Subject: Writing and reading.
Like an alcoholic I have just been binging on Amazon, buying books. I have these urges to read up all that a specific author has written. It's as if each book each word and sentence will inject the same joy, the same pleasure as when I read a book by them the first time.
Today it was VJ Naipaul who's book, 'A House for Mr Biswas' captivated me a couple of years ago. His prose style and his quirky characters are brought to life and you live right alongside them from start to finish. My bookshelves are largely full of 'need to know' stuff, historical philosophy to the present day, attempts to get my head around the sub atomic partials and parallel universes, history books and travelogues, auto biographies and biography mostly political. The realm of novel writing was limited by those I felt I should read, Russian and German authors as well as the best of the English but my attention was caught by such as VS Naipaul's Mr Biswas, (just ordered three of his) Philip Roth (bought them all), Jonathan Rabin (bought all of them) Richard Ford who's book 'Canada' was a great read, and all of John Le Carre who's ability to weave an intricate story is on par with the best.
Books are the rabbit hole experience we all desire as a relief to the crazy world around us. The increasing thought that it's all a con that nothing is true anymore when it gains mainstream interest. The scramble to outdo and embellish the story, to coat it in innuendo and scepticism, as if we the public need to have a bias presented to us to juice up our own bias. Where is the truth in a world of tweets which are but passing thoughts without the discomfort of facts. The tweets and the anti tweets, the bile and the anger all the discomfort of modern experience brought to the boil on the internet.
Perhaps having to put a 30p stamp on the envelope contained our worst excesses in the past, today it's too easy and too anonymous, too easy to bring out the worst in people. To shout abuse at the 'bouncer' takes courage, to write and abuse someone from the comfort of your armchair is too easy.
Like an alcoholic I have just been binging on Amazon, buying books. I have these urges to read up all that a specific author has written. It's as if each book each word and sentence will inject the same joy, the same pleasure as when I read a book by them the first time.
Today it was VJ Naipaul who's book, 'A House for Mr Biswas' captivated me a couple of years ago. His prose style and his quirky characters are brought to life and you live right alongside them from start to finish. My bookshelves are largely full of 'need to know' stuff, historical philosophy to the present day, attempts to get my head around the sub atomic partials and parallel universes, history books and travelogues, auto biographies and biography mostly political. The realm of novel writing was limited by those I felt I should read, Russian and German authors as well as the best of the English but my attention was caught by such as VS Naipaul's Mr Biswas, (just ordered three of his) Philip Roth (bought them all), Jonathan Rabin (bought all of them) Richard Ford who's book 'Canada' was a great read, and all of John Le Carre who's ability to weave an intricate story is on par with the best.
Books are the rabbit hole experience we all desire as a relief to the crazy world around us. The increasing thought that it's all a con that nothing is true anymore when it gains mainstream interest. The scramble to outdo and embellish the story, to coat it in innuendo and scepticism, as if we the public need to have a bias presented to us to juice up our own bias. Where is the truth in a world of tweets which are but passing thoughts without the discomfort of facts. The tweets and the anti tweets, the bile and the anger all the discomfort of modern experience brought to the boil on the internet.
Perhaps having to put a 30p stamp on the envelope contained our worst excesses in the past, today it's too easy and too anonymous, too easy to bring out the worst in people. To shout abuse at the 'bouncer' takes courage, to write and abuse someone from the comfort of your armchair is too easy.
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