30/11/2012

Unethical books corrupting the young

I would chuckle if it wasn't written by a jealous impotent snitch:

"At stage where advancement in technology has enchanted modern youth towards book reading, the booksellers, however are cashing in this phenomenon by selling unethical, obscene and immoral literature.

During visits of different places in twin cities it has been told that the students are more interested in unethical books rather than knowledgeable books and they like to read vulgar literature, not only students but people from different professions read such kind of immoral books.

The students of different colleges and school come these bus stops, search for vulgar literature on these stalls, instead of purchasing informative books. It was learnt that the conductors, beggars and labors seen on bus stops also search for vulgar pictorial books or novels."

From: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/islamabad/01-Dec-2012/sale-of-unethical-books-on-the-rise-in-twin-cities



SpyWriter Jack King "A new King of thrillers on the horizon" www.SpyWriter.com

The battle for your thoughts

"We have this position where as we know knowledge is power, and there’s a mass transfer as a result of literally billions of interceptions per day going from everyone, the average person, into the data vaults of state spying agencies for the big countries, and their cronies – the corporations that help build them that infrastructure. ...

The people who control the interception of the internet and, to some degree also, physically control the big data warehouses and the international fiber-optic lines. We all think of the internet as some kind of Platonic Realm where we can throw out ideas and communications and web pages and books and they exist somewhere out there. Actually, they exist on web servers in New York or Nairobi or Beijing, and information comes to us through satellite connections or through fiber-optic cables. 

So whoever physically controls this controls the realm of our ideas and communications. And whoever is able to sit on those communications channels, can intercept entire nations, and that’s the new game in town, as far as state spying is concerned – intercepting entire nations, not individuals."

More: http://rt.com/news/assange-internet-control-totalitarian-943/



SpyWriter Jack King "A new King of thrillers on the horizon" www.SpyWriter.com

Reading changes lives

"Many authors write from their personal experiences. When an author can personally connect with young adults with depression, self-harm or any issue for that matter, it sets an example that the reader is not alone and many people go through what he/she feels (including your favorite author!). Authors can be an example that life gets better.

In a world where many adults think teens don’t read anymore, hundreds of thousands of adolescents every day are glued to reading fiction. Some are “reading for school” or “reading for pleasure.” Many are reading for an experience. No matter what age, everyone can say they were forever changed by a book.

Though the book itself can’t physically change a person, the story can plant new ideas and views in someone’s life. Characters with similar problems or scenarios may relate to the reader. The way they handle a situation may spark an idea in the mind of the reader."

More: http://my.hsj.org/DesktopModules/ASNE/ASNE.Newspapers/Mobile.aspx?newspaperid=818&editionid=0&categoryid=0&articleid=558564&userid=0

29/11/2012

Literary vs. Genre

"Many critics, art aficionados and artists try to convince their audiences of the difference between the great works of literary import and the dismissible works of genre — to which they would be loathe to even call art. But for all their attempts to sever one from the other, I have never seen an adequate definition of literariness.

I can discern only a few qualities from the muck of their attempted definitions. First, that literary works of art should never fall into any genre, regardless of shape or form (it may be romantic, but never a romance). Second, that literary works should have the proper pretensions toward winning the Pulitzer (or Oscar, Tony, etc.).

As far as divisions of art go, this artificial definition seems horribly useless. It speaks less to the content of the art than to the ego of its creators and distributors. ...

Genre can be very, very low art indeed with a tendency to become too much of an in-joke. ...

Literary works can suffer the same ills, though. They too have their fanboys for pseudo-intellectual rambling."

More: http://www.dailyillini.com/opinion/columns/article_9084bbca-377b-11e2-9e85-001a4bcf6878.html

SpyWriter Jack King "A new King of Thrillers on the Horizon" www.SpyWriter.com

The sick teen sick-lit

"As the popularity of fiction aimed at young adults, such as the Twilight, Harry Potter and Hunger Games series, continues to grow, it is important for readers and parents to note the ethical subtexts of the books. ...

Elman found little to empower the ill in the nearly 100 "teen sick-lit" books she reviewed. Instead, the authors' framing of their ill characters tended to set them apart as abnormal. The will to live for the sick protagonist was often equated to the desire to have a traditional heterosexual relationship, often with healthy counterparts. Characters that did not adhere to traditional gender roles tended to be ostracized or encouraged to conform. ... Elman believes the emphasis placed on the effects of illness on the girls' bodies related to the importance placed on women's sexual attractiveness by society.

