The reader must sit down alone and struggle with the writer, and this the pseudo-scholar will not do. He would rather relate a book to the history of its time, to events in the life of its author, to the events it describes, above all to some tendency.
-E.M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel
Sydney Theatre and Pier 4/5 have been a hive of activity over the past few days with authors and Media Dragons alike soaking up the Sydney Writers Festival atmosphere. Highlights include The New Yorkers Hendrik Hertzberg's talent for critical reason and brutal analysis rarely strays from political targets. Bush gives New York writer fodder he could do without
Even if you happen to miss certain events by some chance such as drinking too much of blackberries and chocolate tasting wines with characters like Mal and Lisa at the Marble bar - you do not need to worry! As all book lovers get virtual front row seats for the highlight events of the Sydney Writers' Festival 2006, with live web streaming on BigPond
It is early in the morning yet I feel like dancing ;-) Life is filled with so many different dancing steps and moves and then there are journeys on ferries across to Manly and a surprise breakie with Anita and John and other grapes by Drayton, then koffies with a few Central European characters at the Writers Festival, to boot a fast-drive with Mal to special culinary dinner at the Frenchiest of Forrests prepared by the hands who wrote Raindance ;-)
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Between silence and thunder: the climate change story
The story of climate change is stark and complex, dramatic and detailed, and universally important. Why do writers have a hard time telling it?
The end of the world is nigh. Or is that a bit alarmist?
To convey the threat of climate change without sounding so dramatic readers will choose to ignore you is a hard task for concerned writers. The problem is of such magnitude it's tough to give people a sense of what they can do to make a difference.
• It's serious. But there's hope [A self-taught 21-year-old Australian filmmaker of Indian origin is all set to make an international splash with his privately funded debut feature Indian in Cannes' Aussie pack ; Murali Thalluri needed to face his demons before he got his life back on track When reality becomes reel ; But if the series is about anything, it's about contemporary America Enlightenment philosophers, polar bears and pirate ships all feature in "Lost." ]
• · Ever since Viagra, the pharmaceutical industry has been dreaming of the perfect aphrodisiac. Now, an American company may have developed a nasal spray that will do just that The New Viagra for Women ; Think the Boomers are self-absorbed? Wait until you meet their kids. Big Babies ; The Lure of the List: "Lists today, no matter how titillating, are like pornography" Who doesn't find lists irresistible? Letterman's Top Ten, no matter how dumb it is, jolts a tired show and audience to attention.
• · · Orson Welles's politics landed him in all sorts of trouble. But they are the key to understanding the film-maker. 'This greater drama' ; Steven Poole is a British author and journalist
• · · · In a market dominated by the big chain stores, if a novel doesn't sell well in its first two weeks, its chances of gaining longer-term momentum are slim. The pride and joy of publishing, literary fiction has always been wonderfully ill suited to the very industry that sustains it. Like an elegant but impoverished aristocrat married to a nouveau riche spouse, it has long been subsidized by mass-market fiction and by nonfiction ripped from the headlines. One supplies the cachet, the others the cash. Promotional Intelligence ; Anna Politkovskaya uncovers the nasty secrets of her country by working "like a spy", travelling incognito and setting up underground meetings with her sources. Author's anger unleashed in Putin's Russia ; BEING portrayed onscreen by Meryl Streep was a surreal experience for American author Susan Orlean. Streep played Orlean in Adaptation, the film based on Orlean's much-admired book, The Orchid Thief
• · · · · DRACULA may be everyone's favourite bloodsucker, but that did not prepare first-time novelist Elizabeth Kostova for the six-day bidding war that erupted over the rights to her 640-page vampire epic The Historian. A bloody bestseller, but don't mention the Code ; SO your novel has won the Booker Prize and your publishers are salivating for another money-spinner Novelist turns to crime after stealing the Booker
• · · · · · Some in Mexico see border wall as an opportunity. The proposal in the United States to build a wall at its southern border is gaining traction in Mexico. ; Lay and Skilling Aren't the Only Guilty Ones I think this is the final page of the chapter - Have CEOs learned nothing from the Enron scandal? ; Sin Cities on a Hill: How legalized gambling moved from the Strip to Main Street Sin Cities on a Hill ; According to the earlier Irigaray, western culture persistently defines the female as the inferior counterpart of the male, establishing patterns of symbolism which are more fundamental and all-pervasive than the contingent, varying, gender roles which result from social practices Nature of Sexual Difference