Unblocking the writer

Writer's block.

Sometimes we get it because we have no ideas. But lately I've been encountering it for a different reason altogether. Could it be that sometimes we are afraid of what we need to say? When we write fiction we must acknowledge the ugliest parts of ourselves... and we must acknowledge that they are ugly. The struggles of our characters are played out in miniature within ourselves.

Here, then, is the challenge:

Dare to set pen to paper. Dare to face what we are and always have been. Dare to express what flows out of yourself. Dare to devastate, to destroy. Dare to create the deeply flawed. Dare to give a face, a name- a beating heart- to cruelty. Dare to dream of danger. Dare to imagine that somewhere is an ordianry person with the passion and the fierceness to stand and say: this is wrong.

In the beginning...

I was lucky enough to receive The Doll's House, volume 2 of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, for Christmas. Yippee!

Mr. G begins the volume with the following paragraphs:


"In the beginning...

"But of course we never see the beginning. We come in the middle, after the lights have gone down, and try to make sense of the story so far. Whisper to our neighbours 'Who's he? Who's she? Have they met each other before?'

"We get by."


What an insightful reflection on stories, fictitious and non-fictitious alike.

Book Images

This image, and other incredible book-related images, can be found here.

Fresh M.I.L.K.

The original M.I.L.K. collection was the result of a global photography comptetition to capture humanity's "Moments of Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship". If you've never seen it before, it's beautiful. I can't find a proper website, but there is some useful information here.

Now a fresh competition, Fresh M.I.L.K., has resulted in a new collection of beautiful photos. The collection can be bought in book form (of course!). The book is entitled Friendship Family Love & Laughter. The image above is my favourite of the new lot- it looks just like a daydream!

Highlights '09

I'm subscribed to quite a few book blogs and book news feeds. At this time of year, a lot of 'best of ' and 'highlights' lists start coming through, pointing readers to the best books of the year. But the problem with book news is that it's all about new realeases. I started reading books towards the end of the 20th Century- I have the whole history of print to catch up on!

So these are (some of) the highlights of my '09 reading:

January - four weeks off in Toowoomba and Brisbane
   -The History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell (1946)
     A fascinating look at a fascinating topic
  -The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Terry Pratchett (2001)
     A magically intelligent cat and clan of rats figure there's always money to be made in faking rat plagues.

March-April - Semester 1
   -Beginning Logic, E. J. Lemmon (1965)
     An excellent guide to formal logic. I read it for uni, and it rocked my socks!

March 31- I meet Shaun Tan and a friend leaves the country
   -The Arrival, Shaun Tan (2006)
     A gorgeous graphic novel about the strangeness and beauty of immigration. I cried.

June - cruising on the Nile in Egypt
   -I was reading, but I don't quite remember what. The view was distracting me. =P

June/July - London & Oxford, England; and Wicklow, Ireland
   -The Inkworld trilogy, Cornelia Funke (2003, 2005, 2007)
     Because you have to read fantasy in Oxford.

July - a very long flight home
   -The Ghost, Robert Harris (2007)
     A surprisingly engaging modern thriller from a historical novelist.

August-October - Semester 2
   -The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (2008)
     Brilliant. =)
   -The Magicians, Lev Grossman (2009)
     Equally brilliant. =)

mid-September - an awful sickness strikes
   -Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (1811)
     Thus completing my aim to read all of Austen's novels.

November-December - mixing up my reading habits
   -Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman (1988/1989)
     The first installment of the classic Sandman comics. An excellent read.
   -Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (1990)
     Read it.

(As always, I've posted links to authors' sites where possible. It's not my fault if their sites aren't helpful. Where these weren't available, I've posted links to the best information I can find about the book. Sometimes this means Amazon.)

In Praise of Libraries

It's a stressful day at work. Customers are being difficult and there are SO MANY of them! I need a safe place. Lucky for me, my workplace is located very close to my local public library. There is nothing I find more relaxing than sinking into a comfy red chair tucked in a corner behind rows and rows of shelves standing at attention, listening to the intermittent beeping of scanners. That sound- the beeping- is more relaxing to me than waves on the seashore.

I thought I'd take a moment to praise your local library. Having worked (in the past) for my local public library corporation for a good five years, I know a thing or two about the place.

