3. In Defense of the Rat, text by J.B. McKinnon and illustrations by Sarah Gilman, published in Hakai Magazine. Essay published in The Browser on October 10, 2023.
In Defense of the Rat
Rats are less pestilent and more lovable than we think. Can we learn to live with them?
Introduction to Writing I Admire I love reading. My achilles heel is that I'm a slow reader. So, I read as much as I can, but not as much as I would like. I also love writing. For quite a long time I have fantasized about being a writer and having a piece accepted by a relatively noteworthy publication. Recently, I considered all the unread books on my shelf, all of the still to read publications on my side table and all of my on-line subscriptions. All of it writing by published, award-winning and even great authors. I have come to the realization that I am [probably] not going to be a published author. I will keep trying, but there is just too much good writing out there. This blog is my next best effort to keep track of that good writing and share it with others who might happen upon my blog. I don't advertise or have a membership to Substack or other things like that. It will probably be hit or miss for other re...
8 . Hillary Mantel: The Art of Fiction No: 226 , published in The Paris Review, Issue 212, Spring 2015. Interviewed by Mona Simpson. “ I only became a novelist because I thought I had missed my chance to become a historian .” This is an interview with the two-time Booker Prize winner for the first two books in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies . The final book of the trilogy is The Mirror & the Light . She wrote A Place of Greater Safety , a historical novel about the French Revolution, completing it when she was 27 years old! Add her many contemporary fiction books, her memoir Giving Up the Ghost and innumerable essays; she was a prolific writer. Reading the interview, I also learned that Hilary Mantel thought Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson was the perfect novel. HM's words: "Kidnapped I read probably every couple of years at least. It never loses its magic for me." A bit further on she...
4 . Missed America: Attacking the right without asking about the left by Johann N. Neem. Published in The Hedgehog Review : Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture, Summer 2023 issue. This article reviews the book Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About our Past , by Kevin M. Rouse and Julian El. Zelizer, eds. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2023. Recently I had two different experiences which made me question my critical thinking ability. After these experiences, I found this essay published in Recommended Reading by Conor Friedersdorf on October 27, 2023. I was grateful to read it. My critical thinking is not as questionable as originally concerned me, but I am aware that, every so often, it needs sharpening. Book link copied from Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Comments
Post a Comment