tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26407302066186550432024-03-08T02:24:00.992-05:00Reading and Writingreading and writing: espionage, conspiracy, and psy-opsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.comBlogger825125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-43175670103631591962014-01-29T16:13:00.000-05:002014-02-01T16:15:17.674-05:00Literary vs Real Life (and Death) HitmenA must for readers and writers of thrillers:<br />
<br />
“A group of researchers at the Center for Applied Criminology at
Birmingham City University in the U.K. has recently analyzed newspaper
articles, court records, and a series of “off-the-record” interviews
with informants “who have, or who had, direct knowledge of contract
killings” in order to construct what they term a “typology” of British
hitmen.” …<br />
“The main thrust of the paper, which will be published in the Howard
Journal of Criminal Justice, is that hitmen do not operate with the
drama, professionalism, or glamour that mob films and spy novels afford
them. In actuality, the majority of killers select jejune settings for
their crimes, have occasionally bumbling performances, and are often
hired by contractors with lame motivations.”<br />
“Here’s the profile of an average British hitman, who seems more
confined by the boxy restraints of reality than the undulating arcs of
fiction:”<br />
“He kills on the cheap. The average asking price was £15,180. It was
£100,000 at the highest level, and a teenager was shafted with £200 at
the low end.” …<br />
“The weapon of choice was a firearm.” …<br />
“Most of the killers were working on first-time contracts, meaning
there weren’t many long-distance snipers taking shots from towers.” …<br />
<br />
READ MORE: <a href="http://www.psmag.com/navigation/politics-and-law/how-hitmen-operate-73430/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+miller-mccune%2Fmain_feed+%28Pacific+Standard+-+Main+Feed%29" rel="nofollow">http://www.psmag.com/navigation/politics-and-law/how-hitmen-operate-73430/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+miller-mccune%2Fmain_feed+%28Pacific+Standard+-+Main+Feed%29</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-12925237428679170602014-01-26T16:11:00.000-05:002014-02-01T16:12:52.068-05:00Genre Writers“In genre fiction, it’s not like that. People usually begin their
careers by having their writing rejected by their undergrad creative
writing professors. Then (since they don’t get paid by MFA programs),
they must write in silence and obscurity—choosing to write even when it
means taking time away from their jobs and their families—for years!
Since genre workshops tend to be self-organized, even if the
writer does go to a regular workshop, their validation usually only
comes from their peers (rather than from authority figures). Oftentimes
their first real validation is when they sell a story: something that
often comes after five or more years of constant rejection, with only
extremely infrequent pats on the back (as opposed to the creative
writing student who gets some praise at least three times a semester,
when they turn in their stories for workshop)."<br />
<br />
From: http://blotter-paper.com/2014/01/22/why-you-should-hate-the-creative-writing-establishment-as-if-you-needed-any-more-reasons/Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-18579943682550850372014-01-13T16:10:00.000-05:002014-02-01T16:11:03.781-05:00American Literature in Exile“A recently lecturing Englishman is reported to have noted the
unenviable primacy of the United States among countries where the
struggle for material prosperity has been disastrous to the pursuit of
literature.”<br />
“(I don’t want to get to obtrusive with the ol’ triple-parens here,
but let me rephrase that for you, as a kind of push-start: British
critics think that American writers are a bunch of trashy,
dollar-obsessed sellouts. Not a new idea!)”<br />
“He said, or is said to have said (one cannot be too careful in
attributing to a public man the thoughts that may be really due to an
imaginative frame in the reporter), that among us, “the old race of
writers of distinction, such as Longfellow, Bryant, Holmes, and
Washington Irving, have (sic) died out, and the Americans who are most
prominent in cultivated European opinion in art or literature, like
Sargent, Henry James, or Marion Crawford, live habitually out of
America, and draw their inspiration from England, France, and Italy.”<br />
<br />
Read more: http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2013/12/american-literature-in-exile-by-william-dean-howells/Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-61314135902605097962014-01-09T16:08:00.000-05:002014-02-01T16:09:35.840-05:00Purpose of Literature“Authors tend to write more miserable books about 10 years after an economic downturn, a study has claimed.”<br />
“Researchers compared the number of times certain words appeared in
more than five million books to certain periods in American and British
history. They found that the frequency of words expressing sadness
reflected the economic conditions in the 10 years before a book was
written.”<br />
“The results suggest quite clearly that, contrary to post-modern
