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Review of Travels in the Scriptorium

October 10, 2018

Auster, book, fiction, literature, review

Travels in the Scriptorium: the Basics

A review of Travels in the Scriptorium, by Paul Auster, should begin by mentioning a fact: it is not your regular story. Moreover, it is not your regular Paul Auster story. Those familiar with Paul Auster’s work should realize a thing or two by this statement.

For others, let me underline some things. Travels in the Scriptorium is not a story with a typical beginning, narrative evolution, or ending. So far so good. Now, hold tight. Paul Auster’s novella is not a story at all.

Let me repeat that, just so that it sinks in. Travels in the Scriptorium is not a story.

What is it, then, you will ask. Well, let’s see.

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Why Rewriting a Novel Is a Bad Idea

September 29, 2018

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

creativity, editing, fiction, literature, rewriting, writing

Inspiration for this post came after I read about someone almost bragging about having just finished the 26th rewrite of their novel. Editing your book is an essential key to success. Tweaking things here and there or changing your mind and rewriting, say, the ending, can be useful. But there is no benefit in rewriting a novel. I am rarely so absolute in my declarations when it comes to literature, but I’m doing it now.

Rewriting a novel is about as useful as trying to please your audience, and twice as pointless. If a novel needs rewriting as opposed to editing then you are much better off scrapping the whole thing and writing a new story. Let’s see why.

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Misunderstanding Books: The Era of the Unsophisticated Reader

August 8, 2018

Literature

art, book, fiction, ignorance, literature, mediocrity, misunderstanding, society

Some time ago, I read a bizarre “review” (more about it in a moment) of a book I had read myself. The reviewer had written something in the direction of “I kept reading thinking that it’d get better, but it never did. The story was left unresolved.” That was basically it, that was the review. I’ve talked before about reviewing books fairly, but today we’ll tackle another issue: that of misunderstanding books.

It goes without saying that this was not a review. You can’t spend two lines (or even two hundred) saying simply “I didn’t like it” and claim this is a review. Perhaps we could call it a “rating rationale” though semantics isn’t the crucial factor here. Rather, I’d like to focus on something far more serious. Something that has far-reaching consequences for the current state as well as the future of our societies.

“What do you mean ‘misunderstanding books?'”

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