The Newsroom

notarobotbutaghost: Grizzly Bear - Ready, Able I don’t...

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:22:00 -0500

Grizzly Bear - Ready, Able

I don’t understand how someone can not like/appreciate this song. The last 2.5 minutes are sooo good.

I love Grizzly Bear. Now excuse me — I’m off to listen to this CD for the rest of the afternoon.

"Finally, one wonders why epigraphs are always at the beginning of the book. Some stories end and..."

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:29:53 -0500

“Finally, one wonders why epigraphs are always at the beginning of the book. Some stories end and make you want to hold the book to your chest and absorb it directly into your very soul. How moving it would be to me to finish a book and turn the page, sad that it’s all over and read an epigraph that reflects on all that’s come before.”

- Andrew Tutt, writing on epigraphs today in The Millions.

walkwhilereading: Dave Eggers: From ‘staggering genius’ to...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:30:55 -0500

walkwhilereading:

Dave Eggers: From ‘staggering genius’ to America’s conscience

Interview with Rachel Cooke in this weekends Observer.

Math of Publishing Meets the E-Book (via austinkleon)

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:43:50 -0500

Math of Publishing Meets the E-Book (via austinkleon)

What a great idea! A WPA poster from the 1930s, via booklover,...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:29:09 -0500

What a great idea! A WPA poster from the 1930s, via booklover, bugseatbooks, and lotusohm.

"Since businesses are obliged by zoning restrictions to locate far away from residential areas, most..."

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:32:00 -0500

“Since businesses are obliged by zoning restrictions to locate far away from residential areas, most Americans drive to every store they visit. This means that store visits are often discrete trips that must be undertaken consciously and planned out ahead of time. As a consequence, shoppers will want to visit stores that carry the most diverse inventory—Wal-Mart, Costco, et al.—and avoid shops that specialize in one particular kind of good—the local paint store or flower shop, for instance.”

- Why Conservatives Should Care About Transit, a really wonderful list of the myriad reasons why car-dependency weakens families, entrepreneurship, and the bonds within a community. Walkable neighborhoods aren’t just for hippies and enviro-nerds! (via marco)

"I can’t imagine what it will be like for future generations not to experience getting to know..."

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:35:00 -0500

“I can’t imagine what it will be like for future generations not to experience getting to know someone by scanning their bookshelves, learning, by their lovingly worn condition, which novels they read over and over and over, and, by their perfectly unbroken spines, which their best intentions never quite got them to. Finding out that sometimes they needed a good mystery or thriller, or that they went through a serious Faulkner phase by spotting all those matching Vintage paperback editions lined up in a row.”

- thebronzemedal, in reaction to Kevin Hartnett’s article on bookshelves

"A chief virtue of digital books is said to be their economical size—they take up no space at..."

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:32:00 -0500

“A chief virtue of digital books is said to be their economical size—they take up no space at all!—but even a megabyte seems bulky compared to what can be conveyed in the few cubic feet of a bookshelf. What other vessel is able to hold with such precision, intricacy, and economy, all the facets of your life?”

- Kevin Hartnett, writing in In Our Parent’s Bookshelves for The Millions (via thebronzemedal)

Long Live Fiction: A Guide to Fiction Online

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:54:00 -0500

Long Live Fiction: A Guide to Fiction Online:

The internet isn’t killing fiction! While it may be shrinking attention spans, it’s also giving new writers a change to grow and learn from one another. David Backer takes a look at several such communities for The Millions.

One of the sites he mentions is Fictionaut, which is invitation-only. I really like it. I received an invitation a little while ago and already have a story up: Driving Directions.

"The deadly power of rushing about wherever I pleased had not been given me. I measured distances by..."

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:03:00 -0500

“The deadly power of rushing about wherever I pleased had not been given me. I measured distances by the standard of man, man walking on his two feet, not by the internal combustion engine. I had not been allowed to deflower the very idea of distance; in return I possessed “infinite riches” in what would have been to motorists “a little room.” The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it “annihilates distance.” It does. It annihilates one of the most glorious gifts we have been given… A modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventure than his grandfather got from traveling ten.”

