'Rough and Rowdy Ways' - Pandemic book-buying

 Look on each day that comes as a challenge, as a test of courage. The pain will come in waves, some days worse than others, for no apparent reason. Accept the pain. Little by little, you will find new strength, new vision, born of the very pain and loneliness which seem, at first, impossible to master.
— Daphne du Maurier, born on this date in 1907



“The secret of your power over people is that you communicate with yourself, not your readers.” 

– Elizabeth Taylor, Angel

“As Nathalie Sarraute once said – writing is really an attempt to find out what we would write if we wrote.”

“Every day for six months I deliberately spent several hours at the computer writing about what frightens me the most on this earth: the death of a child for her parents and the death of a young woman for her husband and children. Life made me a witness to these two misfortunes, one right after the other, and assigned me – at least that’s how I understood it – to tell that story.”

“As though it’s purity that’s the heart of a writer’s nature. Heaven help such a writer! As if Joyce hadn’t sniffed at Nora’s underpants. As though in Dostoyevsky’s soul, Svidrigailov never whispered. Caprice is at the heart of a writer’s nature. Exploration, fixation, isolation, venom, fetishism, austerity, levity, perplexity, childishness, et cetera. The nose in the seam of the undergarment. Impurity.”

“I write fiction and I’m told its autobiography, I write autobiography and I’m told it’s fiction, and since I’m so dim and they’re so smart , let them decide what it is or isn’t.”

Ants store long- and short-term memories on different sides of their brains Science

Bob Dylan Announces New Album, 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' - Rolling Stone

Perhaps the most humorous long book I have ever read is the 800+ page entire ‘The Good Soldier Schweik’ by the Czech novelist Jaroslav Hasek. This novel, being about the ineptitude of authority figures, was right up my alley and certainly is relevant today.

Long Novels and Me 

Understand Your Procrastination In A Different Context

When a person fails to begin a project that they care about, it’s typically due to either a) anxiety about their attempts not being “good enough” or b) confusion about what the first steps of the task are. Not laziness. In fact, procrastination is more likely when the task is meaningful and the individual cares about doing it well. – Human Parts

“It is better to live rich than to die rich.”

— Samuel Johnson

Living In Fear Of Dying With A Book Unfinished

Australian writer Mem Fox knows what it’s like to worry about being well enough, surviving long enough, to finish a book. “She feels the terror in her body – something like cold sweats and slight panic attacks. She wonders sometimes whether she will survive the coming winter. But within that terror – and boredom, as she lay in her hospital bed unable even to queue up podcasts – she began to write a story in her head.” – The Guardian (UK)

Pandemic book-buying

Sixty Percent Of Small UK Publishers Say They’ll Be Out Of Business By Fall

With author events cancelled, titles delayed and bookshop sales severely hit by lockdown,the survey of 72 small publishers reveals almost 60% fear closure by the autumn. The Bookseller said that 57% reported they had no cashflow to support their business, and 85% had seen sales drop by more than half. – The Guardian

How Being Bored Helps Us

We should not fear being bored, say psychologists James Danckert and John D Eastwood, the authors of Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom. Their research has revealed boredom to be widely misunderstood, perhaps even unfairly maligned. Boredom evolved to help us, says Danckert. It signals that we are unengaged, in need of an activity to satisfy us. “I think that’s a good thing, in a lot of ways. How we respond to it is up to us. I think you can minimise it. But do you want to totally eliminate it? I don’t think you do.” – The Guardian

Crises Have Always Inspired Creativity

“I would only say that some artists feel a curiosity about examining the phenomenology of those things. It is investigative work, not just emotional work, that can enable an artist to determine how a system works and find the right vocabulary to discuss it.” –San Diego Union-Tribune

Sex in an American suburb is not quite the same phenomenon as sex in, say, an eastern European apartment block

I missed this David Marchese interview of Werner Herzog back in March but was happy to run across it today — it is the perfect lunchtime read.

When you pulled Joaquin Phoenix from a car accident, did you know it was him? Yes, although he was upside down in this car, squished between airbags that had deployed and wildly trying to light a cigarette.

That could be an image from one of your films. I knew he must not light his cigarette, because there was gasoline dripping and he would have perished in a fireball. So I tried to be clearly commandeering to him and tell him not to. But I was worried that if you gave him a command, he would strike his lighter even harder. So I managed to snatch the cigarette lighter from his hand. Then it became completely clear that it was Joaquin. But I didn’t want to speak to him after. I saw he wanted to come over and thank me. I just drove off.

Herzog talking about his time making The Mandalorian:

What about baby Yoda? Did you think baby Yoda was cute? No, not cute. It was a phenomenal achievement of sculpting mechanically. When I saw this, it was so convincing, it was so unique. And then the producers talked about, Shouldn’t we have a fallback version with green screen and have it be completely digitally created? I said to them: It would be cowardly. You are the trailblazers. Show the world what you can do.

See also 24 Pieces of Life Advice from Werner Herzog, including “Take revenge if need be” and “Carry bolt cutters everywhere”. 

• Joy of writing about sex