literary theory, literature serves a purpose. It informs people about
the human condition, and the content adapts to the conditions of the
time.”<br />
<br />
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/10559375/Economic-downturns-fuel-sad-books-claims-study.htmlAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-48474200170108347422014-01-08T16:04:00.000-05:002014-02-01T16:07:24.185-05:00Read to Succeed“Ten reasons why reading good books is a key to success:<br />
<br />
* Reading good books has the side effect of inducing feelings of optimism, peace of mind and desire.<br />
* Self-help books and success literature encourage you to focus your viewpoint on the future and not dwell in the past.<br />
* When you read personal development books you get inspired and want to set new goals for yourself.<br />
* Reading about success and successful people gives you something to aspire to.<br />
* The stories and lessons found in many books provide hope that there is always something better waiting in your future.<br />
* Some books will encourage you to imagine and picture what you want for your career and your life.<br />
* Good books open your mind to new ideas and ways of looking at things.<br />
* Books can teach you how to relate to and lead others in more positive and productive ways.<br />
* Reading can increase your value to your employer and your profession.<br />
* Books will open more doors to opportunity, growth and success in all areas of your life.”<br />
<br />
More: http://m.standard.net/standardex/pm_109839/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=nN0VmsqFAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-44860066669397170292014-01-08T14:56:00.001-05:002014-01-08T14:56:50.453-05:00Near Literary Abortions – Books and writers that almost were not publishedPublishers and literary agents do not always know better. Here are some books / writers that almost did not become published:<br />
<br />
“Not only does this bog down in the middle, but the author tends to
stay too long with non essentials. He seems to have little idea of pace,
and is enchanted with his words, his tough style, and that puts me off
badly.” Re: The Ipcress File, by Len Deighton.<br />
<br />
“Things improve a bit with the rebuilding of the village but then go
to hell in a hack at the end. Perhaps there is a public that can take
all this with a straight face but I’m not one of them.” Re: Welcome to
Hard Times, by E.L. Doctorow<br />
<br />
“It does not seem to us that you have been wholly successful in working out an admittedly promissing idea<a href="http://www.spywriter.com/">.</a>” Re: Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.<br />
<br />
“A duller story I have never read. It wanders a deep mire of affected
writing and gets nowhere, tells no tale, stirs no emotion but
weariness.” Re: In the Cage, by Henry James.<br />
<br />
The novel is “… rather discursive and the point of view is not an
attractive one.” Re: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James
Joyce.<br />
<br />
“I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.” Re: Untitled work by Rudyard Kipling.<br />
<br />
“You’re welcome to le Carre – he hasn’t got any future.” Re: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, by John le Carre.<br />
<br />
“… superficial and unconvincing<a href="http://www.spywriter.com/">.</a> I do not see this book as a very well told story on any level.” Re: The Assistant, by Bernard Malamud.<br />
<br />
“It is impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.” Re: Animal Farm, by George Orwell.<br />
<br />
“A long, dull novel about an artist.” Re: Lust for Life, by Irving Stone.<br />
<br />
“It is not interesting enough for the general reader and not thorough
enough for the scientific reader.” Re: The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells.<br />
<br />
“It contain unpleasant elements.” Re: The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde.<br />
<br />
Frederic Forsyth<a href="http://www.spywriter.com/">‘</a>s The Day of the Jackal was rejected by nearly 50 publishers.<br />
<br />
Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles was rejected by six publishers.<br />
<br />
Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October was rejected by over two dozen publishers.<br />
<br />
Jack King’s The Fifth Internationale was rejected almost 500 times<a href="http://www.spywriter.com/">.</a><br />
<br />
John Grisham’s A Time to Kill was turned down by 28 publishers.<br />
<br />
Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was rejected 121 times.<br />
<br />
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind was rejected 38 times.<br />
<br />
The list goes on… As George Bernard Shaw said: “I object to
publishers: the one service they have done me is to teach me to do
without them<a href="http://www.spywriter.com/">.</a>
They combine commercial rascality with artistic touchiness and
pettishness, without being either good business men or fine judges of
literature. All that is necessary in the production of a book is an
