Woolwich will always be close to my heart. I was born there. I got married there. I remember going shopping there as a kid, going to the cinema there as a teenager, passing through it countless times as an adult. The events yesterday were shocking, appalling. My thoughts are with everyone affected. Read the rest of this entry »
As one of those (annoying) people who seems to prefer reading about writing to actual writing (1) I found myself reading this rather exhaustive essay about the writer and editor Gordon Lish. The author collates examples of Lish’s recommendations, thoughts and teachings on how to write, organising them into a coherent methodology for writing Lish-style.
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Elvis Costello wrote and recorded his first album while also working as a computer operator for the Elizabeth Arden factory, only resigning when his record company agreed to match his salary. Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner continued his day job of laying floors even once they became successful. The story went that the group sat down on stage as they would generally all be worn out from their day jobs. Read the rest of this entry »
“Take, for example, an ad that calls itself an ad, makes fun of its own format, and attempts to lure its target market to laugh at and with it. It pre-emptively acknowledges its own failure to accomplish anything meaningful. No attack can be set against it, as it has already conquered itself. The ironic frame functions as a shield against criticism. The same goes for ironic living. Irony is the most self-defensive mode, as it allows a person to dodge responsibility for his or her choices, aesthetic and otherwise. To live ironically is to hide in public. It is flagrantly indirect, a form of subterfuge, which means etymologically to “secretly flee” (subter + fuge). Somehow, directness has become unbearable to us.”
How to Live Without Irony, Christy Walpole, New York Times
“Isn’t there supposed to be an irony, some grim humor, some sense of the peculiar human insistence on seeing past the larger madness into small and skewed practicalities, into off-shaded moments that help us consider a narrow hope?”
That is consumption in the sense of consuming stuff, rather than suffering from tuberculosis, you’ll be pleased to hear. You may be less pleased to hear that this is a lazy link-heavy post. Anyway, this is what I’ve been consuming this week… Read the rest of this entry »
Wait until next year 