RIFF.REBELSOUL DEV

Tag: Literature

  • John Fowles: Mischanneling

    John Fowles on the strengths of the novel vs. the screenplay: Why have I got it in for the novel? […] All the purely visual and aural sequences in the modern novel are a bore, both to read and to write. People’s physical appearance, their movements, their sounds, places, moods of places – the camera […]

  • Visualising the Creative Process

    I was talking to someone about the creative process once and came up with some imagery for it. I described the initial phase as a kind of nebulous cloud; a haze that lurks around your head. It’s made up from the stuff of your life; here and there are vague forms, a ghost of a […]

  • Creators

    Oh what a tangled web we weave when we seek to conceive Rincewind stared at him, “Who ARE you?” The man took the pencil from behind his ear and looked reflectively at the space around Rincewind. “I makes things,” he said. “What sort of things?” “What sort of things would you like?” “You’re the Creator?” […]

  • Review: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

    As a huge admirer of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife it brings me no pleasure to say that her second major work Her Fearful Symmetry comes as a significant disappointment. Where Traveller’s was deep and visceral, impeccably composed, thrilling and emotive with rich and delicious characters, Symmetry (aptly for its title) is quite the […]

  • Makers

    In this situation I’m a representative. A martyr. Imprisoned, unable to grow. At the mercy of this resentment, this hateful millstone of envy of the Calibans of this world. Because they all hate us, they hate us for being different, for not being them, for their own not being like us. They persecute us, they […]

  • Review: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

    Though frequently recommended, this is an appallingly poor excuse for a novel. If one is setting out to write a book of speculative philosophy about life death and the hereafter, one had better have a great sophistication of understanding for human experience along with fresh and insightful imagination regarding the human spirit. Albom seems to […]

  • Review: Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

    Not the finest Discworld novel Terry’s ever written, but there’s still a great deal here to enjoy. This affectionate parody of football with the beloved Unseen University wizards is blessed with interesting characters new and familiar, but seems a little trivial in the context of his more recent works. Sadly, unless you have a love […]

  • Review: Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson

    Painfully pretentious and drowning in a mess of its failed aspirations, it’s always a bad thing when an author becomes too fond of the sound of their own voice. Characters, ideas, feelings, and stories are lost under the weight of what I can only presume is Winterson’s creative vanity. While arguably intelligent she lacks the […]

  • Review: Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

    Literature Light. If you like your novels bland, insipid and unchallenging, Shadow of the Wind is probably for you. The prose is plain, the characters are two dimensional, a the plot – while it desperately aspires to be a thriller – is about as sleepy and predictable as they come. A couple of the characters […]

  • Review: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

    This is a most beautiful autobiography produced in a novel comic-book format. Alison Bechdel’s tale of growing up, her dysfunctional household, closeted homosexual father, and her own growing awareness of her lesbian identity is a touching and wonderfully rendered memoir of her early life. Insightful and fascinating from beginning to end, this is really worth […]

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