Lev Raphael's Blog, page 72
August 24, 2010
An Internet Pirate Stole My Memoir
Scribd advertises itself as a social publishing web site where you can
That's how Scribd puts it. They don't add that you can also steal people's books with impunity if you want to, but you sure can, since somebody stole one of mine.
I had never heard of this site until recently, and then a few weeks ago, I acciden...
* UPLOAD your writings and documents instantly
* DISCOVER unique content
* SCRIBBLE what you're reading and publishing
* SUBSCRIBE to your favorite Scribd publishers
That's how Scribd puts it. They don't add that you can also steal people's books with impunity if you want to, but you sure can, since somebody stole one of mine.
I had never heard of this site until recently, and then a few weeks ago, I acciden...
August 19, 2010
What's So Gay About Marriage? The Literary Record Is Grim
When I grew up, the rap on gay people was that they were promiscuous, emotionally stunted and immature, fixated somewhere back in adolescence and had never grown up. Which meant that they were totally incapable of adult relationships -- i.e. marriage. "Homosexuals" were therefore unworthy of respect and deserving of contempt.
But what was so great about marriage anyway?
Sure, it was how romantic comedies ended, but I grew up with a very sour image of marriage, determined never to let the same...
But what was so great about marriage anyway?
Sure, it was how romantic comedies ended, but I grew up with a very sour image of marriage, determined never to let the same...
August 13, 2010
How Do You 'Hit The Slide' If You're a Writer?
Whether people think he's a diva or a hero, everybody's talking about Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant. Annoyed by a reportedly rude and abusive passenger whose luggage hit him in the head, Slater made a dramatic exit from a plane at the end of a flight from Pittsburgh to New York City.
He not only announced how fed up he was on the intercom, he grabbed a beer from the beverage cart and left via an emergency slide.
What a way to quit a job, but how do you hit the slide if you're a ...
He not only announced how fed up he was on the intercom, he grabbed a beer from the beverage cart and left via an emergency slide.
What a way to quit a job, but how do you hit the slide if you're a ...
August 10, 2010
Are MFA Programs a Waste of Time? Mine Wasn't
The rap against graduate writing programs is pretty bad these days. They're insular, they turn out cookie-cutter writers, and they're too damned many of them: over 800 by a recent count.
When I teach workshops or do readings, people often run those criticisms by me and ask if they should bother with a program. I have to tell them to think it through carefully, but I also tell them I got a lot out of mine.
I was at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst MFA program for two and a half year...
When I teach workshops or do readings, people often run those criticisms by me and ask if they should bother with a program. I have to tell them to think it through carefully, but I also tell them I got a lot out of mine.
I was at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst MFA program for two and a half year...
August 3, 2010
The Guy Who Was Glad to Hear Somebody Read Enough of Stieg Larsson
Ilana Teitelbaum just did a smart, thorough blog post at HuffPo about why Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo didn't work for her. The reasons were some of the same ones that made me pass on countless books in the decade or so I was the mystery reviewer for The Detroit Free Press and what seemed like thousands of mysteries and thrillers crossed my desk: too formulaic, too much violence against women.
I also passed on a book almost immediately if it started with a dream, or somebod...
I also passed on a book almost immediately if it started with a dream, or somebod...
July 28, 2010
Was Shakespeare Jewish?
In case you missed it, The Jewish Hall of Fame just got bigger. The latest addition is a superstar: Shakespeare.
Like other fringe beliefs, the theory that Shakespeare's plays were actually written by a Jew has been kicking around the Internet, but it just got a major print boost with a glitzy 3000-word cover story in Reform Judaism, a magazine claiming the widest Jewish circulation in the world.
Who's the Jew? A poet named Aemilia Bassano Lanyer, who's supposedly filled the plays with previou...
Like other fringe beliefs, the theory that Shakespeare's plays were actually written by a Jew has been kicking around the Internet, but it just got a major print boost with a glitzy 3000-word cover story in Reform Judaism, a magazine claiming the widest Jewish circulation in the world.
Who's the Jew? A poet named Aemilia Bassano Lanyer, who's supposedly filled the plays with previou...