author and a bookseller, without the intermediate parasite.”Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-38501058689736128862013-12-31T06:42:00.001-05:002013-12-31T06:42:49.654-05:00Books of Mass Destruction<p dir="ltr">Books…</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Like any powerful tool, while it is considered to be the key to changing our lives by some, others may consider it to be a weapon of mass destruction.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The power of literature over communities and societies cannot be denied. Good literature is able to plant something in the minds of individuals, which may unify and form masses that can start revolutions, overthrow dictators, change laws and tradition and reshape the future. That “something” is an idea and there is no doubt that literature is the most efficient way to get that idea out there and plant it into minds.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">… “there was a time [...] when books were considered to be enough “evidence” to arrest young people and imprison them for the crime of being corrupt and even an enemy of the state. There was a time [...] in the course of the world’s history, when books were read, hastily devoured, then burnt or buried deep in the ground, like dead bodies, with the fear of getting captured, thrown into prison, tortured and perhaps even murdered.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Alas, today…</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We have already begun to forget our past and literature’s divorce with politics had a lot to do with this collective amnesia”</p>
<p dir="ltr">More: http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/features/a-sour-love-affair-literature-and-politics-in-turkey_20109</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-8285607269450438552013-12-28T15:12:00.001-05:002013-12-28T15:12:34.998-05:00Democracy and Independent Publishing<p dir="ltr">"Sadly, now, publishing is almost entirely a matter of profitability, meaning that if you want to publish something that is immediately profitable, it’s very rare that it will turn out to be predicated on strong ideas, or dissident ideas.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“That’s a big problem. It has considerably reduced the amount of good books published”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">… “without a free publishing industry, there can be no democracy.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Books today have become mere adjuncts to the world of mass media, offering light entertainment and reassurances that all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds … The resulting control on the spread of ideas is stricter than anyone would have thought possible in a free society.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Sources:</p>
<p dir="ltr">http://www.thewhitereview.org/interviews/interview-with-andre-schiffrin/</p>
<p dir="ltr">http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/12/books-must-stop-beingasideshowtomassmedia.html</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-66778772582308733612013-12-28T15:10:00.001-05:002013-12-28T15:10:12.770-05:00Body-shifting through literature<p dir="ltr">“We already knew that good stories can put you in someone else’s shoes in a figurative sense. Now we’re seeing that something may also be happening biologically,” says neuroscientist Gregory Berns.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist,” Berns says.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The neural changes were not just immediate reactions, Berns says, since they persisted the morning after the readings, and for the five days after the participants completed the novel.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“It remains an open question how long these neural changes might last,” Berns says. “But the fact that we’re detecting them over a few days for a randomly assigned novel suggests that your favorite novels could certainly have a bigger and longer-lasting effect on the biology of your brain.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Source: http://esciencecommons.blogspot.ca/2013/12/a-novel-look-at-how-stories-may-change.html?m=1</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-46220471477911584632013-12-28T15:08:00.001-05:002013-12-28T15:08:19.685-05:00Read Novels for a Better You<p dir="ltr">“Love of reading is the key not only to further learning and knowledge, but also to a better and more fulfilled life with unlimited enjoyment and participation in the arts and culture.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We cannot begin to understand the world without reading books, newspapers and magazines. Reading teaches empathy in a way that the computer games which many [...]  children play never can.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Earlier this year the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a rich countries’ think-tank, revealed that the strongest indicator of the future success of children was not which school they attended or whether their family was wealthy, but if they read for pleasure at the age of 15. Reading teaches children how to express themselves, to broaden their emotional horizons and to cope with difficult situations. It is not just about learning and widening their vocabulary and experiences, but also about understanding the human condition and the lives of others.