Monday, January 03, 2005

"Hail the Litblogs"

1:41 AM
"The recent explosion of literary weblogs has to be the most encouraging development in recent memory," writes novelist/"Book Beat" columnist David Milofsky in Sunday's [Jan. 2 '05] Denver Post. In which he converses w/ Mark Sarvas, Maud Newton, Carrie Frye and Traver Kauffman, among others (including yours truly).

MS: The Elegant Variation.
MN: Maud Newton dot com.
CF: Tingle Alley.
TH: Rake's Progress.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When Unpublished Writers AttackDoesn't Writers.Net get an honorable mention for like, proto-blog or something? For a taste of the odd level of discourse over there, check out this bizarrely savage thread. It has everything: drama, romance, and thinly veiled threats of physical violence. Props to the "Newt" character for landing multiple blows. "Denise" scores big points for overcoming personal hardship, then burns it with the whole "fictional novel" thing. Enjoy!

2:36 PM, January 03, 2005
Anonymous said...

writersnet gets no credit as "proto-blog" or whatever. the above blogs have some sort of topical focus, and the reader comments make sense at least. are those wn people for real? it seems like some weird performance art or something. the newt one seems like the only sane poster -- at least he's having fun with it.

11:53 PM, January 03, 2005
Jozef Imrich with Dragoness Malchkeon said...

Just as professionals built the Titanic and amateurs built Noah's Ark, it seems amateurs are crossing the Iron Curtain of publishing in the 21st century ...

As the late, great A.J. Liebling pointed out, "Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one." Blogging and online publishing has given new meaning to this.

Some executives dislike the way certain nobodies are daring to hit nails into that digital ark:

Bloggers have no checks and balances. [It's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.
—JONATHAN KLEIN, former senior executive of 60 Minutes, on Fox News

1:10 AM, January 04, 2005

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A VOCATION OF UNHAPPINESS [Courtesy Georges Simenon (1903-1985)]

"Writing is considered a profession, and I don't think it is a profession. I think that everyone who does not need to be a writer, who thinks he can do something else, ought to do something else. Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don't think an artist can ever be happy."

PRACTICAL MARKETING [Courtesy Zornhau, 2005]

"They should put the 1st couple of pages up in subway adverts. Having read them several times, you'd feel compelled to try the book - if it was any good."

PLATE OF SHRIMP [Courtesy Alex Cox’s REPO MAN, circa 1984]

"A lot of people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidences and things. They don't realize that there's this like lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything. I'll give you an example, show you what I mean. Suppose you're thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly somebody will say like "plate" or "shrimp" or "plate of shrimp" out of the blue, no explanation. No point in looking for one either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness."