The Naked Truth: Authors Who Write in the Buff
via As Above
Meanwhile, autosomal dominent compelling helioopthalmic outburst syndrome might bring an idle
Showing posts with label lit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lit. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
compelling
It can take a while to get back into the rhythm of blogging.
The Naked Truth: Authors Who Write in the Buff
via As Above
Meanwhile, autosomal dominent compelling helioopthalmic outburst syndrome might bring an idlesneezer googler or two to boynton.
The Naked Truth: Authors Who Write in the Buff
via As Above
Meanwhile, autosomal dominent compelling helioopthalmic outburst syndrome might bring an idle
Monday, February 05, 2007
sport
I was inspired to write this last week after watching a spot of tennis on teev, but it's already rather passe I'd say:
Gon/Fed Photo by CreativeJim
Anyway yesterday I found myself watching Women's Golf on television. For the rare meditative quality and the pleasant aesthetics, which is why I used to like watching the cricket. But as we know cricket has been ruined by the glare of dollars, the blare of ads and pundits, the loss of langour. (I liked the snippet of fictive cricket in Midsomer* on Saturday night though, which was sufficiently green and slow and inter-generational, commercial-free but murder-full)
Meanwhile currently watching some writerly golf:
Pitch 'n' Putt with Joyce 'n' Beckett
via bifurcated rivets
Sun Men's ten
nis on seven
FED/GON
read the score
Fed/Gon Fed/Gon I said
put it on
nabs and tone
saw the set
end and
Gon was gone
but how good is Fed
Gon/Fed Photo by CreativeJim
Anyway yesterday I found myself watching Women's Golf on television. For the rare meditative quality and the pleasant aesthetics, which is why I used to like watching the cricket. But as we know cricket has been ruined by the glare of dollars, the blare of ads and pundits, the loss of langour. (I liked the snippet of fictive cricket in Midsomer* on Saturday night though, which was sufficiently green and slow and inter-generational, commercial-free but murder-full)
Meanwhile currently watching some writerly golf:
Pitch 'n' Putt with Joyce 'n' Beckett
via bifurcated rivets
Saturday, August 30, 2003
snark
as readers may be aware, boynton doesn't care much for the snark - like others she still harbours fonder asscociations of the word. This is an interesting read on the mindset/genre/culture within literary circles. (via fimoculous)
The comments thread provides lively discussion with these from Robert Birnbaum:
We may have entered the era of meta-snark. Saying somebody is full of shit is not snarky. Or claiming that they have heard "an author's last four or five books are not very good." —that is hearsay or as we say in the real world, gossip
I am against the rising tide of snide. Just as I accept the distinction between cynicism and skepticism, I deny the synonimity of clever and snide. Snide is ill spirited and negative. One does not learn anything from it. And learning something, I think, is at the heart of our intentions
If this is indeed officially the era of snark, or as Birnbaum calls it : the cultural moment that invites and on some level glorifies this know-nothingism, boynton will head for the heritage hills and jealously guard her irony. The link to the Heidi Julavintis Believer article is worth following -where the infiltration of snark is seen to have emerged in part as a reaction to false hyperbole - This is wit for wit's sake—or, hostility for hostility's sake. This hostile, knowing, bitter tone of contempt".
boynton shares some of Julavintis misgivings about the spirit of snark, and the desert of meaning that sometimes seems to be at the heart of it.
See also: see Hunting Snark: Heidi Julavits Stomps a Virus
Comments: snark
x
Posted by Gianna at August 31, 2003 05:51 PM
;)
Posted by boynton at August 31, 2003 06:13 PM
The comments thread provides lively discussion with these from Robert Birnbaum:
We may have entered the era of meta-snark. Saying somebody is full of shit is not snarky. Or claiming that they have heard "an author's last four or five books are not very good." —that is hearsay or as we say in the real world, gossip
I am against the rising tide of snide. Just as I accept the distinction between cynicism and skepticism, I deny the synonimity of clever and snide. Snide is ill spirited and negative. One does not learn anything from it. And learning something, I think, is at the heart of our intentions
If this is indeed officially the era of snark, or as Birnbaum calls it : the cultural moment that invites and on some level glorifies this know-nothingism, boynton will head for the heritage hills and jealously guard her irony. The link to the Heidi Julavintis Believer article is worth following -where the infiltration of snark is seen to have emerged in part as a reaction to false hyperbole - This is wit for wit's sake—or, hostility for hostility's sake. This hostile, knowing, bitter tone of contempt".
boynton shares some of Julavintis misgivings about the spirit of snark, and the desert of meaning that sometimes seems to be at the heart of it.
