The Weird Week in Writing: Literary fights, Spider-Man reviews, new J.D. Salinger yarns
Freaky Friday—the latest from the often weird and wonderful world of writing
this week (followed, as always, by a prompt). Happy weekend!
EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY FALLOUTS! HEAD BUTTS! The HuffPo polled readers for their favorite literary fights, and the results and brief explanations made for one of the most fascinating reads of the week. In the ring: C.S. Lewis Vs. J.R.R. Tolkien. Norman Mailer Vs. Gore Vidal. Arthur Rimbaud Vs. Paul Verlaine (stabbings + shootings). And, in Ernest Hemingway Vs. Wallace Stevens, Stevens broke his hand punching Hemingway in the face. I blame the legendary beard.
INSECTICIDE! The reviews for the much-hyped Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark are in. The results? Unrecountably bad. One of the main cited reasons in this roundup—the storytelling. “What’s apparent after 170 spirit-snuffing minutes in the Foxwoods Theater—interrupted by the occasional burst of aerial distraction—is that director Julie Taymor, of The Lion King fame, left a few essential items off her lavish shopping list: 1. Coherent plot. 2. Tolerable music. 3. Workable sets.”
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: By now, you’ve probably heard that AOL bought The Huffington Post for $315 million. Since writers are still unlikely to be paid, maybe they can reimburse them with the digital Nehru collar that is an AOL e-mail address.
WATCHING THE WATCHMAN: In this short recent video for Save Our Libraries Day, graphic novel genius Alan Moore (Watchmen, From Hell) riffs on the role of libraries in his personal writing career. Unweird, but important. However, the thing to the left of his face in the video—weird, and a delightfully strange complement to the entire piece.
MAKING A GROWN MAN CRY: The Rolling Stones’ latest tour may not be happening because of a little something Keith Richards included in his memoir, concerning, um, er, Mick Jagger.
A 10TH STORY:A new glimpse into the odd but always fascinating universe of J.D. Salinger, via the tale of a single awesomely strange night.
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WRITING PROMPT: The Source
Feel
free to take the following prompt home or post a
response (500 words or fewer, funny, sad or stirring) in the Comments
section below. By posting, you’ll be automatically entered in our
occasional around-the-office swag drawings. If you’re having trouble
with the captcha code sticking, e-mail your piece and the prompt to me
at writersdigest@fwmedia.com, with “Promptly” in the subject line, and
I’ll make sure it gets up.
The call came in at the newspaper reporter's desk late on a Sunday. Finally, he wanted to meet.
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Want more writing prompts and exercises? Brian Kiteley has packed more than 200 wildly original ones into his 3 A.M. Epiphany. Check it out here.
