by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 13, 2009 | accumulation, craft of writing |
Last week, before I went out of town, I was looking for my new book, The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. I looked on my ToBeRead shelf–not there. I looked behind me on this long built-in shelf that theoretically holds the things I’m working on–not...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 9, 2009 | craft of writing, life, place, time |
In Wildlives, Quebecois author Monique Proulx creates a magical world out of the stuff of our world. Memory, silence, flowers, summertime, the lake–everything is alive. “The lake rose and fell and murmured beneath his paddle like a primitive animal mass, then...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 6, 2009 | catching moments, my writing |
For today, I had planned to write a review of the book I finished yesterday, but as I sat down to write, I realized that the piece of fiction I started on Saturday and continued with on Sunday and Monday is the first altogether new piece of fiction I’ve started...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 1, 2009 | How We Spend Our Days |
Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” On the first of each month, Catching Days hosts a guest writer in the series, “How We Spend Our Days.” Today, please welcome writer Adam Braver: I never thought...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 28, 2009 | my writing, stories |
My story, “The Empty Armchair,” which is loosely based on my first novel, The Painting Story, appears in the fall issue of Contrary Magazine. Here’s the beginning: Being sick has taken away the busy surface of my life. Gone are the errands and the...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 25, 2009 | craft of writing, details, reading |
So many things left unmentioned: David Foster Wallace’s skilled use of the French language: “Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rolants” (719) and hilarious translations from English to French: demi-maison (730) and from French to English: see Marathe...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 24, 2009 | details, life, time, truth |
David Foster Wallace in Infinite Jest… On Humor: This book is often laugh-out-loud funny. Hal: “I do things like get in a taxi and say, ‘The library, and step on it.'” (12) Hal: “I’m an O.E.D. man, Doctor.” (29) The Narrator...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 23, 2009 | craft of writing, details |
Following from yesterday’s Shakespeare quote, it’s interesting to note that the first two words of Hamlet are “Who’s there?” and the first two words of Infinite Jest are “I am”. I didn’t catch this. I read it on the...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 22, 2009 | journeys, truth |
So for those of you who are still reading–and not that there’s anything wrong with that–Infinite Summer has crossed infinite boundaries to become Infinite Autumn…(thanks for the title to Kim in a comment to yesterday’s post). And for...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 21, 2009 | truth |
Well, today, Monday, September 21, 2009, is the official date on which page 981, the last page, of Infinite Jest is to be read. And I have finished. It is the end of Infinite Summer. I am shocked at how much I loved Infinite Jest. I’d thought it would be...
