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There is quite enough sorrow and shame and suffering and baseness in real life and there is no need for meeting it unnecessarily in fiction. As Police Commissioner it was my duty to deal with all kinds of squalid misery and hideous and unspeakable infamy, and I should have been worse than a coward if I had shrunk from doing what was necessary; but there would have been no use whatever in my reading novels detailing all this misery and squalor and crime, or at least in reading them as a steady thing. Now and then there is a powerful but sad story which really is interesting and which really does good; but normally the books which do good and the books which healthy people find interesting are those which are not in the least of the sugar-candy variety, but which, while portraying foulness and suffering when they must be portrayed, yet have a joyous as well as a noble side.
― Theodore Roosevelt
― Theodore Roosevelt
There is quite enough sorrow and shame and suffering and baseness in real life and there is no need for meeting it unnecessarily in fiction. As Police Commissioner it was my duty to deal with all kinds of squalid misery and hideous and unspeakable infamy, and I should have been worse than a coward if I had shrunk from doing what was necessary; but there would have been no use whatever in my reading novels detailing all this misery and squalor and crime, or at least in reading them as a steady thing. Now and then there is a powerful but sad story which really is interesting and which really does good; but normally the books which do good and the books which healthy people find interesting are those which are not in the least of the sugar-candy variety, but which, while portraying foulness and suffering when they must be portrayed, yet have a joyous as well as a noble side.
― Theodore Roosevelt,
― Theodore Roosevelt,
The Three-Decker
Dec. 30th, 2015 08:15 pmRudyard Kipling was born 150 years ago today.
"The three-volume novel is extinct."
Full thirty foot she towered from waterline to rail.
It cost a watch to steer her, and a week to shorten sail;
But, spite all modern notions, I found her first and best--
The only certain packet for the Islands of the Blest.
( Read more... )
"The three-volume novel is extinct."
Full thirty foot she towered from waterline to rail.
It cost a watch to steer her, and a week to shorten sail;
But, spite all modern notions, I found her first and best--
The only certain packet for the Islands of the Blest.
( Read more... )
interesting reading
May. 13th, 2015 10:53 amAnd he read Principles of Accounting all morning, but just to make it interesting, he put lots of dragons in it.
Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
A Literary Wonderland
Feb. 17th, 2014 08:18 pmTakes on Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.
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fairy tale philosophy
Dec. 31st, 2013 11:53 pmHad a bit of a cold, needed a break, and so for the last days amused myself much of the time with Fairy Tale Art.
Easily obtained by getting out a pile of fairy tale picture books from the library.
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Easily obtained by getting out a pile of fairy tale picture books from the library.
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Ran across a comment recently wherein someone said that he stuck to read SF because that was what he was writing.
This is imprudent.
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This is imprudent.
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philosophy of fictional libraries
Apr. 23rd, 2013 07:33 pmOf all the fictional libraries I've read of, I would most like to visit the one in Robin McKinley's Beauty. It doesn't have much competition.
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Some natter about what the classics are, but as one panelist pointed out, if they polled the room, there would probably be some fair consensus.
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Writing Advice: The Next Level
Feb. 19th, 2013 07:42 pmFor people who've gotten beyond "Don't quit the day job."
The irony is that one piece of advice that was cited as basic was "Read widely," but two panelists had a long session of discussing how many aspiring writers need to read widely, Read outside the genre you want to get more ideas and notions.
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The irony is that one piece of advice that was cited as basic was "Read widely," but two panelists had a long session of discussing how many aspiring writers need to read widely, Read outside the genre you want to get more ideas and notions.
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primary source, rules, and cliffs
Jan. 12th, 2013 11:12 amC. J. Cherryh has a rule for writers: Never follow any rule off a cliff.
This is about reading for what your writer was up to and following that off a cliff.
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This is about reading for what your writer was up to and following that off a cliff.
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reasons for primary source reading
Jan. 11th, 2013 08:19 pmHaving told you how you should do it, I will now tell you why I recommend that all aspiring writers read a lot of primary sources, from as many eras and places as they can pull off. 0:)
It's not for research purposes. It may prove useful for that in the long run, but the recommendation includes eras and places that you have no interest in writing in. Indeed there's enough primary source floating about that it would be a trick and half to sample a lot of it and manage to use it all as research. That's not its primary benefit.
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It's not for research purposes. It may prove useful for that in the long run, but the recommendation includes eras and places that you have no interest in writing in. Indeed there's enough primary source floating about that it would be a trick and half to sample a lot of it and manage to use it all as research. That's not its primary benefit.
( Read more... )
the gentle art of reading primary source
Jan. 9th, 2013 08:25 pmPrimary source is great -- primary source is wonderful -- anyone who wants to world-build should go and read as much primary source as he can, from as many times and places as he can.
However, there is a gentle art to reading primary source effectively.
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However, there is a gentle art to reading primary source effectively.
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an imp observes
Sep. 9th, 2012 10:47 pmSome aspects of writing deserve a warning label.
For instance, if you start to write, you will also start to revise. Which means eying your work with a critical eye for flaws. And if you are prudent, you read other works to see how they do (or fail to do so), in order to improve your own bag of tricks. Do that for long, and you discover you have summoned an imp. He will sit on your shoulder and treat any work of art before him as a sample for analysis. And you can't dismiss him.
I've watched Tangled recently. (Which is a great movie and you should probably watch it before my unsystematic but spoilerific comments.)
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For instance, if you start to write, you will also start to revise. Which means eying your work with a critical eye for flaws. And if you are prudent, you read other works to see how they do (or fail to do so), in order to improve your own bag of tricks. Do that for long, and you discover you have summoned an imp. He will sit on your shoulder and treat any work of art before him as a sample for analysis. And you can't dismiss him.
I've watched Tangled recently. (Which is a great movie and you should probably watch it before my unsystematic but spoilerific comments.)
( Read more... )
on stealing fairy tales
Jun. 29th, 2012 11:41 amThere is one subtle aspect of fairy tales -- which, to be sure, the massive sort of reading I recommended would help with, but not so much as in the adaption side of things. . . .
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fairy tales
Jun. 25th, 2012 07:25 pmHaving pontificated about proverbs, and started a variant of the Golden Bird, I wish to observe that stealing a fairy tale is much easier.
Though it does involve a pile of reading.
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Though it does involve a pile of reading.
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philosophical pondering of tie-ins
Jun. 24th, 2012 12:13 amInspired by a LJ post I read a while back about tie-ins and whether you read them and what you think of them. . . .
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The Quiet Center
Mar. 1st, 2012 08:37 pmThe Quiet Center: Women Reflecting On Life's Passages from the pages of Victoria Magazine, editted by Katherine Ball Ross
A collection of essays on various topics by various authors. They have in common a certain mediative tone, of things pondered deeply. A convincing tone.
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A collection of essays on various topics by various authors. They have in common a certain mediative tone, of things pondered deeply. A convincing tone.
( Read more... )
