September 2011
23 posts
September 1, 2011
THE INSANITY OF TRUTH
In Thomas Mann’s novel “Dr. Faustus” his central character is a talented musician, Adrian Leverkuhn, who elects to contract syphilis, hoping that madness will inspire his creativity and take him beyond the ordinary. During one outbreak of Leverkuhn’s fever, he meets the devil, who allays his doubts about his vision:
” …that you can only see me...
August 2011
23 posts
August 31, 2011
MY LIFE AS AN ARTHRITIC SNAIL
Contrary to the opinion of some of my friends who avoid social networks, Facebook isn’t a place where people gather to talk about the number of snails eating their begonias. I’ve learned a good deal more than that from my web friends.
(Yahoo Images)
Recently, I read an entry about blogs. As I’ve come late to my writing life, I’m always eager to learn a trick or...
Addendum "To Paws in Tribute" Aug. 30, 2011
Just met the girl with the dog in the park this morning. I stopped to compliment her on the love so clearly evident between her and her pet. She told me she has had the animal for two years and though the dog has had some obedience training, mostly it has become attuned to its owner’s body language. She brought the mongrel home as an adult dog from an animal shelter.
Given the numerous...
August 30, 2011
TO PAWS IN TRIBUTE
I thought about “Old Yeller” and “Lassie” the other day, and how their courage and loyalty stand out. Those novels came to mind as I was finishing my walk in the park. Ahead of me was a young woman with a large dog, a mongrel that looked like a cross between a German Shepherd and a St. Bernard. The animal was not on a leash, as required, but walked by...
August 29, 2011
BLOWING BUBBLES
Non-fiction author Eli Pariser can sure pick a book title: “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You.” This writer found a new problem to worry us — because, we all know, bad news sells. This time the trouble is with the World Wide Web. Pariser warns it’s become too filtered, which means the information we receive comes to us based upon our interests and does not...
August 26, 2011
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” the heroine asks:
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
(Yahoo Images)
She asks a good question and one a writer needs to consider when attaching a title to his work. A friend of mine doesn’t like the name of my upcoming book, “Trompe l’Oeil.” Translated from the French, it...
August 25, 2011
A MIND OF ONE’S OWN
Virginia Woolf’s collection of essays, “A Room of One’s Own,” attempts to explain why no woman writer has lived who is comparable to Shakespeare. Her explanation is that throughout history women have been under educated and dependent upon men for their economic security; therefore, they have lacked the means and space in which to create.
Years later, Alice...
August 24, 2011
MIDNIGHT THOUGHTS ON THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL
One of my favorite stories is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novella, “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” It is set in medieval Padua where a student, Giovanni Guasconti, comes to study at the University. From his rooms, he overlooks a beautiful garden where Rappaccini, an old man, conducts studies on poisonous plants, helped by his beautiful...
August 23, 2011
OF GODS AND RELICS
Years ago, I watched a television program where a man claimed he could recognize any prominent author in western culture simply by the writing style. The premise was that every author had a “voice” as unique as a thumb print. I suppose, the same could be said for composers and visual artists too. Aaron Copeland’s work would never be mistaken for Stravinsky’s, for example....
August 22, 2011
SELFISHNESS AS A VIRTUE
I wrote a blog post a while back (July 22) about a woman who had relied heavily upon the support of her husband and came to regret it. A reader responded that the woman had lived a selfish life. The flaw is common. I can hardly think of a work in literature that doesn’t expose some form of selfishness whether it be Harry Potter’s Voldemort who wants to control the...
August 19, 2011
THE LESSON OF OLD AGE
John Steinbeck’s segment “The Leader of the People” from his novella “The Red Pony” introduces Jody, a boy of 10, to his maternal grandfather who has come for a visit. Behind his back, Jody’s father complains the old man does nothing but repeat stories about his days as a wagon train leader crossing the Great Plains. Unfortunately, the old man hears the...
August 18, 2011
COTTON CANDY DREAMS CAN CAUSE A HANGOVER
It’s tough being a girl, I know that. Debora Tolman, a professor at Hunter College and author of “Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls talk About Sexuality,” recently commented on the impact of toddler pageants on the rise in America. According to her, such pageants teach girls to focus on looks rather than inner feelings (“Good Housekeeping,” 8/11)....
