The Litwrack Blog

Me reading at the 5-4-5 Greenwood Lit crawl

Bob — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:50:11 +0000

Me reading “Bubble Wrap” and “Typewriter for a Superior Alphabet” at the Greenwood Lit crawl, 4/20/2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btYdj-CrlS0

enjoy

Greenwood lit crawl, 4/20/2013

Bob — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:16:10 +0000

I’m reading at the Five Alarms lit crawl in Greenwood on 4/20.

These are a blast. You should come.

I’m on around 7:00 at Ampersand Pantry & Cafe – 424 N 85th St. Suite A
(on the corner of N. 85th Street & Dayton Ave. N.). Full info here

Note to self: don’t get an English PhD

Bob — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:02 +0000

Once, a long time ago, I considered getting a graduate degree in English, but determined it would be way too hard to get a job. From an article entitled “Thesis Hatement: Getting a literature Ph.D. will turn you into an emotional trainwreck, not a professor“:

There’s a little fable from Kafka, appropriately called “A Little Fable,” that speaks to why this was very stupid:

“Alas,” said the mouse, “the world gets smaller every day. At first it was so wide that I ran along and was happy to see walls appearing to my right and left, but these high walls converged so quickly that I’m already in the last room, and there in the corner is the trap into which I must run.”

“But you’ve only got to run the other way,” said the cat, and ate it.

The mouse wasn’t going in the wrong direction so much as it was walking cat food the entire time. A graduate career is just like this, only worse, because “A Little Fable” lasts three sentences and is made up, while graduate school lasts at least six years and will ruin your life in a very real way.

So, maybe I made the right decision

Book stories/stories with books. Just look at it.

Bob — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:48:21 +0000

Nina Katchadourian has been writing stories by sorting book titles for 20 years. And taking pictures of them. Now they are a book. This is brilliant. Here’s an example:

Kurt V. on how to write a short story in his own voice

Bob — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:41:33 +0000

Great advice even for you folks who’ve been doing it for a while.

I especially like – well, all of it.

LA predicts the future

Bob — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:26:44 +0000

In 1988 – not that long ago – the LA Times Magazine ran a feature on what life would be like in 25 years. They predicted cell phones, fiber optics, media streaming, etc.

They failed to predict that Robert P. Kaye would publish a story in the Los Angeles review.

There are limits to imagination.

Thomas Pynchon to do for tech what he did for rockets?

Bob — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:14:36 +0000

September 17th, Mr. P barks forth with another new one. I think he’s just having fun in his old age. Can’t wait.

Hope it comes via WASTE

People who read fiction are more empathetic

Bob — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:07:22 +0000

This study says so.

Who cares?

For sale: stolen baby shoes

Bob — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 04:03:53 +0000

OK, not stolen, misattributed.

Turns out the famous Hemingway 6 word short story had been around for a while. See the article in Slate here.

Any more illusions of yours I can crush?

(Well, maybe worn a little)

The most looked up words of the year

Bob — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 02:08:41 +0000

According to Merriam-Webster:

Capitalism and socialism (elections anyone?), democracy, globalization, marriage, bigot, meme, touche, schadenfreude,and professionalism.

The word meme is courtesy of Richard Dawkins, noted geneticist and atheist, who coined the term in 1976 to denote a unit of cultural information and gave us a way to talk about piano playing kitties and ehrmagerd and all manner of other crap.

Touche, Dawkins.