People have a tendency to think of libraries as places that house books. This is true, but it's not the primary function of a library. Libraries are there to serve the public. They are there to provide both entertainment and information. They are there to foster a love of reading in children, and to provide the tools of research to adults.

If you haven't been to your local library for a while, here's a few ideas on how to rediscover the amazing world of public information. The library does more than loan fiction!

• Put in a request for an inter-library loan on that out-of-print book you've been having trouble getting hold of (I recently did this with an esoteric book about philosophy of language, and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it came through!)
• Make use of your library's subscription to the world's newspapers and journals. Whatever your interest is, chances are there's a regular publication on it!
• Check out foreign language collections for easy texts in a language you're trying to learn (kids' picture books are great for this!)
• Borrow audio books (let's face it, they're too expensive to buy) and listen to them in your car, or on MP3 on the train

Good Omens & The Finn Family Moomintroll

I have recently being trying to mix up my reading habits to include different mediums. A few weeks ago I thoroughly enjoyed the visual challenge of reading some comics- but that's another post. Another medium I've been trying is audio. It's been years since I have listened to an audio book (I did listen to them quite frequently as a child), and I'd forgotten what a heady experience it is.

Recently, I've been listening to two audio books.

The first is The Finn Family Moomintroll, written by Tove Jansson and read by the incredibly talented Hugh Laurie. The Moomin stories were favourites of mine as a child, and it has been a rather magical experience (albeit strange, with childhood memories popping up all over the place) to hear Hugh Laurie perfectly represent each character with a different 'voice'.

Find out more about the Moomins here.

The second audio book in question is Good Omens, written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (oh why, oh why have they never worked together since!?), and read by Stephen Briggs. If you never read any other comic fantasy, read Good Omens. Or better yet, allow Stephen Briggs to read it to you.

The story is both hilarious and thought-provoking. It follows Aziraphale, an angel, and Crowley, a demon (or an angel "who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards"), unlikely partners in crime who face impending Armageddon and realize that they've come to like Earth the way it is, really. There are many other characters you won't soon forget, many of them endearing. (Read more about the book at Gaiman's webiste, here.)

Stephen Briggs lends to all this an actor's talent, giving different characters distinct voices and often making me chuckle out loud as I sit and listen through my earphones.

I can't recommend it highly enough. Buy it for someone this Christmas. Or buy it for yourself. You deserve it, right?

Personalized Stationery?

Apologies for the short break in posting. The past week has been rather involved, so I hope you will forgive me!

I very much can't afford (and very much don't need) personalized engraved stationery, but I still had fun designing it at the Smythson website.

Who doesn't want their envelopes lined with tissue paper?

Accomplishments and new beginnings

In the last month I have completed my BA and tucked my first editing credit under my belt. Tomorrow my braces are (finally!) coming off. I have had achievements of a more personal nature this year which have been just as important, but perhaps not as interesting to others.

I always find a new year particularly poignant, so in characteristic style my thoughts are moving forward to the many new beginnings I can expect next year.

To celebrate accomplishments and new beginnings, and to remind me that I won't put down my pen until my time is up, I purchased this print today.

It's available at NeverWear, and features a poem by Neil Gaiman and artwork by Jim Lee.

Team Darcy

So I saw New Moon last night. It was god-awful, though not quite as god-awful as Twilight. Unfortunately this also meant it did not provide as much amusement as Twilight did. Of course I'm talking about the film, not the book, because I refuse to (publicly) judge something I haven't read.

Anyway, I didn't get the film. I didn't understand who I was supposed to be rooting for, or why I was supposed to care what happened to any of the characters. Except maybe Jacob. Victoria was kind of cool, but I suspect I wasn't supposed to think so. I do think I finally understand all that 'Team Edward'/'Team Jacob' stuff. As I see it, this is how it stands:

JACOB
Pros: hotness; charm; charisma; allows Bella her own autonomy; funny; fun to hang out with
Cons: might accidentally scratch half her face off

EDWARD
Pros: ... Um ... (thinking really, really hard) ... No, I've got nothing.
Cons: way too pale; looks like he's about to cry all the time; no sense of humour whatsoever; makes Bella depressed; has a strong desire to eat Bella; stalks her; won't allow her to make her own life choices

OK, I suppose that makes me Team Jacob. Except that I think Jacob could do way better than Bella. I think Jacob belongs in a different film altogether. In any case, Jacob is all well and good but he ain't no Darcy. At least in Pride & Prejudice the Byronic Darcy meets his match in Lizzy (as opposed to taking over her entire life and controlling her), and I don't have to feel like an old perv for having a little crush on him.

