Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 10
November 24, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Fill the Blank Space
In Twyla Tharp’s 2003 book The Creative Habit, she boiled her whole artistic self down to this: The blank space can be humbling. But I’ve faced it my whole professional life. It’s my job. It’s also my calling. Bottom line: Filling this empty space constitutes my identity. Get started. It’s time to make something where …
November 17, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Who / What / Why
David Mamet has written across just about every genre possible, from plays to screenplays, novels, short stories, and even whacked-out science fiction scenarios (Wilson). Along the way he’s also knocked out a bevy of pieces on the craft, whether acting, directing, or writing. While show-running The Unit (one of those War on Terror series from …
November 11, 2024
Reader’s Corner: Fall Graphic Novels
My latest graphic novel roundup for the Minnesota Star-Tribune ran over the weekend: Four new graphic novels showcase a range of approaches and subjects, from deadpan horror comedy to a subversive retelling of an American classic, a fantasy adventure about a magical world next to our own and an odds-and-ends collection from an American master …
November 10, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Shock is Easy
This is Denise Levertov in 1960: I do not believe that a violent imitation of the horrors of our times is the concern of poetry. Horrors are taken for granted. Disorder is ordinary. People in general take more and more “in their stride” — the hides grow thicker. I long for poems of an inner …
November 3, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Eventually, You Give Up
A poem is never finished; it's always an accident that puts a stop to it—i.e. gives it to the public.
October 30, 2024
Screening Room: ‘Dahomey’
My review of Mati Diop’s new documentary Dahomey ran at PopMatters: Looking back at the 19th century, when European powers rampaged across Africa and cut apart kingdoms to plunder resources and kidnap millions for the slave trade, it would be understandable to argue that stolen artifacts were not top of mind for those being colonized. …
October 27, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Identify With All Your Characters
eferencing D.H. Lawrence's thoughts on the subject, Amos Oz also made a point of resisting the urge writers (and often readers) have to take sides with their characters.
October 23, 2024
Screening Room: ‘Look Into My Eyes’
Lana Wilson’s soulful, patient, appropriately skeptical documentary takes psychics at their word but also peers behind the curtain in revealing ways.
October 22, 2024
Reader’s Corner: New York Comic Con 2024
On my way to last week’s New York Comic Con, I overheard an attendee telling a non-geek civilian that it was “bigger than San Diego.” I silently scoffed. Then I arrived at Javits. Not sure how the final attendance numbers worked out in this comic East Coast-West Coast beef, but given the thousands of people …
October 20, 2024
Writer’s Desk: Stay Open, Stay Confident
When he was interviewed by The Atlantic in the summer of 1958, Erskine Caldwell was just about the biggest author in America. The interviewer notes that Caldwell’s novel God’s Little Acre had sold over eight million copies, “more than any other novel written in our century.” An incredible achievement, especially for an author whose work …