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Furthermore, “our skills, intelligence, the way we behave as citizens and the ability to think critically depend on reading”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Source: timesofmalta.com</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-70957175370132217692013-12-28T15:06:00.001-05:002013-12-28T15:06:45.597-05:00Read Novels before casting judgment<p dir="ltr">“In American legal discourse, empathy is often portrayed as less respectable than Satan. Judges are presented as elements in the vast economic machine. Their job is to keep the conveyor belt flowing and to dispose of human widgets who come out defective. For these functionaries to be aware of those standing before them as fellow human beings would be dangerous.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Yet, “Reading [novels] makes a judge capable of projecting himself into the lives of others, lives that have nothing in common with his own, even lives in completely different eras or cultures. And this empathy, this ability to envision the practical consequences on one’s contemporaries of a law or a legal decision, seems to me a crucial quality in a judge.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Therefore three cheers to Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who read Marcel Proust, and proclaimed the French author:</p>
<p dir="ltr">“the Shakespeare of the inner world,” “a writer who can give readers a sense of knowing the one thing it is completely impossible to know—what it is like to be another person.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Source: theatlantic.com</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-46904424109814548292013-12-17T09:38:00.001-05:002013-12-17T09:38:58.122-05:00How to write a novel<p dir="ltr">How do writers come up with story ideas and turn them into novels?</p>
<p dir="ltr">“If one idea in particular seems attractive, and you feel you could do something with it, then you toss it around, play tricks with it, work it up, tone it down, and gradually get it into shape. Then, of course, you have to start writing it. That’s not nearly such fun – it becomes hard work. Alternatively, you can tuck it carefully away, in storage, for perhaps using in a year or two years’ time.”  Agatha Christie</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-42228407199980892452013-12-17T09:36:00.001-05:002013-12-17T09:36:29.799-05:00Market Driven Death to Literature<p dir="ltr">“There is an unholy practice to bring fundamentalism, capitalism and even politics into literature and culture. Literature goes beyond any religion, politics and capitalism. The purpose of literature is to bring positive change. If that is not done, the next generation will be misled.”<br>
 <br>
…”literature and activism are the two faces of the same coin” … “Both these elements are interlinked. The very purpose gets defeated if even one element is lost. Let us resolve not to receive any award or accept invitation by individuals, organizations or even the government which encourage communalism and fundamentalism directly or indirectly.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The early writers and poets used literature as a weapon to fight against social evils. But that does not largely happen now. Market-driven society and anti-social issues have hijacked the very essence of literary works”…</p>
<p dir="ltr">Source: daijiworld.com</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-8867462857518352172013-11-24T02:04:00.001-05:002013-11-24T02:04:29.324-05:00Read fiction to build personal wealth<p dir=ltr>There “is money in books.” …</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Don’t expect, however, to find explicit tips on spending, saving, and investing baked into the texts like messages in fortune cookies. Novelists and dramatists seem suspicious if not disdainful of those who dole out advice about money — which is perhaps why, when they do offer worthwhile personal-finance counsel, the words tend to be put into the mouths of imbeciles.” …</p>
<p dir=ltr>“So if literature offers no pecuniary prescriptions and might send overzealous readers off tilting at windmills, why should seekers of financial advice invest any time in it? Based on my own quixotic reading, and after putting the question to both financial pros and professors of literature, there are at least two reasons, I think:”</p>