'Teen sick-lit,' which mostly arose in the '80s', stands in contrast to the progressive young adult literature of the 70s, which often dealt with issues of racism, homophobia and other injustices," Elman said. "'Teen sick-lit' reinforces the idea that an individual must adjust themselves to society in order to succeed, regardless of preexisting cultural barriers, as opposed to taking action to create a more just society."

More: http://phys.org/news/2012-08-parents-readers-beware-stereotypes-young.html



Jack King "A new King of thrillers": www.SpyWriter.com

28/11/2012

The Victims

Two giant publishing conglomerates want to merge. What it means to readers, writers, and other insiders?

"One single publishing house usually contains multiple imprints with distinct identities and tastes. Agents typically pitch one book to one imprint at one house, although the exact rules differ from publisher to publisher. The rule at Penguin is that agents cannot pitch to multiple imprints within the group; imprints cannot bid against each other for the same manuscript. At Random House, imprints can bid against each other as long as they are not in the same immediate group. After the Penguin Random House merger, agents could see pitching options abruptly diminished if Penguin's rules are retained in the new conglomerate."

This, as the publishing mergers of the 1990's, means a narrowing gate into publication. See what it takes to publish a book: www.spywriter.com/dta/

More: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/27/the-victims-of-the-penguin-random-house-merger-literary-agents.html

26/11/2012

Becoming a better person starts with a children's book

"Often, people discover reading at a young age. Beginning with colorful children's books, readers learn to appreciate stories and eventually, create their own. But beyond inspiring readers to become writers, books can actually help children to become better people." ...

"reading fiction improves relationship competency, as reading can create self-understanding. "Any novel adds to the reader's store of experience of how people feel, think, behave and react. Such experience is the currency of human interaction and understanding of self. Fiction offers a way into that world," ...

"reading and exposure to stories in all their forms helps children develop a wider understanding of the world, as well as decision-making skills." ...

"when children read, they are exposed to a pattern of conflict resolution." ...

"We need to remind ourselves that when writers and storytellers make up stories, they become exemplars of problem-solving using the imagination. The more stories the children absorb, the more they absorb the model,"...

"reading teaches children to experience more richly aspects of their own world. Reading ... is not just about literacy. "It's about people literacy. Through stories children develop a greater capacity for empathy. Through stories they develop a capacity to read and know others in their own lives,"" 

More:http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/283858/lifestyle/literature/the-magic-of-books-imagined-stories-real-life-lessons








Jack King "A new King of thrillers": www.SpyWriter.com

25/11/2012

Reading makes you crazy enough to become a writer

In The Silent House, a novel by Orhan Pamuk, there is a character who “read so many books that he went crazy. This is an autobiographical nod. He is the boy who read so many books that he went crazy. Not one particular book, but Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Thomas Mann, Borges, Calvino… these writers and their novels made me. Reading novels changed my life. I’ve said that I mysteriously moved from painting to novels but at that time I was reading so much that it’s really no mystery. Discovering these writers, as Borges once said about reading Dostoevsky for the first time, is like the experience of seeing the sea for the first time in your life. Discovering these writers, all of them, was like seeing the sea for the first time. You’re stuck there. You want to be something like that. You want to belong to that.”

An Interview with Orhan Pamuk: http://thequietus.com/articles/10733-orhan-pamuk-silent-house-interview



Jack King "A new King of thrillers": www.SpyWriter.com

Spying, it's a women's world

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"On a moonlit night in June 1943, Noor, fresh from spy school at Beaulieu, was the first female radio operator ever to be dropped into Nazi-occupied France. As part of a network of agents responsible for sending intelligence back to England, “Madeleine” was equipped with a transmitter/receiver device, weighing about 30 pounds and fitting into an ordinary suitcase. With German wireless direction-finding vehicles — typically disguised as laundry and baker’s vans — regularly circling round, she had to be constantly vigilant, always finding surreptitious new locations and never staying on air for long. It was also crucial that she gave the unwavering impression of being completely French, never uttering a word or displaying a gesture that might give her away. For emergencies, she had four pills: Benzedrine, in case she needed to stay awake for a long spell; a sleeping pill, to drop in an enemy’s drink in a tight spot; a drug to induce stomach disturbance; and of course cyanide, to be bitten if she chose to die rather than endure torture or interrogation."

