditionellen Objektivität, wie sie uns von den Archiven der Herrschenden vorgegaukelt wird, und als Angriff auf die korrumpierende Subjektivität der Orhodoxie, erkämpfen und erschliessen wir mit dem Projekt "Brocken Dossiers" ein neues aphoristisches Terrain der Kulturbetrachtung."

Sunday, 17 February 2008

A Writer's Journal (10)

„Novels, then, with their complexity, their scope, their built-in engagement with our common humanity, may be an ideal way of getting under a nation's skin.“
- from: „Three French Novels“, William Boyd's review from 2003 of Alain Fournier's „Le Grand Meulnes“ (1913), Albert Camus' „L'Etranger“ [The Outsider] (1942) and Michel Tournier's „Le Roi des Aulnes“ [The Erl King] (1970).

This review can be found in William Boyd's fascinating anthology „Bamboo. Non-Fiction 1978-2004“ (published by Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Books, London, 2005). Highly recommended.

William Boyd is also the editor of the centenary edition of the British literary review Granta, Issue no. 100, Winter 2007 (see also my post dated 7th Feb. 2008).

A Writer's Journal (9)

Zum Detektivroman

„Totus mundus agit historionem – Die ganze Welt agiert als Schauspieler, stand einst in Shakespeares Globe-Theater. Dies gilt im besonderen Maße für den Detektivroman, den Gilbert Keith Chesterton, der frühe Meister und kenntnisreiche Kritiker des Genres, einmal eine „Komödie der Masken, nicht der Gesichter genannt hat.“
- aus dem Nachwort von Volker Neuhaus in „Madam Wilkins’ Palazzo“ von Charlotte MacLeod, dt. Ausgabe 1992 (Die englische Originalausgabe erschien 1982.)

Saturday, 16 February 2008

A Writer's Journal (8)

On Creating Characters

„We’re all works in progress on planet Earth, and no one of us possesses physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological perfection. This should be true of our characters as well. No one wants to read about flawless characters. Since no reader is perfect, there is nothing more disagreeable than spending free time immersed in a story about an individual who leaps the tall buildings of emotion, psyche, body, and spirit in a single bound. Would anyone want a person like that as a friend, tediously wonderful in every way? Probably not. Thus, a character possessing perfection in one area should possess imperfection in another.”
- from: Elizabeth George, Write Away - One Novelist’s Approach to Fiction and The Writing Life, 2004, page 9.

Sunday, 10 February 2008

A Writer's Journal (7)

"I remember being shocked when I discovered some of my school pals didn't have books in their homes. I thought it was like not having oxygen, or hot water. If I could have lived in the library at that time, I would have."
- Iain Banks (who also publishes as Iain M. Banks), interviewed by Sarah Kinson. There's more from this interview under the following link:
Why I write · Iain Banks · 7th Feb 2008

Was there someone who got you interested in writing?
"We did a lot creative writing at school. We were sat down to write a story, in quiet, at least twice a week. They don't do creative writing in school now. It is an absolute tragedy." - Anne Fine, interviewed by Sarah Kinson. More under:
Why I write · Anne Fine · 5th Dec 2007

The Guardian publishes interviews regularly in their "Why I Write" series. Recent interviewees have also included David Mitchell (19th Nov. 2007) and Maggie O'Farrell (19th Dec. 2007).

Upon the death of Liana Burgess

Liana Burgess (born Liliana Macellari), the wife and literary agent of the novelist Anthony Burgess, died on 3rd December 2007.

She translated works of Anthony Burgess, Lawrence Durrell, Thomas Pynchon, and James Joyce amongst others, into Italian.

The creation of the Anthony Burgess Centre at the University of Angers (Link: ABC · Home) and the International Anthony Burgess Foundation (IABF) in Manchester (Link: IABF · Home) is the result of her committedness in championing the work of her husband.

Her obituary can be found under:
Liana Burgess · Telegraph.Co.UK.

See also: Symposium · speech by Liana Burgess for the transcript of a speech for the Anthony Burgess Symposium held in 2001.

Anthony Burgess (1917 - 1993), something of a writer's writer, was a polymath also involved in journalism, musical composition, teaching, linguistic studies, Joyce and Shakespeare scholarship, broadcasting, and numerous activities more.

A reassessment of Anthony Burgess can be found under:
Edward Champion on Anthony Burgess · The Guardian · 5th Feb 2008.

More links:
Wikipedia · German and
Wikipedia · English.

A Writer's Journal (6)

Some comments by Stephen King on his latest book:

Stephen King · Duma Key.

"If something's working, just stay on the side and let it work itself out." - Stephen King, interview 2007.

Thursday, 7 February 2008

A Writer's Journal (5)

"Isabel Allende, what is your passion?"

"I would say my passion is life itself, everything that happens in life. This is why I am a writer, because I want to tell of all people's lives. I want to fix it all in writing so that it won't be forgotten."
- From: My Question For Myself, taken from Granta, Issue No. 100, Winter 2007, page 208.

