Owner: a writing geek URL:http://awritinggeek.blogspot.com Join Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:42:35 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: So, who's a real writer, and what's real writing? Site statistics:Click here
Alexander Solzhenitsyn 2008-08-05 22:05:00 The only book by Alexander
Isayevich Solzhenitsyn I have read is Gulag Archipelago, and that too at a very young age when I had little experience of the real world. I remember I didn’t like the book much because it was more journalism and history than literature, and I found the writer very crass in his critcism of Vladimir Lenin, who he thought to be the person responsible for the vast system o
50 Best Translated Books from last 50 years 2008-07-30 06:00:00 The Translation Association of the society of Authors is 50 years old this year, and to mark its anniversary, it has released a list of 50 best translated books from the last 50 years.Some of these titles you must have read and liked so much that you never felt they were translated works. Yes, they were all master translators with love of literature in their DNA, who devoted their time and efforts Read more:Books
Arundhati Roy's New Fiction 2008-07-23 20:46:00 Arundhati Roy has not written any fiction since the publication of her Booker-winning novel The God of Small Things in 1997. She was busy, besides her activist’s work, penning brilliant and phenomenal essays about nuclear testings, dams, globalization, Indian judiciary and about things most writers would not dare to touch. So her returning to fiction after this long sabbatical– eleven years to Read more:Fiction
Hey, how many books did you sign? 2008-07-20 07:50:00 Of course, it is one of those trivia. I should not have written about it. But it involves one of our real writers, and I kind of reacted. So I can’t help write it.On one occasion during his recent promotional tour for his latest novel, Salman Rushdie signed as many as 1000 books in 57 minutes. All very well for someone who looms bigger with his new writing success. But the galling thing is, Rush
Midnight's Children Revisited 2008-07-15 04:12:00 The occasion of the Best of the Booker award prodded me to revisit the Midnight’s Children
after one long decade, if I remember it right. For constraint of time, I read it randomly, beginning in the middle, skipping pages, and finally ending with the first page.Saleem Sinai –variously called Snotnose, Stainface, Baldy, Sniffer and Buddha –is still fantastic. The episode of his being baldy at Read more:Revisited
Perish before you publish 2008-06-28 19:37:00 Book industry is now at an all-time low. Real writers have a very tough time publishing their books. In fact, their odds increase everyday with the already dumbed-down publishing houses now targeting the lowest common denominator."Publishing is in a well documented state of economic and structural chaos and worried about whether its physical end-product will even exist in the future. In short, it'
So What if Chetan Bhagat's not a real writer? 2008-06-25 06:36:00 Chetan Bhagat’s latest novel – his third in a row – has reportedly sold 5,00,000 copies since its release last month(Over-hype? One source says only 60,000 copies of the book have been printed till now). He’s being touted variously as people’s writer, a publishing phenomenon, and young voice of India. His publisher is now sending boxes of candy to media offices to celebrate the huge succ
Why I'm a Shalom Auslander Fan 2008-06-18 21:59:00 The thing is, you get fewer and fewer real writers these days. I discovered Shalom
Auslander quite by chance. Caught in a bad mood, I was frantically browsing the net one day when I stumbled upon his columnA Terrible Experience. I wanted to read just the first paragraph, but I was gripped. It had so much funny kind of punch that I found myself reading through it. And I loved the piece absolutely.
A real writer first and foremost 2008-06-15 07:05:00 The Wall Street Journal has published an interview - in an odd format, though - with Salman Rushdie. A question and answer format would be more appropriate. In such interviews, we like to read what a writer says -in the exact, unedited version - without any commentary from the interviewer "There was a number of ways in which such an event could cripple a writer," Mr. Rushdie says of the death sen
When J.K.Rowling delivers like a real writer 2008-06-10 21:26:00 Let me confess: I've never been able to bring myself to like J.K.Rowling
's work. But her background and struggle fascinate me. Below is her Harvard University Convocation address, which I truly liked. Why did'nt she go in for some real writing alongside/instead of her usual, no-brainer stuff? In this speech, she sounded just like a real writer should. Thanks to my friend V.Ramaswamy, who has an in
Big Events and Real Writers/3 2008-06-05 01:04:00 Like all epochal events, Nandigram offers a lot of fodder for a real writer. You may have noticed stories – especially in Bengali for its proximity to the land – centering on it in many literary magazines. I have read some of them, and not all of them are bad. A novel based on the turmoil, again in Bengali, is now in circulation. I don’t want to comment on it because I’ve not read it. But Read more:Writers
Big Events and Real Writers/ 1 2008-05-31 21:21:00 Epochal events are always the great triggers of real writing. Whether it’s the old “Quite Flows the Don” or the recent “The inheritance of Loss’, you see a common link: both the novels had as their background the events that were convulsing their part of the world. While in Mikhail Sholokhov’s novel, it was the bloody Bolshevik struggle in Russia, Anita Desai’s book had in it India-N Read more:Writers
Sobhaa De: Antithesis of a Real Writer 2008-05-26 12:00:00 I remember I was amused when Sobha De added an extra 'a' to her first name some time ago, following advice from her astrologer. After all, she was a much-publicized writer of our times with suposedly modern sensibilities!The extra 'a' seems to have worked fine for her. Every year she is climbing higher up on the totem pole of authorship. She has recently launched her glamorous book called Supersta Read more:Writer