Now, for your viewing enjoyment, a picture almost as weird and impossible to understand as the film:

Fancy getting up at 04:30 to write?

It's nice to know that even established writers struggle with "the attention-sucking power of the internet."

The Wall Street Journal tells us the writing habits of several prominent writers here. (And by prominent, I mean actually prominent.)

It's definitely worth a look.

What Would Jane Satirise?

An article in this week's Wall Street Journal, What Would Jane Do, discusses the moral virtues of Jane Austen's writing and asserts that Austen's foremost goal "was to provide moral instruction."

My first response was to dismiss the article altogether. Austen wrote satire, everyone knows that. Then I thought about it more carefully. I still do not agree with the article. I don't believe Austen's 'formost goal' was to advise young women to act with sense, propriety and humility. (It is certainly clear that Austen admired these traits, but whether she preached them is a different question.) I have, however, come to the conclusion that Austen's satire and moral values are quite closely tied.

In Austen's time, she was criticised for the 'morals' of her books. Persuasion, for example, was criticised for “its moral, which appears to be that young people should always marry according to their own inclinations and upon their own judgement” (The British Critic, March 1818- in Kirkham, Jane Austen, Feminism and Fiction p.149). Of course, whether or not Persuasion advocates this principle is up for debate.

Stuff White People Like on films based on books

On forthcoming films based on books:

"[T]hese announcements create a ticking time bomb where by a white person must read the book in ADVANCE of the release of the movie. This is done partly so that they can engage in the popular activity of complaining about how the movie failed to capture the essence of the book. But more importantly, once a book has been made into a movie, a white person can no longer read that book. To have read the book after the movie is one of the great crimes in white culture, and under no circumstances should you ever admit to doing this."

Read the full entry here.

Sometimes, though, the film is better. I think this is the case with The Lord of the Rings, but I know that's controversial.

In which I attempt to explain one of the reasons I read

I am one of those empathetic types they call a bleeding heart, a softie. My conscience is permanently in hyper drive. Not that I always do the right thing. I know I should buy fair trade; I do. I also know I should be a vegetarian; I’m not.

I grew up being described (by parents, aunts, uncles, family friends, etc.) in terms which indicated that my good traits are of the ‘soft’ variety: gentle, sensitive, quiet, tender-hearted.

In some ways I’ve changed a lot in the last few years; in other ways I haven’t changed at all. My friends would say I’m tougher. I don’t really think that’s true. I think I was always tough, it just took a while for me to realize it and act accordingly. Some of the things I have wanted to believe have crumbled in my hands; some of the clichés I wanted to reject have persisted. I have surprised myself with my own toughness, my own ability to withstand.

I have retained my bleeding heart. And that, I think, is the toughest character trait I have. It’s not easy to keep beliefs when acting on them takes great effort. It’s much, much easier to stop caring and go with the flow. If you ask me, jaded cynics are the soft ones.

I buy fair trade because I’m tough enough; the reason I’m not a vegetarian is that I’m too soft.

What has this got to do with reading?

Magicians and Graveyards

I mentioned Lev Grossman's brilliant The Magicians some time ago. Well, here is an interview of Grossman in which he discusses his book, among other things (e.g.; the disappointment of the Harry Potter epilogue).

The book gives a lot of insight into the nature of fantasy novels and fantasy worlds. So does the interview. =)

Grossman also has an Time Magazine essay (written in 2005) entitled 'The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth', about the increasing coolness of geek culture. Neil Gaiman gets quoted, which always wins points with me. You can find the essay here.

Speaking of Neil, I just finished reading The Graveyard Book. What can I say? Neil is genius!

Books for the people?

Another Guardian blog this week (found here) discusses the new Penguin Classics range, released in the original orange striped covers. The wonderful thing about the range is that the RRP of each book is $9.95. The books even have a little blurb on them explaining how Penguin was founded to make good books affordable for the general public.

The item pictured here, however, is not one of these books. It is a notebook. Blank except for the lines.

Released with the orange-striped books was a range of 'Penguin Classics' products. Love Pride and Prejudice? Get the notebook for only $19.95! Or the mug for only $24.95!

