Jose Saramago came into my life at a time after college when I thought all new discoveries in literature were over. I thought that I would no longer see new books that thrilled me the way they did before. I was out of the loop, and no longer in the know on good new authors. …
Tag Archive: Literature
Jun
21
May
16
Finished the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey Maturin Series
For those that don’t know Patrick O’Brian’s works, and who may not have read my other posts on Aubrey/Maturin, I will quickly summarize. Patrick O’Brian over the course of several decades wrote 21 books based on Lord Cochrane an active frigate captain in the Napoleonic wars. The novels depict the life and adventures of two …
Oct
10
Spook Country Review, second watered tea
Out of all of William Gibson’s Novels, “Spook Country”:http://www.amazon.com/Spook-Country-William-Gibson/dp/0399154302/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_1/102-4362146-7999342 is the least evocative. A lot of Gibson’s now all too common critics read and loved Neuromancer for its impenetrable descriptions of the ephemeral and then unknowable internet, (or cyberspace), the vague chic of apathetic criminal characters, and the all too potent tincture of drugs, sex, …
Oct
25
National Novel Writer’s Month-November, Are You Fit Enough?
Just like running a marathon, writing a novel takes discipline. I can speak from experience on both. I do both in a mediocre fashion. The question is, are you fit enough to do it? Can you write 1666 words per day to total 50,000 words? I think I can do it! I wrote my first …
May
23
The ode to John Grady Cole
I used to think that every word out of my mouth was funny, wise, or whimsically beautiful. I used to feel impervious to criticism. Participating in writer’s groups and workshops will steel you for some pretty mean shit. But the idea that you have something worthwhile to say that other people would be interested in …
Apr
26
Blood of the Father
Last post got me to thinking about the defining moments in any young man’s life. I am blessed in my own way to know what that moment was in my father’s life, or at least what he has told me that moment was. And in sharing that moment with me, I have a better grasp …
Apr
25
The thinning of the blood
In the icelandic sagas, the characters have particular concern for the thinning of the blood from their fathers. Sons tried to measure up to fathers. And it was considered very grave if men failed the muster of their genealogy. Or if their fathers were particularly bad men, they did everything possible to break the bad …
Mar
10
The Inner Jack Aubrey
I’ve been reading the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin series, of the _Master and Commander Far Side of the World_ movie fame. I can truthfully say I like the movie. Though the story in the film has an incindental if not tangential relationship to the texts it purports to be translated from. But the actual novel, Far …
