Comments for The Skeptician

Comment on Aftershock (The Movie) by caroline

caroline — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:47:29 +0000

i went looking to find someone anyone to say this…. the canadian husband SUCKKKED

Comment on The Flat Earth Collective Presents: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre by Donna Laemmlen at Slice Magazine « The Skeptician - Flat Earth Collective

Donna Laemmlen at Slice Magazine « The Skeptician - Flat Earth Collective — Sat, 28 May 2011 23:31:57 +0000

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Comment on Name Anis Shivani’s “15 Most Underrated Writers” before he does by Caleb Powell

Caleb Powell — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:18:37 +0000

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is well-written, and disturbed me, yet I would need to see more from the author. Percival Everett rants too much, he’s brilliant, but suffers from telling his editor to \fuck off\ and being able to get away with it. Everett often does not speak to me, or does not seem to care what I think, and I am a reader immensely interest in his subject matter. Markson should be in the list, if not someone else’s.

If he does another most overrated, hopefully he’ll put Tao Lin in the mix. Tao’s another puzzle, he could be really good, but his prose is beyond boring…except, it seems, to readers under 25 years, and readers over 25 that mooch off their mom or girlfriend (yeah, there are exceptions, but if you are over 25 & have a job & like Tao, then you just have poor literary taste).

Comment on The Flat Earth Collective Presents: “Obviously You’re Not a Golfer” by We don’t roll on shabbos. « The Skeptician - Flat Earth Collective

We don’t roll on shabbos. « The Skeptician - Flat Earth Collective — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:52:12 +0000

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Comment on Upcoming Reading by This Thanksgiving, bang your head « The Skeptician - Flat Earth Collective

This Thanksgiving, bang your head « The Skeptician - Flat Earth Collective — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:51:14 +0000

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Comment on On Meeting Some Out-of-Town Writers by Jeff Kingman

Jeff Kingman — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:16:14 +0000

Sounds like a great event. I’m from Chicago–or right outside of it. CHICAGO! HELL YEAH! Well, that reaction isn’t really my style, but I do still love the place.

For better or worse, I am a die hard American. I’d have a hard time living abroad. Sounds like you’re quite enjoying it, though. Have fun!

Comment on A publisher’s note worth reflecting upon by Jim Nelson

Jim Nelson — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:21:16 +0000

Smart ass.

Comment on A publisher’s note worth reflecting upon by David Hill

David Hill — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:07:50 +0000

I like Roosevelt’s words, and I only wish we could more collectively acknowledge the significance of such genres as detective fiction and science fiction in so many of those meaningful wars.

Comment on Can it be taught? (part three) by David Hill

David Hill — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:15:19 +0000

Wow, Jim. Good stuff here.
While you bring up so many worthy points, for now I’ll offer only this:
Having participated in great discussions of work with a group of only four people, discussions that lasted an hour or more on one piece of writing, I conclude that trying to involve 12 people or more in such a discussion is inherently challenging, especially if it’s viewed only in terms of how it serves an individual writer.
Flannery O’Connor derided workshops as something like “the blind leading the blind.” She might have been onto something, but I think she failed to recognize, as so very many people do, that a workshop is about more than an individual writer developing her work. It’s about writers learning to be good readers, particularly of works in progress, and learning to offer meaningful feedback on that work. It’s very easy to recognize when a story is far from its last revision, but to provide a fellow writer with useful ideas about how to proceed requires some education, and a lot of practice. This is perhaps the greatest challenge for the teacher, to not only offer guidance to writers on their work, but to help students learn how to offer meaningful guidance. It’s never easy, and it’s never perfect.
But that group of four I mentioned earlier consists of people who paid attention in class and learned how to be good readers, good “feedbackers,” as well as good writers.
Any writer who expects his work to be met with respect and generosity and useful critique has an obligation to learn how to offer the same, to try, to fall short, and to try again, just as with writing.

Comment on Can it be taught? (part three) by JS

JS — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 16:27:06 +0000

Here’s a relevant article I remember reading about this very topic last year about the workshop and the creative writing process/can it be taught, etc.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2009/06/08/090608crat_atlarge_menand