Diversionary tactics
Apr. 1st, 2025 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
When I'm fed up with wrestling with a manuscript or wrangling an author, sometimes I take a breath and read what other people have to say about language, publishing, or the craft of writing.
In the Matter of the Commas: "For the true literary stylist, this seemingly humble punctuation mark is a matter of precision, logic, individuality, and music"
Close Reading ChatGPT's Metafiction: "A quaint but still noble ideal for literature is to 'hold a mirror up to nature,' as Hamlet put it, reflecting readers and their age. Maybe ChatGPT’s dead-eyed story fulfills something like this purpose, now that we find ourselves ruled by people seemingly proud of their soullessness."
There's a Word for That: "We have no access to anything outside of language and therefore no reason to assume that there is, or ever was, anything separate from it."
Dark Books: "What’s more wholesome than reading? Yet books wield a dangerous power: the best erode self, infecting readers with ideas."
Why Children's Books? "A children’s book is not a luxury good. It is fundamental to our culture, to the grown-ups we become, to the society we build."
In the Matter of the Commas: "For the true literary stylist, this seemingly humble punctuation mark is a matter of precision, logic, individuality, and music"
Close Reading ChatGPT's Metafiction: "A quaint but still noble ideal for literature is to 'hold a mirror up to nature,' as Hamlet put it, reflecting readers and their age. Maybe ChatGPT’s dead-eyed story fulfills something like this purpose, now that we find ourselves ruled by people seemingly proud of their soullessness."
There's a Word for That: "We have no access to anything outside of language and therefore no reason to assume that there is, or ever was, anything separate from it."
Dark Books: "What’s more wholesome than reading? Yet books wield a dangerous power: the best erode self, infecting readers with ideas."
Why Children's Books? "A children’s book is not a luxury good. It is fundamental to our culture, to the grown-ups we become, to the society we build."