Reviews are starting to come in for Mark Bertrand’s Back on Murder.
All posts by philwade
Updike on an Artist's Tension with His Audience and Creativity
When did artists first begin to chafe with their audiences and feel irritated at the idea that their creations should be styled in a limited way so as to gain popularity? John Updike in 1985 wrote about this history, what happened to Herman Melville, and what a modern artist might do with this tension. He said:
By authentic I mean actual and concrete. For the creative imagination, in my sense of it, is wholly parasitic upon the real world, what used to be called Creation. Creative excitement, and a sense of useful work, have invariably and only come to me when I felt I was transferring, with a lively accuracy, some piece of experienced reality to the printed page.
I Lift Up My Soul to the Merciful Lord
How many times have you read verses like this and thought little of them?
“To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.”
Those are the opening words of Psalm 25:1, not even the whole verse. I usually think of words like these as the Psalmist saying hello, but look at what Charles Spurgeon wrote about these words. Read more on cbmc.com.
Would You Pay to Comment?
The Sun Chronicle hasn’t appreciated reader feedback recently and has now guarded its article comments with a 99 cent fee. So you can fill out the order form, pay almost a dollar, and comment freely thereafter. I don’t know if that system will apply to only this Massachusetts paper or also to the other two papers the D’Arconte company owns.
Mixed Metaphor Alert
From the previously linked article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (they should lengthen their name, don’t you think? How about Atlanta News Journal-Democrat Constitution Dispatch Herald?), here’s a bit common language abuse. Bobby Williams of Smoothie King is quoted.
“McDonald’s is the 900-pound gorilla in the room,” he said. “Whenever they roll with something, it creates a halo effect.”
Seattle's Best Coffee to be Sold at Burger King
Burger King of Canada and USA will begin selling Seattle’s Best Coffee in their restaurants this fall. The Canadians will get the deal a month or so before the Americans will, because, let’s face it, Canadians need a stimulus that will rouse them out of the years of malaise that has been dragging their country down. Their coffee is terrible. I’ve never tasted it myself, because it’s terrible.
So Burger King has looked across the street at McDonald’s McCafe, which has been offering Newman’s Own Coffee for a few years, hears the rattling whistle of the espresso being made, and believes it needs to expand its beverage line. This reminds me of a Consumer Reports test that ranked McDonald’s coffee over Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and Burger King. Did anyone go to Burger King for good tasting coffee back then? Now, they may have that option and be able to choose from unique flavors like Grease Fried Bean, The King’s Flamer, and Whopper Cafe Grande.
BTW, Burger King wanted to punish their customers for their loyalty and brand devotion, so they took the Whopper off the menu for a couple days. Naturally, they recorded the reactions.
Gourmet coffee companies may have lesson to learn from the fast food giants’ coffee decision, that their brew is a bit too pricey. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports McDonald’s has taken marketshare away from specialty coffee stores by offering less expensive drinks.
Will BK gain ground in the fast food market from McDonald’s with their new coffee options? Maybe. In the meantime, McDonald’s will begin offering fruit smoothies.
Not Another Great American Novel
“Is the idea of the Great American Novel the worst thing that ever happened to great American novelists?” asks Malcolm Jones. “Some days it does seem that way.”
I’m not sure this writer has the right frame of mind. In fact, it probably doesn’t matter if an author hopes his work will be the next G.A.N. If it is, we will discover it for ourselves.
Don't Blame Star Wars for Bad Summer Movies
Danny Leigh of The Guardian states it isn’t fair to say summer blockbusters are all terrible because of the legacy they have in Star Wars. He writes:
Blame Lucas, by all means, but let’s have a little more accountability all round: blame Francis Ford Coppola and Roman Polanski, too, for never regaining the majesty of The Godfather or Chinatown; blame the fractured way we access entertainment; blame the Weinstein brothers for helping to botch the resurgent interest in smart but populist cinema during the 90s; and, if we’re going to be thorough here, why not blame corporate studio ownership and mass consumerism as a whole?
Literally Devoted
The word for today from the Wordsmith is bibliolatry, used in this sentence: “Fifty percent of college graduates expect Jesus to be here any day now. We are, says Paul Boyer, almost unique in the Western World in combining high educational levels with high levels of bibliolatry.” Martin Gardner; Waiting for the Last Judgement; The Washington Post; Nov 8, 1992.
Bibliolatry is defined as “excessive devotion to the Bible, especially to its literal interpretation.” It’s also the worship of any book, but sticking to the first definition, I have to laugh when I see references to a literal interpretation of the Bible. I hesitate to use labels, but I’ll do it anyway. The idea in the example sentence is the essential thing conservatives think of when defining academic and some other types of liberals. They tell us if we would use our brains we would see the nuance, the deeper meaning, the shades of gray in the situation and not be so cock-sure of ourselves, but when pressed for a good answer, they don’t have one. They can only criticize the answers the conservatives have given.
Bibliolatry in this sense does not exist. There can be no excess in devotion to the Word of God. See Psalm 19 and Psalm 119, but don’t take them literally. Take them poetically. Your soul may not “cling to the dust,” because you can have life in His Word.
George Washington on Unity of Government and Need for Morality
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. Continue reading George Washington on Unity of Government and Need for Morality