Anthony Cummins makes the astute observation that this attempt to make Penguin Classics into 'culture products' undermines the ethos of providing affordable books for ordinary people.


EDIT: Tony Davis, who instigated to project to sell these products, makes a reply here. Basically, his response is What's wrong with book-related products if they promote reading? Fair point, but he completely fails to address the problem of the price of the Penguin Classics merchandise. The high prices on this merchandise makes Penguin into a brand for the wealthy and (already) cultured.

They are products for people already in love with reading and books, for people who have already collected the books. There's no way these products are going to make reading 'cool' for those who aren't prone to reading anyway and/or can't afford expensive books. In other words, expensive culture products can only serve to alienate the demographic Penguin Classics were meant to serve.

Reminiscing

What did you read when you were a kid?

This week Guardian's Sam Leith wrote an article, here, about how children's books aren't scary enough anymore, and Alison Flood (also from Guardian) blogged here about how many of the books she read as a child turned out to be Not Very Good upon rereading as an adult.

I read voraciously as a child. Here are a few of the things I read:

• Dr. Seuss books- excellent adult reading, not scary
• Winnie the Pooh- still worth reading, not scary
• The Chronicles of Narnia- still worth reading as an adult, mildly scary
• L.M. Montgomery's books- still worth reading, not scary at all
• The Babysitters Club- Not Very Good after all, not the least bit scary
• Nancy Drew- OK (but they are all a bit similar after a while), mildly scary
• Heidi, Pollyanna, etc. etc.- good books I'm sure, not scary

I don't think I read anything truly frightening as a child. But I don't have anything against scary books for children. I do remember being devastated by sad stories, such as the Swan Princess.

Graceling- a review

Graceling is a curiosity. The first few chapters were rather disappointing in their clichés, the flatness of the characters, the lack of original plot. I usually refuse to finish a book I’m not enjoying, but for some reason I stuck with this one. I was richly rewarded.

Graceling is author Kristin Cashore’s first novel, and simultaneously suffers the marks of inexperience whilst being an exceptional first novel.

This is what I will say of the first few chapters: the story is set in a rather typical medieval fantasy world with seven kingdoms and (surprise surprise) a few kings grappling for more power. The protagonist is Katsa, a feisty, bad-tempered girl who happens to have a supernatural knack (a ‘Grace’) for killing. Aside from her killing Grace, Katsa could be lifted straight out of a Tamora Pierce novel; she’s exactly that kind of hot blooded, strong young woman.

Imagination is New Shoes

I just had to share some artwork from my favourite picture book. It's called The Last Resort and it's just incredible! Roberto Innocenti is certainly one of the best picture book artists of our time. The story (written by J. Patrick Lewis) is also superb. The collaborative effort on this project worked beautifully: the story and the pictures complement each other perfectly. (I know that's far too many adjectives, but it honestly deserves them all.)

The book is somewhat difficult to get hold of in Australian bookstores, but if you order from Amazon I promise you it will be worth both the wait and every penny!

Asterix and Obelix's Birthday: The Golden Book

I am uber excited about the forthcoming 34th album featuring the ever-endearing Asterix the Gaul. This year is Asterix's 50th birthday. I have been reading these comics since I was a little girl, and love them still!

The book is due out November 12 in Australia, at an RRP of $35.

For those of you unfamiliar with the lovable French village which just refuses to surrender to the Romans, a thorn in Ceasar's side, find out more about the collection here.

The secret of the resistant Gauls is a magic strength potion brewed by their druid, Getafix. You can't help but love the characters and the the endless wordplay.

These are a Few of My Favourite Characters

I’m a bit baffled to see Harry Potter at the top of the list of UK children’s favourite book characters. Seriously, Harry? Hermione, sure. Ron, even. The Weasley twins, Hagrid, Luna. But not Harry. He’s such a whiney ass.

I was, however, quite pleased to see Charlie and Lola in the list.

You can see the whole list here.

Anyway, it got me thinking. Who are my favourite characters?