A Plug For Myself 2008-05-23 03:06:00 It has been a fortnight that Smashwords Inc has published my debut novel SHADOWLAND. It took me two years to write the novel. I shopped it for about seven years, but did not get any publisher.There were however some accolades from top literary agents who read through my novel. Paul Cirone, an American agent, rejected me with these words: I think you are a solid writer, smart and polished, and it'
Taslima Nasreen leaves India 2008-03-21 01:23:00 Taslima had to leave under intense pressure from Govt of India
. Of course, Pranab Mukherjee and his cronies (Buddhadeb being one of them) are gloating over it, but in a poem, just before departure, Taslima, in her true- to- herself form, lambasts “secular” India for kowtowing to Muslim fundamentalists just for vote-politics.Personally I’m happy that her ordeal is somehow over, and she has fo Read more:leaves
Rushdie as Novelist 2008-03-02 06:28:00 Is Salman Rushdie
spent as a novelist? There is speculation about it, but on reading “Shalimar, the Clown”, I strongly feel he’s not. Not yet at least. The creator of “Midnight’s Children” can still deliver.His earlier novel, “The Ground Beneath Her Feet” disappointed me. But this time I loved the prose, voice, theme and even the drama of the novel. I enjoyed every bit of Shalimar. Read more:Novelist
SAVE TASLIMA 2008-02-03 20:53:00 “Was any poet ever house-arrested by anybody? There might be politics about a poet, There might be violence and fire on account of her, But nobody ever house-arrested her, no country ..” -- Taslima Nasreen Taslima Nasreen, the controversial Bangladeshi poet and writer, is in deep trouble. The government of India, which gave her asylum, has now dum
VICIOUS 2007-12-05 06:46:00 I have a short-story posted on writelit.com. Vicious It's about contemporary India. Please have a look if you feel interested.
Exiled Taslima 2007-12-03 20:18:00 Taslima, it seems, has lost her favourite city Kolkata for ever. Bengal Government does not want her back. The UPA government in Delhi, ever eager to please its ally, has decided to keep her on a tight lease in some remote place in India. A caveat has been served on her to the effect that she must not write any stuff that can hurt the sentiments of "our people".How absurd! India is the land of a w
Taslima in turmoil 2007-11-25 07:00:00 Taslima Nasreen, the exiled Bangladeshi writer, loses her home in Kolkata. On Nov 22, the Bengal police had shunted her out of the state on the plea that it can't provide her security in the wake of spiralling demand by Muslim fundamentalists that the government cancel her visa.She was sent to Rajasthan, but Basundhara didn't put up with her. She tried to send her back to Kolkata, but then L.K.Adv
Indra Sinha 2007-09-17 05:13:00 Writers are like scavengers. We collect dirt, grimness of life, misery, happiness, feelings of despair and elation, of hope and frustration of the real people. Facts are turned into readable fiction that ultimately make the reader ponder over the real issues raised from these facts.So here comes a writer who thinks exactly the way a real writer should. Toff upbringing, years in advertising, a leg Read more:Indra
Jia Zhangke 2007-08-26 07:22:00 "..those artificial landscapes, are very significant. The landscape in the World Park includes famous sights from all over the world. They're not real, but still they can satisfy people's longing for the world. They reflect the very strong curiosity of people in this country, and the interest they have in becoming a part of international culture. At the same time, this is a very strange way to ful
From a Jorge Louis Borges interview 2008-09-09 06:40:00 Below are some quotes from a 1984 Borges interview
I came across in le rubi. Here is a real writer talking without any pretension about his world of reading and writing."I’ve read very few novels in my life; for me the foremost novelist is Joseph Conrad.""For me reading and writing are two equally pleasurable activities. When writers talk about the torture of writing, I don’t understand it.""S Read more:Louis
Being contemporary 2008-09-06 01:43:00 A real writer's takeMR: What makes a literary work of its time? What makes it contemporary in an interesting or meaningful way? Do you care about being contemporary?JPT: Literature has no real political or social role to play. Its role is primarily aesthetic. It’s an art. But it must absolutely offer a view of the world. I think writers should necessarily talk about the contemporary world; they
Obituary of an unremarkable man 2008-09-02 23:08:00 My father – the first imposing figure in my life – died yesterday. He was a doctor, and a negativist, but one of the very few contented men I’ve encountered in my life. He was eighty four, and lived life in a profound way.He died of acute bronchopneumonia, but the real disease was the cancer of lung. He had cancer of the larynx twenty years ago, but was treated successfully for it with radio
10 reasons why you should read Arundhati Roy 2008-08-26 07:11:00 Arundhati Roy is one single writer who has never disappointed me, and who always gives value for my time. I can read her any time any day. Give me a new Arundhati piece, and I'm into it in an instant, reading and savouring it word for word - literally. She is a window for me. She is my idea of a real writer.So, what's it that draws me in? Or, why should you read her? 1. She has poetry in her pros
Sea of Poppies : Two readers 2008-08-20 08:48:00 READER A:I have just finished Sea of Poppies and am on a high, the euphoric state that occurs when I have read a masterpiece for that is what this book is. It is perfection. And I am so glad to read that this is the first of a trilogy on which he is working already.A sweeping, complex narrative, a large cast of characters and the most extraordinary use of language, combining 19th century Anglo-Ind Read more:readers
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