Lev Raphael's Blog, page 55

Who's to Blame for Your So-Called Career? Surprise!

Writers like Malcolm Gladwell have been pushing the notion that all you need to become a genius or even an expert at just about anything is work. Do I hear RuPaul?



They've been so persuasive psychologist Ellen Winner says it's now widely believed that if parents put in enough work, "it may not be all that difficult to produce a child prodigy."



Whoa. Think about it: Butt-kicking parents can churn out kids whose books could rival Zadie Smith, whose music would crush Queen Bey, whose -- hell, fill...

A Commencement Speech Isn't Free Speech

I've done hundreds of public talks of all kinds, including after-dinner speeches and keynote addresses for international conferences, and I've watched the whole uproar about commencement speakers being uninvited this past spring with disappointment.



Why? Because the discussion has been so consistently wrongheaded.



One thread that comes up over and over is that students protesting a speaker's invitation interfere with her free speech. That's just idiotic, and completely misunderstands the Bill o...

Novels Do Not Need Warning Labels

There's a growing move on college campuses across the country to warn students that novels might threaten their mental health.



Specifically, they might contain "triggers" -- that is, material that might upset students or "cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans."



But it's not just survivors of those extreme experiences who are apparently at risk.

At Oberlin College in Ohio, a draft guide was circulated that would have asked professors to put trigger...

My Mother's Inspiration

When I was publishing literary short stories in the 1980s, my absurdly well-read, multilingual mother urged me more than once to write for a wider audience. She was right, though it took me a while to see that. Once I started a mystery series, my audience grew and so did my name recognition.



She had filled me with a love of all kinds of books as a child by reading to me, helping me learn to read myself, getting me a library card early, and taking me to our Beaux Arts library every week. She ne...

Is Game of Thrones Really Sexist and Racist?

Writing in The Guardian, Danielle Harrison says that she gave up watching Game of Thrones at the end of Season Three because of the scene where Daenerys is acclaimed as their Mother by the Yunkai whom she has freed from bondage. Referencing "the visual impact of slavery," she particularly objects to the final moments where Daenerys is "carried into the crowd as the camera pulls back to show her floating in the middle of this sea of arms like the bright planet in a constellation of darkness."



B...

Publishing Can Be Hell--But it Can Be Heaven, Too

In its wisdom, today Amazon is offering my novel The Germany Money for a special promotion on Kindle.



I'm glad they chose it because the book is one of my favorites for many reasons. The story of children of a Holocaust survivor arguing on the Upper West Side about her will, it took me twenty years, on and off, to write. I was thrilled when I finally found the right mix of setting and voice, and after it was published, I toured with it in the U.S., England, and Germany. Audiences loved it at...

Bible Pests

Recounting the Ten Plagues at Passover makes me think of a contemporary plague we've been seeing in full force just this past week: Bible pests.



Whether they think every word in the Bible is literally true or it's all fiction, Bible Pests are everywhere.



They were swarming this week in response to the Blood Moon because it shows up in The Book of Joel and Acts, apparently presaging something momentous. Neither book's author says what or when, but hey, that's par for the course. The Bible is fil...

Bible Nudniks

Whether they think every word in the Bible is true and want to beat you over the head with it, or every word in it is false and it has to be ripped to shreds to show how rational they are, Bible Nudniks are everywhere.



Catastrophes, natural events, and holidays bring them out in droves.



They've been very busy this week. The Washington Post reports that some Christians are claiming that the recent "Blood Moon" means Jesus is coming, the Rapture is coming, something is coming. Probably more fund-...

Take the Time to Know Your Students, Even If You're Famous

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni just wrote a column about our fractured media culture in which he mentioned how disappointed he was that his Princeton students didn't stir when he mentioned the film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?



Really? This surprised him? I admire Bruni. He's witty and insightful, but let's get real here. The film is 45 years old. It's not The Sound of Music, Dr. No, Goldfinger, The Night of the Living Dead, Lawrence of Arabia, Psycho, The Lion in Winter, Judgment in Nu...

The Walking Dead's Finale Was a Major Fail

[Here be spoilers!] I've been writing and reviewing mysteries and thrillers for two decades, but I usually don't catch coming plot twists unless they're very obvious.



So I've been watching this past season of The Walking Dead with dread as a writer and a viewer. I've been hoping it wasn't headed where it was going. Unfortunately it was, and I can't be the only person who thought the finale was too heavily foreshadowed.



I haven't read the comics, but as soon as I heard the word "Terminus," I kne...