His Eyes Were Watching George
Care to guess whose eyes these are? Look into them. Do you see the future? Does it make it you cry?
Did anyone know that Xerox was sponsoring a writing contest? "Barbara Grosh has been named the winner of Xerox Corp.'s Aspiring Authors contest for her book Tenure Track to Mommyville. Her prize: Having her book featured on Lulu.com, an on-demand book publishing site that co-sponsored the contest. She'll also receive 100 copies of her book and $5,000."
The Princeton Packet looks at John McPhee's prophetic essay concerning the flooding of New Orleans.
"Dennis Cooper, possibly America's most subversive writer, is known for his fixation with violent gay sex, pedophilia, and the dismemberment of lanky young boys by older men. This year marks a creative turning point for the literary renegade: while "The Sluts," published this past spring, showed us Cooper at his most graphic yet, his latest novel, "God Jr.," ushers in a PG-rated era for the writer. But can a cult hero put aside his sensational subject matter and find mainstream success?" You'll have to be a Salon subcriber or watch some ads to find out the answer.
Scientific American has an interesting article that discusses how physicians are using writing and the humanities with an aim "to make doctors more empathetic by getting them to articulate and deal with what they feel and to develop sophisticated listening skills, ears for the revelations hidden in imagery and subtext."
John Wesley Harding discusses his new album and his new novel. "'Those opening lines are perfectly acceptable song lyrics. But when you're writing a novel, you say, 'I was born with a coathanger in my mouth.' Why? 'I was dumped down south.' By who? 'I was brought up by the richest man in the world.' Why'd he do that? You have to step back and think of the motivations for these absurd things. In a sense, this novel is unique in that it revisits and rationalizes something that, in the first place, was probably spontaneous and not meant to be rationalized.'"
You can listen to or download Jeff Tweedy's visit to XM Radio's Bob Edwards Show at Wilco's Roadcase page.
Strange Horizons lists the ten stupidest utopias.
Two brilliant uses of Google Maps: 1) Find out where you would end up if you were to dig a hole straight through the Earth from any location; 2) A map intergrated with the 2000 census report.
That story about writing doctors reminds me of what George Saunders was saying in that interview over at Maud's place about attention to detail in craft leading a writer inevitably to compassion. Up with the arts!
Those are scary eyes. They must be John Ashcroft's.
Posted by: TJ | September 14, 2005 at 12:15 PM