Rings of Saturn's seemingly random topic hoping is all coming together, related in the big picture by every thought, every piece of history he talks about seeming to show how humans are terrible, or maybe that the world is terrible. Aside from the overt bleakness of the historical stuff he talks about, there is a …
Plot or not?
I'm losing interest in plot, as a reader. I care less and less about a protagonist and a villain and a mystery and a battle, and more about character and prose and interesting thoughts. Will I ever read genre fiction again? I don't know... Also, I sense this is going to rub off on my …
Meandering Thoughts
So... after the random rambling of Proust bored me, I decided to go for another book full of seemingly aimless thoughts, but this one is 100 times more interesting. What makes it interesting? I think mainly because it is about things in the real world, interesting facts, thoughtful insights on people, places and things... instead …
Words to Control + F
When in the process of splashing out words for a new story, we all find ourselves writing words we don't need, repeating words, and being hacks in general. I've composed a list of these 'filler' words that I've found most often in my own work. Search for, and delete! Very: Delete any that aren't in …
Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders
Love, death, ghosts, and history. What a sad, funny, interesting and heart-squeezing novel. From Wikipedia: Many years ago, during a visit to Washington DC, my wife's cousin pointed out to us a crypt on a hill and mentioned that, in 1862, while Abraham Lincoln was president, his beloved son, Willie, died, and was temporarily interred …
Jonas David 