picadorbookroom: Nabokov used to say that he pushed his characters around like serfs or chess pieces—he had no time for that … impotence whereby authors like to say, “I don’t know what happened, but my character just got away from me and did his own thing. I had nothing to do with it.” Nonsense, said Nabokov, if I want my character to cross the road, he crosses the road. I am his master.  From How Fiction Works, by James Wood. Picador, page 116. [Images: via]  This little debate on how to characterize the author-character relationships is something I have always found wonderful. For years I was made anxious by the “my character ran off and did his own thing” description, because my characters never did - were they not fully realized if I was able to keep them under control? Nabokov, at least, is with me on this one, although if you have to be a master of the medium to get away with it I might still be in trouble.
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picadorbookroom:

Nabokov used to say that he pushed his characters around like serfs or chess pieces—he had no time for that … impotence whereby authors like to say, “I don’t know what happened, but my character just got away from me and did his own thing. I had nothing to do with it.” Nonsense, said Nabokov, if I want my character to cross the road, he crosses the road. I am his master. 

From How Fiction Works, by James Wood. Picador, page 116.

[Images: via] 

This little debate on how to characterize the author-character relationships is something I have always found wonderful. For years I was made anxious by the “my character ran off and did his own thing” description, because my characters never did - were they not fully realized if I was able to keep them under control? Nabokov, at least, is with me on this one, although if you have to be a master of the medium to get away with it I might still be in trouble.

(via vol1brooklyn)

Source: picadorbookroom

the child grows enormous but never grows up: Ancient religious texts among the 25,000 new images online

archaeologicalnews:

image

Launched in December 2011, the Cambridge Digital Library has already attracted tens of millions of hits on its website. Among the 25,000 new images being made freely available are a 2,000-year old copy of The Ten Commandments on the famous Nash Papyrus and also…

This is super super super super cool.

(via perzadook)

Source: archaeologicalnews

As well done as some movies may be – no matter the emotions they stir or the experiences they connect with – we talk of their stories as being something “other” that is different from books or plays. Let’s face it, a play is just a hop and a skip to movie; they both consist of dialogue, setting, and directions. Somehow a script is considered more important – weightier – than a screenplay. We read scripts as students. Shakespeare is thrust upon us, and occasionally we find ourselves with Ibsen or Wilde in hand.
Movies Are Literature Too (via bookriot)

(via bookriot)

Sarah Rees Brennan: Rants About Rants About YA

maureenjohnsonbooks:

yaflash:

That got very Inception-y. RANTS INSIDE OF RANTS INSIDE OF RANTS INSIDE OF… anyway.

I see a lot of “rants” about YA floating around the Internet and in my real-life bookish existence. I notice some very similar threads that run through these rants to the point that I can pretty…

This is an awesome rant, which I am way into. (It mentions John a lot, in a very funny way. I’ve heard John rant about THIS VERY STUFF, like how women get different covers. PERHAPS YOU HAVE HEARD ME RANT ABOUT THIS AS WELL? It’s possible you have. IT MAY HAVE HAPPENED ONCE OR TWICE.) But there is a lot of good stuff in here to consider. All in all, I LIKE IT.

I have not been reading a lot of YA lately, but I hear a lot of YA hate and it drives me up the wall. Especially the not-very-secret-at-all sexist undertones to the very specific rage against a pretty female-dominated genre.

Source: yaflash

rockabillytrousers: My sister asked me to draw Beowulf on a poster she is presenting in English class tomorrow.I’m just gonna leave this here.  Between this and Rockabilly’s famous never-seen-by-the-internet Grendel illustrations I will never be happy until she does a full Beowulf graphic novel. A children’s picture book version, at the very least.
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rockabillytrousers:

My sister asked me to draw Beowulf on a poster she is presenting in English class tomorrow.

I’m just gonna leave this here. 

Between this and Rockabilly’s famous never-seen-by-the-internet Grendel illustrations I will never be happy until she does a full Beowulf graphic novel. A children’s picture book version, at the very least.

You may have heard the news that the independent bookstore is dead, that books are dead, that maybe even reading is dead—to which I say: Pull up a chair, friend. I have a story to tell.

The Bookstore Strikes Back - Ann Patchett - The Atlantic

I love you, Ann Patchett.

(via rachelfershleiser)

OK, so my home state has been pretty cripplingly embarrassing in today’s national news, but it apparently it has also been crazy heartwarming. This is the most wonderful thing I’ve read in a really long time.

(via laughterkey)

Source: The Atlantic

davidmalki: Wondermark #889; The Seeds of a Series I still have a copy of The Turnips of Progress somewhere. About fifty pages in, that ghostwriter just said “screw it, I’m writing Marxist erotica” and it. Gets. WEIRD. ### Here’s a new thing I’ll try now and then! Same comics, reformatted into a square format to be legible and fit nicely on blogs and Tumbls. This one is even a little early, HOW ABOUT THAT Hey look! It’s one of my favorite webcomics in an easily rebloggable format!
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davidmalki:

Wondermark #889; The Seeds of a Series

I still have a copy of The Turnips of Progress somewhere. About fifty pages in, that ghostwriter just said “screw it, I’m writing Marxist erotica” and it. Gets. WEIRD.

###

Here’s a new thing I’ll try now and then! Same comics, reformatted into a square format to be legible and fit nicely on blogs and Tumbls. This one is even a little early, HOW ABOUT THAT

Hey look! It’s one of my favorite webcomics in an easily rebloggable format!