… it was the two extremes of human population range that fascinated him most of all. They very young and the very old – both… Read More »Arthur C. Clarke on Immortality and Decadence, Death and Life
“I tried questioning him. I pointed at a pyramid and asked ‘People?’ and indicated the two of us. He set up a negative sort of… Read More »Wonder Stories: Early Science Fiction
The manuscripts arrived at my house a fortnight later, and I unsealed the package straight away and got to reading. The paper was yellowed and… Read More »James Lovegrove Reveals the Truth About Sherlock Holmes
Make it better. Make it more specific. We often discuss art this way: the artist had something he wanted to express, and then he just,… Read More »Intuition plus Iteration: George Saunders on Writing as Editing
Here’s Eisenstein again. There’s a lot at work: The combinatorial innovation that was the printing press created further opportunities for cross-pollination by breaking down old… Read More »Technology (23): Elizabeth Eisenstein on how the printing press created new networks and sparked further innovation
I’m working my way through Elizabeth Eisenstein’s excellent The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, an abridged version of her two-volume The Printing Press as… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (12): Elizabeth Eisenstein on How the Printing Press Changed Books
Less then five minutes long. Entertaining and true. (His Slaughtehouse-Five is the only successful anti-war novel I’ve read).
I’ve been really enjoying George Saunders’ fantastic A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. As well as showcasing some great Russian short stories it’s… Read More »George Saunders: A Hill of One’s Own
I love it when people describe writing a blog, or writing on the internet, as “popularizing” economics or something similar. That is a sign they… Read More »Tyler Cowen on Writing on the Internet, and Network Value Creation
From the so-far excellent A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: Years ago, on the phone with Bill Buford, then fiction editor of The… Read More »“I read a line and I like it enough to read the next”: George Saunders on Stories as Linear Temporal Phenomena