Archive for 2011
The following is my rendition of one of the best passages from Cormac McCarthy’s wildly popular but slightly overrated novel: All the Pretty Horses.
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The following list, which comes from two contests held by the Washington Post, is not new — in fact, it’s been making the internet rounds for a while now — but you’ll never get tired of reading it: 1. Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center. 2. He [...]
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The trucker who lives next door is seldom home. He’s a long-haul trucker, he’s over-the-road. He earns good money and does not spend. There’s something of the ascetical about him. He’s forty. His hair is long. He wears jeans and combat boots. Sallow and haggard, his face is handsome nevertheless. His willowy wife does not [...]
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Syncretism is a term that means the combining or reconciling of opposing practices and principles. It’s most commonly used in a religious or philosophical context, and as with Easter, Christmas too is syncretic in its origins: a pagan celebration whose provenance long predates Christ’s birth but which eventually made its way into the Christian mainstream. [...]
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Literature is the art-form of language, and words are its tools. As a painter uses paint, as a musician uses musical instruments, as a sculptor uses stone-and-chisel, so a writer uses words. Words have a definite meaning. That is the first point every writer must address (though of course not every writer answers that question [...]
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The Goths, as recounted by a Gothic historian named Jordanes (mid 6th Century AD), were a Teutonic-Germanic people whose original homeland was, according to this same Jordanes, in southern Sweden. At that time, this half-barbaric band was ruled by a king called Berig. It was King Berig who led his people south to the shores [...]
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“One of the tests of a good writer,” said the poet Karl Shapiro, “is editorial acumen, the ability to turn down your work. It’s the amateur who falls in love with his own written words and holds them sacrosanct.” I think that that’s essentially true. I think also that anyone can learn to write formulaic [...]
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There is among writers predominantly, though not exclusively, a rather absurd notion that you’re either a writer or you’re not, and that if you’re not, you’ll never be able to learn how. The notion is not only false: it’s dangerously false. Writing is like any other skill, only more so. In fact, so-called talent is [...]
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A reader writes: Dear Ray Harvey: Well, it took me five months but I finally finished reading More and More unto the Perfect Day and I wish to compliment you! Though it is a challenging and not easy read, it is rewarding and gives much food for thought to say the least. Your story reminded [...]
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The following questions were submitted to me some time ago by Mr. Maxwell Hoaglund, of Slagheap magazine, which unfortunately closed its doors before this Q & A appeared. I publish it here with Mr. Hoaglund’s full knowledge and permission. Q: If your finger isn’t typing, where is it? Ray Harvey: It’s on the pulse of [...]
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