- C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy. This is one of the reasons I love biking and walking places, even for short distances: without a car, travel is a conscious choice, and requires a degree of planning and forethought that car-based transportation lacks. (via beenthinking, via mills)

February reading list

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:24:14 -0500

January was slow going, and February’s not looking too good, either. It’s been a busy time at work, and I’ve been trying (not so successfully, sadly) to get more writing done. That being said, here’s where I stand:

Fiction

Annabel Scheme — finished!
Tainaron — finished!
NEW The Things They Carried — in progress
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
What is the What
Best Stories from the Indian Classics
And You Shall Know Our Velocity!
Love in the Ruins

Nonfiction

The Portable MFA in Creative Writing — finished!
Sickness Unto Death — in progress
Writing Down the Bones — in progress
The Artful Edit

Extra: I received the first issue of my Oxford American subscription, and love it!

So that’s three books in progress at the same time, which isn’t really all that unusual for me. Also I had to add The Things They Carried for a class I’m taking, making that the third time I’ve had to read the book as an assigned text. O’Brien is fine with me, but could a professor assign In the Lake of the Woods instead? That would be great.

Ten rules, an edited list

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:17:00 -0500

Ten rules, an edited list:

The Guardian has published a list of various writers’ own personal rules of writing. Via bobulate, who’s taken the time to further distill the Guardian’s list into a very brief and helpful form.

Genres of Fiction, and Why They Aren’t Discrete Entities

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:36:00 -0500

Genres of Fiction, and Why They Aren’t Discrete Entities:

Rachel Swirsky, guestblogging for Jeff VanderMeer, explains a common problem for SF fans and writers: any SF that is also good literature gets reassigned away from the category of SF — leaving only the “bad stuff” as true SF. (On the other hand, this goes both ways: many SF fans won’t touch literary fiction. It’s too “boring.”)

The comments are very instructive as well. (A rarity!) VanderMeer, Swirsky, and author Nick Mamatas all have good things to say.

"We’re returning to an era when we get news from more than one source again, human beings, rather..."

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:28:00 -0500

“We’re returning to an era when we get news from more than one source again, human beings, rather than one monopoly newspaper sending out as few people as possible so it can make as much money as possible. It’s a new golden age.”

- Paul Bass, “one of the most watched exemplars of scrappy, low-budget, high-impact local journalism — based on reporting, not attitude and opinion — through his New Haven Independent and Valley Independent Sentinel in the Naugatuck Valley.” Both sites are very well designed. Quoted in a NYT article about the new era of local journalism.

"I simply want to celebrate the fact that right near your home, year in and year out, a community..."

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:14:37 -0500

“I simply want to celebrate the fact that right near your home, year in and year out, a community college is quietly — and with very little financial encouragement — saving lives and minds. I can’t think of a more efficient, hopeful or egalitarian machine, with the possible exception of the bicycle.”

- Kay Ryan (via austinkleon)

"We have to look at our own inertia, insecurities, self-hate, fear that, in truth, we have nothing..."

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:15:00 -0500

“We have to look at our own inertia, insecurities, self-hate, fear that, in truth, we have nothing valuable to say. When your writing blooms out of the back of this garbage compost, it is very stable. You are not running from anything. You can have a sense of artistic security. If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.”

- Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

Obama Depressed, Distant Since 'Battlestar Galactica' Series Finale

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:55:00 -0500

Obama Depressed, Distant Since 'Battlestar Galactica' Series Finale:

The Onion, of course. This is absolutely perfect. (via epippen)

"And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and..."

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:35:42 -0500

“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is gift and a privilege, not a right. We must earn life once it has been awarded us. Life asks for rewards back because it has favored us with animation. So while our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all.”

- Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

Trailer for Puzmi, from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival A...

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:54:00 -0500

Trailer for Puzmi, from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival

A dystopia with shades of THX-1138 and Moon. Looks very cool. (via Wired’s Underwire blog)

All Along the Watchtower — Battlestar Galactica Season 3...

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:58:00 -0500

All Along the Watchtower — Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Soundtrack

I am a colossal dork. Regardless, this song is awesome and the perfect thing for a Monday morning.