Merry Christmas!
Posts
Blogger Out of Beta
Blogger has emerged from there Beta test. I'm not sure how this will effect my blog. During beta, Blogger ate a couple of my templates - So, I'm a little apprehensive how the new Blogger will work. The new features are described in a PC Magazine article, Blogger Leaves Beta . If my blog disappears, you"ll know why.
If we lose our way, remember
The New Colossus by Emma Lararus (On a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty) Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
The Power of The Novel: Hector Bywater and Pearl Harbor
It amazes me the power and influence of fiction - the novel. Hector Bywater's 1925 novel The Great Pacific War predicted the sneak attack by Japan that would commence a war between the US and Japan. It also accurately predicted many details of the war that would occur. Though flawed in some of the details, it was immediately translated into Japanese and reportly had a significant influence on the man who would become the supreme commander of Japanese forces in the Pacific and planner of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Fleet Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto. An excellent account of the details is reported in an article at www.amercianheritage.com . It is interesting in a time when truth is becoming hard to find, fiction is becoming more truthful than reported news, memoirs, and media that purports veracity.
Do novels need Bibliographies?
Norman Mailer's new novel "The Castle in the Forest," includes a list of 126 authors and titles that enriched the book. Michael Crichton's new novel, "Next," contains a seven-page bibliography listing 36 books that Crichton read while researching the book, along with citations for 12 articles published in newspapers or other publications and 12 Internet sources. As reported in the International Herald Tribune article " Literature: Do novels really need bibliographies ?", this seems to be the trend. In todays litigious society, is this really necessary? It seems fiction will likely be more true then memoirs, go figure...
The Plan per Robin Williams
Robin Williams, wearing a shirt that says "I love New York " in Arabic. Robin Williams' plan... "I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for Peace. So, here's one plan." "The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, Past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein, and the rest of those "good ole boys", we will never "interfere" again. "We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany , South Korea , the Middle East, and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence." "All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave, we'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of whom or where they are...
Full Circle
I've come full circle...or is it just a circle jerk? Blogger beta ate my last last blog teplate so I've return from which I came. I'll be working on a new template but I'm trying to write and submit. So if anyone is getting vertigo from my incessant format changes - sorry.
Dan Brown, Da Vinci, & the Supremes
It was reported yesterday, Dan Brown dodged a big bullet yesterday - do-wop-do-wop. The US Supreme Court declined to take up and review a federal judge and a federal appeals court panel's dismissal of a lawsuit alleging illegal use of another author's book as a templet for Brown's Da Vinci Code as reported in a Christian Science Monitor article . There are many things I could say, over 60 millions copies sold, created a genre that didn't exist...yada, yada. I think he still has to fight the same battle in Brittan. The trials and tribulations of a bestselling author - I'm jealous.
Veteran's Day 2006
All politics aside, 3,125 Americans have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many, many more have been wounded physically and psychologically. I pray for those who serve, their families, and those have served throughout our tortured history. I wish to honor all of our fallen soldiers. They have given the supreme sacrifice for freedoms we hold dear. Though I am a veteran, I never served during hostilities. For those who have in the past or do, I salute and honor you. The following portion of John Donne's poem was an epigraph for Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls . I hope it is fitting and appropriate. No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it...
Sir Spam-alot
As Popeye said, "That's all I can stand, I can't standz no more!" I give up. Spam has infiltrated my posts like locusts. This forced me to abandon the template that I really liked; the K1 Black. This current template is temporary and I apologize for its Spartan nature. Sorry for the changes but I recieved 200 spam messages today and I have had enough. I deleted about 5 prior posts infected by over 1000 spam messages. I will be working on a redesign this coming week.
Quote of the Day: T.S. Eliot
An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. T. S. Eliot If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are? T. S. Eliot
Devil's Night
Happy Halloween or Devil's Night as they call it in Detroit. They burn riot, burn, and loot on Devil's Night in Detroit. No pussy trick or treating for them. Have a safe one...
Artist's Descent
Artist William Utermohlen chronicles his descent into the dementia of Alzheimers by self portraits painted over the span of nearly forty years as reported in a recent NYT article. Utermohlen's self portraits, displayed in a multimedia slideshow , are a moving, striking, and saddening evolution of an artist's perception of himself during his slow slide into the depths of this disease. Mr. Utermohlen, now 73, no longer paints and now lives in a nursing home. This post was inspired by a post by Austin Kleon .
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Chandler
It's hard. It's fucking hard. To write, to create, well written fiction. My idols did it and until recently I didn't know how hard it was for them too. I thought they all sat down and wrote brilliant words that ended up in thier novels. How niave I was. They revised. They massaged. They sculpted the words, sentences, and paragraghs. Epiphany. Revision, I am learning is the key to good writing. Revision, revision, revision. It sucks - but there, I believe, is where the gold lies. The road is tough and the gate is narrow but with revision I hope to plough through it. I look to the great ones for guidence, inspiration, and a roadmap. I've been told before the ones I admires time has come and gone. I disagree. Good writing is good writing and it is ageless. So - ask not for whom the bell tolls...
Learning to Write or Searching for Aristotle?
Ok, I thought this would be easier. I've written for most of my life. Not a novel, but I've written just the same. It seems like I'm just learning to walk. I tried short stories as my labratory with some limited success. It just didn't get me there. I am struggling with plot. I want to tell a good story that is character driven but in the end I want a good story. I've tried to outline several times and it leads me no where. I'm working on Aristotle's three act structure with plot points at the end of act I & II. I guess I am missing a critical element or component. The only thing I have figured out is the more I write the better I get. Go figure.
