April 2011
25 posts
April 6, 2011
LITTLE WOMEN
In the 1994 screenplay for “Little Women,” Jo March makes the following observation about men and women:
“I find it poor logic to say that because women are good, women should vote. Men do not vote because they are good;
They vote because they’re male, and women should vote, not because we are angels and men are animals, but because
we are human beings and...
April 5, 2011
AT THE CLOSE OF DAY…
My friend, who has fought cancer for so long is finally about to succumb (blog: 12/20/2010). His doctor gives him a year to live, though how a doctor makes this prediction is a mystery to me. Only the patient’s body holds the truth, a truth it communicates as a slow, painful decline. Drugs can mask the course of the disease, it’s true, but how will the mind react, being...
April 4, 2011
I AM THE GRASS
Others have said it. I am not the first. On Friday, March 11, 2011 the people of Japan, a wealthy nation and the world’s third largest economy, awoke to their unimagined vulnerability, having suffered two natural disasters: a 9.0 earthquake and a devastating Tsunami that caused a meltdown in its Fukushima atomic energy plant. Certainly the human race is capable of bringing much...
EDITOR'S NOTE: Public appearance by Caroline...
Caroline Miller will push away from her keyboard long enough to address the Kruse Way Rotary in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
She will discuss the topic of PURPOSE at noon on Tuesday, April 19 at 15555 SW Bangy Road. You’ll hear an earful, as well, about Caroline’s novels and upcoming projects.
Everyone is invited. Contact Mike Shell -503-348-2652- to reserve a place.
The lunch...
April 1, 2011
DON’T BE AN APRIL FOOL OR ANY OTHER KIND
While my blog site lists reliable resources for beginning writers looking for advice about agents and publishing houses, sometimes these sources dole out some pretty stodgy information. So, given the perversity of my nature, I’m providing information below which goes against the common wisdom but believe me, it’s no joke.
(courtesy: BingImages)
1....
March 2011
24 posts
March 31, 2011
”FAR AWAY THERE IN THE SUNSHINE ARE MY HIGHEST ASPIRATIONS.” — Louisa May Alcott
Theodore Dreiser wrote his best seller, “An American Tragedy,” in 1925 after flunking out of college, turning to journalism to make a living and finally succeeding as a novelist and Hollywood screen writer. In 1951, “An American Tragedy” became a film starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth...
March 30, 2011
THOUGHTS ON POLISHING THE FURNITURE
Uriah Heep in Dickens’ novel, “David Copperfield,” is a much maligned character and deservedly so as he was inclined to crawl like a snake among his betters until he was in a position to strike. Still, beyond unctuous manners, there is some wisdom in him for as a child he’d learned never to pose a threat to anyone until he had gained the upper...
March 29, 2011
THE NEW ALPHABET SOUP
The playwright George Bernard Shaw is credited with the quote, “Youth is wasted on the young.” At 74, not only do I think the saying is witty, I believe it is true. If I could live with the vigor of my youth and still retain the wisdom of my age what a force for change I and others of my generation might be.
Still the young aren’t doing too badly with the wisdom they...
March 28, 2011
“THE LAST REFUGE OF THE INSOMINIAC IS A SENSE OF SUPERIORITY TO THE SLEEPING WORLD” – Leonard Cohen, song writer
A friend of mine complained, recently, that as he neared the age of 60 he was suffering more and more from insomnia. His new habit was to wake up at 3 a.m. with slim hope of returning to sleep. I reminded him, as he was retired, he could take naps to make up for his loss. My ...
March 25, 2011
THOUGHTS ON WISCONSIN AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
In his book, “Norwegian Wood,” author Haruki Muramkami has his central character, Toru, makes the following observation about his life as a student:
“By the second week in September I reached the conclusion that a college education
was meaningless. I decided to think of it as a...
March 24, 2011
WHEN FIREFLIES BECOME ONE WITH THE STARS
In one of the chapters of Haruki Murakami’s book, “Norwegian Wood,” the central character, Toru, is given a firefly in a jar. Eventually, he decides to release the insect and lifts the lid. The bug senses a change but doesn’t quite understand what has happened. It moves from left to right at the bottom of the glass but finding no exit, stares...
March 23, 2011
I KNOW I’VE SAID THIS BEFORE BUT TO THOSE WHO WEREN’T LISTENING…
I wrote earlier of my love for the works of Anton Chekhov (Blog: 3/2/2011), his plays in particular, where many of his characters are benign but passive to a degree that makes one want to scream, “Do something, anything! Don’t just stand there.”
I confess limp-wristed passivity is a trait I find the least attractive in a...
March 22, 2011
THE ECCLESIASTES OF FREEDOM
I confess it; I have taken sides with the rebels in Libya as most westerners would. I have no idea what ideology will prevail if they succeed as I understand there are a number of competing tribes in their culture. But I cannot remain indifferent when I see ordinary citizens taking up sticks and stones to defend their right to be free. One wants an outcome for...
March 21, 2011
PRINT ON DEMAND (POD) AND THE PECKING ORDER
Wherever humans gather a pecking order will emerge. A few of us may be lucky enough to stand at the top of that order but most of us will land somewhere in the middle or at the bottom. This phenomenon is important to remember as we struggle to make our way in life. The American dream suggests “everyone can make it if they try.” But the dream flies...
March 18, 2011
DON’T SEND IN THE CLONES, PLEASE
Frankly, I’m tired of reading book reviews that compare yet another thriller to Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code.” The truth is, there is only one Dan Brown and thank heaven for that because while his work is gripping it is also relentlessly formulaic. I doubt the market could bear many clones.
One thing to be said about Brown is that he knows how to get...
March 17, 2011
PAPER, PAPER EVERYWHERE AND NOT A STOP TO THINK
Benjamin Braddock from the book and film “The Graduate” is an anti-hero who faces no ruthless enemy. His nemesis is summed up by the single word, “plastics” — a word which denotes not evil but a life lived at its most meaningless level. Braddock’s struggle is real despite the benign culture in which he finds himself, a culture...
March 16, 2011
JOINING THE BORG
Sara Paretsky, best-selling crime novelist whose fictional private investigator V.I Warshawski has made it to the movie screen, recently gave an interview to AARP Magazine (March/ April 2011). In it she said, “I’m on Facebook and Twitter because my publishers insist, but social media are just huge time suckers.” I confess her words struck a chord in my heart when I read...
March 15, 2011
WHAT THE MARKET WILL BEAR
I wrote a blog earlier about the author Haruki Murakami and his novel “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” which impressed me as being unique among the books (Blog: 1/28/2011). As its tale continued to haunt me, I went to the used bookstore the other day to see if I could find another of his novels. The clerk who assisted me smiled when I told him what I was...
March 14, 2011
SERIOUS THOUGHTS OF LIFE AND DEATH
Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese novelist who has received a good deal of recognition in this country and at least two of his works have become films: “The Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go.” I have read none of his writings, but plan to correct this omission soon. What brought him to my attention is the movie, “Never Let Me...