1. Emily Byrd Starr – the Emily series, L.M. Montgomery

2. Nuuskamuikkunen (pictured) – Moomintroll books, Tove Jansson

3. Inigo Montoya – The Princess Bride, William Goldman

4. Fitzwilliam Darcy – Pride & Prejudice, the divine Ms. Austen
5. Peregrin “Pippin” Took – The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
6. Althea Vestrit – The Liveship Traders trilogy, Robin Hobb
7. Wintrow Vestrit – The Liveship Traders trilogy, Robin Hobb
8. Professor McGonagall – The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
9. Mr. Bennet – Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen
10. Mr. Carpenter – the Emily series, L.M. Montgomery

I wonder if it says anything about me that only three of my ten are female? Narrowly missing the cut are Teddy Kent, also from L.M. Montgomery’s Emily series, and Maurice, the streetwise, smart-talking alley cat from Terry Pratchett’s The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.

It's also interesting that a few of my favourite characters are from books that wouldn't even rate in my favourite books/series (e.g. Harry Potter), whilst other books which I adore (e.g. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis) don't have any especially endearing (to me, anyway) characters.

Please leave your own lists in the comments section- I’d love to see them!

Voiceworks #78 - Fluid

The team at Express Media have really outdone themselves with the latest edition of Voiceworks. The non-fiction is especially worth a look. It's very encouraging to see other young writers engaging with serious issues, and producing interesting articles unfettered by academic writing styles. (This is especially close to my heart, as it's the kind of writing I most enjoy producing myself!)

The RRP is only $8, so do yourself a favour and buy a copy. As the issue doesn't yet appear to be available for purchase online, I can only direct you to a list of stockists here.

I especially recommend Kate Goldworthy's exploration of the nature of sexuality in 'Our Permeable Walls', and Adolfo Aranjuez's 'Panopticon 2.0', an interesting thought-starter regarding gatekeeping and the internet.

The Divine Ms. Austen

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen was a satirical genius.

If you’re an intelligent reader of Austen’s novels, you’ll find any romantic “I-wish-I-lived-in-times-of-gentlemen-and-high-society” notions quickly supplanted by the more realistic impression that we can certainly be glad we no longer need to conform to the social pressures of Austen’s time.

Her novels are characterized by:
• the inescapable interference of well-meaning but overly-nosy family friends
• awkward encounters with past crushes
• lots of faked civility and pretending to be friends
• the obligation to ‘be seen’
• and the public broadcasting of relationship status.

Thank God we don’t endure any of that anymore!

Hang on a minute, did I just describe facebook?

Fantasy and Philosophy

It happened when I was six. It was lunchtime at school, and we were acting out the narrative of a story we all knew (I can't remember what it was anymore), and this one boy just would not get his part right. I distinctly remember my frustration. I hit him over the head with the book (the one we were acting out), and thought 'I'd rather be reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe anyway.'

After that, I spent a lot of lunchtimes reading the Narnia chronicles. I was too young to understand that this was social outcast behaviour; I just genuinely preferred to be reading them and that was that.

I was six when I fell in love with fantasy.

I did, however, fervently deny being a fantasy buff until I was twenty. I was at university, taking a unit about fantasy fiction when it eventually clicked: You know, fantasy is a lot like philosophy.

The wonderful, the amazing thing about philosophy is that it's about clarity. Pick a topic, the kind of topic that is hugely important but which most people are vague about (when pressed, they will mumble something about gut feelings and 'just knowing' or 'everybody knows'). There are philosophers who have wrestled with it, separating concepts which most people conflate, applying logic, exposing fallacies, pinning down what we mean by certain terms, laying bare what it is that we really think. Clarity.

Beautiful. Clear. Complex, but sensical.

When you apply philosophy properly, you address old, familiar, confusing issues with clean, crisp, ordered thoughts and the issues become as clear as if they were brand new. Philosophy has a way of sweeping away the muck of familiarity and mistaken associations.

Then there's fantasy fiction. Any fiction, really, but especially fantasy fiction. Fantasy is always about the hugely-important-but-difficult-to-define things, but it deals with them through narrative. It presents them in all their muddled complexity, it acknowledges the human impossibility of understanding. It provides little paradigms, dancing around the real issues by presenting us with the points of view of flawed and limited characters. It involves messy and mistaken actions and prods at the big consequences of these.

But it does all of this in a way so unfamiliar, in a world so unlike ours, that in the confusion we see with clarity issues and ideas which, in our own lives, are obscured by their familiarity, their uncomfortable closeness to ourselves. Fantasy has a way of sweeping away the muck of familiarity and mistaken associations.

Now, I am unashamed to call myself a fantasy buff.

