January 2011
22 posts
January 31, 2011
THE LANGUAGE OF RAPE
I read in the Yahoo news summaries recently that the U.S. House of Representatives has a bill before it to limit a woman’s right to medical coverage for abortions when she is the victim of rape. The new language proposed is that the victim must been forcibly raped. This is someone’s attempt to narrow the language so that more women are denied medical coverage for the...
January 28, 2011
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
I’ve finished the last of the books I was given by a friend, the syllabus from a recent literature class she audited. The book is “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by the Japanese author, Haruki Maurakami. I’ve mentioned a couple of books from the class in previous blogs (Blogs: 12/27 & 12/29, 2010). Looking back, if there is a common thread among them, it is...
January 27, 2011
THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN POLLINATION
Despite my blog of January 25, I’ve communicated with the author/manager of a well respected blog for writers. She takes submissions from other bloggers and I sent her two even though I was uncertain about the appropriateness of mine. She seemed to provide pragmatic advice to share with non-fiction and free lance writers as they struggle to make a ...
January 26, 2011
THE EVIL MEN DO ISN’T HALF AS MEMORABLE AS THE GOOD
On my way to the park this week, I noticed a number of graffiti artists had scrawled their names on telephone poles along the way. My route isn’t on any main thoroughfare so the poles aren’t plastered six inches deep with posters like those on main routes. Naturally, I was surprised to see words suddenly appear.
The impulse to leave one’s...
January 25, 2011
THE SHARP EDGE OF DREAMS
One of my favorite short stories by Herman Melville is called, “The Piazza.” The plot is about a man who takes up residence in the countryside on an old farm and finding the house has no piazza from which to view his sylvan world, he builds a small one. With the project completed, he sits in the open air each afternoon to enjoy his view. One day, he notices...
January 24, 2011
A BLOG ABOUT BLOGS
Today, as I celebrate the writing of my 200th blog, I want to begin by tipping my hat to the human race. If there’s a need, someone will satisfy it. If there is no need someone will create one. Yesterday, while I was doing research on my computer, I came across any number of websites where a person can turn his blog into a book for a price. I’m intrigued with the concept...
January 21, 2011
STEPHEN KING SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MEDICAL WRITER
The number of people who earn their livelihoods as writers is staggering if one considers almost every enterprise needs them. There are pamphlet writers, tech writers, writers of instruction manuals, ad writers, medical writers and so on. Medical writers seem to have a really interesting job. The mystery, drama and tension in that field is...
January 20, 2011
THE WRITER’S HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER
I’ve talked about the solitary nature of writing before. One isolates oneself from others in order to create stories one hopes others will read — which means the end game is anything but isolation. I thought about this irony the other day as I reread Walter de la Mare’s poem “The Listeners.” The poem’s setting is a dwelling in a forest....
January 19, 2011
WHEN WORDS COLLIDE
Several years ago, when I lived for a time in England, I read a book called “The Singer Not the Song” written by Audrey Erkin-Lindop. A film was later made of it which seems to be more famous than the book for there is little written about the author or her novel. Still, I remain impressed by it as it was well written and posed a moral dilemma that is hard to...
January 18, 2011
A NEW BREED OF PARASITE
Recently, I attended a speech by former book agent who has dissolved her partnership to begin a business that purports to provide a launch pad for writers who self-publish. Amazon already has a vehicle for this but no matter. Under the new rules, the agent serves as publisher and promoter of self published books for a fee, naturally. In other words, the client has his...
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
In honor of the memory of a great man and after the wars, the shooting in Arizona, the fiscal debt, the drug wars, the high unemployment, the housing bubble, the divided Congress, I hope each of us will pause to consider our dream for our country and our personal responsbility to carry our nation foward.
January 14, 2011
T.S. ELIOT HAD A POINT
During one of my lunch hour reads I came across a comment by the actress, Natalie Portman. She was being interviewed for her recent movie, “The Black Swan” in which she plays a dancer who explores the good and evil aspects of her character, hoping to find inspiration for her duo role as the white and black swan in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.” As an aside,...
January 13, 2011
THE ART OF SAYING NO
Monday is my day to grocery shop. Tuesday and Thursday, I take my walk in the park. I consider these events similar because they are the times when I do my best thinking. Browsing supermarket aisles or walking a tree lined path, I allow my mind wander wherever it likes. People around me are absorbed in their tasks, so I can observe their behavior without being...
January 12, 2011
LET ME NOT TO THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS….
One of my favorite writers on women’s issues is Barbara G. Walker the authoritative author of “Myths and Secrets,” a huge tome of information on women’s mythology, anthropology, religion and sexuality which took 25 years to complete. Her writings are full of pithy information. She points out, for example, that early Christian ...
January 11, 2011
WORDS NOT TO LIVE BY
People seem to like making lists: best restaurants, best hotels, and best movie or actor to name a few. But Lake Superior University (Yahoo news, 1/1/2011) offers a list each year of the ten worst and overused words that should be banished. In 2010 they include
viral - a word for videos that sweep across the internet
google- used as...
January 10, 2010
THE ART OF MOUTH BREATHING, SOMETIMES CALLED LAUGHTER
A while back a friend who knows I practice yoga bought me a gag book entitled “Downward-Facing Frog” illustrated and written by Joan C. Gratz. It’s one of those novelty books that poke good natured fun at the practice with wisdom like:
“Do not allow your skunk to do the Wind-Release Pose in Yoga Class.”
Or
...
January 7, 2011
THE LIPSTICK OF POVERTY
I have a friend who is prosperous. He was born poor but managed to pull himself up by his bootstraps, as the saying goes. As is often the case with self-made people, he shows a marked impatience with others who cannot perform as he has done. He sees the world through the narrow slits of his eyes and not with his heart. He imagines life can be lived according to a...
January 6, 2011
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON HUMOR
Few would disagree with the argument that humor largely depends upon one’s culture. First there is the idiom of language. I watched a British TV comedy recently and heard the audience roar with laughter over a word that had no meaning to me. One had to know the various ways the British used the term to understand the double entendre. Beyond culture, humor is also a...
January 4, 2011
THE ART OF THE CRITIQUE
I’ve just finished reading a book called “Disgrace” by Nobel Prize winner, J. M. Coetzee, an Australian. The cover shows a scene from a film based on the novel which stars John Malkovich. Curious that I’d never heard of the movie, I looked it up on the internet. The film reviews run the gambit for A to F, but the majority is negative. I’d have to give the...
January 3, 2011
PAYING IT FORWARD
As the first work day of the New Year begins, it’s good to think about all we’ve done with our lives so far. One of my women’s magazines listed some interesting statistics about how we’ve been operating as a nation. The case for our random acts of kindness looks pretty good. According to a recent Gallup survey 60 percent of Americans donated to charitable groups in 2010; 39...
