Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 152
March 18, 2023
A 'hidden conspiracy of good will'
“The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of good will, society would not endure an hour.” – Kenneth Rexroth
Born in 1905, American poet, translator and critical essayist Rexroth laid the groundwork for what would become the 1950s beat movement. Dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time, he was among the first U.S. poets to explore Asian styles and co-created an anthology of Chinese women poets titled The Orchid Boat.
For Saturday’s Poem here is Rexroth’s,
Yin and Yang
It is Spring once more in the Coast Range
Warm, perfumed, under the Easter moon.
The flowers are back in their places.
The birds are back in their usual trees.
The winter stars set in the ocean.
The summer stars rise from the mountains.
The air is filled with atoms of quicksilver.
Resurrection envelops the earth.
Goemetrical, blazing, deathless,
Animals and men march through heaven,
Pacing their secret ceremony.
The Lion gives the moon to the Virgin.
She stands at the crossroads of heaven,
Holding the full moon in her right hand,
A glittering wheat ear in her left.
The climax of the rite of rebirth
Has ascended from the underworld
Is proclaimed in light from the zenith.
In the underworld the sun swims
Between the fish called Yes and No.
A Writer's Moment: A 'hidden conspiracy of good will'
March 16, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'The pleasure of writing fiction'
'The pleasure of writing fiction'
“The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form.” – Penelope Lively
Born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1933, Lively started writing in her late 30s and achieved her first successes with a children’s fantasy book, Astercote. Branching out to adult fiction in her 40s she was an instant success, her first two novels nominated for the Booker Prize and the third, Moon Tiger, winning the award. She also won the Carnegie Medal for her children’s book The Ghost of Thomas Kempe.
Honored by the Queen as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for “services to literature,” she has authored some 30 books for children and 20 for adults, plus numerous short stories. She also has written radio and television scripts, presented a radio program, and contributed reviews and articles to various newspapers and journals. And, she said, a key part of her writing routine has been being a good reader. “All I know for certain is that reading is
of the most intense importance to me,” she said. “If I were not able to read, to revisit old favorites and experiment with names new to me, I would be starved – probably too starved to go on writing myself.”March 15, 2023
A Writer's Moment: Editing copy to perfection
Editing copy to perfection
“Some books that I've read on the Kindle, I've been like, 'I want that on my shelf.' Because it says, 'I'm the kind of person who has read this.' The kind of book that says, 'I'm serious and intellectual and historical and race-conscious.'"—Jennifer Lee
Born on the Ides of March in 1976, Lee holds the distinction of having the numeral 8 for her middle name. After not being given a middle name at birth, she assigned this one to herself as an adult “because in the Chinese culture, that number signifies prosperity and good luck.”
Author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles about "how Chinese food is more all-American than apple pie,” she is a part-time journalist and full-time writer while serving on a variety of boards including at the Center for Public Integrity and the Asian American Writers' Workshop.
Lee started writing as a journalist on The Harvard Crimson, then did a series of internships at some of the country’s best newspapers before working as a writer and editor for The New York Times. There, she served as both a copy editor and a headline writer.
“People often think that reporters write their own headlines. In fact, they almost never do,” she said. “The people who do write headlines are the copy editors who are the front and last lines of quality-checking in a newspaper before it goes to print. “
@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
March 14, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Never stop questioning'
'Never stop questioning'
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.”– Albert Einstein
Today is a day Einstein would have enjoyed. It’s National Pi Day, named for the mathematical constant that’s the ratio of the distance around a circle to the circle’s diameter. This produces a number, and that number is always 3.141592653 . . . continuing without end but always the same numbers. It's quite helpful in solving problems or making discoveries.
Celebrating National Pi Day on 3-14 makes sense because the first three numbers are, of course, 3-14. I think Einstein would especially like National Pi Day (something that wasn’t celebrated while he was still alive) because it also falls on his birthday. Einstein (born in 1879) probably would have had as much fun with that as anyone because he often showed that he had a great sense of humor to go along with his brainy abilities.
He once noted that people should never kiss and drive at the same time. Because, he added, then you aren't giving the kiss the proper amount of attention. He also said – probably with a bit too much modesty – that he didn’t keep a notebook of his great ideas because “I’ve only ever had one."
A final note from Einstein: “Learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
March 13, 2023
A Writer's Moment: 'Hitchhiking' into writing fame
'Hitchhiking' into writing fame
“There's nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, 'Well, okay, today I'm going to do something of high artistic worth’.” – Douglas Adams
Born on this date in 1952, Adams is author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before being turned into a series of books that sold more than 15 million copies. Ultimately it also generated a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and a feature film.
Adams, who died of a heart attack at age 49, also was known as an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, a lover of fast cars, cameras, and technological innovation. And, of course, for his prowess as a writer, something he started in elementary school. His first published piece came at age 10 in the school newspaper, and at age 13 a humorous short story was published in a national youth magazine. He loved writing but struggled with deadlines. “I love deadlines,” he once said. “I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
A true Renaissance man, he was not just a writer, but also an actor, singer, producer, computer game developer, and stand-up comic. His work on “Hitchhiker’s Guide” has been enshrined in The UK Radio Academy’s Hall of Fame. “I seldom end up where I want to go,” he said about his movement among careers and opportunities. “But I almost always end up where I need to be.”
