Chris was not so innocent as to believe that perfectly requited love was the only kind that lasted. As counselor he had listened to a hundred tales of one-way love, unilateral love, hopeless love. Of course there were love stories with happy endings and there were love stories that never seemed to end at all (for years after Chris's mother died, his father went on loving her memory), but Chris knew that love for some was a continual giving without getting, love spilling from the heart like water from a hillside spring, love bubbling up from a vast reservoir and coursing off as unrestrained as a river to the sea
-Jon Hassler, The Love Hunter
James Wood on how Conrad and Dostoevsky foresaw the roots of terrorism Warning notes from underground
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Sometimes, the fact/fiction line gets a tad surreal
Tod Goldberg was recently asked by one of his former writing students to sit in on a class she taught. It was test day, and the open book in question was his first novel, FAKE LIAR CHEAT:
She handed me a copy of the quiz -- 10 questions, including a few two-parters -- and what I realized is that, at best, I knew 7 of the answers, which is how one succeeds at CSUN, but not a great percentage for the guy who wrote the book. Beyond that, understanding that these students would be graded on their comprehension of my novel -- possibly on a curve for all I knew-- made me intensely nervous
• One rule to sink them all: I don't think breathing is that important today A Conspiracy of Paper [Mexico is one of many, many countries with literacy issues, but one municipal police force has a unique solution to the problem: Police force launches 'novel' reading effort: Just book him ; Macho MBA courses are alienating women managers and neglecting the "feminine" interpersonal skills needed in modern management Women turned off by 'macho' MBAs ]
• · Almost everybody is dealing with some sort of relationship crisis in Peter Zelenka's new film, Wrong Side Up Uncommon insanity ; Spirits Award Roll Credits ; Crowds flock to Jewish book party
• · · A blog about books and publishing, aimed at both readers and writers. Listed by the Guardian as one of the top ten literary blogs. On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile ; I then remembered the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova once wrote that if people only knew the incredible mess from which writers bring the novel or the poem to the surface. That it is out of this mess the work comes Boy's own story gets biography award
• · · · Agent Richard Curtis's third installment in a series of essays on the history and future of publishing he has written for writers' web site Backspace is posted now, presenting his "answer to the question of how writers can make a living writing in the new paradigm. Curtis says it's blogs.
As authors assume the roles traditionally performed by publishers such as distribution and publicity, the laws of disintermediation - the elimination of middlemen or agencies of any kind - render publishers less and less relevant. And that goes for editors, reviewers, critics, bookstores and libraries. Will that be Paper or Pixels? Curtis Looks Ahead Diamond down under
• · · · · They've been set in Chicago neighborhoods and places as far-flung as the Dominican Republic and Vietnam, but the latest novel selected for the city's One Book, One Chicago program is the first ever with an Old West backdrop City's book program to tap Old West for a tale of today ; For once, everybody in Lexington is about to read from the same page. Library launches One Book, One Lexington
• · · · · · Never again will Column 8 attempt to explain Newtonian physics. Our report on the "Max live load 300 kpa" sign outside the Woolworths carpark in Engadine (Column 8, Saturday) has brought us nothing but grief. The explanation we cited from Betsy in Georgia was "out by an order of magnitude", according to the dozens of engineers who have gleefully set us straight. One went so far as to blame us in advance for any catastrophic overloading of the structure by folks who believe the science they read in Column 8. Enough! From now on, we deal with relativity and black holes - no more car park physics, please! End of Engadine Is Near ; Does an orangutan find freedom in the gift of words? Do we?