1. This week's personal reading was largely Flannery O'Connor, in all her dense, opaquely-grotesque images of grace. She operates on a high, inaccessible plateau of authorship in which the reader is required to make a firm commitment to not only follow her often intense prose and plots, but also to take the time afterwards to … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: O’Connor, FNAF, and History
Literature
Perseus Corbett Review!
The irreplaceable Caroline Furlong has provided a flattering review for Perseus Corbett and the Forbidden Valley! Go check it out at her blog, then consider picking up the book either for yourself or as a handy Christmas present for any adventure fans in your life. Also, while you're there, consider picking up her excellent sci-fi … Continue reading Perseus Corbett Review!
Words of the Saints: St. John Henry Newman
Today's the Feast of St. John Henry Newman, so I'm going to offer another nugget of wisdom from the great Saint. The words below are all his. WHEN a "Catholic Literature in the English tongue" is spoken of as a desideratum, no reasonable person will mean by "Catholic works" much more than the "works of … Continue reading Words of the Saints: St. John Henry Newman
Friday Flotsam: Job Search Reset, Chesterton Meets Johnson, and a Few Thoughts
1. Another disappointing week as far as job prospects are concerned. A job I really wanted and would love to do turns out to have a relocation requirement that’s likely to make it impractical. Meaning I’m once again back to square one. My life feels a lot like that board game I mentioned a while … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Job Search Reset, Chesterton Meets Johnson, and a Few Thoughts
Friday Flotsam: Some Reading and Some Thoughts
1. Read classic noir pulp short Angel Face by Cornell Woolrich, about a savvy stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold trying to save her loser of a brother from a false accusation of murder with help from a sympathetic detective. Really exactly what you want in this kind of thing: snappy dialogue and narration (“One of them was kind of … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Some Reading and Some Thoughts
Surprisingness
C.S. Lewis, in a passage I can’t now find, comments that there ‘surprisingness’ is a different thing from ‘being a surprise’. The latter is simply a question of reaction; it’s subjective and, by its nature, can only come once. But ‘surprisingness’ is a quality in the thing itself, the quality of being so structured as … Continue reading Surprisingness
When H.P. Lovecraft Met Samuel Johnson
Well, this is a find: it isn't often you encounter two of your favorite writers meeting face to face, especially when the one (supposedly) was born over a century after the other died. A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson is one of Mr. Lovecraft's earlier works (published in 1917, the same year as Dagon), in … Continue reading When H.P. Lovecraft Met Samuel Johnson
Actions Make Words Speak Louder
One mistake that a lot of writers make is to over-explain things (hey, that's me!); to put everything you want the audience to understand into dialogue so as to ensure that they ‘get it’. To be fair, this isn’t (usually) a huge deal; just clumsy and amateurish. But it’s more elegant and often much more … Continue reading Actions Make Words Speak Louder
Words of the Saints – St. John Henry Newman on Literature
"A Literature, when it is formed, is a national and historical fact; it is a matter of the past and the present, and can be as little ignored as the present, as little undone as the past. We can deny, supersede, or change it, then only, when we can do the same towards the race … Continue reading Words of the Saints – St. John Henry Newman on Literature
Friday Flotsam: Being Sick, Pope, and More Thrawn
1. I caught a bad cold last weekend which knocked me out entirely for two days and now is settling into a general, lingering annoyance. This led me into some very bad days for depression as well, partly because I tried to use the time to write only to find that, one way or another, … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Being Sick, Pope, and More Thrawn
Serpent's Den 