Today I read:
The expression of wonder stands for all that cannot be understood, that can scarcely be believed. It calls attention to the problem of credibility and at the same time insists upon the undeniability, the exigency of the experience.
– Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World
Filed under Journal
If there is a wire, I will be right down to it.
How does one go about curing oneself of procrastination? Is there an elixir I can take?
Filed under Journal
Today I read:
I try to stress how important it is, when you’re asking for the attention of a reader, that you’re doing the most intense, interesting, compelling, fascinating thing that you could possibly do.
– Ben Marcus, interviewed in BOMB
Also, oh man, this:
I was at the table with a bunch of old-timers and they had heard I was a writer. I had tried to keep that from them. They asked me the title of my book. At that point I had just published my first book and I said, “The Age of Wire and String.” And they said, “What? ‘The Face of Wire in the Wings’?” I said, “No, The Age of Wire and String.” They said, ”’Why the Caged Bird Sings’?”
Filed under Journal
The work I want to be doing always seems to be in direct opposition to the work I ought to be doing.
Why is that? Am I just that contrary? I’m not sure, but I think that might be called self-sabotage.
Filed under Journal
Oh my goodness, it’s the first lines of Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up The Bodies, AutoTuned. Songified historical fiction, what.
There are more AutoTuned opening lines — including Slaughterhouse 5 and The Illustrated Man — over at the Waterstones Oxford Street tumblr.
Well, The Bletchely Circle has been renewed for another season.
Thank goodness for that.