<p dir=ltr>“First: Novels demonstrate the power the almighty dollar wields over our emotions, thoughts and behavior — and reveal the ripple effect our dealings with money can have on those around us. “</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Second: Fiction is great fun. As much as I enjoy reading psychologists or behavioral economists like Daniel Kahneman and Nassim Taleb, or even the latest Malcolm Gladwell bestseller, no account of psychological experimentation or discourse on the human mind and its failings has ever wedged itself in my memory like the foibles of Micawber and Quixote.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>Continue for advice from these financial gurus: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/want-to-get-rich-read-fiction-2013-11-22</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-13932675147951487362013-11-24T02:00:00.001-05:002013-11-24T02:00:51.323-05:00Fiction key to understanding the real life<p dir=ltr>“People do not read fiction or watch films as observers. Rather they are drawn to participate in the story, making it reality. This has several benefits. It lets them experience how others deal with problems – how their dilemmas confuse them, engage them rationally and emotionally, challenge their values, and force them to balance competing issues. Reading fiction nurtures skills in observation, analysis, diagnosis, empathy, and self-reflection – capacities essential for good customer experiences, for caring about others, and for promoting good leadership practices. Fiction helps its readers to develop insights about people who are different from themselves. As they ponder what they might have done if confronted with a character’s situation, fiction helps its readers to gain insight about themselves as well.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Literary fiction, in contrast to popular fiction, focuses on the psychology of their characters and their interrelationships in the story. The authors of literary fiction reveal their character’s minds only vaguely, leaving out important details. The omission requires the reader to fill in the gaps if the character’s motives are to be understood. Literary fiction is rarely explicit about the internal dialog running inside each character’s mind, which consequently forces the reader to imagine it. This is the way the real world works.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>From: patriotpost.us</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-27073079252729970192013-11-17T15:43:00.001-05:002013-11-17T15:43:16.455-05:00Reading and Common Humanity<p dir=ltr>“In all the academic fluff that is thrown at us when high-brow people start blabbing about the importance of reading, this is never mentioned”:</p>
<p dir=ltr>“a book is a much better babysitter than any toy, television, tablets, Xbox or Playstation.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>Early reading start leads to a better society:</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Reading helps to keep our prisons in check. Neil Gaiman, writing in The Guardian says how in America they easily predict prison growth on a simple algorithm based on the percen-tage of 10-year-olds couldn’t read. The lower the percentage of child read-ers, the more crowded the prison cells will be in future.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>More importantly still:</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Reading helps us to keep our politicians in check. Because we’ll know what’s happening around the world, and we’d have read the historical precedents, then, we’ll be able to tell our politicians what we want and we’ll be able to rise above party politics and aim for a common humanity.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>Continue reading: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131117/opinion/A-fairy-tale-a-day-does-keep-ignorance-at-bay.495053</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-37574450849754066752013-11-13T19:07:00.001-05:002013-11-13T19:07:34.142-05:00Writers in a Surveillance State<p dir=ltr>Writers are ducking their calling in Surveillance State Amerika:</p>
<p dir=ltr>“A new report from the PEN Center and the FDR Group entitled “Chilling Effects: NSA Surveillance Drives U.S. Writers to Self-Censor” finds that 85 percent of surveyed writers are worried about government surveillance of Americans, and nearly three-quarters (73 percent) “have never been as worried about privacy rights and freedom of the press as they are today.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Sixteen percent of writers have avoided writing or speaking about certain topics due to threatening privacy concerns, and an additional 11 percent have seriously considered such avoidance.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Nearly a quarter of the writers surveyed (24 percent) reported deliberately avoiding certain topics in phone or email conversations, and an additional 9 percent have seriously considered such action. A small portion of respondents said they had even declined opportunities to meet with people deemed “security threats by the government” because of privacy fears.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>From: washington.cbslocal.com</p>
<p dir=ltr>Read the report: http://www.google.com/gwt/x?wsc=bf&u=http://www.pen.org/sites/default/files/Chilling%2520Effects_PEN%2520American.pdf&ei=zxCEUq2HF4PSwAKGpYDIBQ</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-29392296418586986812013-11-09T08:21:00.001-05:002013-11-09T08:21:49.106-05:00Why fiction is irresistible<p dir=ltr>"How come so many people in the world are drawn towards stories and plots that never even occurred!”</p>
