This Day In Writing History On March 31st, 1836, The Pickwick Papers - the first novel by legendary British writer Charles Dickens, was published. Like most novels of the time, it first appeared in a serialized format, published in twenty monthly installments. When the first installment was published on this date, only 400 copies were printed. By the time the 15th installment came out, it was being published in press runs of 40,000 copies.
Originally titled The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, the novel had originally been commissioned by publishers Chapman and Hall as captions to accompany humorous drawings by illustrator Robert Seymour. Although he wasn't their first choice, the publishers' senior editor had been impressed by Dickens' earlier collection of serialized writings, Sketches by Boz, which had also been written to accompany illustrations. Sketches combined non-fiction articles with short stories. Dickens was just 21 years old when he wrote them.
His Pickwick writings were also originally published under the pseudonym Boz, which he had used for his earlier work. Boz was the childhood nickname Dickens had given his brother Augustus.
Robert Seymour had conceived the original idea for Pickwick, but creative control of the series went to Charles Dickens, who took the idea and improved on it vastly. Seymour had previously suffered a nervous breakdown after a nasty row with Gilbert A'Beckett, editor of Figaro in London magazine. The conflict, over money owed Seymour and the illustrator's parody of another writer's work, resulted in Seymour resigning and A'Beckett mounting a cruel public smear campaign against him. The illustrator returned to work after A'Beckett was replaced as editor.
Now, Seymour found himself in another bad situation. His original idea for Pickwick had been given to someone else, who made it his own and improved it. Seymour was never given credit for his creative input, and to add insult to injury, he wasn't even credited as illustrator. The publisher listed the byline as "Edited by Boz with Illustrations." Before the second installment of Pickwick was completed, a distraught Seymour committed suicide with his shotgun.
Seymour's widow publicly blasted Charles Dickens and the publishers, claiming that the first two installments of Pickwick were her husband's idea, i.e., that he told Dickens what to write. Actually, the opposite was true. Dickens had creative control, and Robert Seymour had struggled to come up with illustrations to compliment Dickens' writing, frustrating the author to the point that he advertised for a new illustrator. After Seymour's death, Dickens took over as editor of the publication and saved it from bankruptcy.
Scholars have agreed that although Robert Seymour came up with the original idea for The Pickwick Papers, if he'd had creative control over the series, the final product would have been completely different and nowhere near as successful. It was Charles Dickens' distinctive style of writing that made the novel what it was. When The Pickwick Papers was issued in book form, the publishers defended themselves and Dickens with the following disclaimer:
"Mr. Seymour never originated or suggested an incident, a phrase, or a word to be found in this book. Mr. Seymour died when only twenty-four pages of this book were published, and when assuredly not forty-eight were written... all of the input from the artist was in response to the words that had already been written.” Taking a final pot shot at the troubled illustrator, the disclaimer goes on to say “that he took his own life through jealousy, as it was well known that Seymour’s sanity had been questioned.”
Since suicide was considered a disgraceful, scandalous act by Victorian society and a felo de se (felony to self) by the law, Seymour was denied a religious burial, his estate went to the government, and his widow could receive no royalties for his work on The Pickwick Papers.
Despite the controversy surrounding its conception, The Pickwick Papers made Charles Dickens' name as a novelist. His second novel would make him a legend. It was named after its main character - a poor orphan boy called Oliver Twist.
Quote Of The Day "'I am ruminating,' said Mr. Pickwick, 'on the strange mutability of human affairs.' 'Ah! I see — in at the palace door one day, out at the window the next. Philosopher, Sir?' 'An observer of human nature, Sir,' said Mr. Pickwick. 'Ah, so am I. Most people are when they've little to do and less to get.'" - Charles Dickens, from The Pickwick Papers
Vanguard Video Today's video features a reading from Charles Dickens' classic first novel, The Pickwick Papers. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On March 30th, 1820, the famous British children's book writer Anna Sewell was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. She was born into a devoutly religious Quaker family. She had one sibling, a younger brother named Philip.
As a young girl, Anna Sewell was mostly educated at home by her mother, who established a strict regime of schooling heavily influenced by her religious beliefs. When Anna was twelve, her family moved to Stoke Newington, where she began her formal education. For the first time, she was able to study subjects new to her, such as mathematics and foreign languages.
Two years later, at the age of fourteen, Anna took a nasty fall while walking home from school. She severely injured both her ankles, and since medicine in 1834 was primitive, she never received proper treatment. As a result, she would remain practically lame for the rest of her life, unable to stand without a crutch or walk more than a few steps.
In 1836, Anna's father took a job in Brighton, partly because he hoped the climate there would strengthen his daughter's health. Meanwhile, Anna used horse-drawn carriages to get around, which led her to develop a love of horses and a strong belief in the humane treatment of animals.
Anna Sewell's first introduction to professional writing was through her mother, who was a children's book writer. Mary Wright Sewell had written a series of evangelical children's books that was quite popular during its time. Another of her books, a poetry collection called Mother's Last Words, sold millions of copies. Anna would often help edit her mother's manuscripts.
Later, when she was a grown woman, Anna met many writers, artists, and philosophers as she traveled throughout Europe, visiting spas in an attempt to improve her health. Unfortunately, her health would continue to deteriorate.
Anna would return to England and settle in Old Catton, a village outside of Norwich in Norfolk. She contracted tuberculosis, and her health would decline to the point that she was often bedridden. In 1871, at the age of 51, she began work on a novel - partly to pass the time, partly to inspire those who worked with horses to be kind to the animals. At the time, horses were often beaten by their owners and forced to pull wagons and carriages that were overloaded. As a result, many horses died on their feet from exhaustion - still wearing their harnesses.
To make carriage horses look attractive, some cruel fashions were employed, such as docking, where a horse's tail would be cut short, causing the animal great pain and leaving it vulnerable to insect bites and stings. Another cruel fashion was the bearing rein, which held the horse's head toward its chest. This gave the horse's neck a graceful arc, but it also left the animal unable to breathe properly, which resulted in respiratory problems. The bearing rein also caused horses to suffer from very poor vision and loss of balance.
Anna Sewell completed her novel six years later, in 1877. She struggled to write it, but was determined to finish it. When she was too weak to write, she dictated to her mother. When the novel was completed, Anna sold it to a publisher, Jarrolds, for £40. Although she never intended it to be a children's book, Black Beauty would rightfully be considered one of the greatest works of children's literature ever written.
Black Beauty is a novel in the form of a memoir - the autobiography of a black stallion named Black Beauty. Beginning with his carefree childhood as a colt on an English farm, he tells the story of his life. Most poignant are his recollections of his hard life in London, where he pulled taxicabs for a living. Black Beauty tells many tales of cruelty and kindness as he chronicles his life, ending his story on a bright note as he retires to a happy life in the country.
Anna Sewell's eye for detail - specifically, her extensive and accurate descriptions of the behavior of horses - gives the novel a great sense of realism, despite the fact that it's a story narrated by a horse. Her descriptions of the hard life of working horses led to reforms benefiting horse-drawn taxi drivers so they wouldn't have to work the animals so hard to make a decent living.
The initial sales of Black Beauty would break current publishing records. The novel would go on to sell over 30,000,000 copies. Sadly, Anna Sewell wouldn't live to see the runaway success of her novel. She died of tuberculosis five months after it was published, in 1878, at the age of 58. Black Beauty would be adapted several times for the screen and television.
Quote Of The Day "There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham." - Anna Sewell
Vanguard Video Today's video features a reading of the first chapter of Anna Sewell's classic children's novel, Black Beauty. Enjoy!
While publishing success may feel elusive to many struggling writers, those in the Internet Writing Workshop witness every day ideas being molded, stories and articles transformed and dreams realized. It's all part of belonging to a community where every voice matters and every work in progress read, critiqued and polished until it can't help but shine in one of many venues.