It's not about gaining a level of great enlightenment. It's about always understanding just a little better. It can be as hard-won as a difficult philosophical proof, or as easy as getting carried away by a story.

A Fairytale Ending <3

With all the talk about vampires and how vampire fiction is all about sex and violence, I naturally started thinking about fairytales. (I really must decide whether to write that as one word or two, and stick with it.) The thing about fairytales is... they're about sex and violence.

As mentioned previously, The Guardian has a brilliant fairytale series going at the moment, which you can get here.

A blog found therein discusses of one of the little-remembered facts of history: fairytales were never designed for children. The 'Disneyfication' of fairytales "has put into most people's minds a primary-coloured world of beautiful people facing dastardly villains and apparently insurmountable obstacles on their path to a life of happiness alongside Mr or Mrs (or, more likely, HRH) Right," writes David Barnett. But this is a modern idea of the fairytale- the real thing is much more grisly and interesting.

You can read the whole blog here.

Barnett mentions Angela Carter, among other writers, as a contemporary writer who puts the sex and violence back into fairytales. I'm currently reading her The Bloody Chamber, and, yes, loving it. I will most certainly post more on that when I've finished it!

Hopelessly lame book alternatives

Laura Miller's discussion of video-book hybrids, found here, made me laugh. Her summary of the critiquing of new 'book' technologies is pretty accurate:

"Someone is called upon to say the sky is falling and to scold book publishers for being behind the times ... Then someone stuffier is summoned to detect the imminent fall of Western Civilization presaged by people's unwillingness to read great literature anymore. ... And, finally, the geek punditocracy steps in to sniffily announce that although printed books are indeed doomed, this particular alternative is hopelessly lame, created by clueless print-oriented geezers who can't see that the real future lies in some yet-to-be-imagined, fantastically entertaining fusion of emerging media that our poor, reeling, post-adolescent brains can't hope to conceptualize."

She also makes a good point about the Twilight saga: it appears that 'digital natives' are quite capable of reading good, old-fashioned printed text if the story is appealing enough to them.

Lost in Austen

I came a little late to Lost in Austen (coming late to TV shows is a deliberate habit of mine- I prefer them on recommendation and on DVD), but when I finally popped the first disc into the player and settled back with the thought 'I'll just watch one episode,' I found myself compelled to watch the next... and the next... and the last.

The show follows Amanda Price, a modern girl who inadvertently swaps places with Elizabeth Bennet, finding herself in the world of Pride & Prejudice, right at the beginning of Austen's classic story. From there, everything starts to go wrong and Amanda desperately tries to make events follow the book (most of the time, she only makes things worse).

I've never been a purist when it comes to film and TV adaptions of books (after all, what's interesting on the page is so often boring on the screen) and the series is probably best avoided by those who think the role of an adapted screenplay is to slavishly copy every detail of the original text. Pride & Prejudice is one of my absolute favourite books, but nonetheless I am unashamed to admit that I enjoyed every moment of this adaption, which works to honour the book as well as highlight the irony of modern girls daydreaming about a 'romantic' world in which most of their liberties would be removed.

Some favourite moments: Amanda's 'postmodern moment' (pictured), and the vindication of Mrs. Bennet. If you're planning on watching the series, watch out for these!

Some observations: it's interesting that the show, like many readers, seems to conflate the BBC series with the book. It has always mystified me that the literary buffs, usually so nit-picky when it comes to screen adaptions, embrace the Colin Firth version so readily. It seems that Colin Firth's Darcy is Darcy (forget Austen's Darcy who, dare I say, was somewhat different). I suspect this has something to do with the fact that many readers saw the series first. It is a bit of a shame that it seems to be a job requirement of all screen Darcys since (and probably all that will follow) that they look very much like Colin Firth.

Nevertheless, Elliot Cowan is a wonderful Darcy. If I were in Amanda Price's shoes, I'd spend less time worrying about getting the plot right and more time trying to steal Darcy.

A word about cheese

My favourite way to read is with a good, soft cheese and wafer-thin crackers. No wine necessary.

Cheese is one of life's little indulgences, the kind we can afford but still think of as decadent. It makes the reading experience richer, it turns what I'm reading into a piece of culture. Eating cheese reminds me to savour what I'm reading.