See also: see Hunting Snark: Heidi Julavits Stomps a Virus
Comments: snark
x
Posted by Gianna at August 31, 2003 05:51 PM
;)
Posted by boynton at August 31, 2003 06:13 PM
Sunday, July 20, 2003
bookish
beware befriending a writer (or blogger for that matter)
When real people find themselves transformed into fictional characters, friendships can fall by the wayside, writes Caroline Baum.
Librarian Action Figure (via Pop Culture Junk Mail)
Jane Austen Remaindered includes her own parody : Plan of a Novel according to Hints from Various Quarters at Today in Literature
Shields praised for telling stories of ordinary people
Writer was passionate about fiction all her life
and finally - an addictive wordplay blog - blogstop
The last word from the latest post is up for grabs. It's the acronym for the next
(via J walk)
Comments: bookish
Graciously, Estonians nurture endangered species....
Specious persons extol crass iteration exhibiting superfluity.
Ta Daaa! Do I win anything Boynty?
Posted by Tony.T at July 20, 2003 08:09 PM
Should useless prizes exist rewarding fine long utterances, in theory, yes
Posted by boynton at July 20, 2003 10:56 PM
Yahoo! Excellent, she.
Posted by Tony.T at July 21, 2003 01:38 PM
so here endeth...this round?
I almost used "Yahoo" myself there, T.
Suspect it would prove to be be a very useful word in this game.
Posted by boynton at July 21, 2003 02:49 PM
Some Melbournians are rather twee arranging random sentences endlessly - stop!
Posted by Nora at July 21, 2003 03:32 PM
Oh Nora, don't you know by now:
Such terminology only provokes...
(twee melburnians, that is) ;)
Posted by boynton at July 21, 2003 04:12 PM
That and Yackendandah.
SMartarses? I'm not familiar with that term.
Posted by Tony.T at July 21, 2003 05:57 PM
hmm...
teachers exhibit remarkable mendacity
Posted by boynton at July 21, 2003 06:34 PM
When real people find themselves transformed into fictional characters, friendships can fall by the wayside, writes Caroline Baum.
Librarian Action Figure (via Pop Culture Junk Mail)
Jane Austen Remaindered includes her own parody : Plan of a Novel according to Hints from Various Quarters at Today in Literature
Shields praised for telling stories of ordinary people
Writer was passionate about fiction all her life
and finally - an addictive wordplay blog - blogstop
The last word from the latest post is up for grabs. It's the acronym for the next
(via J walk)
Comments: bookish
Graciously, Estonians nurture endangered species....
Specious persons extol crass iteration exhibiting superfluity.
Ta Daaa! Do I win anything Boynty?
Posted by Tony.T at July 20, 2003 08:09 PM
Should useless prizes exist rewarding fine long utterances, in theory, yes
Posted by boynton at July 20, 2003 10:56 PM
Yahoo! Excellent, she.
Posted by Tony.T at July 21, 2003 01:38 PM
so here endeth...this round?
I almost used "Yahoo" myself there, T.
Suspect it would prove to be be a very useful word in this game.
Posted by boynton at July 21, 2003 02:49 PM
Some Melbournians are rather twee arranging random sentences endlessly - stop!
Posted by Nora at July 21, 2003 03:32 PM
Oh Nora, don't you know by now:
Such terminology only provokes...
(twee melburnians, that is) ;)
Posted by boynton at July 21, 2003 04:12 PM
That and Yackendandah.
SMartarses? I'm not familiar with that term.