August 17, 2011
THE COMRADERIE OF THE SHORT DISTANCE WALKER
There are many books extolling the merits of walking. Andrew Weil and Mark Fenton co-authored one called “Walking” and I even found “Walking for Dummies.” I wasn’t tempted to buy the latter as I’ve never been smart enough understand any of the Dummies books.
Newer works on the subject recommend mixing a fast pace with a slow one...
August 16, 2011
THOUGHTS ON ALPHABET SOUP
Barbara G. Walker, author of “The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets” (1983) has written a new book entitled “Man Made God.” It examines the charges raised against women by the three major religions. Apparently, the prejudices of the past continue to exist, even if the expression is muted. Walker acknowledges that women are no longer...
August 15, 2011
YOU WIN SOME AND YOU LOSE SOME
David McCullough, author, historian and lecturer has a new book out which chronicles the earlier migration of Americans to Paris after World War I. Among the group were artists, industrialists and entrepreneurs — not unlike a later migration that included Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Scott Fitzgerald. This first wave, after the few forays by our founding...
August 12, 2011
CREATIVITY AND THE COSMOS
A friend recently wondered if I plotted my writing before I sat down to work. In other words, he was asking, “Do you know where you’re going before you get there?” I admit when I taught expository writing, I required students to write from an outline because essay is a form of argument. I requires logical order.
When it comes to fiction, however, I never work from...
August 11, 2011
DREAMS AT PLAY AND WHAT THEY COST
One of the most powerful works for theater in western literature is August Strindberg’s “Dream Play.” It focuses on the poverty of the human condition and how like a dream life is: a place where cruel events happen without reason or logic to explain them. It is a place where lilies rise from a dung heap and clowns attain power.
I thought of...
August 10, 2011
SOMETIMES IT’S BETTER TO LOSE
In 2009, Helen Thomas, a 40 year veteran of the White House Press Corp and Craig Crawford, a columnist for Congressional Quarterly’s CQ Politics, collaborated on a book titled “Listen Up, Mr. President.” I know thisbecause I picked up a copy at the Dollar Store.
The writing clips along at a good pace with a bit of satire, a bit of irony and a number...
August 9, 2011
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE NIGHT THE BED FELL
The screenplay for “Thelma & Louise” centers on two women involved with callous men who make their lives miserable. By accident, and partly by choice, they awaken one day to find themselves engaged in a crime spree. As Thelma dashes from a convenience store she’s robbed and climbs into their battered car, she shouts: “It’s crazy, Louise,...
August 8,. 2011
THE MISFITS
This morning I looked out my kitchen window to find a crow sitting in the middle of the birdbath. The bird was too large for the receptacle but seemed to refuse to acknowledge this as it continued to sit, fluttering its wings with no hope of stirring the water because the water wasn’t high enough to be stirred. Finally, it gave up and flew away.
For some reason, seeing the crow’s...
August 5, 2011
LIFE’S LITTLE IRONIES
Every school child knows the lines from William Henry Davis’ poem, “Leisure”:
“What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?”
I think of that poem on a hot summer day as I stand and stare out my window, watching my neighbors garden in their bikinis. Sometimes a poem comes to me:
...
August 4, 2011
IT’S NOT ME, IT’S LIFE
I’m revisiting Germaine Greer’s classic book “The Female Eunuch” published in 1971 and am being reminded once again of her command of vocabulary. I admit, I keep the dictionary beside me because I’m often stumped by a word I feel I should know but don’t. Here are three I recently came across:
Deliquesce – liquefy
Etiolate – make pale with darkness
Glabrous –...
August 3, 2011
THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF JEAN-PAUL MARAT AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MARQUIS de SADE*
Theatre of the Absurd isn’t fashionable anymore. It’s a style that has faded as surely as 18th century mannerist plays. But I miss the old guard: Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, for example, and wonder why their visions, so...
August 2, 2011
DESSERT VERSUS BROCCOLI
Something there is in me that demands I postpone every enjoyment until every unpleasant chore has been completed. I could blame my father, I suppose. He always exhorted me to eat my vegetables before my dessert. My father was a first generation German which meant he had an unyielding temperament when it came to perfection and work. My mother, a Latin, was the...