<p dir=ltr>"If we explore this dynamic we will see that each reader is compelled to this genre for different reasons, but of course there are always similarities. It is widely believed that reading fiction is an escapist hobby and this is quite true. The world we live in, the world we adapt to and the life we are bound to may not seem fascinating all the time. We get bored by our daily routines and the repetitive process starts looking like a trap. Now to vent out and feel fabulous many of us choose to pick out a more fantasy version of life. A place where everything is possible, where even for a short time you can live someone else’s life! This doesn’t mean that the person doesn’t have grip on the realities of life. It just shows that all of us are humans and that some magical phenomenon always seems appealing."</p>
<p dir=ltr>"Apart from that, reading fiction is always a treat for your brain. Encouraging you to think beyond the boundaries of society, creatively and filling you with new ideas. So to all those parents who are always chasing their kids to read more of the academic books than fiction, should remember that your kids are doing mind exercises. So instead of scolding, encourage them to read and introduce them to the world of ‘The Books’.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>Sarwat Amin Rattani, in thefrontierpost.com</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-39412772842247569422013-10-13T13:04:00.001-04:002013-10-13T13:04:19.725-04:00Visual (il)literacy<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>What happens when students watch movie adaptations of literary works?<br/>
<br/>
“Increasingly in contemporary [...] schooling, great store is placed on what is described as “visual literacy”. The appropriation of the word literacy is wrong. Film is an entirely different form and does not, and never can, help reading and writing skills.” …<br/>
<br/>
“Visual literacy should not be confused with substantial textual knowledge. That requires students to understand language, how it works, how we read it, comprehend it and write about it in clear, unambiguous, grammatical English. There is nothing literary, as far as traditional skills are concerned, in watching a movie.” …<br/>
<br/>
“Watching a film is an easy option. The result? A generation of “screeners” – as scholar Dale Spender calls the screen-besotted generation – who are being impoverished by an emphasis on film and not literary texts.”<br/>
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From: theaustralian.com.au</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-62464746310522635202013-10-06T08:21:00.001-04:002013-10-06T08:21:33.876-04:00In Literature United<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>The “fundamental conflict of our times is not the clash between two civilisations, but doctrines-religious and ethnic fundamentalism on the one hand, secular consumerist capitalism on the other.”<br/>
<br/>
“It is true of terrorism as it is of modern civil conflicts that men of war prey on the ignorance of the populace to instill fear and arouse hatred”; “murderous, even genocidal ideologies took root in the absence of truthful information and honest education.”<br/>
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“If only half the effort had gone into teaching those people what unites them, and not what divides them, unspeakable crimes could have been prevented”.<br/>
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“Literature can bring down violence in today’s world as reading and writing broadens minds. … Two contradictory forces shape the world of letters today … the first is globalisation of human imagination and the second is anxiety of audience.”<br/>
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From: newindianexpress.com</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-5584976965255039252013-10-04T06:19:00.001-04:002013-10-04T06:19:34.563-04:00A Bloodline to the Page<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>"The majority of mental illness diagnoses are NOS (not otherwise specified.) It is very likely that future poets will suffer a mood disorder NOS. Like those analyzed before their arrival who do not have a definitive diagnosis, there is hope. The ability of these writers to strike a chord in the literary world may not be an ability learned, or completely understood, but it cannot be ignored. It is a raw mental vein running straight from the mind to the paper. It is often times not tried, or orchestrated, but a bloodline to the page. A writer has their craft to express their mind which is evidence to further expose the intricate nature of how the mind works.<br/>
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There is no certain way a writer can explain the fierce flow of ideas from word to word, line to line, stanza to stanza, any more than a doctor can fully understand a disease that has no clear diagnosis, and is often reduced to NOS (not otherwise specified.) Both are like throwing darts in a dim light, however, through a careful look at writers works in the past, the present, and those yet to be discovered, we may find some answers to the behaviors of manic-depressive people. These writers all share moments captured in writings that reflect their mind which serve as a tool for education.<br/>
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Through a thorough examination of these trends, one may better understand the mind Not Otherwise Specified, and find answers to the plethora of questions surrounding the diagnosis of manic-depression.”<br/>
