May 13th, 2008
by Robert Starvation
Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing has a message for serious writers everywhere: Sod the Nobel Prize. Lessing has experienced such difficulty writing a full novel due to the increased interest in her work that she is considering getting out of the profession altogether. The acclaimed Mrs. Lessing laments:
“All I do is give interviews and spend time being photographed.”
So does Paris Hilton, and she’s managed to put out a book and an album. The only discernible difference between the two authors is that Hilton hasn’t yet received a Nobel Prize, which leads me to suspect that the prize itself emits a subsonic frequency that compels the recipient to forgo creative ventures in pursuit of interviews with the national and international media.
Now you understand the precarious situation Lessing is in. She’d love to be in her study with a nice cuppa, working on her book, but like sailor to siren she is drawn to journalists and photographers every time.
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Posted in Arts and Culture, The Written Word, International | 1 Comment »
April 17th, 2008
by Ryan Jovian
J.K. Rowling is suing a fan for writing a Harry Potter lexicon. Rowling had expressed her own desires to print a Harry Potter encyclopedia that could take more than ten years to write, planning to donate all the proceeds to charity. Today is her final day of testimony in a New York court against Steve Vander Ark and his Harry Potter Lexicon.
I think it’s great that we have protections for writers and artists in place so that their hard work can’t be stolen. What I think is shameful is abusing those protections when your entire ouvre is stolen from someone else. If you enjoy Harry Potter, you might enjoy Rowling’s source material called The Books of Magic, written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics in 1990. The Books of Magic tell the tale of a boy with a less than stellar home life who suddenly discovers he’s a wizard, maybe the most powerful wizard of all time. Sound familiar?
Fan created guides are no threat to your intellectual property and bringing lawsuits against fans is a good way to get labeled a “bitch”. Bringing lawsuits for copyright violations when every idea you have ever had was lifted from someone you’re not even fit to share the same job title with is an even better way.
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Posted in The Written Word, Jurisprudence | 4 Comments »
March 10th, 2008
by Robert Starvation
But maybe we’re being unduly harsh. I’m sure Gene Simmons and Jenna Jameson have great ideas for their licensed comic book franchises.
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Posted in The Written Word, Entertainment | 2 Comments »
March 5th, 2008
by Sam Pagan
Writing a non-fiction book is hard work. It takes a lot of time dedicated to research, interviewing people so you can get facts straight, perhaps visiting certain places that will be discussed in the book so you can get a better idea of the environment, and, if you’re Margaret Seltzer, it includes a big pile of lies coupled with fishing for sympathy.
If you haven’t heard, the acclaimed author of Love and Consequences finally came out with it: it was bullshit. Well, kind of. The book was supposed to recount Margaret’s life as Margaret B. Jones, a youth growing up on the streets in the ghettos of LA as a runner for drug dealers and gangs, and the people she grew to think of as family.
Instead, Seltzer says that it’s more like a recount of stories she’s heard here and there and decided to piece them together and throw an alter-ego into the mix for some reason. My bet is that she wanted some recognition and some sympathy, but she never thought of the repercussions of her actions should she be found out. I mean, I can be a good liar if I have to be, but when it comes to flat-out fraud or deceiving someone who has a higher power than me, I would just go with the truth. There are so many ways she could have produced this book without having to deal with international humiliation. And now Ms. Seltzer has nothing to fall back on. It may or may not be the last book she’ll write.
I understand wanting people more downtrodden than you to be heard so society can learn about the dark underbelly of the ghettos and all that, but even pitching it as a fictional memoir based on facts would have been better than what she did. I feel sorry for the editor who worked on this project for three years only to have it turn into a fiasco. What a waste of time. Thanks, Margaret.
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Posted in The Written Word | 1 Comment »
March 4th, 2008
by Sam Pagan
…That’s what Anne Rice was known for up until her re-affirmation into Catholicism in 2005 after a 15 year hiatus. After which she wrote a fiction book dedicated to the early life of Jesus titled, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. Which for some reason makes me think of the Meatloaf album, Bat Out of Hell, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a connection.
News came out in late February that the creator of the vampire Lestat and his whining companion Louis may be coming out with one final book about our favourite literary hemophiliacs of the 90s. Funny how she totally swore off writing about the character Lestat ever again and now out comes this announcement. It just goes to show that a writer really can’t get rid of their alter-egos, no matter how hard they try.
The twist? It’s more than likely going to be about Lestat meeting Jesus Christ and renouncing his sins or whatever, and even though he’s a monster now that kills humans for survival as well as for pleasure, that they’re going to have a heart to heart chat. I mean, hey, why not? She already had the whole Memnoch the Devil-sympathizing epic in ‘95, it’s about time we got to hear it from the other end of the spectrum, so to speak.
I read her Vampire Chronicles during the course of ninth and tenth grade, which included the add-ons like Pandora, Vittorio, and the Vampire Armand books. Though there was a lot I still have yet to piece together and understand fully about the whole arc, I did really enjoy them. I’ll probably attempt to read it anyway just to see what she thinks she has left to say about the entire Lestat fiasco; I think she should just let sleeping dogs lie. But hey, it’s her universe.
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Posted in The Written Word, Entertainment | 10 Comments »
