On the subject of “new” writers and wordiness: what author Annie Dillard Had to Say
Here is a riff I wrote in graduate school a few years ago – about author Annie Dillard‘s first book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. In an afterward to the version of the book I read, Ms. Dillard herself talks about the tendency of mature writers to be more “conservative with word count.” (written in 2009) [...]
September 23, 2011
Tags: Annie Dillard, Antioch University, author maturity, John Updike, Jonathan Safran Foer, Marius von Senden, mature author, Maytrees, nature writing, new authors and words, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Pulitzer Prize, Space and Sight, wordiness Posted in: Book Riffs, Reading Diary, Terry's Reading Travels 
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check out seasoned guitarist Bob Saxton (in the back)
(media illustration for previous post) Both great players, but if you concentrate on the actual notes being played . . . Bob Saxton by two heads – minimum. Wait for Bob’s (2) solos after Scotty plays his abundance of notes. The brilliance is in Bob’s choice of notes and phrases. It’s not how many notes [...]
September 16, 2011
Tags: Bob Saxton, Everything is Illuminated, fingerstyle guitar, Jonathan Safran Foer, Scotty Anderson, too many notes Posted in: Book Riffs, Reading Diary No Comments
On being a new (youthful) artist, composer, musician or writer
I’ve just re-read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated, and what came to mind this time was a reflection on what it is to be a young artist. I think it was author John Updike whom I saw quoted once remarking about the abundance of words in his first books. Writers seem to take much [...]
September 11, 2011
Tags: artist maturity, Bob Saxton, Eating Animals, Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, John Updike, Jonathan Safran Foer, Patsy Cline Posted in: Book Riffs, Reading Diary No Comments
Riffing on Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, Part 2: Does a Hotdog Have Meat in It?
previously: The next day Tess announced that she was a vegetarian. Which brings me to our trip to the San Francisco Exploratorium and the day I almost lied to her. Tess and I had wandered through half of the science exhibits and demonstrations. She was fascinated, which made me happy as I had dreamed of [...]
April 20, 2010
Tags: book review, Eating Animals, Exploratorium, Jonathan Safran Foer, San Francisco, vegetarian Posted in: Book Riffs No Comments
Riffing on Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, Part 1: Little Baby Lamb
At his Vroman’s Bookstore reading, Jonathan Safran Foer posited that children do not come by the eating of meat naturally. That naturally they would have an aversion to it. That we adults must lead children to meat, and ingrain the habit in them – by serving as role model meat eaters, and by serving up [...]
April 13, 2010
Tags: Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer, vegetarian, Vroman's Posted in: Book Riffs No Comments
Part III: Two-Bit Words, Academics v Guerrilla Artists and Digitally Influenced Print Books
For my next look at academic writing contrasted with “two-bit” vocabulary of writers of nonfiction, I explored the text of Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary by new media theorist N. Katherine Hayles. This was a painful reading experience, and dissecting it as I read to understand that pain was even more difficult. I [...]
November 9, 2009
Tags: electronic literature, Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, House of Leaves, Jonathan Safran Foer, Mark Z. Danielewski, N. Katheriane Hayles, People of Paper, Salvador Plascencia Posted in: Book Riffs, Reading Diary No Comments
Coming: Foer and animals. But first: last installment on two-bit words
Well, the synchronicity scientists would nod an “I told you so” to the fact that I went to buy a WEB magazine at Vroman’s in Pasadena on Saturday and learned that Jonathan Safran Foer would be there the next day to present his new book, Eating Animals. This after I had recently written my first [...]
November 9, 2009
Tags: Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer, Pasadena, Vroman's Posted in: Reading Diary No Comments
Pasadena Thai Lunch with Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
What better way to start my new media book riffing than with a Thai outdoor lunch in PasadenaВ and Jonathan Safran Foer’s wonderful book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – a book that stands on the cusp between traditional text writing and the multimedia books of the future. I took myself to this Thai lunch [...]
August 7, 2009
Tags: book review, California, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer, literary review, Pasadena, Thai restaurant Posted in: Book Riffs, Reading Diary No Comments