Tag Archives: George Orwell
America’s greatest essay
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a very bad novel, having, in its self-righteous, virtuous sentimentality, much in common with Little Women. Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; the wet … Continue reading
Filed under discovery, essay-classical, essay-expository, essay-personal, NOTED, scene, sentimentality, teaching, working method
Dave Eggers on journalism’s virtues
Author Dave Eggers burst onto the literary scene with his memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; his latest book, Zeitoun, is about the Homeland Security/FEMA ordeal suffered by a Syrian-American immigrant and his family in the wake of Hurricane … Continue reading
Filed under honesty, immersion, journalism, teaching, technique, working method
Frank Conroy on mystery & memoir
Frank Conroy (1936 – 2005), author of the classic memoir Stop-Time (which has the strangeness of true art about it), as well as novels and essays, was director of the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa. He sat down … Continue reading
Filed under audience, creative nonfiction, discovery, memoir, narrative, NOTED, reading, spirituality, teaching, working method
When prose becomes political
In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.—George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” “Vote,” Kathy commanded … Continue reading
Filed under audience, emotion, evolutionary psychology, honesty, MY LIFE, politics, sentimentality, spirituality
