Square Pegs

Turning our attention from world news, we now bring you a look at the latest Jane Austen controversy. For a dead woman, she has alarming power to raise ire. Admirable, if you think about it. As it turns out, the latest filmed version of Pride & Prejudice has a romantic ending. It’s cute, if sappy. But, until just days ago, the ending was available only in America. This unfaithful-to-the-text ending is described as It was as if NASA had prepared an international mission to Mars and felt a need to lace the Russians’ Tang with vodka. Maybe it’s us, but […]

Here is what scares us: a major newspaper asks “Can NEA plan help literature?” and it doesn’t seem to have a whiff of irony. This question appears, based on our not-very close reading of the article, to be genuinely sincere (probably because this is an opinion piece, but that’s not fully clear until the final paragraph). Why are we bothered? Because if the NEA cannot help, who can? Sorry, sometimes our frustration with inane headlines spills over to real life. Yes, kids, your government is going on the road and encouraging reading. A project called “The Big Read” is destined

Because the timing is wrong, we won’t share our notions on taxing with you this morning. Except, of course, to note that Salinas has voted to increase local taxes to pay for its libraries. In most communities, this type of increase would be unnoticeable; in a community like Salinas, it reflects a major commitment. The library issue both embarrassed and galvanized the city: The city’s young people were among the first to respond, Caballero said. Two migrant farmworker boys in elementary school persuaded their mom to make cakes they could sell to raise money for the cause. There were lemonade

Those of you who watch television on a regular basis have surely noticed a trend: brand names everywhere. They’re in the movies, too. Rising production costs and declining ad sales have lead to an increase in product placement. It’s the future of motion picture entertainment or so we’ve been told. And when a new trend hits the scene, the desire for money follows right behind. The next big fight for writers in Hollywood will be how to share in the big bucks generated by product placement. The writers’ argument: they have to craft dialogue and story to fit the product.

A few may have wondered what we do with our days. Funny story, that. We’ve gotten involved in a cause: protecting the rights of journalists to keep their sources confidential. Oh, yes, we know — that’s last month’s news. We’re behind on everything in life. Sue us. Now that we’re on the project, we’re on it with gusto. We have been studying picketing and chanting, discovering in the process that like most bloggers, we cannot do picket and chant at the same time. We’ve also learned a valuable lesson: the principle is far more important than the details. We will

KABUL, Afghanistan Nov 8, 2005 — Poet Nadia Anjuman was beaten to death, and her husband and mother have been arrested. The United Nations condemned the killing Tuesday as symptom of continuing violence against Afghan women four years after the fall of the Taliban. UN condemns sexist killing of Afghan poet

When a book goes directly to the remainder bin, generally there is a good reason. By all accounts, the novel by Irve Lewis “Scooter” Libby did not pass go, did not collect 00*. It was yet another novel doomed to die unlamented. Then the author went and got himself indicted — great news for the book, not so much for the writer. Now the world is taking second look at the first novel by a famous politician. And the world is wondering about the weird sex. Wondering how such things can come from the mind of a nice guy like

We are forever in search of creative ways to force ourself to meet deadlines. For the record, setting “pretend” deadlines allows us to have “pretend” last-minute crises that cause us to miss our deadline, leading to “pretend” hand-wringing over the whole disaster. Then we pretend to move on, but really, all that faking it wears a girl down. Greg Sandow has decided to try another way of meeting his deadlines: writing his book online. He’ll post a new chapter every two weeks, people will offer helpful comments (woeful is the author who has the whole world as a critique partner!)

Go up to a writer and ask this question: do you hear voices in your head? If the answer is a cheerful “yes”, most people back away slowly. No need to find out what the voices are saying. Other writers, of course, will move closer, eager to compare experiences. It is always strange to learn that other people don’t hear a constant stream of discussion, by characters, throughout the day. Then there are those who hear voices, develop other personalities, and then let those alternate personalities write a book. Man, the writer says, that’s how it should be. Definite way