Friday, May 21, 2010
rereading / rewriting / a great phrase
My thanks to those who wrote that they read In Praise of Older Women again and liked it better than the first time. I would like to persuade you to re-read again all the books you liked. Every few years you should try to reread your favourite books. If they aren't really good you will realize it when you read them the second time and you can abandon them after a few pages. Bad books get worse on rereading and good books get better. To read a good book once is like listening to a symphony once.... Rosemary asked me about my spoof Galileo about media objectivity. Alas, I have only the script. In those days plays were recorded on huge machines on huge reels of tape - I could have made a copy in the CBC studio, but saw no point as I would have no way of playing it back. Maybe I'll update it one day.... The best thing about being back in print in England is getting new friends through In Praise of Older Women. One of them is the brilliant writer a.a. gill: his pieces are full with great phrases that strike me with envy - I wish I wrote them! Here is his description of a pearl necklace: "a seculary rosary, the prayer beads of mammon."...
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3 comments:
A good line, true. But the literary master who birthed such gems as, "...people who had no use for religion because they didn't believe in God were the same sort of literal-minded fools who had no use for Hamlet because they didn't believe in ghosts.", and "...nothing stimulates intelligence so much as passion, or so decisively prevents its application to commonsense considerations-- which is why the most brilliant individuals, great experts or even geniuses, are no more sensible in their aims than the greatest fools." need not feel too strongly, the bite of envy at another writer's pen. :)
It was the first time of reading for me but I loved the book and found it very moving. I reviewed it for our social network for people of this age. I expect it to be very popular. The review is here http://is.gd/g9L6q, we would love to hear feedback from you or to discuss the novel.
About 25 years ago my son was required to review a novel of his choosing for a high school English class. Since he was more attuned to visual arts and music than literature, he reluctantly asked for my advice. I assumed that if I urged a solitary choice he would, with the contrariety of adolescence, reject it, so without comment I slyly offered three paperbacks: two had ordinary covers, the third a detail from the Rokeby Venus. Not to my surprise, he read and subsequently praised "In Praise of Older Women."
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