The dialogue below is something you might expect from the very best of a Woody Allen or Larry David script yet Hemingway did it in the 1920s. Following on from last week’s reflections on Ernest Hemingway’s short declarative sentences and…
Blog Archives
‘If In Doubt, Cut it Out’ – Reflections on Ernest Hemingway’s Writing
‘If in Doubt Cut it Out‘ is an old writer’s slogan used to remind budding writers to get rid of unnecessary noise and clutter. Cutting words remains one of the hardest, yet necessary parts of writing. Even after all these…
Take a Walk with James Joyce Along the Beach
Today in Wednesday’s book quote, we revisit A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. If you remember in our previous encounter A morning inspiration we examined Joyce’s exceptional discourse about the spirit and unfettered freedom…
Tagged with: A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce, The beach scene
Posted in Reading
Posted in Reading
‘Taking Pleasure of Influencing and Misleading’- Revisiting Oscar Wilde’s Only Novel
For today’s ‘Wednesday book quote’ we revisit Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. This section examines further the mindset and personality of Lord Henry whose brash and provocative monologue Youth is the one thing worth having was discussed previously.…
‘Wickedness’ and The Brothers Karamazov
As you can tell from the excerpts below Dostoevsky makes his villains extraordinarily powerful. He makes those characters as strong, attractive and intelligent as he possibly can. Today’s book quote comes from a conversation between one of the most vile…
Near Death and Contemplation of God from Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
As you may have gleaned from my recent book quotations I have been working my way through the literary classics with great gusto. I aim to present a weekly book quote on this blog every Wednesday. I’m currently reading Robinson…
‘A Morning Inspiration’ – James Joyce
I thought it nigh impossible someone could adequately describe the spirit and unfettered freedom the instant upon waking in the morning just prior to awakening wholly, but I believe James Joyce in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young…
Tagged with: A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce, Morning Inspiration
Posted in Reading
Posted in Reading
‘Youth is the One Thing Worth Having’ – The Picture of Dorian Gray
When the decadent Lord Henry Wotton warns the irresistible young Dorian Gray that he really should not get sunburnt, his forthcoming remarks regarding youth and beauty are unashamedly brash but correct none the less. In the opinion of this poster…
Tagged with: Beauty, oscar wilde, the happy prince, the picture of Dorian Gray, Youth
Posted in Reading, Reflections
Posted in Reading, Reflections
Glad Wrap and other ‘Broken Shoelace’ Events
So here I am unwrapping the dreaded ‘glad-wrap’ plastic to seal over a plate of food that I will perhaps reheat the next day….and I’m in kind of a hurry. When you are cooking for just one, you’re always in…
Tagged with: Charles Bukowski, cooking, glad wrap, humour, poem, The Shoelace
Posted in Reading, Reflections
Posted in Reading, Reflections
More on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Writing
Fyodor Pavlovich (FP): ‘…I’d put an end to that little monastery of yours. Take all this mysticism and abolish it at once all over the Russian land, and finally bring all the fools to reason. And think how much silver,…
Tagged with: Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jordan Peterson, The Brothers Karamazov
Posted in Reading, Reflections
Posted in Reading, Reflections
Observation Blogger 