“I don’t know anymore where I begin and Obama ends.” Go and check out this fascinating profile of Ben Rhodes, the “Boy Wonder of the Obama Whitehouse,” who dropped out of his second year at NYU’s M.F.A. program after witnessing the attacks on September 11th to take up a life of international affairs and foreign policy. When asked about whom he would choose write the story of his work life, Rhodes picked novelist Don DeLillo: “He is the only person I can think of who has confronted these questions of, you know, the individual who finds himself negotiating both vast currents of history and a very specific kind of power dynamics. That’s his milieu. And that’s what it’s like to work in the U.S. foreign-policy apparatus in 2016.”
Using a Writer’s Tools
Appearing Elsewhere
Millions writer Sonya Chung has a trenchant essay up at Huffington Post on the topic of writing and motherhood: "Art Before Life: Questioning the Parenthood Question."
●
●
The Art of Villanelle Isn’t Hard to Master
The villanelle, beloved by Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, and Dylan Thomas, might be making a comeback.
●
●
How to Write about Art
Possibly inspired by YiR alum Elizabeth McCracken, who tweeted out tips for applying to MFA programs last week, Zak Smith (the man who painted every single page of Gravity’s Rainbow) tweeted a series of tips for aspiring art critics. Among other advice, he dictates to his tweeps: “If Andy Warhol could have made it, do not write about it.”
2 comments:
Add Your Comment: Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
David Foster Wallace Syllabus
The Harry Ransom Center has scanned and uploaded the syllabus from David Foster Wallace's Fall 1994 section of English 102: Literary Analysis.
●
●
Know thy bic
Because you've probably never bothered to get to know your stalwart writing companion: A history of the ballpoint pen.
Tools like this don’t deserve a DeLillo. They deserve a Clancy. Your life isn’t that interesting, dude.
Amen, brother. Plus: I sort of hate it when mainstream political propaganda sneaks its way into Lit Chat. Tools of that ilk should just collect their pay-checks and stop wanting to be admired on top of it.
“And that’s what it’s like to work in the U.S. foreign-policy apparatus in 2016.”
You mean at the spotless end of the blood-letting juggernaut?