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From: blogs.psychcentral.com</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-23427679426673111252013-10-03T15:50:00.001-04:002013-10-03T15:50:52.968-04:00Readers of literary fiction are better mind-readers<p dir=ltr>"When we read a thrilling-but-predictable bestseller, “the text sort of grabs us and takes us on a roller-coaster ride,” “and we all sort of experience the same thing.” Literature, on the other hand, gives the reader a lot more responsibility. Its imaginary worlds are full of characters with confusing or unexplained motivations. There are no reliable instructions about whom to trust or how to feel.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>Researchers suspect “that the skills we use to navigate these ambiguous fictional worlds serve us well in real life. In particular” they “surmised that they enhance our so-called theory of mind. That’s the ability to intuit someone else’s mental state—to know, for example, that when someone raises their hand toward us, they’re trying to give us a high-five rather than slap us. It’s closely related to empathy, the ability to recognize and share the feelings of others.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Increasing evidence supports the relationship between reading fiction and theory of mind. But much of this evidence is based on correlations: Self-reported avid readers or those familiar with fiction also tend to perform better on certain tests of empathy, for example.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>From: news.sciencemag.org</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-23818263290270147562013-10-02T11:05:00.001-04:002013-10-02T11:10:31.043-04:00The Book Cemeteries<p dir=ltr>“When the Britains and America are fused into one book market; when it is recognized that letters, which as to their material and their aim are a high-soaring profession, as to their mere remuneration are a trade; when artificial fetters are relaxed, and printers, publishers, and authors obtain the reward which well-regulated commerce would afford them, then let floors beware lest they crack, and walls lest they bulge and burst, from the weight of books they will have to carry and to confine. …</p>
<p dir=ltr>A vast, even a bewildering prospect is before us, for evil or for good; but for good, unless it be our own fault, far more than for evil. Books require no eulogy from me; none could be permitted me, when they already draw their testimonials from Cicero and Macaulay. But books are the voices of the dead. They are a main instrument of communion with the vast human procession of the other world. They are the allies of the thought of man. They are in a certain sense at enmity with the world. Their work is, at least, in the two higher compartments of our threefold life. In a room well filled with them, no one has felt or can feel solitary. Second to none, as friends to the individual, they are first and foremost among the compages, the bonds and rivets of the race, onward from that time when they were first written on the tablets of Babylonia and Assyria, the rocks of Asia minor, and the monuments of Egypt, down to the diamond editions of Mr. Pickering and Mr. Frowde. ...</p>
<p dir=ltr>The purchase of a book is commonly supposed to end, even for the most scrupulous customer, with the payment of the bookseller’s bill. But this is a mere popular superstition. Such payment is not the last, but the first term in a series of goodly length. If we wish to give to the block a lease of life equal to that of the pages, the first condition is that it should be bound.” But, “bound or not, the book must of necessity be put into a bookcase. And the bookcase must be housed. And the house must be kept. And the library must be dusted, must be arranged, should be catalogued. What a vista of toil, yet not unhappy toil! Unless indeed things are to be as they now are in at least one princely mansion of this country, where books, in thousands upon thousands, are jumbled together with no more arrangement than a sack of coals; where not even the sisterhood of consecutive volumes has been respected; where undoubtedly an intending reader may at the mercy of Fortune take something from the shelves that is a book; but where no particular book can except by the purest accident, be found.</p>
<p dir=ltr>Such being the outlook, what are we to do with our books? Shall we be buried under them like Tarpeia under the Sabine shields? Shall we renounce them (many will, or will do worse, will keep to the most worthless part of them) in our resentment against their more and more exacting demands? Shall we sell and scatter them? as it is painful to see how often the books of eminent men are ruthlessly, or at least unhappily, dispersed on their decease.</p>
<p dir=ltr>Without answering in detail, I shall assume that the book-buyer is a book-lover, that his love is a tenacious, not a transitory love, and that for him the question is how best to keep his books. I pass over those conditions which are the most obvious, that the building should be sound and dry, the apartment airy, and with abundant light. And I dispose with a passing anathema of all such as would endeavour to solve their problem, or at any rate compromise their difficulties, by setting one row of books in front of another. I also freely admit that what we have before us is not a choice between difficulty and no difficulty, but a choice among difficulties. …</p>
