Archive for 2012
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity,” wrote George Orwell, “and when there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.” I confess I myself sometimes feel like that cuttlefish spurting out ink, but […]
Read More
In 1948, after divorcing his second wife Gwyn, John Steinbeck fell into a funk during which he was able to write almost nothing, except a series of exceptional letters to his editor Pascal (“Pat”) Covici. Here’s a small sampling which I hope you find as life-affirming as I do: September 19, 1948 Dear Pat: You […]
Read More
Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) wrote eighty-five novels in twenty years and made innumerable corrections and revisions in the proof sheets of each. This opus he called La Comedie Humaine — or The Human Comedy. Concerning his countless revisions, his first publisher — one Henri Latouche — said to Balzac, none too politely: “What the devil […]
Read More
The cat eats the praying mantis By punching it to death, Pushing it with her paws, Playing soccer with it, Tossing it in the air, Carrying it around in her jaws And finally, when the insect Has no more motion or flutter, Chewing its green head off. — Karl Shapiro
Read More
Just over 300 entries (both sites combined) the vast majority of which were beautiful and brilliant. The winner: rapideyemvmt The sentence: He came there every day, before and after work, but he didn’t notice the tattoo of a single hydrogen atom on the nape of her neck until today. This elegant sentence has a hint […]
Read More
Margaret Atwood: Hold the reader’s attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don’t know who the reader is, so it’s like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What fascinates A will bore the pants off B. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get […]
Read More
“No man ever put more of his heart and soul into the written word than did William Faulkner.” — Eudora Welty In 1947, at the University of Mississippi, William Faulkner — an extraordinarily inconsistent and difficult writer whose work is almost invariably frustrating, and yet a writer whom you cannot ever quite dismiss (the following […]
Read More
The United States Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by an American socialist named Francis Julius Bellamy, who was also a Baptist minister, and whose cousin Edward Bellamy is the semi-famous author of two socialist utopian novels: Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897). Francis Bellamy was born in Rome, New York, May 18, 1855. […]
Read More
UPDATE: WINNER ANNOUNCED. READ THE WINNING ENTRY HERE: The Journal Pulp is offering a $100.00 cash prize for the following: Best first sentence for a novel about a genius waitress who discovers the secret to unlocking the power of deuterium — and the customer who loves her, but loves her discovery even more. Rules and […]
Read More
“It was a pleasure to burn,” wrote Ray Bradbury in the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, and continued: It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his […]
Read More
Decoration Day was originally designed to commemorate the fallen Civil War soldiers. On May 5th, 1868, General John A. Logan spoke the following: The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, […]
Read More
Self-consciousness, as August Mclaughlin notes in a recent post, will almost invariably show through in your headshots. But there’s a way you can avoid it: Don’t try too hard. Use your imagination to drift away during the shoot. In particular, don’t think about the photos during the shoot. This may sound odd, but it helps […]
Read More
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR9kxeAcw6c&w=420&h=315] Among Robert Graves’s best and most famous poems, “Dead Cow Farm” is in essence a war poem (Robert Graves served in WWI and saw heavy fighting) wherein his gentle cow symbolizes peace and calm. It is, I think, a strange and lovely little poem. Dead Cow Farm An ancient saga tells us how […]
Read More
There were over 300 entries, the majority of which were very well written, and I’m a one-man outfit. I apologize for taking ten days to decide. But I gave each entry multiple and thorough readings — and the winner is: Kayla Here is Kayla’s sentence: When I recognized the face staring back at me with […]
Read More
This is a famous and often misunderstood line from Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 5), spoken by the unforgettable Lady Macbeth, who says: The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to […]
Read More
(c)Ray Harvey 2011