Brandon Taylor: On D.H. Lawrence & moral fiction

“It all sounds very abstract, I know. But for me, it comes down to this: moral fiction is not fiction that affirms your ideology about power systems and oppression. It does not make you feel like a good and righteous person. It may have no lessons for you to tweet about or put on Instagram or explain ( Read more... )

I'm taking a break from reading and reviewing new books to catch up with some old ones on my TBR list. I'm also trying to improve my Hebrew and am currently reading and enjoying the Hebrew edition of Ya'akov Shabtai's unfinished last novel סוף דבר (published in English as Past Perfect).

In circumstances when I cannot read with my eyes I read with ( Read more... )

I disagree with the article's contention that extensive revision is a modern innovation. William Wordsworth published his first version of The Prelude in 1805 and spent the next 45 years revising it.

"To become memorable or brilliant, language needs to be fertilized by egotism."

Adam Kirsch's long but worth reading collection of meditations/prose epigrams on the position of writers WRT past writers, future readers, and the present tense; on the respective roles of literature and science; and the role of culture in a technologically evolving ( Read more... )

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The following article is excerpted from the latest issue of n+1 magazine. This article is available online only in Slate.

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"...One of the consolations of writing books is the seemingly unquenchable conviction that the next book will be better, will be bigger and bolder and more comprehensive and truer to the lives we live. We exist in a condition of hope, we love the beauty and truth that come to us, and we do our best to tamp down our doubts and disappointments.

We ( Read more... )

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My poetry:


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