I especially love eating cheese whilst reading philosophy. It reminds me that I am not just reading my homework, I am reading great and fascinating works, pieces that have shaped the world. Cheese is that kind of thing. It's impossible to eat it and feel begrudging at the same time.

Yes, cheese can do all that.

Juliet, Naked

Last night I finished reading Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked. I actually read the last 200 pages of it (and there are only 250) in one sitting.

I'm tempted to say it's not the masterpiece that is About a Boy, but then Hornby seems to be daring reviewers to say he's getting soft in his middle-age. The book is, after all, an exploration of what makes art valuable and to compare it to his earlier works would be to miss the point entirely. It was a brilliant book, and I suspect that in twenty years or so, experiencing the decisions and revisions of middle-age, I might pick it up again and understand the characters better.

Hornby's work is always incredibly character-driven, and this time we meet an obsessive fan, a critical reviewer and a fallen artist. The story revolves around cult rock musician Tucker Crowe, silent and reclusive for the last twenty years. Scoring a demo version of Crowe's most famous album, die-hard fan Duncan is sent into a spin and his long-term partner Annie writes (horror of horrors) a bad review. Her review reveals the fractures in their relationship, but it also captures Crowe's attention.

I was fascinated by the exploration of the nature of art. The reader is confronted with the paralysis experienced by an artist who has produced, for once and for all, his 'masterpiece' and doesn't know where to go from there. There are also questions about the lies we tell to make sense of things, and the way we rely on other people's art to illuminate our own lives.

For an interview with Hornby about the book, click the 'Nick Hornby' label which appears at the bottom of this post, and the page will display an earlier blog with a link to said interview.

Speaking of quotations...

"Words are loaded pistols."

-Jean-Paul Sartre

"Great novels are always a little more intelligent than their authors."

-Milan Kundera

If you love quotations as much as I do, check out Advanced Banter, one of the best quote collections I've seen for a long time.

The joys of a new notebook

I've mentioned my love of notebooks before, but I don't think I made it quite clear how much I love notebooks! In the absence of a diary, my notebooks are the quiet carriers of my day to day thoughts and inspirations. I use notebooks for everything.

I have notebooks for:

• Lists (what to pack, what to do today, people to call, things that are bugging me, things to buy, etc.) - these are my mongrel notebooks, the ugliest, most functional ones which end up with random addresses, phone numbers, mathematical calculations and automatically allocated internet passwords scrawled into them.


• Ambitions - well, I only have one of these. I write down my most important ambitions, just for a place to keep them. (Go to Egypt; Learn to bake bread; Become a good essayist; etc.) This one is a lovely, cloth bound notebook with a silk tie. It lives on my desk.


• Thoughts on books - of course. The larger kind of notebook, pretty but functional.


• Random venting - for those times I wish I kept a diary. I hope that when I'm gone, somebody does me the service of burning these because most of the time, I only write down the things that aren't worth remembering. This is the only use I have for large notebooks.


• Quotations - I have a quotation fetish. I collect them. And for this, I reserve the tiniest, most beautiful notebooks I own.

Paperblanks makes gorgeous notebooks. I also picked up one today by a new Australian brand called Rasberry- keep an eye out for them.

The strangest thing about my notebook obsession is that I never finish using one. The last quarter or so is always blank. I think this is because they're so personal, so attached to my day-to-day life that when I move to a new place mentally, I can't stand to keep using the same old notebooks.

No two I own are the same.

More on Shaun Tan

I'm still loving Shaun Tan's Tales From Outer Suburbia.


One of the stories in the collection, 'Eric' is available for viewing here. It's not the same experience as seeing it on the page, though. I post it in the hope that you, too, will go on to experience the wonder of the hard copy!


An interview of Shaun Tan, a great introduction to this excellent artist, can be found here.


I have heard Tan give a lecture before, and loved hearing his insights on the creative process and the nature of fiction. "All fiction is false," he reminds us, "what makes it convincing is that it runs alongside the truth."

Your innner polar bear

"I am your inner polar bear. Find me before it's too late."


So begins a powerful and thought-provoking story by Jeanette Winterson on the subject of the consequences of climate change.


It is definitely worth reading. You can find it here.

Banned books week

Banned books week is in full swing in the States, and this poem by Ellen Hopkins has been adopted as its manifesto.

It's powerful stuff.

"Ideas are incombustible."

Snow White

This gorgeous image is by Laura Barrett. It can be found with the Grimms' version of the Snow White fairytale here.

