Editor: A. S. Burack
Genre: nonfiction, how-to
Publication info: The Writer, 1974
Pages: 115
This was the latest edition my library carries, which is a shame, but maybe it was the last one printed. I picked it up because I had heard that fillers can be a great way for a writer to break into the publishing industry, a way that is often overlooked. I thought it would be useful to learn a thing or two about it.
It's a collection of essays, which look like they were written expressly for this book, by a number of successful authors and editors in the wonderful field of fillers and short humor. Overall, it sounded like a lot of fun, and something very doable. It sounds like, basically, you need to be observant of everything around you; pay attention to things that make you laugh, or little things you know that might be useful to others. Write those things down as concisely as possible. Then send them in!
Of course, you have to have a talent for writing, and very compact writing too (a talent I obviously don't have yet), but I think it can be developed. The book was good in that it opened my eyes to a writing market I hadn't really considered before. I don't want magazine fillers to be my focus in writing, but it might be a good thing to do on the side if I ever come up with anything good.
The problem with a book this old, though, is that market preferences change, especially in magazines. If I were really serious about it I would have to look at what kinds of things magazines are publishing right now. The book includes a handy short market reference at the end, but I imagine it's next to worthless at this point. However, the book teaches some good basic principles of short writing that I think still hold true. I hope to try them out sometime.
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Castle
Author: Franz Kafka
Genre: fiction
Publication info: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992 (the edition I read; it was originally published in 1930). Translated from German by Willa and Edwin Muir.
Pages: 378 (including additional material)
Some books pull you through them on their own, while others are the kind you have to push yourself through. The Castle is an example of the latter. I'm not saying it wasn't interesting, but the style in which it was written made it very difficult sometimes. This is definitely not light reading.
Most people are familiar with Kafka, if at all, through The Metamorphosis. I might be the only one I know who read it, liked it, and wanted to read more of Kafka's work because of it. I can't explain why. The dreamlike quality of the story, along with the matter-of-fact way the characters deal with it, somehow appealed to me.
The Castle has this same dreamlike quality, but in a different way. In it we find K. (that's the only name we get), who comes to a village to begin his supposed employment as a land surveyor. The only problem, K. soon discovers, is that he never actually was intended to be employed as such. And it all has something to do with the Castle, the mysterious, overpowering hub of authority that is ever-present in the lives of the villagers and yet somehow perpetually inaccessible to K.
Now I'm not a literary critic (thank goodness), so I don't intend to give an in-depth analysis of this novel. That's been done many times over already. But I did find the book interesting. The dreamlike quality I mentioned comes from the fact that the entire world seems to be working against K., and for no apparent reason. Most of the time he just wants to be able to talk to his employer face-to-face, but the harder he tries, the more the opposition forces him back. And it's not through any fault of his own. K. isn't necessarily the most virtuous man, but it certainly doesn't seem fair that everything he does ends up turning against him.
What does Kafka mean by all this? Many people have speculated. You might say it has a sort of religious (or anti-religious) meaning with the Castle that's respected and feared in the village but rarely seen. But I didn't get that feeling when I read it. Kafka expertly made the Castle into the most ridiculous bureaucracy ever imagined, and I don't think that can be compared to God.
No, I'm not going to guess at meanings. It's a fairly simple story, but it's too complex to be an allegory. I'll just take it for what it is---a work of fiction. It makes me think, but I have yet to figure out what it makes me think about.
Genre: fiction
Publication info: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992 (the edition I read; it was originally published in 1930). Translated from German by Willa and Edwin Muir.
Pages: 378 (including additional material)
Some books pull you through them on their own, while others are the kind you have to push yourself through. The Castle is an example of the latter. I'm not saying it wasn't interesting, but the style in which it was written made it very difficult sometimes. This is definitely not light reading.
Most people are familiar with Kafka, if at all, through The Metamorphosis. I might be the only one I know who read it, liked it, and wanted to read more of Kafka's work because of it. I can't explain why. The dreamlike quality of the story, along with the matter-of-fact way the characters deal with it, somehow appealed to me.
The Castle has this same dreamlike quality, but in a different way. In it we find K. (that's the only name we get), who comes to a village to begin his supposed employment as a land surveyor. The only problem, K. soon discovers, is that he never actually was intended to be employed as such. And it all has something to do with the Castle, the mysterious, overpowering hub of authority that is ever-present in the lives of the villagers and yet somehow perpetually inaccessible to K.
Now I'm not a literary critic (thank goodness), so I don't intend to give an in-depth analysis of this novel. That's been done many times over already. But I did find the book interesting. The dreamlike quality I mentioned comes from the fact that the entire world seems to be working against K., and for no apparent reason. Most of the time he just wants to be able to talk to his employer face-to-face, but the harder he tries, the more the opposition forces him back. And it's not through any fault of his own. K. isn't necessarily the most virtuous man, but it certainly doesn't seem fair that everything he does ends up turning against him.
What does Kafka mean by all this? Many people have speculated. You might say it has a sort of religious (or anti-religious) meaning with the Castle that's respected and feared in the village but rarely seen. But I didn't get that feeling when I read it. Kafka expertly made the Castle into the most ridiculous bureaucracy ever imagined, and I don't think that can be compared to God.
No, I'm not going to guess at meanings. It's a fairly simple story, but it's too complex to be an allegory. I'll just take it for what it is---a work of fiction. It makes me think, but I have yet to figure out what it makes me think about.