Congratulations to this week's crew for some amazing accomplishments and hard won publication victories.
Jody
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Anita Saran
A second review of my first novel Circe is up on Suite101.
Loretta Russell
This newspaper article in the Mountain Echo is a David v. Goliath story about a small hamlet community taking on the county, and winning so far. The pay wasn't much, but helping out the community was more than worth it.
Catherine Robinson
My piece in Creative Loafing is about efforts to ban Running with Scissors in Hillsborough County Schools here in Tampa. It will run in the print version next week. Thanks for all the support!
Judith Quaempts
Editor Jason Warden posted my short fiction, "Insurrection," at ShadowPress on March 19.
I really liked the reader, Amy Tapia. I thought she did a great job.
Gary Presley
A piece I've written more than once without getting it entirely right appears in Action Magazine. It's titled, "The Part That Kept Me from Screaming."
Sarah Morgan
My short poem, "Facebook," is up at Camroc Press Review. Browse around the site. There is some truly wonderful writing there.
Thanks, Barry, for all you do.
Brian Minnick
I certainly never thought I would have the honor of being published at 23. Four of my poems (including "I am a complex city" (which I thank all who helped me edit it), are to be published in the forthcoming issue of Cyclamens and Swords.
My story, "The House on Halloween," has been accepted for publication in the Twisted Dreams Magazine print edition (I believe being released in June).
This is very exciting for me as it will be the first time I see my name in old fashioned print form.
I also found out this week that starting April 2, I will have a weekly spot on flashesinthedark.com. A new installment of my series, "Tales of the Reluctant Fangpire," will be posted every Friday. The first installment is already up on the site.
Thanks everyone!
Ann Hite
Here are my last book reviews for Feminist Review, from which I have resigned as a reviewer.
I will continue to review for the Internet Review of Books because the editors there are my all time favorites. I had to make some choices due to my book deal.
Greg Gunther
My wife Randi wrote Relationship Saboteurs, Overcoming the Ten Behaviors That Undermine Love, and I critiqued and proofed it. It is due for release June 3 from New Harbinger Publications.
A new poem of mine is featured at Blue Skies Poetry, called "Vancouver City Sirens."
Rebecca Coleman
I'm still in shock.... but I've made it to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest Quarterfinals with my book, The Kingdom of Childhood.
I've never entered a writing contest before -- ever -- and this was big, scary, high-stakes for me. I was thrilled just to make it to the second round and was trying not to think about how much I wanted this, so to get to the quarterfinals is.... whoooa.
This list has done amazing things for me as a writer, and the constructive criticism I have received here has made all the difference in the world. Thanks so much to all who have critiqued my work in the past and to the admins who keep it all organized, professional, and on an even keel.
With thanks and best wishes to all!
Florence Cardinal
My article "Time for a Siesta?" is up at Health Central.
Mark Budman
My story "Before the Storm" that was critiqued here was just accepted for publication by the Southeast Review, a magazine published by Florida State University’s Creative Writing Program.
Many thanks to Evi, Matt, Wayne, Judith, Mel, Sue and Ritz. I hope I didn't overlook anyone else.
Barry Basden
My poem, "Moment," is in nice company in Issue #11 of Drown in My Own Fears, a quiet little paean to sorrow.
Exercise: In a two-person dialog of no more than 400 words show us as much as you can about the characters' personalities and their situation. Stick to their own words. Use as little exposition/description as possible.
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Listen to people talking. How are their words strung together? Are the speakers aiming for meaning or for effect? Do they speak formally, in complete sentences and well-thought-out paragraphs, or do they use use verbal shortcuts? From their conversation, what can you tell about their moods, their ages, backgrounds, emotional states, their relationships, their personalities, their "stories"?
Well-written dialog puts us with the characters and tells us a lot about them and their situation.
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Exercise: In a two-person dialog of no more than 400 words show us as much as you can about the characters' personalities and their situation. Stick to their own words. Use as little exposition/description as possible.
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In your critique you should aim to tell the author whether you get a clear picture of the two characters through the dialog and explain why. Are the two voices distinct? What do these characters tell us about themselves and their relationship through their conversation? Are they believable? Are they interesting? Can we tell where they are and why they are there? If it is important to the piece, can we tell the sex and age of these people? What did you like best about the author's use of dialog? Do you see room for improvement? These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writing Workshop.
This Day In Writing History On March 26th, 1920, the legendary American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald published his first novel, This Side of Paradise. In the summer of 1919, the then 22-year-old Fitzgerald broke up with his girlfriend, Zelda Sayre. Depressed, he spent most of the summer drunk before returning to his family's home in St. Paul, Minnesota. There, he began writing again, resuming work on his first novel, which had been rejected by publishers.
The original draft of the novel was titled The Romantic Egotist. Fitzgerald's rewrite was practically a brand new novel; only 80 pages of his original manuscript made it into the 300+ page final draft, which was retitled This Side of Paradise. He hoped that if he became a successful novelist, he could win Zelda back. She dumped him because she thought he would never be able to provide her with a comfortable living.
On September 4th, 1919, Fitzgerald had a friend deliver his completed manuscript to Maxwell Perkins, an editor at Scribner's in New York. The novel was nearly rejected by the other editors, but on Perkins' insistence, they accepted it. He believed that Fitzgerald was a major talent, and that This Side of Paradise would be a bestseller. Although the author pleaded for an immediate release, he was told that his novel wouldn't be published until the spring.
So, on March 26th, 1920, This Side of Paradise was published by Scribner's in a first edition press run of 3,000 copies. It sold out in three days, confirming Fitzgerald's prediction that he would become an overnight sensation. Between 1920 and 1921, nearly 50,000 copies of the novel were printed. The author didn't earn a huge income from his first novel, but it sold well, and he made just over $6,200 in 1920 - a very impressive sum for the time. It also helped him earn higher rates of payment for his short stories, which made up the bulk of his income.
Fitzgerald's novel was a dark and lyrical tale of love warped by greed and status-seeking. It told the story of Amory Blaine, a poor but handsome young Midwesterner, following him from his early years and his education at Princeton through his service in World War 1 and after he returns home. Blaine learns a hard lesson when his attempts at romance with wealthy debutantes fail miserably and leave him heartbroken. The novel ends with Blaine's famous summation, "I know myself, but that is all."
The style employed by Fitzgerald for his first novel was a mishmash of straightforward narrative and narrative drama intertwined with letters and poems by the protagonist, Amory Blaine. This is not a surprise, considering that Fitzgerald cobbled together different writings to form the novel. And yet, the end product turned out to be brilliant and gave readers and critics a preview of the genius that would produce The Great Gatsby five years later.
The success of his first novel wouldn't be the only prediction of Fitzgerald's to come true. After the book was accepted by Scribner's, he returned to Zelda and they became a couple again. A week after the novel was published, they were married. Unfortunately, their alcoholism and Zelda's worsening mental illness would doom their relationship.
Quote Of The Day "All good writing is swimming underwater and holding your breath." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Vanguard Video Today's video features a rare recording of F. Scott Fitzgerald reading from act one of Shakespeare's classic play, Othello. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On March 25th, 1925, the famous writer Flannery O'Connor was born Mary Flannery O' Connor in Savannah, Georgia. As a little girl, O'Connor described herself as "a pigeon-toed child with a receding chin and a you-leave-me-alone-or-I'll-bite-you complex." When she was six years old, she taught her pet chicken to walk backwards. The story made the local news, then was picked up Pathe News for one of its national newsreels. O'Connor and her chicken appeared in a newsreel segment titled Little Mary O'Connor and Her Trained Chicken.
When she was fifteen, her father died of lupus, a hereditary disease that ran in the O'Connor family. She was devastated by the loss.
