Lev Raphael's Blog, page 40

Writers: Don't Get Trapped By Social Media

For the last few years, at every writers' conference I've attended, the hottest topic has been social media. Writers crowd these sessions like medieval pilgrims seeking miracles at a shrine. They seem convinced that with just the right piece of information, they can use social media to promote themselves into writing stardom.




Any why shouldn't they be? Session after session, book after book, writing blog after writing blog all seem to promise that if you figure out the way to use Twitter...

Going to London? Don't Miss The Wallace Collection!

London has world-class museums, but one of them isn't as well-known as it should be: The Wallace Collection. There's no entrance fee, you can see all of it in a morning or afternoon, and it won't leave you feeling overwhelmed like The British Museum or the National Gallery might. Housed in a historic mansion, The Wallace offers two dozen splendid galleries of 18th century paintings, French furniture, and porcelain along with Old Masters, armor and more.



I was there last summer with Americ...

Jeb Bush Has Hit a New Low

In case you missed it, the race-hatred massacre in Charleston has left Jeb Bush clueless. He's not sure if race is actually a factor in this horrific episode of domestic terrorism.

Every news outlet in the country -- well, maybe not Fox? -- reported that a survivor recounted that the killer "had said that African-Americans have 'raped our [white] women, and you are taking over the country."

Could it be any clearer that this is a hate crime directed at African-Americans in a historically im...

Meaningful Gun Control Will Never Happen in the U.S.

This past week, the Internet, our editorial pages, and our talk shows have been filled with calls for gun control. That happens every time there's a terrible massacre like the one we saw in South Carolina. The talk always fades.

I support gun control, but these efforts are doomed and always have been--and not just because of the power of the NRA. Guns are so enmeshed in American history, so much a part of our cultural DNA that there will never be truly meaningful gun control in the U.S. Advo...

"That's Funny, You Don't Look American!"

When I travel in Western Europe, people ask me if I'm Norwegian.

That's always seemed strange, because my descent is Eastern European and Jewish. Now, the Vikings did range as far down as the Black Sea, so maybe some Scandinavian DNA got grafted onto my family tree there somewhere, but if that's the case, those genes must be pretty fierce.



The first time someone wondered if I was Norwegian, it was actually on a beach in Israel. A new Dutch friend I'd made at a conference came over to me a...

Dummies, Death, and J.Lo

Characters in thrillers--especially the women--live in a parallel universe, don't they? A universe where they've never read a thriller or seen one on TV or in a movie theater.

Because otherwise they wouldn't behave like dummies even now, heading past the middle of the decade.

Take Jennifer Lopez in this year's erotic thriller The Boy Next Door.

She plays a high school teacher of classics here. That's right, and in a school that offers a year-long course in Homer. The poet, not Homer Simps...

Dummies and Death and Jennifer Lopez

Characters in thrillers--especially the women--live in a parallel universe, don't they? A universe where they've never read a thriller or seen one on TV or in a movie theater.

Because otherwise they wouldn't behave like dummies even now, heading past the middle of the decade.

Take Jennifer Lopez in this year's erotic thriller The Boy Next Door.

She plays a high school teacher of classics here. That's right, and in a school that offers a year-long course in Homer. The poet, not Homer Simps...

A Taste of Windsor, Ontario

I've been in Canada a lot over the years, and always seemed to be passing through Windsor, Ontario in one direction or the other.

This past week, I was actually there for a wonderful day. I was a fundraising speaker for BookFest Windsor, speaking at the lovely Old Walkerville Theatre, in the revived and thriving neighborhood named after famed distiller Hiram Walker. His former estate is now used for public functions and was being set up for an art fair while I was there.



The surrounding...

The Good Old Days in English Class?

I recently sparked an unintended conversation about readings lists on Facebook, with a few posters recalling the 1970s where you might have to read as many as ten novels in a semester's English class.

I was in college then and remember those lists. My survey course in The American Novel included at least The Last of the Mohicans, The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, The Portrait of a Lady, The House of Mirth, The Rise of Silas Lapham, McTeague, The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby. That's a lot o...

Reviewer Prejudice at the New York Times?

Janet Maslin at the Times just published her summer reading list and Gawker complains that all the authors are white.

I've got another observation. Every book but two of the 17 she chose comes from a major publishing house like Dutton, Viking or Scribner. And the smallest house doesn't count in a way because its book, Look Who's Back, a farce about Hitler, made worldwide headlines so she didn't have to look far to find it.

What makes reviewers like Maslin so lazy?

Back when I reviewed reg...