July 2011
37 posts
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June 2011
55 posts
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Clunk.
I’m editing a young writer’s article about protests going on in Cairo, and here’s an example of the clunky style I’ve been seeing all the time:
Some demonstrators engaged in rock-throwing
For fuck’s sake! They “threw rocks”! “Some demonstrators threw rocks”! Was that so hard?
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“The air was so sweet in New Orleans it seemed to come in soft bandannas; and you...”
– Jack Kerouac, On The Road (via artofthepark)
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“Very jaded and tired and depressed and cross, and so take the liberty of...”
– Virginia Woolf, from a diary entry dated 30 November 1939 (via proustitute)
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sublimemango replied to your post: Why I Am Sleep-Deprived Today and Recent Events
Not trying to force you to make a decision or anything, but come to Ithaca! Anna, Dan, Eric and I are going to be living in Rochester. In a house. Being adults and stuff. It’d be awesome if you were nearby.
Totally working on it! It’s sort of up in the air because I’m locked into a lease, but...
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Why I Am Sleep-Deprived Today and Recent Events
Last night at 3 am I dreamed there was a horrifying mouse/rat crawling in my bed and I emitted this deep-throated, Carrie Fisher-register scream only to find, after turning on the light, that it was my phone next to me that I had imagined to be a disease-ridden rodent. Oh, my poor neighbors. Either I am finally cracking up or I’m just weirded out about vermin in general because I can’t seem to get...
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“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
– William Shakespeare (via misspcgenius)
This is essentially why I hate it when anyone goes on about how smart he is. Dude, there’s so much you still don’t know, no matter who you are! Maybe focus on that instead of touting your own supposed genius all the time?
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“Here is my list of Great Southern Fiction, highly idiosyncratic and incomplete,...”
– Ten Essential Southern Novels | Conversational Reading
Definitely holding onto this for later.
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“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you...”
– J. D. Salinger (via makelovetothemoon)
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Tonight No Poetry Will Serve
wwnorton:
Saw you walking barefoot taking a long look at the new moon’s eyelid
later spread sleep-fallen, naked in your dark hair asleep but not oblivious of the unslept unsleeping elsewhere
Tonight I think no poetry will serve
Syntax of rendition:
verb pilots the plane adverb modifies action
verb force-feeds noun submerges the subject noun is choking verb disgraced ...
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“I don’t want to analyze myself or anything, but I think, in fact I know this to...”
– Aaron Sorkin (via writingadvice)
The Harrowing of the South
peterpanic:
The first is my sister Who found her first love among the hornets That kissed and lapped at the sweet sap of all the fallen pears. And the compost pile just yonder All in their noses, making them know That there is no realer than this.
The second is my son Who grew up watching all the redneck men Grab up their redneck babies and give them bright hissing sparklers To go and search...
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“Writing isn’t just a job that stops at six thirty… It’s a mad, sexy, sad, scary,...”
– Russell T. Davies (via writingadvice)
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Lost in the Meritocracy →
ubiquitousamericana:
tetw:
by Walter Kirn
Percentile is destiny in America. Your fate deicded by a test that measures … what, exactly? Just “aptitude.” Aptitude for showing aptitude, mainly. Nobody told us it wouldn’t be enough.
Amazing.
Read now.
Seconded. What a stunning piece.
julieklausner:
“That’s not writing, that’s typing.” —Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac
The 30 Harshest Author-on-Author Insults in History
Reading this is strangely upsetting. It’s like watching my friends fight.
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“Naps are essential to my process. Not dreams, but that state adjacent to sleep,...”
– William Gibson (via austinkleon)
We are very big fans of naps over here. Unfortunately, our bosses are not.
(via scribnerbooks)
I totally get this. I love writing after naps.
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Yes, Nola gets dirty every once in a while
cajunboy:
the20s:
Travel & Leisure Readers Are Cold Blooded. Travel & Leisure magazine polled readers for the dirtiest cities in America, and they put New Orleans at the top of the list, which seems unfair given that the city was, you know, obliterated by a hurricane a few years ago. -DM [Jen Doll]
Great cities, like great lives, get dirty every once in a while. New York. Paris....
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Antilamentation
carsinmycoffee:
Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read to the end just to find out who killed the cook. Not the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark, in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication. Not the lover you left quivering in a hotel parking lot, the one you beat to the punchline, the door, or the one who left you in your red dress and shoes, the ones that crimped your...
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letitride:
Keep making art, and when you get tired; eat, and/ or watch movies, every kind. make tea and then keep making art. that will keep you from becoming “them”- you know those people who could, but don’t and know there is nothing left for them. them, the terrible them that tear down the ones who never gave up on the dream because you and me kid, we were made of that stuff and were...
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“When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a...”
– Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
oneheadedboy-deactivated2011110 asked: Just wanted to say you have an absolutely awesome blog.
thequeenmermaid asked: Hi Janis! Thanks for the follow! :) I must warn you, though, about the lack of meaningful content on my blog...
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“There have been plenty of self-destructive rebel-angel novelists over the years,...”
– Michael Chabon talks about his 1,000-words-a-day writing regimen in a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone.
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I'm Over the Moon, Brenda Shaughnessy
kathleenjoy:
I don’t like what the moon is supposed to do. Confuse me, ovulate me, spoon-feed me longing. A kind of ancient date-rape drug. So I’ll howl at you, moon, I’m angry. I’ll take back the night. Using me to swoon at your questionable light, you had me chasing you, the world’s worst lover, over and over hoping for a mirror, a whisper, insight. But you disappear for nights on end with all...
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