O'Connor graduated from the Peabody Laboratory School in 1942 and went on to earn a Social Sciences degree at the Georgia State College for Women, now known as Georgia College & State University. A year later, in 1946, she was accepted into the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, where she had enrolled to study journalism. While in the Writers' Workshop, she became friends with some important writers and critics who taught there, including Robert Penn Warren, Andrew Lytle, and Paul Engle.
Writer and essayist Andrew Lytle, also the longtime editor of the Sewanee Review, was an early admirer of Flannery O'Connor's work. He published her short stories and others' essays on her work. Poet and novelist Paul Engle, the director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, was the first to read and critique the early drafts of what would become O'Connor's first novel, Wise Blood (1952).
Flannery O'Connor's writings were heavily influenced by her experiences growing up a liberal Catholic in the fiercely conservative, fundamentalist Protestant "Bible Belt" of the American South. Her style was a unique form of Southern Gothic. Her backward (often grotesquely backward) Southern characters would undergo a transformation bringing them close to their author's way of thinking. She didn't shy away from controversial subjects such as racism, poverty, and the dangers of fundamentalism.
A master in the arts of foreshadowing and irony, O'Connor was best known for her short stories. She published two short story collections, A Good Man is Hard to Find (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge, published posthumously in 1965 - a year after her death. The title story of A Good Man is Hard to Find was her most famous and brilliant short story. In it, an unnamed old woman accompanies her son Bailey and his family on their vacation to Florida. She really wants to go to Georgia to see her childhood home, and pesters Bailey until she gets her way.
The old woman's directions lead the family down an abandoned dirt road, and she realizes that her childhood home is in Tennessee, not Georgia. Frustrated, she spooks her cat, which attacks Bailey and causes him to have an accident. No one is seriously injured. Not wanting to face Bailey's wrath, the old woman fakes an injury to gain sympathy. The family waits for a passerby to help them. A car pulls up and some men get out. One of them is a shirtless, bespectacled man with a gun. He seems to be a good Samaritan, but the old woman realizes that he's really the Misfit, an escaped murderer.
When she identifies him as the Misfit, he tells his accomplices to murder the family. The old woman begs for her own life and tries to preach to the Misfit about Jesus. This makes him angrier, and he tells her that he doesn't want to waste his life serving someone who may not exist, nor does he want to displease a God who may exist. Frustrated by this paradox, his philosophy is "There's no pleasure but meanness." When the old woman reaches out to the Misfit and calls him her child, he recoils and shoots her three times.
After his accomplices murder the rest of the family, the Misfit cleans his glasses and thinks about the old woman. He sums her up by saying that "she would have been a good woman... if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." When one of his accomplices mentions how much fun they had killing the family, the Misfit angrily chides him, saying "It's no real pleasure."
Another one of Flannery O'Connor's great stories was The Life You Save May Be Your Own. It told the haunting tale of an old woman so desperate to marry off her mute daughter Lucynell that she ends up paying a poor drifter to marry the girl. Although mute and simple, Lucynell is so beautiful that when a young man sees her asleep at a diner counter, he comments that "She looks like an angel of God." Her husband abandons her, then later, while driving as a storm is breaking, he notices a road sign that says "Drive carefully - the life you save may be your own."
O'Connor's novels took her distinctive style even further. They both painted dark portraits of religion and faith. Wise Blood (1952) was a dark comedy about an American soldier, Hazel Motes, who returns home from Korea. After carousing with a prostitute, Motes embarks on a new career path - after meeting some religious hucksters, he decides to become one himself. Motes' war experiences convinced him that the only way to escape sin is to have no soul. So, he founds the "Holy Church of Christ Without Christ." He begins to believe in his own false prophecy, which leads to his tragic and surreal downfall.
The Violent Bear It Away (1960) told an even darker story about the perversion of religion and faith. The novel opens with the death of Mason Tarwater, an insanely religious old man. Tarwater had been grooming his great-nephew Francis (whom he kidnapped shortly after he was born) to be a prophet. After Tarwater dies, Francis goes to stay with his anti-religious uncle Rayber. Despite Rayber's intentions and Francis' own determination to resist his calling, the boy can't escape the fact that he's losing his mind. He ultimately accepts his "destiny" to become a prophet and goes completely mad - both of which occur after Francis is drugged and raped by a man who gave him a ride.
In 1951, Flannery O'Connor was diagnosed with lupus - the disease that killed her father. The doctors gave her five years to live. She lived for fourteen years, writing two novels and over two dozen short stories. She also wrote over a hundred book reviews which appeared in two local Catholic newspapers. She died of lupus complications in 1964 at the age of 39. More than forty years after her death, she remains one of America's most celebrated writers.
Quote Of The Day "All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless, and brutal." - Flannery O'Connor
Vanguard Video Today's video features a unusual student short film adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's classic short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On March 24th, 1955, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the famous play by legendary American playwright Tennessee Williams, opened on Broadway. The play focused on a Southern family in crisis - the affluent Pollitt family, whose exterior cloak of respectability hides the lies they live. The extended family has gathered to celebrate the 65th birthday of patriarch Big Daddy Pollitt, the richest cotton grower in the Mississippi Delta.
The family knows that Big Daddy is dying of cancer and won't live to see another birthday, but have conspired to keep him (and his wife Big Mama) from finding out about his terminal condition. All of Big Daddy's kin ingratiate themselves to him, hoping to receive the lion's share of his huge estate when he dies - all of them except indifferent son Brick Pollitt, who, along with his wife Maggie (the Cat), are having serious marital problems.
Brick is an aging, injured, detached alcoholic ex-football hero who neglects his wife and spends most of his time drinking and railing against mendacity. A desperate Maggie reveals to Brick that she had an affair with his best friend Skipper, even though she knew that Skipper was secretly gay. This affair is what drove Skipper to drink and suicide. A disgusted Big Daddy accuses Brick of drinking to escape his guilt over not trying to save Skipper - because he was also secretly gay.
Furious, Brick reveals that Big Daddy is dying. Maggie, knowing that Big Daddy never made out a will, panics and fears that he'll disinherit Brick. She escaped a miserable childhood of grinding poverty and despair when she married into the rich Pollitt family, and the prospect of being poor again terrifies her. So, she lies and says that she's pregnant.
Maggie throws away Brick's liquor and says “We can make that lie come true. And then I'll bring you liquor, and we'll get drunk together, here, tonight, in this place that death has come into!”
The original Broadway production was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Ben Gazzara as Brick, Barbara Bel Geddes as Maggie, and legendary folksinger-actor Burl Ives as Big Daddy. Gazzara's understudy was a young actor named Cliff Robertson, who would go on to become a star of stage, screen, and television. But when Gazzara left the play, Jack Lord replaced him.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won Tennessee Williams a Pulitzer Prize - his second. He won his first Pulitzer for his famous play, A Streetcar Named Desire. In 1958, three years after Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opened on Broadway, a feature film adaptation was released. Starring Paul Newman as Brick, Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie, and with Burl Ives and Madeleine Sherwood reprising their Broadway roles as Big Daddy and Big Mama, the film was directed by Richard Brooks.
Unfortunately, due to the stifling Hollywood Production Code in effect at the time, the screenplay toned down Tennessee Williams' play considerably and completely removed the homosexual elements of the story. The bowdlerized screenplay caused George Cukor to turn down an offer to direct the film. As for Tennessee Williams' reaction, he hated the movie so much that he told people on line for the premiere not to see it, saying "This movie will set the industry back 50 years. Go home!"
Quote Of The Day "Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory." - Tennessee Williams
Vanguard Video Today's video features a clip from a performance of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - the scene in Act 1 where Maggie confronts Brick. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On March 23rd, 1999, Thomas Harris delivered his completed manuscript for Hannibal to his publishers. The third in series of four novels featuring a most unusual psychopath, Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist, classical music enthusiast, wine connoisseur, and gourmet cook turned cannibalistic serial killer, who had been terrifying readers for nearly 20 years.