More: http://www.salon.com/2012/11/08/the_spy_game_no_men_need_apply/?mobile.html



Jack King "A new King of thrillers": www.SpyWriter.com

24/11/2012

Espionage and Surveillance State in the Elizabethan Age

"We think of the surveillance state as a modern development, something conjured up by novels such as Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent or George Orwell's 1984, or by real-life stories of Stalin's Soviet Union or Hitler's Germany. But spying is one of the world's oldest professions, as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Bible attest. Well before the 20th century, many states were doing all they could to monitor their citizens' activities as closely and comprehensively as possible.

England in particular has a long history of spying on its own people. It is no accident that in Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays the Danish government specializing in espionage and double-dealing. In Act 2, scene 1, the court councilor Polonius teaches a henchman how to spy on Polonius' own son, Laertes, in Paris, instructing him "by indirections find directions out." Moving as he did in court circles, Shakespeare was evidently familiar with intelligence operations in Elizabethan England, some of which involved several of his famous contemporaries—certainly Francis Bacon and possibly Christopher Marlowe. Under such spymasters as Lord Burghley and Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's court pioneered many of the techniques and practices we associate with international espionage to this day, including code-breaking and the use of double and even triple agents."

More: http://reason.com/archives/2012/11/24/the-elizabethan-cia



Jack King "A new King of thrillers": www.SpyWriter.com

23/11/2012

Paint-by-number writing stifles creativity

"The well-worn formula beginning/middle/end is the default mode for pretty much all of the commercial and "literary" novels that currently jostle for ascendancy on our bookshelves. We like our entertainment to make immediate sense, or if it doesn't at first, it should explain all at the end. Repeat ad infinitum. I would argue there is something crucial lacking in this formula: the power of ambiguity. Closure belittles the complexities of meaning: our meaning, our being here. So what does this desire for closure say about us as readers? Why are we so fearful of ambiguity? Why do we desire novels that, to paraphrase Alain Robbe-Grillet, do the "reading" for us?

Life isn't like the narratives that make up the majority of novels in circulation today, or like the well-rehearsed scenes we enjoy at the theatre, or in the movies. It's more complicated than that: steeped in confusion, dead ends, blank spaces and broken fragments. It's baffling at times, annoying and perpetually open-ended. We have no real way of predicting our future. So why do our novels have to tie all this stuff together, into a neatly packaged bundle of ready-made answers?"

Perhaps it is the paint-by-numbers approach of the publishing industry where adopting uniformity is the goal? The endless pursuit of more books in the vein of this-or-that title stifles creativity. This drive to deliver books created according to the above formula is particularly prevalent in the anglo-american publishing world. Check out Cortazar's Hopscotch, for an example of a book with neither beginning, middle, or end. Read it from any point.

Read More: http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/nov/23/novels-neat-conclusions?cat=books&type=article

Jack King "A new King of thrillers": www.SpyWriter.com

Read Classics to be a Better Investor

Russia's Greatest Novelists and their masterpieces may be used to guide investors:

"War and Peace, Tolstoy
Just like in Leo Tolstoy’s work, in which the war caused great economic and social destruction but eventually Russia prevailed, the investment backdrop for next year is seen as a “very volatile first half” followed by “a more peaceful second half.”

The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
the novel’s heroine, is tempted by the promise of an eternal good life just as much as Russia was tempted by “seemingly never-ending oil revenue growth” before 2009.

Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky
the preference is to avoid taking any action that may be politically or socially unpalatable,” said Weafer, adding that “eventually they must be confronted,” but this will not necessarily happen next year.

The Queen of Spades, Pushkin,
“The warning is that without reforms, growth may not last,” he added.

Dead Souls, Gogol
the “dead souls” metaphor is “close enough” to the Russian state’s ownership of strategic industries, particularly in oil and gas.