Posted by Tony.T at July 21, 2003 05:57 PM
hmm...
teachers exhibit remarkable mendacity
Posted by boynton at July 21, 2003 06:34 PM
Saturday, July 12, 2003
condensed writing
Like watching limbo sometimes you wonder how short can an attention span get? Anna Karenina ultra condensed from book-a-minute (via J walk )
See also movie-a-minute
Radio work is in some ways the inverse of stage work - a cutting-edge microphone permits actors to sound as if they are talking quietly within your head, which is deeply intimate and unsettling Guardian on (BBC) radio drama. (via Interconnected)
other half? duality of irony and ecstasy
Gender and writing, all is revealed through the old pronouns, post-head noun modifications with an of phrase, and to certain quirks in the use of punctuation apparently?"It seems surreal, even spooky, that such seemingly throwaway words would be so revealing of our identity..." 'They're like fingerprints,'' says Foster. (via The Writing Life)
Comments: condensed writing
re the condensed books - I had a giggle at the classics, especially War and Peace. (Though nothing really surpasses Woody Allen's condensed version: "It's about Russia".)
Posted by Gianna at July 14, 2003 12:12 PM
Yeah I agree G, Woody pinned it down.
btw - just checked out E E Cummings.
w or
th a
look
Posted by boynton at July 14, 2003 02:11 PM
See also movie-a-minute
Radio work is in some ways the inverse of stage work - a cutting-edge microphone permits actors to sound as if they are talking quietly within your head, which is deeply intimate and unsettling Guardian on (BBC) radio drama. (via Interconnected)
other half? duality of irony and ecstasy
Gender and writing, all is revealed through the old pronouns, post-head noun modifications with an of phrase, and to certain quirks in the use of punctuation apparently?"It seems surreal, even spooky, that such seemingly throwaway words would be so revealing of our identity..." 'They're like fingerprints,'' says Foster. (via The Writing Life)
Comments: condensed writing
re the condensed books - I had a giggle at the classics, especially War and Peace. (Though nothing really surpasses Woody Allen's condensed version: "It's about Russia".)
Posted by Gianna at July 14, 2003 12:12 PM
Yeah I agree G, Woody pinned it down.
btw - just checked out E E Cummings.
w or
th a
look
Posted by boynton at July 14, 2003 02:11 PM
Saturday, July 05, 2003
first and last
Famous literary first words quiz (via fimoculous)
Would seem to want to be teamed with this link to famous last words of literary characters (via incoming signals)
Comments: first and last
Sadly-I'm better at fleas!
Posted by Nora at July 5, 2003 07:47 PM
Would that be Nora's literary first or last words I wonder?
Posted by boynton at July 5, 2003 08:41 PM
SCENE I. Richmond. A room.
Enter Pithy, solus
10/13 is the score of our discontent
Made glorious better by this guess of three
Exit
Posted by Pithy at July 5, 2003 09:02 PM
The first words quiz wasn't at all what I was expecting. But then I suppose what I had in mind wouldn't work. It was something like:
Q1 "Ma-ma"
A James Joyce.
B Homer.
C T S Eliot.
D William Shakespeare.
E All of the above plus everyone mentioned in the Oxford Companion to English Literature.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at July 5, 2003 09:03 PM
And I love Agamemnon's last words. For such an ending was the word bathos made. (Would that make the play a bathedy)?
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at July 5, 2003 09:07 PM
Enter boynton with dagger.
(aside)
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths. Not.
Alas, Pithy, wherefore art the four I missed
and in my missing, guessed.
(Exit)
And Gummo: a very reductive angle. Must check the Oxford to see if great minds do bleat alike.
(Erm I was just being deliberately oblique to ensure people clicked on the link.)
And re Agememmon. Yes, see also "And now what?"
Samsa, Gregor
Short Story: "The Metamorphosis," Franz Kafka, 1915
Posted by boynton at July 5, 2003 11:38 PM
A Heath.
Enter Gummo & the Fool.
Gummo: Blow winds and crack your cheeks,
Like blustering oafs who know not their Rushdie and JM Barrie.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at July 6, 2003 04:11 PM
Would seem to want to be teamed with this link to famous last words of literary characters (via incoming signals)
Comments: first and last
Sadly-I'm better at fleas!
