'Round the World in 80 posts
Roger Simon - screenwriter, award-winning crime novelist, and now blogger. It's interesting to me that those who already write for a living still have a yen to blog. I'd always considered the blog the other way around - a recompense for those who don't write for a living.
PJ O'Rourke, tongue in cheek, wants us to take our ball and go home: "The benefits will be immediate. We can cut $300 billion from our defense budget. This will be almost enough to pay for the aging baby boomers' prescription drug benefits, which can now include Levitra, Botox and medicinal cannabis. America will enjoy cleaner air and less traffic congestion as oil goes to $200 a barrel due to chaos in the Middle East. A U.S. withdrawal from the Middle East will cause chaos, of course. Then again, a U.S. intervention in the Middle East has caused chaos already."
On art as descriptive: "Cubism disturbs us not because it is abstract: it is descriptive. If it were abstract, we could let go, relax, be moved. But Picasso and Braque were not abstract painters, and cubism claims not to be beautiful, but true. It takes seriously the avowed aim of every painter since the Renaissance to depict the world as it is."
John Updike on writing: “Writing is a way of taming the world, turning the inchoate, often embarrassing stream into a package...[Writing] makes the world seem more real."
Updike appears to have great self-control despite writing about adultery and sexual perversions with relish and seeming experience (oh isn't that what they said about Greeley?).
Historian and best-selling wise man Paul Johnson writes in the WSJ: "Unlike Montgomery in 1944, who never underestimated the German genius for counterattack, and made provision against it, the allies this time did not study and prepare for the peculiar Arab genius for counterattack, which is to carry out prolonged and vicious guerilla warfare, completely disregarding human life, including their own. Moreover they did not study and prepare for the difficulties of meeting this form of counterattack against the political background of a free society at home, reacting nightly to what it sees on TV, and reading highly critical reports from the front written by journalists who have their own opinions and agendas and feel under no obligation to pursue the war (and peace) aims of the allied commanders. Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair are currently suffering from their lack of provision and foresight. Given patience and determination, all will be well in time: Democracy and the rule of law will grow in the Middle East, and the roots of terrorism will be destroyed. But we are learning, once again, that the lessons history has to teach are inexhaustible and that statesmen should never plunge into the future, as we did in Iraq, without first examining what guidance the past could supply."
Terry Teachout teaches lessons learned from an illness: "Did I learn anything from being out of the loop for six whole days? We’ll see. I can’t honestly say it was fun—I felt crappy, after all—but there were moments when I caught a glimpse of how it might feel to put down the reins and really take some time off. I’m no good at that, but I’m trying to become so."
No comments:
Post a Comment