The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov
“Change is inevitable – it is how you handle it that matters,”

A Hero of Our Time, Lermontov
“It will be tough to satisfy the state’s wish to control strategic industries and also to bring in investors,”

Home of the Gentry, Turgenev
there a chance of a return to “a less optimistic and less happy existence full of regret and longing for what might have been?”"

MORE: http://www.emergingmarkets.org/Article/3120819/War-and-Peace-Russian-literature-and-investing.html

SpyWriter Jack King: www.SpyWriter.com | www.FaceBook.com/SpyWriter2

19/11/2012

Classic novels zombiefied to stay relevant

"For all their benefits, classic books also have their limitations. These problems aren’t major, but they can make reading a classic novel less enjoyable than if they did not exist.

Overall, there are really only two main shortcomings to classic books. First, books cannot change, but the world around us is changing every day. Books’ unchangeable nature is just a fact of the written word, but it makes the creation of a prolific novel much more difficult. Inevitably something will happen to make most classics irrelevant in today’s world"...

Something will happen and make a classic (timeless) novel irrelevant? Really? Is this why classics are being re-written to include zombies? Because that really makes them relevant today.

More: http://m.dailynebraskan.com/mobile/arts_and_entertainment/article_30fff248-31fc-11e2-b8bf-001a4bcf6878.html



Jack King "A new King of thrillers": www.SpyWriter.com

16/11/2012

Getting published is an aggregate of chance

''even lousy literature is written by outsiders'' or ''to linger round the bookstore alcove dedicated to how-to-write books is to grow acquainted with the many species of human expectation''.

As those two introductions suggest, Bissell remains enthralled with the job of writing. That preoccupation is not focused on the common delusions that something about writing might really be learnt by knowing which type of pen authors use, what hours they keep or whether they listen to music.

Bissell concentrates on the task of actually getting published. His first essay challenges the notion that ''the sweetest cream eventually rises to the top'', suggesting that literary success might be partly attributed to an ''accumulation of non-literary accidents'' or, indeed, ''the yield of an inert aggregate of chance''.

Bissell's organising idea is that ''the publishing industry as a whole does literature few favours'', and he deploys an impressive accumulation of evidence of chance and accidents to attest that thesis."

More: http://m.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/a-read-about-writing-20121116-29fdj.html

How to Publish a book: www.SPYWRITER.com/dta/

Inside a Secret Society

"The year is roughly 1746. The initiation has begun.

The master places a piece of paper in front of the candidate and orders him to put on a pair of eyeglasses. “Read,” the master commands. The candidate squints, but it’s an impossible task. The page is blank.

The candidate is told not to panic; there is hope for his vision to improve. The master wipes the candidate’s eyes with a cloth and orders preparation for the surgery to commence. He selects a pair of tweezers from the table. The other members in attendance raise their candles.

The master starts plucking hairs from the candidate’s eyebrow. This is a ritualistic procedure; no flesh is cut. But these are “symbolic actions out of which none are without meaning,” the master assures the candidate. The candidate places his hand on the master’s amulet. Try reading again, the master says, replacing the first page with another. This page is filled with handwritten text. Congratulations, brother, the members say. Now you can see."

The breaking of the copiale cipher:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11/ff-the-manuscript/all/



Presidents are chosen, but not elected. The Black Vault. www.SPYWRITER.com

12/11/2012

Writers for Change

"present critical situation has pushed the society in a state of uncertainty ... in such a situation, the writers could play a key-role to encourage the society through their pen."

"Writers should endeavour to change the society and resist the temptation to be sucked into the melee of literary mediocrity."

"literature is the mirror of society. It reflects the ever changing society. Consequently, literature evolves in tandem with the dynamics of society. ... Therefore, if society has sunk into the abyss of mediocrity, literature will just capture that."

SOURCES:

http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=181592

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/Writers+must+not+only+reflect+society/-/440806/1615264/-/4bu6umz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/If+Kenyan+literature+is+mediocre+blame+it+on+our+banal+society/-/440806/1612480/-/6yhuamz/-/index.html


Books of Change by Jack King: www.SpyWriter.com

Wordless Literary Critics

"Literary criticism has to be borne out of genuine efforts of having reading a work and understanding it...

However, most criticism of literary works is the handiwork of "cut and paste critics", who pick up a few passages from the work and depend on hearsay and opinions of those who have not read the work fully and understood its implications...

