tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post131642400257532739..comments2024-03-27T13:13:25.164-04:00Comments on johnshaplin: Building a Castle in the Forest by Dwayne Raymondjohnshaplinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-17241436647420619222010-04-05T18:46:20.301-04:002010-04-05T18:46:20.301-04:00I'm still interested in reading it. Hm!
Am cu...I'm still interested in reading it. Hm!<br />Am currently enjoying Doris Lessings' SHIKASTA, Sufi-inspired space fiction.Eden Atlashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08869061970827958566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-88261106166494145472010-04-05T18:40:17.446-04:002010-04-05T18:40:17.446-04:00I just started reading this post and I already nev...I just started reading this post and I already never want it to end.Eden Atlashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08869061970827958566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-46458789608951509532010-04-05T17:54:14.191-04:002010-04-05T17:54:14.191-04:00Mornings with Mailer; A Recollection of Friendship...Mornings with Mailer; A Recollection of Friendship by Dwayne Raymond; Harper Perennial, 2010<br /><br />To me it is unfortunate that Mr. Raymond succumbed so early to the temptation to write an intimate account of his four years as personal assistant to such an iconic figure in American literature. He should have waited until he had fully absorbed Mailer's advice about finding the sound muscles of his authorial voice in a craft-like way and with a more detailed retrospective vision of the not only Mailer's entire life and work but his own. I suspect that waiting twenty or thirty years and studying Mailer's works in far greater detail ( he admits never having even finished several of Mailer's novels) would have helped him produce a much more compelling and insightful work, one that better fulfilled Norman's own admonishing to "stick to what's important" rather than constantly allowing himself to be sidetracked by his own story which, frankly, consisted primarily of cooking, running errands, answering phone calls and other mundane secretarial functions.<br /><br /> As Mailer said about those chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bars on a stick ('Dove');<br /><br />"It's a perfect dessert". Too bad good restaurants don't see that. Grandiose desserts are as silly as unnecessary adjectives."<br /><br />Still, the quoted passages in the blog proper- edited and rearranged for maximum effect- was well worth the effort of plowing through a lot of Raymond's conventional drivel."johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.com