ThomasLitchford

Writing.Life

ThomasLitchford header image 4

Entries from March 2007

More on the Peak Decline of Western Culture

March 30th, 2007 · No Comments

A further example of the decline of Western culture: My Sweet Lord.
A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday amid a choir of complaining Catholics that included Cardinal Edward Egan.
See, now that it’s permissible to make fun of anything, much of what we once called [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: The Decline of Western Culture

Has Western Culture Peaked?

March 26th, 2007 · No Comments

I’m a little afraid that this — or perhaps this (notice a trend?) — represents the peak of what our culture is capable of producing.
When everything is permissible, when everything has been deconstructed, mocked, shown to be unreliable and/or hypocritical, what is there left for writers to do?
Pervasive irony is the result of a civilization [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: The Decline of Western Culture · Writing

First-Time Novelists’ Blues

March 26th, 2007 · No Comments

This article at the Guardian details the woes of all us first-timers. I agree with Robertson Davies:
There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or else go mad, or die.
Ever wonder about publishing statistics in the UK?
· Around 70,000 titles are published [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing

A New Survey on Writers’ Paychecks

March 14th, 2007 · 2 Comments

This article at The Independent tells us what we already know.
Writers don’t, on average, make very much money. In the UK, the top ten percent account for fifty percent of author earnings, apparently.
And, yet, people still write and will continue to write. If it’s about the money, do something else.

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing

Driver’s Side Mirrors

March 10th, 2007 · No Comments

About four months ago, someone knocked off my car’s driver’s side mirror. I assumed it was bad driving that did it, because I was parked in the street.
Last week, Danielle’s car’s driver’s side mirror was knocked off. She also was parked in the street. But here’s the thing: she was parked on a one-way street [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: The Mysteries of Everyday Life

300

March 10th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Apart from being the title of a great (read ’stupendously entertaining’) new film, that is the number of queries Mr. Daniel Lazar claims to receive each week in his form letter response to my own query.
It was really a very polite rejection, though.
More on the movie: don’t see it for historical accuracy; don’t see it [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Agents · Other · Widely Spaced Beacons of Hope

Light

March 7th, 2007 · No Comments

Strange Remedy
I’m reading Light in August, and it’s finally pulling me out of my reading slump.
Why Faulkner? Why stream of consciousness? Why southern stubbornness? It seems like a strange remedy to my reading attention deficit disorder. Maybe I just needed something to really sink my teeth into.
Bill Faulkner’s writing style is uniquely seductive. His narratives [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Books · Writing

Chapter Six…

March 2nd, 2007 · No Comments

…is also online.

[Read more →]

Tags: Writing