Posted by Nora at July 5, 2003 07:47 PM
Would that be Nora's literary first or last words I wonder?
Posted by boynton at July 5, 2003 08:41 PM
SCENE I. Richmond. A room.
Enter Pithy, solus
10/13 is the score of our discontent
Made glorious better by this guess of three
Exit
Posted by Pithy at July 5, 2003 09:02 PM
The first words quiz wasn't at all what I was expecting. But then I suppose what I had in mind wouldn't work. It was something like:
Q1 "Ma-ma"
A James Joyce.
B Homer.
C T S Eliot.
D William Shakespeare.
E All of the above plus everyone mentioned in the Oxford Companion to English Literature.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at July 5, 2003 09:03 PM
And I love Agamemnon's last words. For such an ending was the word bathos made. (Would that make the play a bathedy)?
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at July 5, 2003 09:07 PM
Enter boynton with dagger.
(aside)
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths. Not.
Alas, Pithy, wherefore art the four I missed
and in my missing, guessed.
(Exit)
And Gummo: a very reductive angle. Must check the Oxford to see if great minds do bleat alike.
(Erm I was just being deliberately oblique to ensure people clicked on the link.)
And re Agememmon. Yes, see also "And now what?"
Samsa, Gregor
Short Story: "The Metamorphosis," Franz Kafka, 1915
Posted by boynton at July 5, 2003 11:38 PM
A Heath.
Enter Gummo & the Fool.
Gummo: Blow winds and crack your cheeks,
Like blustering oafs who know not their Rushdie and JM Barrie.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at July 6, 2003 04:11 PM
Friday, June 27, 2003
mixed writing links
Mel Brooks' The Producers is coming to Melbourne. Meanwhile boynton may enrol in an intensive drumming workshop.
Drumming taught Brooks the basics...."Rhythm to a comedy writer is crucial," Brooks says. "When the rim shot comes in - and certain words are rim shots; words with a 'k' or an 'i'. 'Chicken' is a perfect word. It's a funny image. What did you buy? A chicken!?"
George Orwell quiz (via Moby Lives)
A reunion of the women chosen to work as guest editors at Mademoiselle magazine in 1953, one of whom was Sylvia Plath who immortalized the experience in
The Bell Jar (via Pop Culture Junk Mail)
"I have been reading Joyce and find it a nightmare in my present condition. . . and not Lawrence and not Virginia Wolf [sic] or anybody who writes by dipping the broken threads of their heads into the ink of literary history, please.
Zelda Fitzgerald's observation is actually a footnote to an entry on This Day in Literature about a dinner party arranged for F.Scott to meet his hero.
Comments: mixed writing links
My mother just returned from Oz, the Eastern 'estate'.
What are rents like?
Posted by esnet at June 27, 2003 04:51 PM
I laughed a lot when I read that Mel Brooks' interview and the comment about "chicken." It is definitely a funny word and I'm dying to have a chance to test it out on someone.
Posted by mcb at June 27, 2003 05:13 PM
es, there'snoplacelikehome.
The eastern estate is better, the southern parts thereof best. I think the rents are good, but don't know how they compare to yours. Probably higher. I'll look into it.
yes mcb - always good to have certain chuckling words like chicken up one's sleeve.
Posted by boynton at June 27, 2003 05:49 PM
Bialystock's been living here for ages. Only rarely bump into Bloom though.
Posted by Tony.T at June 30, 2003 02:46 PM
Maybe only once in a blue bloomsday, bialy?
Posted by boynton at June 30, 2003 03:04 PM
Drumming taught Brooks the basics...."Rhythm to a comedy writer is crucial," Brooks says. "When the rim shot comes in - and certain words are rim shots; words with a 'k' or an 'i'. 'Chicken' is a perfect word. It's a funny image. What did you buy? A chicken!?"
George Orwell quiz (via Moby Lives)
A reunion of the women chosen to work as guest editors at Mademoiselle magazine in 1953, one of whom was Sylvia Plath who immortalized the experience in
The Bell Jar (via Pop Culture Junk Mail)
"I have been reading Joyce and find it a nightmare in my present condition. . . and not Lawrence and not Virginia Wolf [sic] or anybody who writes by dipping the broken threads of their heads into the ink of literary history, please.
