Tag: writing
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Beyond Writer’s Block
Two things happened in my writing life that I have not yet been able to go beyond. A Small Diary My mother gave me my very first diary for Christmas when I was in first grade and for about a month, I poured out my 6-year-old soul into that small book. I was so proud…
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Monsters on Mondays | Chapter 7: The Anti-Monster
VLADIMIR NABOKOV And so we arrive at Lolita. I read Lolita as a 20something and not since. I have no intention of reading it again, but Claire Dederer’s words ring true: to choose to read Lolita is to choose to engage with something monstrous. For the rest of your life, every time you see the…
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Monsters on Mondays | Chapter 3: The Fan
J. K. ROWLING I’ve been thinking about the progression of things this way: biography –> fandom –> cancel culture “An audience member is a consumer of a piece of art; the audience member is not defined by that piece of art.” p 158 I really appreciate the way Claire Dederer writes about fandom and I’ve…
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Monsters on Mondays | Chapter 2: The Stain
MICHAEL JACKSON “Stain” refers to a situation in which you find out something terrible about someone you admire and then the knowledge seeps down and back into the prior work of the artist. If you stack up napkins or towels and pour a measure of liquid onto the top layer, the liquid will penetrate down…
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Monsters on Mondays | Chapter 1: Roll Call
WOODY ALLEN Monsters gets really personal for me right away. If you look at my all-time film stats on Letterboxd, you will see that I have viewed more Woody Allen films than those of any other director. I discovered Allen in my late teens upon watching Annie Hall. Movie rental was becoming a thing then…
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Monsters on Mondays | Prologue: The Child Rapist
“…the problem of the artist whose work we love and whose morals we loathe.” p. 8 ROMAN POLANSKI Dederer begins her exploration of “art monsters” with Roman Polanski. Polanski, for those unfamiliar, is a critically-acclaimed film director. He is also a convicted sex offender. In 1977, Polanski was arrested for drugging and raping a 13-year-old…
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Monsters on Mondays: A Thought Exercise
Dederer, Claire. Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?. United Kingdom, Hodder & Stoughton, 2023. I began reading Monsters after it was recommended to me and I was engrossed from the beginning. I don’t normally read non-fiction and this is why: I immediately wanted to respond to Dederer’s ideas, particularly because I’ve already done a lot…
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Cursive: A Hill to Die On?
For someone who has never given cursive writing much thought, I’ve found myself in an unusual number of debates over its merit.
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Weekly Writing Prompt: What is Your Favorite Animal?
I don’t think I have a favorite animal, but I have many animals I admire.
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Old Dreams, New Habits
Once upon a time, a younger Norma wanted to go to film school and be a writer and a doctor, but I never did any of those things. I let life happen to me instead of making things happen. Life has been good in countless ways and there are so many things I wouldn’t change…