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Tag Archives: writing
Writing or Art? Mel Bochner’s “LANGUAGE IS NOT TRANSPARENT” (1970)
Is it art? Is this the sort of art one passes by impatiently as not really art? Notice that it has no conventional images in it, such as, say, a Madonna with child. Where Mary and the baby Jesus might … Continue reading
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Tagged art, atheism, death, derrida, God, life, philosophy, time, writing
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One Shall Be Taken
Two horses–look again– Winged, like cherubim– Watering at a marble trough, Ivy in riot about them. Reality? Silence, bones Saline, a coffin–not a trough– And a tale in the main that Had been uneven, rough, harsh. I’d have done it differently. This … Continue reading
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Tagged cemeteries, creative writing, death, literature, poem, poetry, rapture, writing
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Two Pens Are Better Than One: Why I Write
For me, I get writing energy from other people, responding to what they have to say (or to questions they might pose). If they respond again in turn, I hope to be surprised by the angle they take in the … Continue reading
Yes, You Belong Here (Fake It Till You Become It with a Little Help from Yoga)
One thing that college is about is learning to assert yourself in writing and speech–to tell others what you think–and below is an exceptionally inspiring TED talk by Harvard professor Amy Cuddy for getting yourself in the bodily and mental … Continue reading
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Tagged analysis, confidence, critical thinking, fitness, life, self assertion, speaking, writing, yoga
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Is the Late David Rakoff the Alexander Pope of Novelists?
David Rakoff wrote a whole novel in sing-song rhyme, like a Dr. Seuss book, and it has just been posthumously published. Not sure I like it, but below is a sample. I do like this couplet late in the recording, … Continue reading
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Tagged alexander pope, Dr. Seuss, genres, literature, novels, poetry, writing
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What Would Homer Say? Model Writers at Your Shoulder as a Tool for Writing Improvement
Imitation and emulation. The ancient Greek teacher Longinus is among the first persons to address what would become a recurrent theme in the history of rhetoric and literary criticism: the sublime (elevated emotion; ecstasy). His reflections on the sublime can … Continue reading
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Tagged Homer, literature, longinus, poetry, reading, the sublime, writing
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Nietzsche in a Nutshell
__________ Once you perceive that you are flung into a cosmos in which God is dead (or silent), and your ultimate questions are unlikely ever to be answered, it’s time to stop worrying about who or where you are really—what the truth is—and just, say, make lion-man totems … Continue reading
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Tagged art, atheism, creativity, hippies, literature, Nietzsche, nihilism, philosophy, writing
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Bringing Darwin Into Your Fiction: A Few Things Creative Writers Might Consider
A key element in Charles Darwin’s thought is that survival and the opportunity to reproduce attends the fittest and the sexiest. Think about this Darwinian insight in relation to your writing: what would a Darwinian reading of your story notice? … Continue reading
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Tagged biology, creative writing, Darwin, evolution, fiction, literature, philosophy, psychology, science, writing
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Would Edmund Burke Have Approved of Artists Blending the Sublime and the Beautiful?
For Edmund Burke (1729-1797), in his A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), our strongest emotions are associated with danger, pain, and fear (most particularly the fear of death, the “king of … Continue reading
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Tagged aesthetics, art, beauty, close reading, edmund burke, literature, philosophy, the sublime, writing
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Practice Makes Perfect: David Hume Teaches Us How To Read Closely And See
In 1757, the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) published four essays under the title, Four Dissertations, one of which he called “Of the Standard of Taste.” In it, Hume attempts to tackle the question of why people vary in opinion … Continue reading
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Tagged aesthetics, beauty, critical theory, david hume, philosophy, reading, writing
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Write Better Than You Do: Four Writing Tips From 2000 Years Ago
Want to write better than you do? Consider trying these four ancient tricks: Focus on the sublime. The Greek writer, Longinus (first century CE), is among the first persons to address what would become a recurrent theme in the history … Continue reading
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Tagged communication, creativity, critical thinking, longinus, reading, thinking, writing, yoga
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Where’s the Literary Slate?
At Dissent, Morris Dickstein worries about whether literary book culture will survive the Internet, and says the following about blogs: [I]t’s striking that there are twenty successful political blogs for each effective literary blog. With all due respect to Critical … Continue reading
A Quote for Writers: Jodi Picoult on Writer’s Block
The author of Lone Wolf doesn’t believe in writer’s block: I don’t believe in writer’s block. Think about it—when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn’t it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper … Continue reading
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Tagged art, creative writing, life, literature, quote, writer's block, writing
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A Bit of Advice on Translation from Leon Wieseltier
Leon Wieseltier, annoyed by what he regards as a dreadful translation of the Haggadah, offers an important distinction for would-be translators to consider: All translation is interpretation, since it is a choice among meanings; but translation is not the same … Continue reading
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Tagged Israel, Judaism, Leon Wieseltier, life, literature, translation, writing
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What the Lightning Said: My Definition of Art
Art, by my definition, is a report of what the lightning said. It’s bound up with the ontological mystery (the mystery of being itself); an artist’s attempt to represent to others an experience of that mystery (what it feels like … Continue reading
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Tagged art, creative writing, definition, giorgione, God, lightning, mark twain, meaning, religion, stephen greenblatt, the ontological mystery, William Blake, writing
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Prometheus Unbound 