Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 90
October 17, 2013
On thinking vs feeling
"I have observed that male writers tend to get asked what they think and women what they feel," she says. "In my experience, and that of a lot of other women writers, all of the questions coming at them from interviewers tend to be about how lucky they are to be where they are – about luck and identity and how the idea struck them. The interviews much more seldom engage with the woman as a serious thinker, a philosopher, as a person with preoccupations that are going to sustain them for their lifetime." - Eleanor Catton to The Guardian's...
October 16, 2013
On darkness
It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn. - Thomas Fuller
On No! I Don't Want to Join a Bookclub
Virginia Ironside, No! I don't want to join a bookclub - Freud was the most frightful old nightmare, who had, during his many incarnations, once recommend the taking of cocaine to his patients. Indeed, for a while he had been a cocaine addict himself. Total fraud. - - It was the first moment in my life when I had the revelation - a revelation that I have again and again and again - that not only what I think is an original thought has been thought time and time again by people throughout the ages but, worse, that thoughts that...
October 14, 2013
On walking
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
On Notes on a Scandal
Zoe Heller, Notes on a Scandal - I happened to ask her if anything about the first embrace had surprised her. She laughed. Yes, the smell of the whole thing had been surprising. She hadn't anticipated his personal odour and if she had, she would probably have guessed at something teenagey: bubble gum, cola, feet. - - He is a rather ghastly character, I'm afraid - the sort of man who is always sitting with his legs aggressively akimbo, offering a clearer silhouette of his untidy crotch than is strictly decent. - - You never appreciate what a compost your...
October 11, 2013
On SA Partridge & Sharp Edges
Today we're doing something a bit different: an e-interview with S.A Partridge about her latest book Sharp Edges. TMB: I’ve had some writers say they need absolute silence in order to write. Others like the background noise of a café. Then there are some who create a soundtrack / playlist for each book they work on. Which are you? SAP: I alternate between absolute silence and listening to music, mostly on repeat. The important thing is that I’m alone. For me writing is a solitary exercise. TMB: So if you had to create a playlist for Sharp Edges, what would...
October 9, 2013
On writing advice
There is a cold hard truth, Short Story Day Africa does not have time to answer every enthusiastic up-and-coming-writer’s questions on how to be a writer and get published. It is not that we don’t love you all. We do. It is not that we haven’t been there. We have. There is a long list of people who I (the elf) will be eternally indebted to, people who took me under their wing and are – to this day – still guiding me along. (Handy tip: Be nice to those people.) Short Story Day Africa feels for you. Deeply. That...
On editing
All I need is a badly mangled, irate sentence stalking me. - Karen Marie Moning, Iced
October 7, 2013
On The Rosie Project
Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project - 'She has very firm ideas.' 'Are they evience-based?' 'I guess so,' Claudia said. Perfect. - - My own work focuses on genetic predisposition to cirrhosis of the liver. Much of my work time is devoted to getting mice drunk. - - Presumably these were the victims of Asperger's syndrome. Almost all the literature focuses on children. Despite their affliction, they were making better use of their time than their parents, who were chattering aimlessly. - - It seems hardly possible to analyze such a complex situation involving deceit and supposition of another person's emotional...
October 6, 2013
On old age
You aren't going to get old, of course, when you are young. We won't ever be old, partly because we can't imagine what it is like to be old, but also because we don't want to, and – crucially – are not particularly interested. Old age is forever stereotyped. Years ago, I was a judge for a national children's writing competition. They had been asked to write about "grandparents"; in every offering the grandparent was a figure with stick and hearing aid, knitting by the fireside or pottering in the garden. The average grandparent would then have been around 60,...
