Thief! Thief!

I'm a bit late to this piece written in 2007, but my brother just tipped me off to a great article in Harper's: The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism. A great meditation on the ways that plagiarism is pervasive in creative works (music, poetry, literature). 

And if you're intrigued by the intro--in which we learn that the original story Lolita was written in 1918, and not by Nabokov--I've found a translation online here. 

Miscellany.

Relatively new blog I like: Schott's Vocab: A Miscellany of Modern Words and Phrases. 

I <3 short stories

Now I know that I'm not the only one in America who likes to read short stories. It turns out AO Scott (film critic at the New York Times) is pulling for a return to the form. See: In Praise of the American Short Story. To me, there are few things more satisfying to read than a bit of Flannery O'Connor, Roald Dahl or some short Hemingway. They show just how powerful a few pages can be. 

Some of my faves:

A Good Man Is Hard To Find (O'Connor) 

Royal Jelly (Dahl) 

Hills Like White Elephants (Hemingway)

BONUS PICKS: 

Big Blonde (Dorothy Parker)

Welcome to the Monkeyhouse (Kurt Vonnegut)

I'm taking recommendations, if you want to drop anything in the comments. 

New word: GIPE

OK, it's an acronym, but it sounds good aloud, too. It stands for Good Idea, Poorly Executed, and Monica Khemsurov explains it in the New York Times T Magazine. Though she's using it to talk about design things (fashion, home decor, etc) I can see an immediate application to writing and editing. I think I may frequently struggle with stories that are GIPEs--the idea is fantastic, but the writing is just ok. Gipe Gipe Gipe. Gotta work on that "e" part in my writing, I guess.

Read.

Some things to read. 

Poetry

Spring Evening Poem from Juked. 

Fiction 

Fortune-Cookie Messages Appropriate for Dickens Characters from McSweeney's. 

Nonfiction

The Bluest Eye from Brevity. 

Experiments in literary magazine editing

Creative Nonfiction, the premier literary magazine for creative nonfiction (ahem, obviously), has an interesting experiment in their new issue. Instead of starting with the lede (i.e. first paragraphs) that each author composed, they lopped off the beginning few bits. They are unveiling the "real ledes" and the author's comments on their Web site here. Only one is posted now, but I'm looking forward to buying the mag and checking back on the site.

The whole idea is interesting though -- could you lop off the beginning couple paragraphs off a story (or the beginning lines of a poem)? How would that change the work? And if an editor screwed around with your story that much, would you be irked? Or just glad that you were getting published?

Grammar police on patrol

Looks like the grammar police are no happier with our current president (see: "a very personal decision for Michelle and I") than they were with the previous president (see: "nu-cu-lar"). The New York Times has a story on the grammatical anticipation for the State of the Union, headlined The I’s Have It.

Since his election, the president has been roundly criticized by bloggers for using “I” instead of “me” in phrases like “a very personal decision for Michelle and I” or “the main disagreement with John and I” or “graciously invited Michelle and I.”

The rule here, according to conventional wisdom, is that we use “I” as a subject and “me” as an object, whether the pronoun appears by itself or in a twosome. Thus every “I” in those quotes ought to be a “me.”

Quote for the day

"I've always liked the uniform of the poet. I've gone through some nice pajamas."

- U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, on working in bed (excerpted from a good, long interview in the Winter 2008 Paris Review)

Exercise... for your mind.

Make it a habit to write a letter at least once a week. This can be a letter you send or one you keep for yourself alone. Your correspondent can remain the same, or you can switch it up from week to week. Your correspondent can be human or animal or spirit. Take a few moments to stop and breathe before beginning. Write each letter for at least a half hour, communicating whatever is most “present” for you at the time. Save these letters and see what you might be able to mine for other writing.

From Brevity, in an essay on creative writing craft by Brenda Miller. 

Things My Beard Can Lift

Ok, you got me, I don't have a beard. But this guy does, and he's lifting stuff, heavy stuff, for charity. You definitely need to check it out. 

Also, I realize this doesn't really have anything to do with writing, publishing, news, reading or other common topics. But shouldn't we share things that we think are great?