Literature As Art
Novel Poster has taken classic world literature and used the text to create negative space art.
Brilliant idea.
Gorgeous product. I want one (Actually, several all of them).
The Storyverse Comes Alive
Small Demons, who’s tagline is Welcome to the Storyverse, is a vast expanse of possibility for the curious. It contains, “The people, places and things from books, and everywhere they can take you.” According to the site, which is in Beta test mode,
It all begins here. Suppose someone took every meaningful detail from all the books you love. Every song mentioned, every person, every food or place or movie title. And what if they did that for all the books everyone else loves, too. The ones you’ve never heard of. Suddenly you’ve got a whole world of seemingly random people, places and things, all gathered in one place.
Together they create something vast, wonderful and entirely new. A Storyverse. A place where details touch, overlap and lead you further. To new music to listen to. New movies to watch. Places to visit. People to know. And of course, new books to read. Getting started is simple. Just choose a book. See where it takes you.
Sign me up. I can’t wait to dive into this.
Vonnegut’s Creative Writing 101
A great set of a writing rules from one of our finest writers.
- Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
- Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
- Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
- Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
- Start as close to the end as possible.
- Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
- Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
- Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
From Bagombo Snuff Box
Oddly, I’ve never read anything by Kurt Vonnegut.
I’ve always suspected I’d like his writing.
So, I’ve finally picked up a copy of Slaughterhouse Five.
So it goes.
I enjoyed Zone One quite a bit, but for literary horror, The Last Werewolf had more bite.
Reading: Zone One
A literary zombie thriller from Colson Whitehead?
I can’t think of better Halloween reading. Another fantastic choice would have been the thrilling and completely entertaining The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan, but I’ve already read it.
Who wants to be that the zombie theme is really commentary on the modern self-absorbed, aimless masses? I wonder of Whitehead’s read any Gurdjieff?
The Sense of an Ending
After just winning the Booker Prize, I had push a few other reads aside (Sorry Hermann Hesse and Philip K. Dick but you guys are up next. Promise.) and jump this one to the front of the literature que. More on this book after the brief, but expectedly dazzling read.
Way to go Julian Barnes. I just ordered your Booker Prize winning book, The Sense of An Ending. Can’t wait to read it.
Going inside the mind of Philip K. Dick
The long awaited, oft written about and frequently speculated on Exegesis of Philip K. Dick is set for release November 7th.
His fiction is famous, but his philosophy has been somewhat controversial as he has been called a visionary, a prophet, a latter-day Gnostic Saint and a madman.
I’ve read bits of the Exegesis at the end of VALIS and it was fascinating. I’m sure the full volume will be mind-bending, dark and illuminating.
I can’t wait to read it.