Zelda Fitzgerald's observation is actually a footnote to an entry on This Day in Literature about a dinner party arranged for F.Scott to meet his hero.
Comments: mixed writing links
My mother just returned from Oz, the Eastern 'estate'.
What are rents like?
Posted by esnet at June 27, 2003 04:51 PM
I laughed a lot when I read that Mel Brooks' interview and the comment about "chicken." It is definitely a funny word and I'm dying to have a chance to test it out on someone.
Posted by mcb at June 27, 2003 05:13 PM
es, there'snoplacelikehome.
The eastern estate is better, the southern parts thereof best. I think the rents are good, but don't know how they compare to yours. Probably higher. I'll look into it.
yes mcb - always good to have certain chuckling words like chicken up one's sleeve.
Posted by boynton at June 27, 2003 05:49 PM
Bialystock's been living here for ages. Only rarely bump into Bloom though.
Posted by Tony.T at June 30, 2003 02:46 PM
Maybe only once in a blue bloomsday, bialy?
Posted by boynton at June 30, 2003 03:04 PM
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
literary bugbears and rebecca
I find Max de Winter a deeply unsympathetic character. He's arrogant, bullying and insensitive. Surely he must have realised that his young, inexperienced bride couldn't cope with Mrs Danvers P.D. James on Rebecca is one of the leading figures discussing their literary bugbears (via bifurcated rivets)
Of course, even in mosaic Danny is one scary dame (via fiendish word)
For those of us who love the film, maybe it's one of those novels that was enhanced by its cinematic treatment
"Late in his life, Hitchcock told an interviewer he'd thought du Maurier's novel was "humorless," and maybe he was right. But he and screenwriters Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison found darkly humorous ways to convey the novel's tone of quietly mounting hysteria and its ultra-refined schoolgirl-passion prose"
Comments
I'm glad PD said that! Max just didn't wash with me even in my pimply innocence, and it bothered me enough to detract mightily from the read. Cousin Rachel was the one for me. Araldited said pimply innocent right into Phillip's shoes from the off.
Has boynton ever seen the film of that one? I've never seen it, and it'd have to be a ripper, no?
Posted by: Rob Schaap at June 10, 2003 03:15 AM
Shamefaced I confess I have neither read nor seen MCR. And now the Queen's birthday long weekend with filthy weather well suited to watching videos is over! But with Richard Burton in the cast, I think I'll make an effort to hire it pronto.
As for Max - yeah guess so. Maybe in one's respective girlish pimply innocence, such terrible traits were seen as millsyboony desirable. Liked Larry in the film though, and the (RL) "tension" b/w him and Joan F.
Posted by: boynton at June 10, 2003 01:03 PM
Of course, even in mosaic Danny is one scary dame (via fiendish word)
For those of us who love the film, maybe it's one of those novels that was enhanced by its cinematic treatment
"Late in his life, Hitchcock told an interviewer he'd thought du Maurier's novel was "humorless," and maybe he was right. But he and screenwriters Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison found darkly humorous ways to convey the novel's tone of quietly mounting hysteria and its ultra-refined schoolgirl-passion prose"
Comments
I'm glad PD said that! Max just didn't wash with me even in my pimply innocence, and it bothered me enough to detract mightily from the read. Cousin Rachel was the one for me. Araldited said pimply innocent right into Phillip's shoes from the off.
Has boynton ever seen the film of that one? I've never seen it, and it'd have to be a ripper, no?
Posted by: Rob Schaap at June 10, 2003 03:15 AM
Shamefaced I confess I have neither read nor seen MCR. And now the Queen's birthday long weekend with filthy weather well suited to watching videos is over! But with Richard Burton in the cast, I think I'll make an effort to hire it pronto.
As for Max - yeah guess so. Maybe in one's respective girlish pimply innocence, such terrible traits were seen as millsyboony desirable. Liked Larry in the film though, and the (RL) "tension" b/w him and Joan F.
Posted by: boynton at June 10, 2003 01:03 PM
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