New Narratives for a New Diversity

The  May 14, 2018, issue of The New Yorker includes a short story by Edwidge Danticat entitled "Without Inspection" that can be viewed as representing a new narrative for a more diverse America.

This country has always been a nation of immigrants (after it was "discovered" by European explorers at any rate), but until relatively recently, the vast majority of the newcomers were Europeans who arrived legally.  Thus, the classic immigration story has long been one of persons, parents or grandparents who arrived from the "old world" at Ellis Island in New York harbor and after various trials and tribulations, often including discrimination, eventually achieved the American Dream, if not for themselves for their offspring.

Tell Me a Story, Mommy

Remember when digital books were all the rage and various companies were rushing to bring out new readers?

Well, no more it seems. Audio books are now where it's at.

That's according to a lengthy article in the Seattle Times entitled "Listen carefully, book lovers: Top authors are skipping print for audio."

Freedom or Just Trying to Live: Differentiating Character

If one is writing stories short on plot, character development is often critical. That raises the issue of character differentiation and how to go about it.

In that vein, here is an interesting quote from a May 14, 2018, New Yorker article on rapper Post Malone.

"Some people are free to live their best lives. Others are just trying to live."

One Older Reader of Young Adult Fiction

I have discussed various aspects of Young Adult (YA) fiction in a number of posts, which readers can find by clicking on the tag “young adult fiction” at the bottom of this submission.  The YA field is interesting in part because it has in recent years been one of the best, if not the best, performing genre for the publishing industry.

List Journalism Is Alive and Well

Literary Hub, an online publication created by the venerable independent publisher Grove Atlantic and the Internet-age publisher Electric Literature, describes itself as “an organizing principle in the service of literary culture, a single, trusted, daily source for all the news, ideas and richness of contemporary literary life.”

Sounds high brow, doesn’t?

Well, Lit Hub, as it is known, is not shy about being low-brow as well – in this case, list journalism. You know the type: 24 ways to entice HIM into bed (your favorite women’s magazine); the 12 best sports bars in … (fill in the name of your city), etc., etc.

Trump as a Character from a James Joyce Novel

President Donald Trump could be a character created by James Joyce based on the way he thinks and communicates.

That’s the view of an unnamed national security expert, as reported by General Michael Hayden, a head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency under former president George W. Bush.

In an interview published in the May 6, 2018, New York Times Sunday Magazine, Hayden was asked what it was like for analysts to brief a president who ignores intelligence with which he disagrees and embraces information that suits his policy needs.

Street Haunting May Shed Light on Clarissa Dalloway

When a certain type of novel is published, readers often wonder, to what extent is it autobiographical? And if the author is or becomes a literary celebrity, entire industries can develop around such questions.

Virginia Woolf, because of her difficult childhood, her episodic mental/emotional instability, her apparently sexually sterile marriage and her unconventional friends, has been the subject of endless inquiries along those lines – facilitated by extensive diaries and letters as well as her fiction, essays and critical works. There’s no shortage of fodder upon which to chew.

What, then, about Clarissa Dalloway? Where did she come from and how does she relate to the author herself?