"Stories are not merely structured dreams, but items from the land of imagination and desire, and no matter the horror, nihilism, or cynicism of the events and characters within them, those stories originate from the same place as hope. Could it be that the act of telling a story itself is an expression of hope, regardless of what the story contains? Could it be that the act of imagining is, no matter its darkness, no matter its despair, an act that springs from idealism, even joy? The assumption of the storyteller is that someone will hear the story, that someone will receive the tale. The assumption of imagination is that things can be otherwise."

Matthew Cheney is reading through the Sandman books, and here he meditates on Sandman #4, “A Hope in Hell.” I can’t wait until he makes it to Season of Mists and Brief Lives.

All the Dead Are Vampires →

Because “the dead always want us to join them”: Michael Sims explains the nineteenth-century origins of Vampire stories, and why they still resonate with us today. (via youmightfindyourself)

"‘The cat sat on the mat’ is not the beginning of a story, but ‘The cat sat on the dog’s mat’ is."

John le Carré (via slowrain)

Long Live Fiction: A Guide to Fiction Online →

The internet isn’t killing fiction! While it may be shrinking attention spans, it’s also giving new writers a change to grow and learn from one another. David Backer takes a look at several such communities for The Millions.

One of the sites he mentions is Fictionaut, which is invitation-only. I really like it. I received an invitation a little while ago and already have a story up: Driving Directions.

"Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction. "

Ray Bradbury (via booklover)

"We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind — mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. For the writer in particular it is less and less necessary for him to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer’s task is to invent the reality."

J.G. Ballard (via nihilnoetia, via booklover)

Revising Fiction by David Madden: Leading by Example (and with TOC Checklist) →

Jeff VanderMeer shares his appreciation for the book Revising Fiction (now out of print, sadly). VanderMeer shares how the book “radically changed” his perspective on revision:

I grew immeasurably as a writer and began to exhibit more control. In encountering questions I didn’t even understand at the time, I also came to understand that there is no such thing as “mastery” in writing fiction — that there would always be more to learn, more to look forward to internalizing. These two lessons, and the presence of masters of fiction ghosting through the text, soon made Revising Fiction and me inseparable. And I still return to it every year to see what else I can learn from it.

There are several used copies available for sale on Amazon, so I might consider picked one up eventually. In the meantime, VanderMeer provides most of the table of contents that is, essentially, a list of 183 questions to ask oneself while revising fiction.

The Best Fiction of the Millennium (So Far) →

The Millions asks 48 writers, editors, and critics to name their favorite works of fiction of the new millennium, so far. I’m a little impressed that I’ve managed to read five of them, without even trying at all:

20: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
19: American Genius, A Comedy by Lynne Tillman
18: Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
17: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
16: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
15: Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis
14: Atonement by Ian McEwan
13: Mortals by Norman Rush
12: Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg
11: The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
10: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
9: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro
8: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
7: Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
6: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
5: Pastoralia by George Saunders
4: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
3: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
2: The Known World by Edward P. Jones
1: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

The full list has descriptions of each, along with excerpts, links to audio books, and other materials where appropriate. I should note that Stranger Things Happen, number 18 on the list, is available as a free, CC-licensed download.

Twain's Rules of Writing →

Eighteen simple rules for good fiction writing from one of America’s master storytellers. The best part? They’re gleaned from an essay by Twain excoriating James Fenimore Cooper. Nice.

"There has been a measurable cultural change in society’s commitment to literary reading. In a cultural moment when we are hearing nothing but bad news, we have reassuring evidence that the dumbing down of our culture is not inevitable."

Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, as quoted in this NYT article about a measurable increase in fiction reading. We can probably thank Oprah and Stephanie Meyer for this increase.

"The video and telecom-addled civilization that bustles outside [the secular monastery in Neal Stephenson’s Anathem] is full of shallow and incorrect knowledge. People who’ve never taken time to study anything feel they know everything. Constantly distracted by their jangling electronic gizmos, they can’t comprehend the powerful ideas and complex systems wrought by thousands of years of civilization. Their smart machines make them dumb. Inevitably, they look to the cloistered nerds to save them."

Neal Stephenson’s new novel makes me want to kill the Internet. Now that sounds like a book I’ll enjoy. (via nickdouglas)

Walker Percy on Kierkegaard The Moviegoer is probably my favorite novel — I try to read it at least once every 12 months. The first time I read it, I was also reading Kierkegaard. I had no idea that Binx’s Kierkegaardian worldview came along almost by accident.

Novelists Strike Fails To Affect Nation Whatsoever →

"In fact, the physical act of moving your possessions from Manhattan to Brooklyn is now the equivalent of a two-year M.F.A. program. When you get to the other side, they hand you three Moleskine notebooks and a copy of “Blogging for Dummies.” You’re good to go."

I Write in Brooklyn, Get Over it. (via vaivoda)

Nine to five →

Fiction, and its relationship to the workaday world (and all the bland office spaces and corporatespeak thereby entailed).