Blog

Tag: literature

  • December 20th, 2012 1:52pm

    There were literally hundreds of such often live-by-night magazines with wildly exotic and frequently misleading names from their initial appearance at the beginning of the 1920’a in America. And I would not pretend that everything they published was made of gold. Far from it. We are talking commercial fiction, mostly catering to the lowest common denominator. But then do our modern paperbacks have loftier ambitions and superior hit-rate, quality-wise?

    But what makes them stand out is the fact that the pulps had one golden rules which unsung editors insisted upon and good and bad writers alike religiously followed: adherence to the art of storytelling. Every story in the pulps had a beginning and and end, sharply-etched economical characterization, action, emotions, plenty going on. The mission was to keep the reader hooked, to transport him/her into a more interesting world of fantasy and make-believe, spiriting them away from the drab horizons of everyday life (remember, there was no television in those very early days,or CDs or other modern leisure addictions).

    — Maxim Jakubowski (in the introduction to  The Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction)

  • December 11th, 2012 4:09am

    Most people were heartless about turtles because a turtle’s heart will beat for hours after it has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too.

    — Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (via thepaintedbench)

  • December 1st, 2012 9:58pm

    Psychologists Discover How People Subconsciously Become Their Favorite Fictional Characters

    Psychologists have discovered that while reading a book or story, people are prone to subconsciously adopt their behavior, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses to that of fictional characters as if they were their own.

    Experts have dubbed this subconscious phenomenon ‘experience-taking,’ where people actually change their own behaviors and thoughts to match those of a fictional character that they can identify with.

    Continue Reading

  • November 30th, 2012 9:23am

    Oh, there were all sorts of things to wonder about, but the truth was simple: Here stood this door alone on an endless stretch of beach, and it was for only one of two things: Opening or leaving closed.

    — Stephen King. “The Dark Tower II: Drawing of the Three”. (via fuckyeah-unclesteve)

  • November 27th, 2012 11:23am

    Too bad. And Mozart, not long after writing The Magic Flute, had died—in his thirties—of kidney disease. And had been buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

    Thinking this, he wondered if Mozart had any intuition that the future did not exist, that he had already used up his little time. Maybe I have too, Rick thought as he watched the rehearsal move along. This rehearsal will end, the performance will end, the singers will die, eventually the last score of the music will be destroyed in one way or another; finally the name “Mozart” will vanish, the dust will have won. If not on this planet then another. We can evade it awhile. As the andys can evade me and exist a finite stretch longer. But I will get them or some other bounty hunter gets them. In a way, he realized, I’m part of the form-destroying process of entropy.

    — Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  -Philip K. Dick (via veloriumcamper)

  • November 25th, 2012 7:56pm

    ellenkushner:

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWORDSPOINT AUDIOBOOK!

    Exactly one year ago today, the first of my Riverside audiobooks, narrated by the author (who is me! myself!) went on sale from Audible via Neil Gaiman Presents. We’d spent months planning, recording, producing…. It was life-changing for me, a chance to both “act” my own novel, and to work with a team of gifted pros. And it ushered me into the world of audio voice talent for the Illuminated production including the great Simon Jones (Asper Lindley, Lord Horn), Katherine Kellgren (Diane, Duchess Tremontaine), Nick Sullivan (Lord Ferris), Dion Graham (Richard St Vier) and more!

     Since then, we’ve released the second book, The Privilege of the Sword – and the third, The Fall of the Kings, is in production now, scheduled for early spring. 

    This is a big Thank You to everyone who supported this artistic growth for me in any way – including saying, “You can do it!” … or, “Bought it; sounds great!” 


    Dreams can come true.