52 Authors
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Robert Sheckley, who died a few years ago in 2005, was an author of (mostly) science fiction, very prolific with short stories, very snarky and tongue-in-cheek. In my experience short story collections tend to be hit and miss with most authors, and Sheckley wasn't an exception; but if the author's good, it's worth the misses
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Having spent over five years of my life on a close reading of de Lubac, it is going to be hard for me to keep this post to a reasonable size. There is so much I can say! Because it seems that part of the point of this series is to elicit in others a
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I'd like to draw your attention to the schedule, which is in its entirety: January 5: D'Anna – Percy O'Connor January 12: Janet – Howard January 19: El Gaucho – Rushdie January 26: Rob G – Helprin February 2: Robert Gotcher – de Lubac You'll observe immediately that only one of those dates is in
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I first became acquainted with Mark Helprin’s fiction in the late 90s, when for some unrecalled reason I picked up a copy of his novel Memoir From Antproof Case. I absolutely loved the mix of humor and pathos, delivered in a fairly madcap but very well-drawn narrative, and to top it all off, I thought
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It is not necessary to know very much about India and Pakistan, Hindus and Muslims, or have any working knowledge of their languages and dialects to find Salman Rushdie’s books enjoyable–simply a love of literature, and the beautiful writing that can be accomplished with the English language. Take this opening section from Midnight’s Children: One
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Then where I bode alone with a small band I prayed unto the cross, with blithesome heart, enduring courage. My soul was yearning for its journey hence. Too many a weary hour have I abode. Now have I hope of life, that I may seek that victor-tree, revere it well more oft than all men, Wherefore
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When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs as you do, you can relax a little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock, to the hard of hearing you shout, and
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Ok, I got the first entries in the schedule–see the link in the sidebar, or just click here. I'm going to use the Sunday of the week as the target date. It would be nice if you could get me your pieces a few days before the Sunday, in case I have trouble formatting it or
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Here it is almost December, and the much-anticipated year-long 52 Authors festival, a reader-requested sequel to 52 Guitars, should begin in about a month. But will it? Are the people who signed up so enthusiastically back in July still committed? The literary world waits breathlessly. I was thinking we had one or two commitments for specific weeks,
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You're meant to hear that mentally in the breathless tone of a movie trailer voice-over. I'd like to work one up but I don't have any of the skills needed, so just imagine it. In comments on one of the 52 Guitars posts, the commenter who calls himself El Miserable suggested that next year I
Light On Dark Water 