I was driven to writing because I found it was the only way a lazy and ill-educated man could make a decent living.
-Evelyn Waugh, "General Conversation: Myself" (1937)
Overhead: It's hard to know which is worse: a writer who acts as though there is no distinction between a novel and a memoir, or a publisher who does not care
Watching movies is like having sex, with the movie as the dominant partner.” A vulgar notion, to be sure. Is Colin McGinn serious? Films engage our emotions; movie stars are like the gods of ancient religion Philosophy for The Big Screen
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Soul-searching
One writer was a drug and alcohol addict who turned to crime, served time in prison and ended up wanted in three US states. The other was a rent boy who became an AIDS-infected drug addict. They both wrote bestsellers that were published around the world.
Now it seems the low-life credentials of American authors James Frey, whose memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was No. 3 on the Australian non-fiction bestseller lists last week, and J. T. LeRoy are being scrutinised to the point of exposure
Book slut: Do author photos affect how books are perceived?
• Authors' low-life status at risk [Cliché from hell. There’s nothing new about attacking the suburbs. A look at their history shows that their image as conformist prison is as old as the suburbs themselves Suburbs: A cliché from hell ; Today we’re seeing the pornification of public spaces, a mindless groping of our persons to goose profits and market share. Just don’t call it free speech Behind the Deluge of Porn, a Conservative Sea-Change Making music, particularly jazz, is much like making love: Desire, lust, stimulation, frustration, gratification, rhythm and climax Playing with sex ]
• · The Odyssey is the most wonderful fairytale ever written. In its world, you get something for something, rewarded for your love, your faith, your steadfastness... The wager was less on the two of us than on life itself. I would not let life be a thief. I would make it honor its debts to me. Like a desperate gambler, the greater these grew, the more I doubled my bets ; 7 wonders of the business world
• · · Is this all virginity is worth these days? Acting up just goes with the territory ; Soul-searching Cold War, by John Lewis Gaddis ; At etiquette class, 'tween debutantes learn how to hold their spoons -- and their tongues Lifestyles of the Rich and Prepubescent
• · · · Olga Grushin’s new novel is witty, ironic, multilayered, and elegant. Not half bad for a Russian writing fiction for the first time in English Divided Loyalties; In "The Last of Her Kind," history and fiction are intermingled in a fable it would be unwise to ignore Trapped radicals
• · · · · Fact or Fiction, It's His Story ; Charge: Memoir veers into fiction ; The real story behind Richard Wright's last novel The Island affair ; Do you ever get the feeling that your boss thinks he's better than you? I get that feeling. Every day. Firm makes light of motivation’s dark side
• · · · · · Even before the word was coined, philosophers struggled with the concept of altruism The philosopher’s paradox; New Study Examines How Role Models Influence Ethical Behavior