<p dir=ltr>Clearly these masses, and such as these, ought to be selected first for what I will not scruple to call interment. It is a burial; one, however, to which the process of cremation will never of set purpose be applied. The word I have used is dreadful, but also dreadful is the thing. To have our dear old friends stowed away in catacombs, or like the wine-bottles in bins: the simile is surely lawful until the use of that commodity shall have been prohibited by the growing movement of the time. But however we may gild the case by a cheering illustration, or by the remembrance that the provision is one called for only by our excess of wealth, it can hardly be contemplated without a shudder at a process so repulsive applied to the best beloved among inanimate objects. …</p>
<p dir=ltr>Undoubtedly the idea of book-cemeteries such as I have supposed is very formidable. It should be kept within the limits of the dire necessity which has evoked it from the underworld into the haunts of living men. But it will have to be faced, and faced perhaps oftener than might be supposed. And the artist needed for the constructions it requires will not be so much a librarian as a warehouseman.</p>
<p dir=ltr>But if we are to have cemeteries, they ought to receive as many bodies as possible. The condemned will live ordinarily in pitch darkness, yet so that when wanted, they may be called into the light. Asking myself how this can most effectively be done, I have arrived at the conclusion that nearly two-thirds, or say three-fifths, of the whole cubic contents of a properly constructed apartment may be made a nearly solid mass of books: a vast economy which, so far as it is applied, would probably quadruple or quintuple the efficiency of our repositories as to contents, and prevent the population of Great Britain from being extruded some centuries hence into the surrounding waters by the exorbitant dimensions of their own libraries.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>How best to tend to these book cemeteries, according to William Ewart Gladstone: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3426</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-91999364380283290522013-09-24T14:23:00.001-04:002013-09-24T14:23:14.272-04:00American Literary Tourism<p dir=ltr>"We should question the authenticity of exotic locales that have been tailored to suit American appetites.” …</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Americans are famously reluctant when it comes to reading literature in translation. Only 3% of the books published annually in the United States are translations."… </p>
<p dir=ltr>"While contemporary books may take us to distant places, most of those available are written in English, and penned by writers who live in the English-speaking world. Americans don’t want to be readers of world literature. They want to be literary tourists.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>“This trend has less to do with language than it does with writers’ amenability to act as a tour guide for American readers as they traverse cultural divides. … It’s typically assumed that the reader lacks prior knowledge, so guidebook-like hand-holding is built into the form and narrative of the story.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>“English language writers … treat readers as strangers in a strange land, and the result is world literature that starts to feel like tourism.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>“Slang, jargon, and non-English words must be cushioned in context or explained outright. Descriptions of the setting resemble stage directions, just concrete enough for readers to get their bearings.”</p>
<p dir=ltr>From: policymic.com</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2640730206618655043.post-75800943929880035812013-09-21T08:28:00.001-04:002013-09-21T08:28:56.714-04:00How do you know that you are a writer?<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>"Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a conversation when it suddenly feels like you’re floating above yourself, watching the whole thing unfold? Has that resulted in an awkward pause, as your interlocutor becomes increasingly irate at your obvious lack of attention or respect for what they have to say? Maybe you’ve failed to be entirely in the moment, even in intimate situations, because you’re thinking to yourself, “This is it!” How am I going to describe this later!?” Believe me, this can backfire very quickly. Having a deep and consistent appreciation for the process of life — even when it tosses you around — and a desire to accurately portray that process in language is a sign that writing is the creative outlet for you."<br/>
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5 more telltale signs that you are a writer, from: policymic.com</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15666167932806966083noreply@blogger.com0