Lecter made his debut in Red Dragon (1981), where he assisted Will Graham - the FBI agent who captured him - in catching a new serial killer, Francis Dolarhyde, aka The Tooth Fairy. The sequel, The Silence of the Lambs (1988) found Lecter called on again, this time by novice FBI agent Clarice Starling, to help her gain insight into the mind of Jame Gumb, aka Buffalo Bill, a depraved serial killer who has abducted a Senator's daughter.
Although Red Dragon was filmed first in 1986 as Manhunter, it would be the film adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 that made Hannibal Lecter a pop culture icon. Stylishly directed by Jonathan Demme and featuring stellar performances by Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, and Ted Levine as Jame Gumb, the film swept the Academy Awards, becoming only the third movie in history to win all five major Oscars - Best Actor (Hopkins), Actress (Foster), Director (Demme), Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
After the huge success of The Silence of the Lambs, fans were clamoring for a sequel. It took some ten years for Thomas Harris to deliver. Hannibal was the result. In it, Lecter himself is Agent Starling's quarry, as he escaped from custody in The Silence of the Lambs. What Starling doesn't know is that someone else is pursuing Lecter.
Mason Verger is a former victim of Lecter's who survived. Verger, the wealthy heir to a meat packing empire, was a depraved, sadistic pedophile whose long list of victims included his own little sister. When his father established a Christian summer camp for children, Verger used it to prey on more young victims. When he was finally caught and arrested, Verger avoided jail time because of his family's powerful influence. He was ordered to perform community service and receive therapy. His psychiatrist? Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
The good doctor's idea of therapy was to have Verger take hallucinogenic drugs, manipulate him into demonstrating his technique of autoerotic asphyxiation via hanging, then make him slash his own face to ribbons with a shard of broken glass. Lecter then hanged Verger with his own noose and left, not realizing that his victim was still alive. Although Verger survived, he was left a quadriplegic with a horribly mangled face. He wants to catch Lecter before Agent Starling does and take revenge. The revenge Verger has planned is a fate worse than death, and he has FBI agents on his payroll - including Starling's superior, Paul Krendler.
Hannibal received mixed reviews because of the ending, which I won't give away. I will say that it does make sense after all that happens to Clarice Starling throughout the novel. I for one enjoyed Hannibal immensely. I believe it's the best book Harris has written so far, second only to The Silence of the Lambs. Horror master Stephen King, a big fan of the Hannibal Lecter series, proclaimed Hannibal, along with William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist (1971), to be the two greatest modern horror novels of all time.
Hannibal would be adapted as a feature film in 2001, with Anthony Hopkins returning as Lecter and Julianne Moore taking over as Clarice Starling. Directed by Ridley Scott, it received mixed reviews from fans because the screenplay (written by David Mamet and Steven Zaillian) changes the ending of the novel. To placate fans, the screenwriters did include part of the novel's ending - the Grand Guignol scene where Dr. Lecter lobotomizes corrupt FBI agent Paul Krendler and... well... serves him a most unusual dinner. Unfortunately, the most shocking part of the novel's ending, which had nothing to do with grue, was omitted from the screenplay.
Thomas Harris followed Hannibal with a a fourth novel, a prequel called Hannibal Rising (2006), which was published seven years later. Expanding on flashbacks that appeared in Hannibal, it told the story of how a frighteningly intelligent young Lithuanian boy named Hannibal Lecter grew up to be the psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer we all know and love.
Quote Of The Day "Problem solving is hunting. It is savage pleasure and we are born to it." - Thomas Harris
Vanguard Video Today's video features the original theatrical trailer for the 2001 feature film adaptation of Thomas Harris' 1999 novel, Hannibal. Enjoy!
Sayings (Version 5) Prepared by: Florence Cardinal Revised, reposted on: March 21, 2010 ------------------------- Exercise: In less than 400 words, write a scene to illustrate the point of a folk saying or adage. End with the saying so that we will know what you are showing us. ------------------------- We've all heard the old sayings, like the ones from Aesop's fables or maybe from the Bible. Things like slow and steady wins the race, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or still waters run deep. Most of these adages stem from a story or a parable that illustrates the saying.
If you want examples of more of these sayings, you'll find a lot of Aesop's fables here: http://www.aesopfables.com/ Or Shakespeare here: http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/ ------------------------- Exercise: In less than 400 words, write a scene to illustrate the point of a folk saying or adage. End with the saying so that we will know what you are showing us. ------------------------- In critiquing the work submitted for this exercise, tell the author why or why not the piece satisfies the requirements of the exercise and what worked and what didn't. Be sure to tell why it didn't work.
These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writing Workshop.
Internet Writing Workshop members have sprung into spring with a number of publishing successes in all venues. Congratulations to all on your terrific work!
Jody
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Barry Basden
My microfiction piece, "So Nice by the Fire," is live at Zygote in My Coffee. If you're thinking about exploring that site, viewer discretion is advised.
Leaf Garden Press has published my poem, "Dream Houses," in Leaf Garden #8, a lovely print issue. A PDF version of the poem is available on their website.
My very short story, "Domestic Particulars at the House on Ivandell," is up at LitSnack. I have no idea where they got the illustration, but it's lovely and haunting.
Jan Bridgeford-Smith
My story "Mane Event," is now up on Moon Drenched Fables. A big thanks to all the critters on the Practice List.
Florence Cardinal
I have the following new articles up at Health Central:
I just accepted a position (volunteer) as one of two blog editors for Literary Mama. I'm excited about it because it offers me the opportunity to learn about blogging without committing to a personal blogsite, and it's about a subject that's near and dear to my heart: family. I just did a trial run with Moveable Type and am amazed at how easy it is. This is going to be a lot of fun and a great new challenge!
Stacey Dye
I have two poems up in "Mused" at BellaOnline. This is their spring equinox edition.
One, "Bread," was an answer to a challenge I did at another site and came out pretty decent. The other, "Numb," was inspired in part by the tragedy in Haiti and just life in general.
Thanks to all in Poetry who helped me with these. You'll find the photography in this journal is standout as well. When it's all together in the print edition, it's really nice.
As always, I am grateful to you all and hope if you have time, you enjoy the read. There is a "mystery IWWer" published with me as well... look for them! Great work!
Sue Ellis
The spring issue of Ken*Again is online. My story, "Thunderstruck," is there. I don't know where the editor came up with the artwork for the story, but it's fun and appropriate. Thank you, Practice, for encouragement on the original idea.
I also have a short review of The Broken Teaglass at The Internet Review of Books this month. I'm proud to be a small part of this useful publication.
Thomas Fultz
I have my first story, "Relativity," published on the Mule.
Karyn Hall
I've received word that a publisher is offering me a contract for my first nonfiction book. Yes!
Ann Hite
My favorite book review magazine, Internet Review of Books, published my review of Small Kingdoms and Shadow Tag. Check out the other reviews, too.
Kathleen Jordan
Just received word my story "The Lottery," which was critiqued in Fiction, will be published in the April edition of The Dead Mule Society. The editor's nice e-mail said, "This story is fit for the dead, The Dead Mule Society that is. Welcome to the Mule!"
Liza Larregui
Weirdyear has just accepted a piece of mine to be published on their site April 10th. This is my first ever acceptance and I'm so excited!
Weirdyear has also accepted another one of my pieces entitled "The Accident," to be posted on April 17th.
My short story, "A Royal Tour," which was workshopped here long ago, is included in an anthology of 22 stories by writers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Writers like Aamer Hussain, who are included in that anthology, have been shortlisted for this year's Commonwealth Prize. The book's title is The New Anthem; The Subcontinent in its Own Words, edited by Bangladeshi writer Ahmede Hussain.
Another CNF piece that was workshopped here as "White," is included in Chicken Soup for the Indian Spiritual Soul.