"Richard Ford, do you know what's important to you?"

"No, but I can make it up."
- From: My Question For Myself, taken from Granta, Issue No. 100, Winter 2007, page 290.

This is part of a project initiated by Carolin Seeliger (photographer) and Tobias Wenzel (literary journalist). ‘My Question For Myself’ is taken from their forthcoming book of the same title. The German edition will be published April 2008 by Benteli. More information and photographs can be found at Question For Myself · book project.

Check out the British literary quarterly Granta, which is part magazine, part Journal, an anthology published as a paperback book, under: granta · literary quarterly. Granta, originally an old Cambridge University magazine, has been going strong in its second incarnation, ever since its relaunch by Bill Buford in 1979.

Tuesday, 5 February 2008

A Writer's Journal (4)

"There is only one thing which interests me vitally now,
and that is the recording of all that which is omitted in books."
- Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer, 1934).


"Distrust in agreement and find in dissent the confirmation of your own intuitions. There is no rule, there is only the risk of contradiction."
- Umberto Eco (from the preface to Faith in Fakes, 1986).


"Mankind’s emancipation and upward struggle depends
chiefly upon (...) translation of the unknown into the known."
- Robert A. Monroe (Journeys Out of the Body, 1972).


"Alles was automatisch ist, ist ein Hindernis für dich.
Das Leben soll ein Weg von wachsendem Bewusstsein werden. Und deshalb schlagen wir dir vor, daß du beginnst, eine stärkere Verpflichtung dir selbst gegenüber einzugehen."
- Bärbel Mohr (Bestellungen beim Universum, 1998).

Monday, 4 February 2008

Jonathan Littell "Die Wohlgesinnten" · Das Diskussionsforum des FAZ Reading Room

Unter folgendem Link kann man sich eine Lesung von Jonathan Littell's "Die Wohlgesinnten" anhören, aus dem Französischen übersetzt von Hainer Köber. Zur Zeit werden 2 Auszüge angeboten. Fortsetzung folgt (insgesamt 18 Folgen):

Jonathan Littell "Die Wohlgesinnten" - Folge 1: Toccata - Reading Room - FAZ.NET


Den Textauszug zur Aufnahme findet man unter: Littell · Text Folge 1

Was ist der "READING ROOM"?
Der F.A.Z. Reading Room ist ein multimediales Diskussionsforum zum exklusiv vorabgedruckten Fortsetzungsroman der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung.

Die Startseite findet man unter: Reading Room · Home

Der Reading Room ist zunächst ein Forum für Leser, der Ort, an dem Diese über den Fortsetzungsroman diskutieren und ins Gespräch kommen können.

Neben dem Leserforum wurde ein Expertenforum eingerichtet, ein Podium, auf dem mit Literaturwissenschaftlern, bekannten Publizisten und Redakteuren der F.A.Z. über den Roman sprechen und streiten wollen. Deren Beiträge können von allen Nutzern kommentiert werden.

Mehr unter: Über den Reading Room · FAZ .

Thursday, 31 January 2008

German expressionist self portraits in poetry

As part of the exhibition "Reclaiming a Lost Generation. German Self-Portraits from the Feldberg Collection 1923-1933", Boston College German Studies professor Dr. Rachel Freudenburg delivers this reading of German Expressionist poetry, together with her students, and offers insights into its symbolic imagery.
The reading is introduced by Nancy Netzer (director of the Macmullan Museum at Boston College). Video from WGBH Forum Network.

Dr. Rachel Freudenberg and students, Boston College · German Expressionist poetry reading

Tuesday, 29 January 2008

poètes maudits 1: Lautréamont's "Maldoror"

Isidore Lucien Ducasse (1846 - 1870) wurde von den Surrealisten als Vorläufer reklamiert, und als einen der Ihren nachträglich vereinnahmt.

Die deutsche Übertragung der "Gesänge des Maldoror" (von Wolfgang Schmidt, erschienen 1986) kann unter folgendem Link eingesehen werden. Ebenfalls der Essay von Wolfgang Koeppen "Der Grossvater des Surrealismus":

Uni-Greifswald · Chants du Maldoror

Sunday, 27 January 2008

A Writer's Journal (3)

A KIND OF DAYDREAMING

"It annoys me, as it might any novelist, to have my own work reduced to autobiography, as though you've just written down what happened.

Often writing isn't always a reflection of experience so much as a substitute for it, an 'instead of' rather than a 'reliving', a kind of daydreaming. The relation between a life and the telling of it is impossible to unravel."

From: Hanif Kureishi - My Ear at His Heart. Reading My Father (originally published 2004, Faber & Faber, paperback edition 2005, page 11.)

Compulsive readers make compulsive writers

Here's a pithy excerpt from a Stephen King lecture to students at Yale on 21.04.2003, as found on You Tube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqp7A0B7abc



Read a lot, write a lot, agreed - you have to know your masters and practice, practice, practice till your blood runs out your fingers and out of your ears, no way of getting past that...