A book of villainous tales

I am very much enjoying reading Troll's Eye View, a collection of fairy tales retold from the "villain's" perspective. My favourite story so far is ' The Boy Who Cried Wolf ' by Holly Black, because it's dark and so much fun to read. If I had kids, this is the kind of book I'd read to them.

Salon.com's ever-insightful Laura Miller did a write-up of the book here.

An interesting point highlighted by many of the stories in this book is that classic villains don't often get up to much evil-doing. Perhaps they're just misunderstood?

The saga continues...

Publicity for the screen release of New Mooon is increasing, and the meta-life of Twilight is turning into as much of a saga as the actual story.

This weekend's The Australian featured a story which discusses what Twilight does to the vampire genre: "This is vampire lite. It dilutes and sanitises the vampire genre," says publisher Alison Urquhart. Journalist Emma Tom agrees, calling Twilight "the greatest vampire killer of them all."

I find it ironic that while Twilight fans are busy praising the chaste series for its depiction of a teen relationship in which sex is not essential, and while vampire lovers are criticising it for its misrepresentation of vampires, scores of readers are rushing into bookstores crying, "Give me more vampire books!"

Thus, within the space of a year the vampire genre has gone from catering to a niche market to providing for the 'mainstream', and Twilight readers have moved on to the 'real' blood-lusting, sex-driven vampire novels, anyway.

The medium and the message

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

There is something about the tactile qualities of paper and ink and glue that can never be replaced by their electronic counterparts.

As a reader, I like to feel the weight and texture of books in my hands. I also tend to remember how to find bits and pieces of text by where they were positioned: about a third of the thickness in, on the left hand page near the top of the second paragraph.

As a compulsive writer, I use a word processor for larger projects (after all, it makes editing a dream) but I also have an array of notebooks and scraps of paper on which I jot down lines of inspiration and frustration as they come to mind. I have never really kept a diary (and oh! how it makes me feel like a failed writer!) but if you could bring together all the scraps of paper, the margins and the forgotten notebook pages on which I've scrawled thoughts as they came, you would have a diary of sorts. When I have new ideas for a narrative, I tend to write these by hand initially, then go on to word process. Typing these things out would never do.

Typing poetry would never do, either. Poetry, by nature, needs space to breathe. The mind has no time to breathe when word processing. Besides, once I'm finished, I like to see what the shapes of my letters tell me about my own frame of mind.

Sadly, I hear handwriting is on the decline. I can't help feeling that a certain type of insipiration is declining with it.

Umberto Eco discusses the problem here.

Easy Read = Trashy Novel ?

The brilliant Lev Grossman (author of The Magicians, a gritty fantasy novel I devoured in 24 hours a few weeks ago) on why good novels can be easy to read: "A good story is a dirty secret that we all share."

Read his article here.

What people like to read

To what extent is "literary merit" mutually exclusive with being a good read?

Says Nick Hornby of literary awards: "the books that have actually come to mean something to the culture have all been ignored, so what you are saying to people is the books you like are no good. It is not true and it is not right."

You can see the full interview in The Australian, here.

Nick Hornby's About A Boy is one of my all-time favourite books. If you've seen the film, don't presume you know what the book's about!

Meanwhile, another story in The Australian discusses popular misconceptions about the romance genre, and why women like to read it.

Even so, I read the first few pages of Candace Bushnell's One Fifth Avenue the other day and found myself completely disgusted with the poor grammar and overt plot devices.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

T. S. Eliot's ' The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' has been my favourite poem since I first read it in 2003. This image is currently on my desktop, and it reminds me every day to eat my peaches.

Tales From Outer Suburbia

I have finally got round to buying Shaun Tan's Tales From Outer Suburbia, and it is a gorgeous book! As always, Shaun Tan's artwork is incredible! The book is a collection of short stories, all written and illustrated by Tan.

I have been a fan of Tan for some years. His illustrations make brilliant use of fantastical elements, showing the strangeness and absurdity of objects and places that we have come to think of as ordinary. In this book, Tan proves that he's a great writer too.

My favourite story so far is 'Distant Rain', which begins: "Have you ever wondered what happens to all the poems people write? The poems they never let anyone else read?"

The e-book debate

It's not quite recent, but here's a rather insightful article I found about the e-book debate. It considers all sides, which is good journalism.