Jeeves, the omniscient valet
From The Paris Review‘s 1975 interview with P.G. Wodehouse: INTERVIEWER How did you create Jeeves, then? WODEHOUSE I only intended to use him once. His first entrance was: “Mrs. Gregson to see you, sir,” in a story called “Extricating Young Gussie.” He only had one other line, “Very good, sir. Which suit will you wear?” [...]
Hurrah, he’s human!
A wonderful little excerpt from a 1972 interview with John Berryman (published in
“Bronte Sisters power up!”
Brontë Sisters Power Dolls: DO WANT! (Via 3 Quarks Daily)
Martin on Kingsley
Oh goodness, I love this. From Martin Amis‘s Experience: I am a novelist trained to use experience for other ends. Why should I tell the story of my life? I do it because my father is dead now, and I always knew I would have to commemorate him. He was a writer, and I am [...]
Amis and Auden on form and style
Yay! The Paris Review‘s site now has a complete interviews archive. Over the past few days, I’ve become quite addicted to downloading/reading interviews from the archive and thought that I’d share thematically-related and spot-on bits from two of my favorites, “The Art of Fiction: Kingsley Amis” and “The Art of Poetry: W.H. Auden”: INTERVIEWER: What [...]
Defective father hypothesis?
A bit more on Jim Spiegel’s book. Remember this ridiculous assertion?: …atheistic rejection of God is precipitated by immoral indulgences, usually combined with some deep psychological disturbances, such as a broken relationship with one’s father One of the “Discussion Questions” on the book’s website expands upon this “broken relationship with one’s father” nonsense: Does Paul [...]
The irony, it burns!
Damn you, Jim Spiegel, you’ve broken my irony meter! Spiegel, a philosophy professor at an Evangelical “Praise Jebus!” university, has written a book called The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief (published by an Evangelical “Praise Jebus!” excuse for a publishing house), which argues that: Atheism is not at all a consequence [...]
Ostranenie vs. the anesthetic of familiarity
Ostranenie vs. the anesthetic of familiarity By now the old art has already died, but the new has not yet been born. Things have died, too: we have lost the sensation of the world. We are like a violinist who has stopped feeling his bow and strings. We have ceased to be artists in our [...]
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