In literature, we often use the intimate details of personal life to represent broader issues. In my latest article on Tablet, I used my experience of leaving Israel after making aliyah in childhood to connect to the annual season of mourning for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Have you read any memoirs, essays, or even novels where the personal serves as a microcosm for the world at large? Please share in comments below.
Even hyenas know when not to laugh.
A couple days ago, I read this post on the Florida Writers Conference Blog (I know I’m not from Florida, but I happen to really like this blog) about humor. And there’s a fun overview of contemporary religious Jews in comedy right now on Aish.com. So I was already contemplating the subject when I spotted an interview with Ruth Wisse on Tablet about her new book, No Joke.
Ten minutes in, Wisse talks about secular Jewish vs religious humor. If you’re a Jewish writer, it’s worth listening just for that bit.
The conversation as a whole gives a really interesting spin on Jewish comedy, but the most fascinating part is the end of the interview Continue reading
“Take that, you nasty troll! Maybe you’ll think twice before saying mean things about my sister again!”
I hate trolls.
Not the fictional kind. The internet kind. I’ve blogged about it before.
But now, my sister has published her first piece on Tablet. And the very first comment she got was from a troll. A mean, nasty one who called her names.
If getting mean-spirited comments from random strangers is bad, having your sister get them is worse. I’m irate! I’m disgusted.
I have commented.
Fair readers: go read my sister’s essay — and say something nice in the comments. (Even if it means you have to learn how to use Discus.)
K?
“I’m sorry I laughed at you for calling the ginger ale, ‘Coke.'” “That’s alright, Mabel. I’ll forgive you if you pardon me for laughing when you called the spigot a ‘spicket.'”
Like most people who read and write SF and fantasy, I have a tendency towards nerdiness. I watched Star Trek loyally (until I ditched my TV at age 24). I read graphic novels. I watched foreign films as a teen and young adult and snubbed “Forrest Gump” and “Titanic.” And my idea of a fun day out could easily involve a museum, planetarium, or library.
Yes, I sat at the table with the nerds, geeks, and dweebs in high school. At least the social consequences of nerdiness drop drastically at some point during college.
One of the things I studied in college and graduate school happens to be sociolinguistics, and the topic still fills me with geeky glee, so when Discover Magazine directed readers to Joshua Katz’s work at NC State University, I had to give it a look-see. Continue reading
Liel Liebovitz, on Tablet Magazine this week, argues that TV is for Dummies.
Photo of Sanyo TV courtesy of Kevin Simpson via Flickr
Like most titles, this one exaggerates Mr. Liebovitz statement: that even if TV has achieved more creative sophistication than ever before, it still fails to reach the majesty of the written word (or something to that effect). In his mind, books are still king. He bases his argument, as I understand it, on the inability of a visual art form to capture the interior life of characters, using a passage written by Henry James as evidence. In the first hour online, Mr. Liebovitz has received 19 comments on his article.
Well, I haven’t had a TV set in my home since 2000, so I can’t really attest to the increase quality of television programming in the last few years. Continue reading
“Excuse me, sir. Do you happen to remember that story where that guy dies and one of his sons thinks the other did the crime, but it turns out to be the mother instead?”
I was reading a post by Noelle Sterne on Writer’s Digest today where she describes “How to Prevent Predictable Plots.” She cites Georges Polti, who listed 36 classic plots which are constantly used and reused in literature and drama. (Sterne suggests that it’s inevitable you’ll use one of these basic plots, but that you can set yourself apart and introduce unpredictability through the details.)
Intrigued, I went to a description of these “dramatic situations.” Continue reading
Rebecca Klempner 