Friday, March 14, 2008
How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic
Author: Madsen Pirie
Genre: nonfiction
Publication info: Continuum, 2006
Pages: 182
This was one of those books where I hoped the circulation employee at the library wouldn't ask me any questions. The truth is I've been interested in logical fallacies for a while now, but especially in the past year. After a somewhat upsetting political conversation with a friend of mine, I decided I wanted to look into the topic more fully.
The title of the book is a little misleading. It's not really a how-to book as you would normally think of one. (I think the original title, The Book of Fallacy, fits better, although it probably doesn't grab your attention as well.) Don't look for step-by-step instructions or practice exercises in this book.
That said, I found this book very informative and also very entertaining. It's basically an extensive (sometimes so extensive that some entries are hard to tell apart), and very detailed, index of logical fallacies from several categories. In each entry, Madsen Pirie gives a clear, understandable definition. Then he gives a few examples (which he promptly makes fun of) and shows several ways the fallacy might appear. Last of all, he tells you how you can use the fallacy to your own advantage---to deceive people.
Because of that, I almost felt a little dirty when I started the book. He says right up front that one of the purposes of the book is to teach you to trick people. I wasn't interested in that. I just wanted to learn more about logical fallacies so I could recognize them in other people's arguments.
And I guess I did learn that. Instead of learning to create effective arguments, I learned how to pick apart others' arguments (I have an especially good time with letters to the editor). I became more of a critic than I already am. Ironically, the person I notice most often committing logical fallacies is me. But hopefully, now that I know more about them, I'll eventually learn to eliminate them from my arguments.
Or maybe I'll end up doing exactly what the book was supposed to teach me to do.
Genre: nonfiction
Publication info: Continuum, 2006
Pages: 182
This was one of those books where I hoped the circulation employee at the library wouldn't ask me any questions. The truth is I've been interested in logical fallacies for a while now, but especially in the past year. After a somewhat upsetting political conversation with a friend of mine, I decided I wanted to look into the topic more fully.
The title of the book is a little misleading. It's not really a how-to book as you would normally think of one. (I think the original title, The Book of Fallacy, fits better, although it probably doesn't grab your attention as well.) Don't look for step-by-step instructions or practice exercises in this book.
That said, I found this book very informative and also very entertaining. It's basically an extensive (sometimes so extensive that some entries are hard to tell apart), and very detailed, index of logical fallacies from several categories. In each entry, Madsen Pirie gives a clear, understandable definition. Then he gives a few examples (which he promptly makes fun of) and shows several ways the fallacy might appear. Last of all, he tells you how you can use the fallacy to your own advantage---to deceive people.
Because of that, I almost felt a little dirty when I started the book. He says right up front that one of the purposes of the book is to teach you to trick people. I wasn't interested in that. I just wanted to learn more about logical fallacies so I could recognize them in other people's arguments.
And I guess I did learn that. Instead of learning to create effective arguments, I learned how to pick apart others' arguments (I have an especially good time with letters to the editor). I became more of a critic than I already am. Ironically, the person I notice most often committing logical fallacies is me. But hopefully, now that I know more about them, I'll eventually learn to eliminate them from my arguments.
Or maybe I'll end up doing exactly what the book was supposed to teach me to do.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Everlost
Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre: fiction, young adult, sf (?)
Publication info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2006
Pages: 313
This book is brilliant. It had me hooked very quickly, so much so that as I read I became pretty oblivious to my surroundings. Shusterman here has expertly created a new world, one that is totally foreign to ours, but one that soon became very real to me as I got lost in this story.
It's the story about two kids, Allie and Nick, who get killed in a car crash. But instead of "getting to where they were going," they wind up in Everlost, a kind of in-between place inhabited only by kids. They get to know the quirks of this world before long. If you stay in one place to long (unless it's a dead-spot), you begin sinking to the center of the Earth. You never know whom to trust. And beware, of course, the lurking threat of the monster known as the McGill.
Everlost is, simply put, a very engaging story. It convinced me that there are things far worse than death. I also applaud the character development. At first Allie bothered me a little, but I figured she had room to grow, and indeed she did. Both she and Nick had the chance to become heroes in their own way, in ways I didn't expect at first. And it is interesting who ends up being the "villains."
If you're looking for a book that's fun to read, that's not challenging but still makes you think, I highly recommend this one. Let Everlost become your world for a while. And then be grateful you're still alive.
Genre: fiction, young adult, sf (?)
Publication info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2006
Pages: 313
This book is brilliant. It had me hooked very quickly, so much so that as I read I became pretty oblivious to my surroundings. Shusterman here has expertly created a new world, one that is totally foreign to ours, but one that soon became very real to me as I got lost in this story.
It's the story about two kids, Allie and Nick, who get killed in a car crash. But instead of "getting to where they were going," they wind up in Everlost, a kind of in-between place inhabited only by kids. They get to know the quirks of this world before long. If you stay in one place to long (unless it's a dead-spot), you begin sinking to the center of the Earth. You never know whom to trust. And beware, of course, the lurking threat of the monster known as the McGill.
Everlost is, simply put, a very engaging story. It convinced me that there are things far worse than death. I also applaud the character development. At first Allie bothered me a little, but I figured she had room to grow, and indeed she did. Both she and Nick had the chance to become heroes in their own way, in ways I didn't expect at first. And it is interesting who ends up being the "villains."
If you're looking for a book that's fun to read, that's not challenging but still makes you think, I highly recommend this one. Let Everlost become your world for a while. And then be grateful you're still alive.
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