The Pythagorean Storyteller: November 2012

Friday, November 30, 2012

139 ~on folktales

THE MOVING FRIEND

“Nasrudin,” a friend said one day. “I’m moving to another village. Can I have your ring? That way, I will remember you every time I look at it?”

“Well,” replied Nasrudin, “you might lose the ring and then forget about me. How about I don’t give you a ring in the first place—that way, every time that you look at your finger and don’t see a ring, you’ll definitely remember me.”

—Mulla Nasrudin’s Stories.

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

138 ~book news

THURSDAY LINKS: ENDS AND CONCLUSIONS

Endless fascination: in praise of novels without neat conclusions. Book Blogs. The Guardian.

The last typewriter made in the U.K. has left the building. Jacket Copy. LATimes.

Joseph Blotner, Faulkner Expert and Friend, dies at 89. NYTimes.

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

137 ~on writers

THE DAILY ROUTINE OF RAY BRADBURY

Photo Credit: Who2

“My passions drive me to the typewriter every day of my life, and they have driven me there since I was twelve. So I never have to worry about schedules. Some new thing is always exploding in me,and it schedules me, I don’t schedule it. It says: ‘Get to the typewritter right now and finish this.’”

“I can work anywhere. I wrote in bedrooms and living rooms when I was growing up with my parents and my brother in a small house in Los Angeles. I worked on my typewriter in the living room, with the radio and my mother and dad and brother all talking at the same time. Later on, when I wanted to write Fahrenheit 451, I went up to UCLA and found a basement typing room where,if you inserted ten cents into the typewriter, you could buy thirty minutes of typing time.”

For the complete interview click here.

*****

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an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself freely.

Click to order Deconstructing INFATUATION,

a thought-provoking novel about infatuation.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

136 ~on inspiration

WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM?

“Ideas come from the Earth. They come from every human experience that you’ve either witnessed or have heard about, translated into your brain in your own sense of dialogue, in your own language form. Ideas are born from what is smelled, heard, seen, experienced, felt, emotionalized. Ideas are probably in the air, like little tiny items of ozone.”—Rod Serling.

Watch this video:

*****

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an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself freely.

Click to order Deconstructing INFATUATION,

a thought-provoking novel about infatuation.

Monday, November 26, 2012

135 ~on books

BEND, NOT BREAK

Photo Credit: Amazon

“Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking, capable of adapting to any circumstance. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times… Your ability to thrive depends, in the end, on your attitude to your life circumstances. Take everything in stride with grace, putting forth energy when it is needed, yet always staying calm inwardly.”

—Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds

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an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself freely.

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a thought-provoking novel about infatuation.

Friday, November 23, 2012

134 ~on writing

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE ON WHY WRITERS WRITE

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Thursday, November 22, 2012

133 ~book news

THURSDAY LINKS: THE FUTURE OF PUBLISHING

Photo Credit: Tera Edre Publishing

Publishing: A whole new chapter? Printers Row Preview. Chicago Tribune.

How dead is the book business? It’s the economy. The NYTimes.

What does equilibrium look like for the book business? Marginal Revolution.

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an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself freely.

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a thought-provoking novel about infatuation.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

132 ~on risk-taking

DON’T TAKE CREATIVITY FOR GRANTED

Photo Credit: Torbein

RISK-TAKING

1. Knowing exposure to the chance of loss.

2. Making a leap into the great unknown.

Stefan Sagmeister—renowned designer—talks about the process behind his typography –driven films. Experiences include being misconstrued as a suicide ‘jumper’ while shooting at the Empire State Building, creating custom software for an interactive spider web art installation, and imagining innovative uses for animals in his ‘happiness’ documentary.

Watch this video:

*****

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an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself freely.

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a thought-provoking novel about infatuation.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

131 ~on books

FAVORITE RECIPES OF AMERICAN POETS

Photo Credit: Amazon

MURIEL RUKEYSER makes an Omelette Philleo:

On the side of variousness in life, this is my omelette. It is made with all the combining of egg yolks and milk (or, for weight watchers, water) beaten, and egg whites and salt, beaten;the folding, slashing, and then the variation: fill with slices of cranberry sauce for a tart and various omelette. If is named for Philleo Nash, friend, former Comissioner of Indian Affairs, and Cranberry Prince.

I do not mention my pickled watermelon rind with scotch. Nor others.

John Keats's Porridge: Favorite Recipes of American Poets , by Victoria McCabe.

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Monday, November 19, 2012

130 ~on art

BOOK OF ART

“ I see my work as a way to display a meaningful piece of art onto a book that would otherwise sit on a shelf and collect dust; it’s also my way of recycling a book that might otherwise end up in landfill.

The word or symbol I use are drawn from anything that invokes inspiration or encouragement, such as ‘Read’ and ‘Dream.’ If my work also makes people look at a book and even art in a new light, then the piece has done its job.”

—Isaac G. Salazar.

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Friday, November 16, 2012

129 ~on writing

HELEN DUNMORE’S 9 RULES OF WRITING

‘What will survive of us is love’

1. Finish the day’s writing when you still want to continue

2. Listen to what you have written. A dud rhythm in a passage of dialogue may show that you don’t yet understand the characters well enough to write in their voices

3. Read Keat’s letters.

4. Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn’t work, throw it away. It’s a nice feeling, and you don’t want to be cluttered with the corpses of poems and stories which have everything in them except the life they need.

5. Learn poems by heart.

6. Join professional organisations which advance the collective rights of authors.

7. A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.

8. If you fear that taking care of your children and household will damage your writing, think of JG Ballard.

9. Don’t worry about posterity—as Larkin (no sentimentalist) observed ‘What will survive of us is love.’

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an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself freely.

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Thursday, November 15, 2012

128 ~book news

THURSDAY LINKS: RECOMMENDATIONS

Orhan Pamuk: By the Book. Sunday Book Review. The NYTimes.

Tips, links, and suggestions: Our review list and the books you are reading today. Books Blog. The Guardian.

The Pushcart Prize anthology reflects the best and worst of times. Jacket Copy. LATimes.

*****

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an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself freely.

Click to order Deconstructing INFATUATION,

a thought-provoking novel about infatuation.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

127 ~on creativity

IGNORE EVERYBODY

1. Ignore everybody

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to change the world

3. Put the hours in

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten

7. Keep your day job

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props

11. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside

14. Dying young is overrated

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not

16. The world is changing

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can’t

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang

19. Sing in your own voice

20. The choice of media is irrelevant

21. Selling out is harder than it looks

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself

23. Worrying about ‘Commercial vs Artistic’ is a complete waste of time

24. Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually

25. You have to find your own shtick

26. Write from the heart

27. The best way to get approval is not to need it

28. Power is never given. Power is taken

29. Whatever choice you make, the Devil gets his due eventually

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

–Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity , by Hugh MacLeod.

*****

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an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself freely.

Click to order Deconstructing INFATUATION,

a thought-provoking novel about infatuation.