The Paris Review may be new to the blogosphere, but they already have a Plimptonian answer to New York magazine’s Sex Diaries, which chronicle a week in one person’s sex life.
The Paris Review solution is called The Culture Diaires, “a week in one reader’s life.”
This week’s installment is with Read More
Having vowed not to f— up another dinner party, I said I’d report on a party last weekend, and my continuing effort to socialize myself. Herewith:
I thought I did fine. I didn’t seem to make anyone uncomfortable. I probably laughed too loud at an anecdote a friend told, about a big meeting of Read More
When I went into my Muriel Spark phase a few months back, I soon learned that she had had a relationship with The New Yorker. But none of the books that promote the New Yorker mythology even mentions her. You will read all about Mr. Shawn and Capote and Updike and Thurber and many lesser Read More
I’m in a state of grief, gratitude and excitement over Muriel Spark’s death. This reflects the fact that I only really discovered her for myself six months back. Yes, I had read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie some time ago. But it was rereading The Prime last November that catapulted me into Dame Muriel’s Read More
Watching the latest episode of the Sopranos (Wow, great!), I was reminded of the art lesson I quote from Muriel Spark in a recent entry—
Fiction is lies. And in order to do this you have got to have a very good sense of what is the truth. You can’t do the art of deception, Read MoreThis morning I was working when I thought, I wonder if Muriel Spark has died, and I went online and put in her name, and yes, she had died in Italy, the news was announced a few hours ago. It’s not that I have morbid powers—I’ve been studying Dame Muriel and a few weeks back Read More
The Times is confused about the scandal at the Post. On the one hand, it regards it as titillating gossip. Thus the montage of gossipy photos and the nut-graf dismissing the story as the gossip that everyone is buzzing about. On the other hand, the giant front page display, dominating the page. A picture of Read More
My first blog entry and I’m excited. I’m a 50-year-old writer schooled completely in the print world, newspapers, magazines and books. The bronze age.
I want to blog for a whole bunch of reasons: because it’s the way the world is going and I want to keep up, because I think blogging might liberate journalism Read More
