1. Thanks to a new reader for alerting me to a flaw in DCWYTBMA’s comments section (too many requirements?). I have made some adjustments and it should be easier to post.
2. I am working on revamping my categories so it’s easier to find posts that are related to each other.
You might not realize it from stopping by now and again, but there is a whole greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts thing happening here. (I just don’t have the site designed in a way that allows you to make the most of the awesome.)
3. I am about to finish Junot Diaz’s THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. It offers, in my opinion, a master class on awesomeness.
Which got me wondering if y’all would be up for a DCWYTBMA book club. We would all read the same book and then I would lead an online discussion that focuses on how said work can teach us to be better writers/creators/thinkers/etc.
I don’t know if we quite have the critical mass needed to pull this off. Maybe we could do a trial run using a movie in order to keep the time commitment down.
4. I thought this piece in the Telegraph (U.K.) on the changing relationship between writer and reader was worth linking to. So I linked to it!
Hi Dennis: I like the idea of a book club with the focus you mentioned very much! I’ll have to check out the Diaz in the meantime.
I am definitely in for the book/movie/whatever club.
Thanks for the link to the Clark article. Fascinating. I’m not sure if it’s frightening or hopeful. With virtually any imagined piece of information available free on the internet aren’t we seeing a grim future for the serious author or journalist who aspires to earn a living entirely from his profession? Plus, the digital medium itself with its emphasis on speed and immediacy seems contrary to the expression of longer form complex ideas. I heard that a recent British study concluded that social networking is producing the adverse effect of diminishiung our capacity for complex thought. Will the attention span of future generations max out at 140 characters?
Book cluuuuub! Book club!
The late David Foster Wallace. The nonfiction–self-conscious, digressive, pretentious–or genius? Any thoughts?
Would love a book club! I read Wao not long ago and would love to discuss it. It was a slow burn for me. Liked it more as I went along; had a bit of a problem with the massive footnotes; merits a second read. I used to read as a reader, not a writer, and am finding the transition exciting.
Ms. Aase–In attempting to write I find myself also “reading” differently. How would you describe that transformation?
@Dennis Lang: I find myself caring more about the narrative choices the author made; what they’re leaving in and out; who reveals the story’s insights and how. I don’t care as much about whether I liked something or not, unless I really hated or loved it, which is when it really gets interesting.
Great! Thanks for your reply. As a former film student we had a course where we spent almost an entire semester examining one film (“Rules of the Game”), breaking apart every scene, shot for shot, camera movement , lighting, relationship of the actors, depth of field, editing…. Oddly fascinating and mind-opening to the “grammar” of film. I find myself reading from this viewpoint these days. Subject becomes virtually irrelevant. It’s how the author engages the narrative isn’t it? Can be fiction or nonfiction. This is occasionally troubling though especially after reading something particularly compelling. I can’t avoid asking myself why I’m even attempting this?
Some years ago I read a book presumptuously titled “How to Write” (as I recall). Author Richard Rhodes actually walks us through all the decisions–the thought processes, structure, word choices–involved in composing a story about his office (!) An amazing subterranean view of all that’s involved in a decent sentence.
If critical mass still insufficient to pull off the book club idea, does it make sense to consider short stories? We can all digest a few thousand words effortlessly and with greater frequency gain exposure to a wider range of writers and or approaches–fiction and nonfiction.