Thanks to all the wonderful list moderators and writers who make this one of the best sites for writers on the web.
Anita Saran
I have an interview in Working Writers and Bloggers, where I also mention the IWW. It's about my recently published first novel Circe and offers a peek into my life.
Sarah Savage
About ten years ago I wrote a poem about a couple of vehicles I owned. Although I no longer have either of them, I'm happy that the truck is memorialized in "Blue Dodge Ram," which is up at Ink, Sweat and Tears.
Rebeca Schiller
A few weeks ago, I was told I got a promotion for Hand/Eye Magazine. From associate editor, I've jumped to online editor. You can see it on the magazine's masthead.
My short story "Once Seen," which came through the Fiction list last year, was selected for the Masters of Horror Anthology. I'm pleased to tell you all the digital version went on sale on March 12th and is available through Smashwords. The print version comes out the last week of April. Thanks to all who gave critiques and suggestions.
This Day In Writing History On March 19th, 1933, the legendary novelist Philip Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey. His parents were of Ukrainian-Jewish descent. Roth graduated from Newark's Weequahic High School in 1950. He attended Bucknell University and earned a degree in English. For his graduate studies, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he earned a Master's degree in English and worked briefly as an instructor in the university's creative writing program.
Roth continued his teaching career, teaching creative writing at the University of Iowa and Princeton University. Later, he would teach comparative literature at the University of Pennsylvania until he retired from teaching in 1991. While at the University of Chicago, Roth met legendary novelist Saul Bellow and Margaret Martinson, who would become his first wife. Though they separated in 1963 and she was killed in a car accident five years later, she would have a huge impact on his writings and be the inspiration for female characters in several of his novels.
Philip Roth began his writing career by publishing short stories and reviews in various magazines. He reviewed movies for The New Republic. In 1959, his first book was published, and it established him as a major talent. Goodbye, Columbus contained the title novella and five short stories, all of which were steeped deep in Judaism - specifically Jewish American culture and customs.
The title novella told the story of Neil Klugman, an intelligent college graduate who is nonetheless a poor, working class Jew who lives with his aunt and uncle and has a low-paying job at a library. Neil falls in love with Brenda Patimkin, a student at Radcliffe who comes from a wealthy Jewish family. What at first seems to be an uncomplicated summer romance evolves into a complex story of existential angst, as class differences begin to derail Neil and Brenda's relationship.
Goodbye, Columbus won Roth the National Book Award. It would be adapted as an acclaimed feature film in 1969, starring Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw as Neil and Brenda. The book may have been celebrated by critics and most readers, but the Jewish community objected to Roth's less than flattering portrayal of some Jewish characters. In the short story Defender of the Faith, a Jewish American army sergeant resists when three lazy draftees try to manipulate him into granting them special favors because they are also Jewish.
In 1962, Philip Roth and the acclaimed black novelist Ralph Ellison appeared on a panel to discuss minority representation in literature. The questions directed at Roth soon turned into denunciations, and he was accused of being a self-hating Jew - a label that would dog him for most of his career. Roth would strike back at his Jewish critics with his famous 1969 novel, Portnoy's Complaint - a scathing, raunchy black comedy.
Portnoy's Complaint is an experimental novel in the form of one long monologue, as the middle-aged, neurotic Alexander Portnoy pours his heart out to his psychoanalyst, Dr. Spielvogel. Portnoy is loaded with neuroses, complexes, and of course, sexual hang-ups. He's a self-hating Jew who rages at the injustices of having to grow up Jewish in a gentile-dominated country. He rages at his overbearing mother, which burdens him with the heavy chains of guilt. And he rages at his inability to enjoy sex.
It's sex that frustrates Portnoy most of all. As a teenager, he masturbated excessively, not out of lust, but as a form of narcissism. He's both attracted to and repelled by gentile women, whom he uses and abuses and gives demeaning nicknames such as "the Pumpkin" and "the Monkey." Portnoy's absurdly funny sexual exploits are described graphically - so graphically that the novel proved to be a shocker for readers in 1969. The book was banned in Australia. When publisher Penguin Books resisted the ban and secretly printed copies of the book, the authorities tried to prosecute them and failed.
Philip Roth has written many more great novels. He is most famous for his series of Zuckerman novels, which are narrated by Roth's alter ego, Jewish writer Nathan Zuckerman. The first Zuckerman book was The Ghost Writer, published in 1979. His 1997 Zuckerman novel, American Pastoral, won him the Pulitzer Prize. In it, Zuckerman attends his 45th high school reunion and runs into his old friend, Jerry Levov, who tells him the tragic life story of his older brother, Seymour "Swede" Levov, who recently died. Most of the story deals with the social upheavals of the late 1960s and early 70s, as Swede's teenage daughter Merry protests the horrors of the Vietnam War by becoming a domestic terrorist and bombing a post office. Years later, she remains in hiding.
Other Roth novels of note include The Human Stain (2000), where Nathan Zuckerman tells the story of his new neighbor, Coleman Silk, a 71-year-old college professor who falls victim to an unjust accusation of racism by two black students, which leads to his resignation. It is later revealed that Silk is really a light-skinned black man who, for most of his life, has been passing himself off as a white Jew.
The Plot Against America (2004) is a fascinating piece of "what if" historical fiction. In it, national aviation hero Charles Lindbergh (who in real life was an anti-Semite and Hitler supporter) defeats Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 election and becomes President of the United States. As Lindbergh establishes a cordial relationship with Hitler and keeps the U.S. out of the war, American Jews - including Roth's family - worry about what will become of them. One of Lindbergh's top cronies is car magnate Henry Ford, who in real life was a virulent anti-Semite and the author of a non-fiction book called The International Jew - the World's Foremost Problem.
In addition to his novels and short stories, Roth has written non-fiction works, including an autobiography. His 31st novel, Nemesis, is due for release this year. It tells the story of a Newark, New Jersey community in 1944, struggling to cope with a polio epidemic.
Quote Of The Day “I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you -- it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.” - Philip Roth
Vanguard Video Today's video features a 2004 interview with Philip Roth. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On March 18th, 1932, the legendary novelist John Updike was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. As a young boy, Updike would watch his mother - an aspiring writer - as she wrote short stories and tried to get them published: "One of my earliest memories is of seeing her at her desk.... I admired the writer's equipment, the typewriter eraser, the boxes of clean paper. And I remember the brown envelopes that stories would go off in – and come back in."
Updike graduated high school as valedictorian and class president. He won a full scholarship to Harvard, where he frequently contributed articles and drawings to the Harvard Lampoon, later serving as its president until he graduated summa cum laude in 1954 with an English degree. Instead of writing, he decided to become a graphic artist and enrolled at The Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing at Oxford. His wife, Mary Pennington, whom he married a year earlier, went to England with him.
When they returned to the U.S., Updike planned to become a cartoonist, and was soon a frequent contributor of both cartoons and short stories to The New Yorker. His first published books were The Carpentered Hen (1958), a poetry collection, and The Same Door (1959), a collection of short stories. In 1960, Updike and his family moved to Ipswich, Massachusetts, where he would write his first novel, the first in a highly acclaimed series.
Rabbit, Run (1960) told the story of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, a 26-year-old kitchen gadget salesman desperate to escape the confines of an unhappy marriage and an unfulfilling middle class life. A former high school basketball player, Rabbit impulsively decides to visit his old coach, Marty Tothero. Rabbit has dinner with Tothero and two girls, one of which is Ruth Leonard, a part-time prostitute with whom he has an affair. Rabbit abandons Ruth when his pregnant wife goes into labor.