...the chances of literature flourishing to its fullest is bleak until such time that criticism is true and unbiased. "It is imperative that there is creative criticism that points to the follies and foibles of an author and not criticism for the sake of it..."

More: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Criticism-should-not-be-a-cut-copy-paste-work-Moily/articleshow/17187929.cms

Jack King Novels: www.SpyWriter.com

09/11/2012

The end of espionage thriller?

Can't find a decent espionage thriller these days? Don't blame it on Perestroika. Blame it on not reading SpyWriter Jack King:

"The end of the Cold War created a problem  for espionage thriller writers and moviemakers. They faced loss of a built-in backstory needing no explanation, a whole set of strong but realistic motivations for extreme behavior, a pre-fab cast of bad guys, and weighty, global stakes underlying all the action. Perestroika left a generation of writers searching for new conflicts and settings and plot devices.

Today I think the growth of surveillance technology will increasingly create a similar problem for fiction writers. It’s a staple of thrillers and science fiction to have the hero on the run—hounded by the government, evading the police—either because the hero is mistaken as someone bad or because the government is evil. And the government baddies use every technology at their disposal to locate and track their target, while the hero uses tricks and hacks to escape detection.

But the whole cat and mouse game is starting to look kind of problematic, because it’s getting harder to sustain a plausible “man on the run” scenario in the face of surveillance technology.

I like a good airport thriller or science fiction read, and for several years I’ve noticed this problem cropping up: it’s the near future (or later), the hero or heroine is on the run, and I find myself thinking, oh please, if they really had all the advanced technologies featured in this story, they’d certainly have more impressive surveillance capability! We may have more than that ourselves in couple years the way things are going."

From: http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-security/will-increasing-surveillance-change-fiction

Presidents are chosen, but not elected. The Black Vault. www.SPYWRITER.com

Be a better man by reading women

"If men read so little fiction, and so little of what they do read is written by women, does this account for some of what so many of us women see as emotional ignorance, and men's inability to express their feelings or to attempt to understand ours?

The men whom I most appreciate have high levels of emotional intelligence and sensibility, they listen, contribute and empathise, they embrace difference and are prepared for their own vulnerability. And they all read fiction written by and about women.

It's well known that in old age women fare better than men, and single women fare very much better than men who, either by choice or bereavement, live alone. Men suffer higher rates of depression, are more socially isolated, less able to ask for and accept help. Henry David Thoreau's observation that ''most men live lives of quiet desperation'' is never more true than in relation to ageing men.

As we age our individual circumstances affect the quality of our lives: health, wealth or the lack of it, housing, mobility and family background all play a part. But, as the recently released Australian study of ageing so clearly demonstrates, attitude is everything and so often men's social and emotional lives are paralysed in age while women's flourish.

So, could men benefit from reading women's fiction? I'd say without a doubt that men's relationships with women would benefit profoundly. And would they live more sociable, contented and emotionally rewarding lives in old age? I don't know the answer to that but I think it's a fascinating question."

More: http://m.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/what-men-want-is-available--if-they-read-more-womens-fiction-20121108-290me.html

Presidents are chosen, but not elected. The Black Vault. www.SPYWRITER.com

02/11/2012

A writing workshop in every neighborhood

"Cubans enjoy one of the richest and most deeply embedded literary cultures in the world, according to researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Nottingham.

According to the researchers, the richness  of Cuba’s tradition is typified by the Havana Book Fair held each year in the capital and then across the country.

“It shows how literature and culture are deeply embedded into Cuban culture:  within every neighbourhood there’s a writing workshop and a ‘Casa de Cultura’.

... “the Cuban model is something we should be emulating in the West"

FROM: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=8987

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Reading lies deep withing us

"Books allow readers to escape to foreign lands, go on death-defying adventures and experience unusual lives. This Saturday is National Book Lover’s Day in honor of these books and the people who enjoy them."

“Reading exposes us to things. It allows us to attempt to understand things and expand our perception of the world. It allows us to see things in different ways, through the eyes of different people,” said Cameron Leader-Picone, assistant professor of English. “It also taps into something deep within us: our desire to understand and learn more about ourselves.”

FROM: http://www.kstatecollegian.com/2012/11/02/national-book-lovers-day-celebrates-literature-joy-of-reading/