After his baby daughter is born, Rabbit reconciles with his wife, but it doesn't last, and he returns to Ruth. His alcoholic wife starts drinking again, and accidentally drowns the baby. Rabbit tries to reconcile with her once more, but at the funeral of their daughter, his inner turmoil explodes. Proclaiming his innocence in the baby's death, Rabbit runs away and returns to Ruth. When she tells him that she's pregnant with his child, he's relieved that she decided not to have an abortion, but he won't divorce his wife. He seemingly abandons Ruth yet again, but his fate is unclear as the novel ends.
Updike followed Rabbit, Run with three sequels: Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit is Rich (1981), and Rabbit at Rest (1990). Rabbit is Rich won him the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Rabbit at Rest won Updike another Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. The 500+ page epic novel, which ends the series with the main character's death, is considered one of his masterworks. The two award winning sequels made him one of only three writers to win two Pulitzer Prizes. The other writers were William Faulkner and Booth Tarkington.
John Updike would write other great series of novels including the Bech series, the Scarlet Letter Triology, and the memorable Eastwick books - The Witches of Eastwick (1984) and TheWidows of Eastwick (2008). He also wrote over a dozen solo novels, over a dozen short story collections, poetry collections, and non-fiction works.
His last novel, Terrorist (2006), told the story of Amad Ashmawy Mulloy, an American-born devout Muslim teenager who lives in New Jersey with his liberal Irish-Catholic mother, whom he both loves and hates. He struggles to balance his strict religious practice with the modern Western world in which he lives. Amad's unlikely friend is Jack Levy, his high school guidance counselor - a Jewish man who has rejected his own religion.
When Amad develops sexual feelings for a girl, he represses his natural impulses as per the requirements of his Islamic faith. His frustrations lead him down a path of religious extremism. Fearing that his education in Western schools will strengthen his growing doubt about his religion, he decides to leave school and become a truck driver.
Amad's truck driving skills and religious extremism lead to his recruitment by a terrorist cell. He becomes part of their plot to blow up the Lincoln and Holland tunnels in New York. On the day of the attack, his accomplices fail to show up at their planned meeting place, so Amad decides to carry out the suicide mission alone.
Driving a bomb-laden truck, Amad runs into Jack Levy, who begs him not to go ahead with the attack and warns him that the whole plot was a government sting - Amad's friend and co-conspirator Charlie Chehab was an undercover CIA agent who was beheaded by the other terrorists when his cover was blown. Jack also admits to having an affair with Amad's mother.
As he approaches the location of the bombing, Amad finally reconsiders his extremist beliefs and decides that God doesn't want him to kill anyone. He and Jack return home to New Jersey.
John Updike is rightfully considered to be one of the greatest writers of his generation. His works have won him over two dozen awards, including his two Pulitzer Prizes. He died of lung cancer in January 2009 at the age of 76.
Quote Of The Day "To be President of the United States, sir, is to act as advocate for a blind, venomous, and ungrateful client." - John Updike
Vanguard Video Today's video features a 2008 interview with John Updike on the craft of fiction. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On March 17th, 1948, the legendary science fiction writer William Gibson was born in Conway, South Carolina. Though he spent most of his childhood in Wytheville, Virginia - his parents' hometown - Gibson's family moved frequently due to his father's position as a manager for a large construction company.
While his family lived in Norfolk, Virginia, Gibson attended Pines Elementary School, where his teachers never encouraged him to read, much to the chagrin of his parents. Around this time, his father died suddenly, choking to death in a restaurant while on a business trip. The family returned to Wytheville, which was a small Appalachian town, a place that Gibson described as "a place where modernity had arrived to some extent, but was deeply distrusted." He hated it.
Living in such a disturbing and surreal atmosphere led William Gibson to become a shy, withdrawn adolescent who kept to himself. When he was twelve, he "wanted nothing more than to become a science fiction writer." A year later, without his mother's knowledge or permission, he bought an anthology featuring works by the Beat generation's greatest writers - William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. Burroughs would become Gibson's favorite writer and a major influence on his work.
As a teenager, Gibson rejected his religion and read voraciously, with the works of Burroughs and Henry Miller being his favorites. However, at school, his grades were poor. His mother threatened to send him to a boarding school; to her surprise, he was enthusiastic about going to boarding school. So, she sent him to the Southern Arizona School for Boys in Tucson.
Gibson hated the structure of the school, but he was glad to escape from Wytheville and his "chronically anxious and depressive" mother. He was also glad that the school forced him to come out of his shell and develop social skills. His academic performance was strangely uneven. When he took the SAT (Standard Achievement Test) exams, his teachers were baffled by his scores - in mathematics, he scored near zero, but his score on the written test was nearly perfect.
When Gibson was eighteen, his mother died. He left school without graduating and drifted through the United States and Europe, choosing a mostly solitary life and becoming part of the late 1960s counterculture. In 1967, he was called to appear at a draft hearing, and honestly told the interviewers that his goal in life was to indulge in every mind-altering substance known to man. He was never drafted, but moved to Canada anyway. He would later quip that he avoided the draft not out of conscientious objection to the Vietnam War, but to remain free to "sleep with hippie chicks" and smoke hashish.
After he arrived in Canada, Gibson met a girl in Vancouver and spent the rest of the 1960s traveling with her, as he couldn't stand living amongst the community of his fellow American expatriates, which was was rife with depression, suicide, and hardcore drug abuse. He financed most of his travels with the $500 he was paid for appearing in a CBC newsreel story about the hippie subculture in Yorkville, Toronto. During their travels, Gibson and and his girlfriend spent time in countries such as Greece and Turkey.
In 1972, Gibson and his girlfriend returned to Canada. They settled in Vancouver and married. Gibson earned most of his living by scouring thrift stores for rare items priced well below their value, which he would sell to collectors at a huge profit. When he realized that instead of working, he could receive generous financial aid from the government by going to college, he enrolled at the University of British Columbia, (UBC) from which he graduated in 1977 with a degree in English.
Gibson considered entering a Master's degree program with the topic of his thesis being hard science fiction novels as a form of fascist literature, but he changed his mind and worked at various jobs including a three-year stint as a teaching assistant in a film history course at UBC. He also indulged in his passion for punk rock music. Around 1980, he attended a science fiction convention in Vancouver, which turned him off the genre, even though he had already written several early works of science fiction.
Around this time, Gibson met John Shirley, who would become his lifelong friend. Shirley was a punk rock musician turned sci-fi / horror writer. He encouraged Gibson to submit his stories for publication and introduced him to fellow sci-fi writers Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner. When they read Gibson's stories, they proclaimed them to be "breakthrough material." So, Gibson began submitting his work, and soon, his short stories were appearing regularly in magazines such as Omni and Universe 11.
William Gibson's stories were indeed breakthrough material, far outside the mainstream of science fiction. They were in the cyberpunk tradition, akin to the legendary "cut-up" novels of Gibson's idol, William S. Burroughs. Gibson's stories dealt with concepts such as cyberspace - a term coined by Gibson which refers to a computer-simulated reality - and were written in the style of the pulp novels and noir films of the 1940s and 50s.
In 1984, Gibson's first novel was published. Neuromancer wasn't a commercial success, but word of mouth spread quickly and made the novel an underground, overnight hit - a cult classic that sold over 6,500,000 copies worldwide. It became the first novel to win all three major science fiction awards - the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award.
Neuromancer was the first novel in Gibson's classic Sprawl trilogy. It eerily predicts the development of the Internet and its World Wide Web. Set in a futuristic, dystopic Chiba, Japan, the novel tells the story of Henry Dorsett Case, a low-level hustler who was once a talented computer hacker. Then his employer caught him stealing, and as punishment, damaged his central nervous system with a mycotoxin, leaving him unable to access the global computer network with his brain-computer interface. Now, Case is an unemployable, suicidal drug addict.
While searching for a cure for his damaged nervous system in Chiba's "black clinics," Case is saved by Molly Millions, a "street samurai" and mercenary who works for Armitage, a shadowy ex-Green Beret officer. Armitage offers to cure Case in exchange for his services as a hacker. Armitage fixes Case's nervous system but installs in his body sacs of mycotoxin that will burst if he fails to complete his work in time.
So, Case and Molly work together and form a close relationship. They don't know what Armitage really has planned, but they investigate and eventually discover the truth - he plans to join two AI (Artificial Intelligence) entities, Wintermute and Neuromancer, to become one all-powerful being.
William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy would include the novels Count Zero (1986) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988). The trilogy brought the thirtysomething author out of obscurity and established him as one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. He would write more great novels, including the Bridge trilogy, Virtual Light (1993), Idoru (1996) and All Tomorrow's Parties (1999), as well as the novels Pattern Recognition (2003), and Spook Country (2006).
As a short story writer, Gibson was famous for stories such as Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977), and Johnny Mnemonic (1981), which he would adapt himself as a feature film in 1995. In 1993, he wrote his first major non-fiction work, an article for Wired magazine called Disneyland with the Death Penalty, which was a stinging critique of life in modern Singapore.
Gibson describes Singapore as having a government that functions like a mega-corporation and is fixated on constraint and conformity, with a marked lack of creativity and humor. Life in Singapore is a "relentlessly G-rated experience," a conservative Republican wet dream of meticulously clean streets, practically nonexistent crime, (thanks to a harsh capital punishment system where one can be executed for seemingly minor offenses such as drug smuggling) government enforced morality, and a culture of mindless, vapid materialism where shopping becomes a nearly religious experience.
And yet, there are also no slums in Singapore, and instead of a visible sex trade, there are government sanctioned "health centers" which are really massage parlors where one can get far more than a massage. The government places great value on marriage and procreation, and both organizes and enforces mandatory dating policies.
In his 1993 essay, Gibson predicted the explosion of online pornography and cast doubt on the resilience of Singapore's controlled, conservative society in the face of the mass exposure of its citizenry to the coming "wilds of X-rated cyberspace," speculating that "Singapore's destiny will be to become nothing more than a smug, neo-Swiss enclave of order and prosperity, amid a sea of unthinkable weirdness."
Creative Review hailed Gibson's essay as "fabulously damning." Singapore reacted to it with outrage, banning the sale of Wired magazine there. "Disneyland with the Death Penalty" became a famous catch phrase used to describe Singapore - especially by Singaporeans opposed to their country's authoritarian nature and policies.
William Gibson's latest novel, Zero History, is due for release in September, 2010.
Quote of the Day "The deadliest bullshit is odorless and transparent." - William Gibson
Vanguard Video Today's video features a 1980s interview with William Gibson. Enjoy!
This Day In Writing History On March 16th, 1850, The Scarlet Letter, the legendary novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published in the United States.
Set in a Puritan village in 17th century Boston, The Scarlet Letter told the story of Hester Prynne, a married woman whose much older husband had sent her ahead to America while he settled some business affairs. He never came to join her in Boston and is presumed dead, lost at sea. In the meantime, the lonely Hester had an affair and became pregnant as a result.
The novel opens with Hester being led from the town prison with her baby daughter Pearl in her arms and a piece of scarlet cloth in the shape of the capital letter A pinned to the breast of her dress - a penalty for her adultery. It's a badge of shame that she must wear for all to see. Hester is led to the town scaffold, where she is forced to endure the verbal abuse of the town fathers.
An elderly onlooker asks what's going on, and a man in the crowd tells him. The elderly onlooker is actually Hester's missing husband, who is now a doctor living under the assumed name Roger Chillingworth. He wants to take revenge on the man who seduced his wife. He reveals his true identity to Hester, but she won't reveal the identity of her lover.
Several years pass, and Pearl has become a willful and impish little girl. Hester supports herself and her daughter by working as a seamstress. Still scorned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. When town officials try to take Pearl away from her mother, the young, eloquent minister Arthur Dimmesdale intervenes to thwart their plans.
Dimmesdale appears to be dying, wasting away from a mysterious heart condition. Chillingworth takes him on as a patient, later moving in with him to provide round-the-clock medical care. The doctor believes that Dimmesdale's condition is psychosomatic, perhaps caused by guilt. He begins to suspect that the minister is his wife's lover. One day, while Dimmesdale sleeps, Chillingworth discovers something that convinces him that his suspicions are correct - supposedly the capital letter A burned into the minister's chest.
Meanwhile, Hester Prynne's kindness, charity, and quiet humility finally earn her a reprieve from public scorn. When she and Pearl return home one night, they find Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. They join him on the scaffold. The three hold hands, and Pearl asks the minister to publicly acknowledge that she is his daughter. He refuses. A streaking meteor forms a dull letter A in the night sky. Dimmesdale believes it's the sign of adultery, but the townspeople think that it means "angel," as a prominent member of the community died that night.
When Chillingworth refuses to abandon his plan for revenge, Hester tells Dimmesdale that Chillingworth is really her missing husband. The lovers decide to flee with Pearl to Europe, where they can live as a family. They both feel a great sense of release and relief. Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. In one of the novel's most striking metaphors, sunlight immediately breaks through the clouds and trees to illuminate Hester's joyous release.
The day before their ship is to sail, Dimmesdale gives his most eloquent sermon ever. Hester finds out that her husband has found out about her plans and booked passage on her ship. When Dimmesdale leaves the church, he sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively takes them to the top and publicly confesses to being Hester's lover and the father of her child, exposing the mark supposedly seared into his chest. Pearl kisses him. Relieved of his burden, Dimmesdale collapses and dies.
Frustrated over being denied his revenge, a bitter Chillingworth dies a year later, and Hester and Pearl leave Boston. Although she is not his daughter, Pearl inherits all of Chillingworth's money. Many years later, Hester Prynne returns to her old cottage alone and resumes her charity work. She receives letters from Pearl, now married to a European aristocrat and with children of her own. The townspeople finally forgive Hester for her indiscretion, and she - and the other women in town - feel a strong sense of liberation.
The Scarlet Letter is rightfully considered one of the greatest works of 19th century literature, and is still widely read and appreciated. It would be adapted numerous times for the radio, stage, screen, and television. The most famous feature film adaptations were the brilliant 1973 version directed by legendary German filmmaker Wim Wenders, and the dreadful 1995 Hollywood version starring Demi Moore as Hester Prynne - which took great liberties with the novel and was widely panned by critics.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the greatest writers of his generation. His other great works include the novel The House of the Seven Gables (1851) and the short story collections Twice-Told Tales (1837) and Tanglewood Tales (1853). He died in 1864 at the age of 59.
Quote Of The Day "It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things - an indefinable purity and lightness of conception... one can often return to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art." - Henry James on Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, The Scarlet Letter.
Vanguard Video Today's video features a clip from the rare 1926 silent film adaptation of The Scarlet Letter, starring Lillian Gish as Hester Prynne and Lars Hanson as Arthur Dimmesdale. Enjoy!
Demons Within(Version 3) Prepared by: Loretta Russell and Ruth Douillette Revised, reposted on March 14, 2010
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In 400 words or less give us a portrait of a character who slides from success into self-destruction. Your story can be truth or fiction.
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"Prominent banker hangs himself after DNA evidence proves him guilty of assaulting teen girl." We see stories like this in the news almost every day. What sends these people, the common man as well as the "superstar," into self-destructive, downward spirals? Is it greed or a quest for power? Is the person insane or simply flawed in some way? -------------------------
In 400 words or less give us a portrait of a character who slides from success into self-destruction. Your story can be truth or fiction.
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In your critique, consider whether the character and situation are believable. Do we understand why he has done what he has done? Could he have helped himself, changed his course, or was he fated to fall? Do we feel compassion for the character, and if so, why?
These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writing Workshop.
This Day In Writing History On March 12th, 1922, the legendary novelist and poet Jack Kerouac was born. He was born Jean-Louis Kerouac in Lowell, Massachusetts, to French Canadian parents who had emigrated from Quebec. They called him "Ti Jean," which meant "little Jean." Kerouac's parents were both devout Catholics and ferocious anti-Semites. In an interview with the Paris Review, Kerouac recalled a time when his father assaulted a rabbi for allegedly disrespecting him.
When Jack Kerouac was four years old, his older brother Gerard died of rheumatic fever at the age of nine, which he would write about in his 1963 novel, Visions of Gerard. The loss of his brother would have a profound effect on him. He didn't speak English until he was six years old and began formal schooling. He continued to speak French at home.
As a teenager, Jack's athletic talents led him to become a hurdler on the high school track team and a running back on the football team. His football skills earned him scholarship offers from Boston College, Columbia University, and Notre Dame. He went to Columbia. During his freshman year, he cracked a tibia playing football and argued constantly with his coach, Lou Little, who kept him on the bench. So, he dropped out of university.
Kerouac moved to New York City, where he would meet his Beat Generation friends and fellow writers, including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and Herbert Huncke. He began a relationship with Edie Parker, whose friend and roommate, Joan Vollmer, would later marry Burroughs. Kerouac joined the Merchant Marine in 1942. A year later, he joined the Navy and was honorably discharged - for psychiatric reasons. They diagnosed him as having a schizoid personality.
By 1944, Kerouac was back in New York. He found himself caught up in a murder case when his friend, Lucien Carr, called him for help. Another friend, David Kammerer, had been stalking Carr. When Carr, who was not gay, spurned Kammerer's sexual advances and declarations of love, the obsessed Kammerer refused to take no for an answer. Carr ended up stabbing him to death, allegedly in self-defense, but was afraid to call the police. So, Kerouac helped him dispose of the evidence. They dumped Kammerer's body in the Hudson River.
Later, on the advice of William Burroughs, Kerouac and Carr turned themselves in. Jack's father refused to pay his bail and disowned him. His girlfriend Edie's parents bailed him out and he married her in return. Since Kammerer was seen as a disturbed, predatory homosexual, Carr only served two years in prison and Kerouac, who had been charged as a material witness and possible accessory, was cleared of wrongdoing.
Free of legal trouble, Jack Kerouac started his career as a writer. He collaborated on a novel with William Burroughs, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, which wouldn't be published in its entirety until 2008. It was a fictionalized account of the killing of David Kammerer. When his parents moved to Queens, he lived with them after his marriage ended in an annulment. He wrote his first solo novel, The Town and the City, which was published in 1950 under the name John Kerouac.
The Town and the City was an epic autobiographical novel of life in rural Massachusetts. Like his future works, it employed a stream-of-consciousness narrative, but was not nearly as experimental. The epic novel was cut by 400 pages prior to publication during the editing process. The reviews were good, but the novel sold poorly. It didn't discourage Kerouac. He wrote constantly.
By 1951, Kerouac was living in Manhattan with his second wife, Joan Haverty. He completed the first draft of his second novel, which would go through many changes and become his greatest work. Early titles included The Beat Generation and Gone On The Road. To write this novel, Kerouac used a technique that he would continue to employ. He typed the manuscript on a roll of paper instead of sheets. He did this because he found that pausing to load new sheets into his typewriter interfered with the flow of his writing.
It took a long time for Kerouac to get his second novel published because of its experimental writing style and its sympathetic portrayal of minorities suffering from the effects of racism. Editors were also uncomfortable with the novel's graphic sexual content (which included both straight and gay sex scenes) and depiction of drug use. Meanwhile, Kerouac's pregnant wife left him. She gave birth to his only child, a daughter named Jan, but he refused to accept that she was his daughter until she was nine years old and a blood test proved his paternity.
Not long after his daughter was born, Kerouac took off and spent several years traveling extensively throughout the U.S. and Mexico. During this time, he wrote extensively and fell into periods of depression accompanied by heavy drug and alcohol abuse. In 1954, Kerouac came across Dwight Goddard's book, A Buddhist Bible, in a public library. It began his nearly lifelong interest in Buddhism. A year later, he wrote a biography of the Buddha called Wake Up, which would be published posthumously, in a serialized version, by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review from 1993-95.
In 1957, after being rejected numerous times over the last several years, Kerouac's second novel, the classic On The Road, was bought by Viking Press. They demanded major revisions, which included removing most of the sexual content. Since Kerouac had used the real names of his relatives and friends, his publisher, fearing libel suits, demanded that he use pseudonyms. So, Kerouac became Sal Paradise and Neal Cassady became Dean Moriarty.
The publication of On The Road brought Kerouac rave reviews, good money, and nearly overnight fame. He was dubbed "the king of the Beat generation." He soon developed a distaste for celebrity, as not everyone appreciated his novel. The conservative element believed that On The Road was the bible of immorality and despised its popularity with young people. Once, Kerouac was attacked outside a bar in New York by three men and badly beaten. Nonetheless, Kerouac's celebrity continued to grow. In 1959, he made a memorable appearance on The Steve Allen Show, reading from On The Road and an early novel, Visions Of Cody. Allen accompanied him on the piano.
During the years Kerouac traveled before the publication of On The Road, he had written the first drafts of what would become his next ten novels. He continued to work on them. His next novel, The Dharma Bums, was published in 1958. Also autobiographical, the novel follows Ray Smith (Kerouac) as he goes on a journey in search of enlightenment, which he finds while communing with the outdoors, (hiking and bicycling) traveling aimlessly, and discovering jazz clubs, poetry readings, drunken parties, and of course, Buddhism.
The novel is most famous for Kerouac's depiction of the legendary 1955 Six Gallery Reading in San Francisco, where the East and West coast factions of Beat literati met to read their works. The co-promoter of the event was Kerouac's friend, poet Allen Ginsberg, who also performed his first public reading of his celebrated classic poem, Howl, which appears in the novel as Wail.
The Dharma Bums was a huge hit with Kerouac's literary critics and readers, who rightfully declared it to be his second masterwork. Unfortunately, the novel was criticized by respected leaders of the American Buddhist community, which disappointed Kerouac greatly and demoralized him. He abandoned Buddhism and returned to Catholicism.
Kerouac moved to Northport, New York, to care for his elderly mother and escape his celebrity. He continued to write and publish a succession of memorable novels, including Visions Of Cody, Doctor Sax, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Lonesome Traveler, and Big Sur. He also wrote collections of poetry. As a poet, he was most famous for making the Japanese haiku popular with American readers. Kerouac's haiku did not follow the traditional 3-line, 17-syllable structure. He knew that more words could be formed in 17 syllables in English than in Japanese. So, he wrote his haiku shorter to make them more authentic.
In the 1960s - the last years of his life - Kerouac's drinking problem grew worse. He married again, to his third wife, Stella. Although he had been the king of the Beats and a symbol of disaffected youth whose writings defined one generation (the Beats) and set the stage for another, (the Hippies) Kerouac became as fanatically devout a Catholic as his mother and politically conservative. Though he never inherited his parents' racial prejudices, he did inherit their hatred of communists. He disliked the Hippies, supported the Vietnam War, and befriended the conservative icon William F. Buckley.
After his mother died, a devastated Kerouac drank heavier than ever, consuming a large quantity of alcohol every day. On October 21st, 1969, Jack Kerouac was rushed to the hospital after he began hemorrhaging from cirrhosis - veins in his esophagus had burst. He died the classic drunkard's death, drowning in his own blood, at the age of 47. He had once said, "I'm Catholic and I can't commit suicide, but I plan to drink myself to death."
In 2007, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kerouac's classic novel, Viking Press finally published the original, unexpurgated version of On The Road.
Quote Of The Day "Don't use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry." - Jack Kerouac
Vanguard Video Today's video features Jack Kerouac's famous 1959 appearance on The Steve Allen Show. Enjoy!
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