Comments on: Institutionalized Creativity

By: online tv

online tv — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:58:43 +0000

I think that this blog is a good place to start beeing a writer

By: texas holdem en linea

texas holdem en linea — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:39:23 +0000

I want to be a writer, i have just completed my graduation and preparing to do a post graduate diploma in mass communication and journalism. To enroll for a creative writing program could be beneficial to enhance the skills for the students. I think guidance is something which can save a lot of time. As far as how can writing can help us financially, hmmmmm …… it depends. But the writing should be from the core of the heart
Can you guy help me out to enhance my skills that how can i be an exceptional writer ? I would be very glad to hear from you.

By: Alexander Barnett

Alexander Barnett — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 18:53:06 +0000

Dear JB,

I would love to find a European distributor. Meanwhile, you can see a clip from the film at http://www.theeyesofvangogh.com. The DVD is also available and is playable in Europe.

Thanks so much for your interest. My next film will be King Lear.

Alexander Barnett

jb says: Hi Alexander. Let us know if a European distributor comes along and we’ll watch out for it. Oh, and good luck with Lear.

By: Jerry Prager

Jerry Prager — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 22:49:31 +0000

I’ve found The Chinese Girl as a ‘talking book’ and am about half way through the cassettes. While the use of letters is of course not in itself original, I think you use them in an original way. On a series of tapes the refrain of ‘Dear Ginnie’ has a way of driving one a little batty since the suspense of her awakening is all one is really interested in from the moment the letters start. And even though the story told in the letters becomes more and more compelling, they mercifully end so we can get on to finding out more about the Chinese Girl. Of course there is a secondary, related current of suspense in that Ginnie might wake up at any point and confront Stone about who he is and what he is doing with her letters etc. So in that way the letters intensify the suspense, even while the reader (listener in this case) is forced into and then out of Juliet’s madness, which of course creates third degree of suspense.
By the way I thought you handled the frenzy at the peak of her madness quite well… been there, done that and so recognized the furniture.

jb says: I have never heard the audio version of the novel. I made a decision not to listen to any of the tapes of my books, as I didn’t want to have someone else’s voice in my head if I should decide to write a sequel. But it’s good to hear that it works at least on some of the levels I intended.

By: Jerry Prager

Jerry Prager — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:05:19 +0000

What strikes me about the quatrain (and I’m still trying to get a hold of one of your books from my library to know for myself) is to what extent your crime fiction uses the notion of taking secrets to the grave. If you do make use of the device (fact/reality) why, or at least, as a less existential question, what does it do to an ending of a crime story that you like ?
I should also admit to being a huge fan of British mysteries (at least on film,video.) It’s almost like the British own the genre, and I’m looking forward to reading your work.

jb says: Hi Jerry. I can’t answer the question about crime fiction, I’m afraid. Just don’t know the answer. But I hope when you find one of my novels you’ll find something original in it, or at least an attempt at originality.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:57:16 +0000

“I believe in the refusal to take part”
Isn’t this the same as believing in your right to be yourself, and to resist becoming the person that society/media/employers/peer groups want you to be?
In literature is it Holden Caulfield and every hard-bitten, world-weary cop who ever trod the streets of Chicago and Oxford?
In fiction the world empathises with these characters and eventually comes round to their way of thinking.
But in reality, I suppose they cannot change what they refuse to participate in, except for the exceptions of course.

jb says: Thanks for this, Paul. It’s good to have you around, comments like these force us to re-examine what we thought we knew.

By: bloglily

bloglily — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 02:13:07 +0000

Any of those last four lines would make a terrific novel, John. I am particularly drawn to the refusal to take part, but only because George Eliot has already done such a fine job dealing with the “the wasted years of work” in Middlemarch, and I feel I have nothing as good to add. (And now I can’t help it — the secret taken to the grave: Faulkner. Isn’t all of Faulkner about secrets taken to graves and unquiet graves? The ruined career? Dreiser’s Sister Carrie?)

But please, don’t tell me someone’s already done the refusal to take part. I want that one, because I don’t want to have to do the dish and the spoon talking to each other.

jb says: Hi Bloglily. I’m sure someone’s done the refusal to take part. Huckleberry Finn comes to mind. Thornton Wilder? The thing is though, you’ll find that someone has done it before whatever it is you want to do. There is nothing new in the world, only new ways of seeing it. Do the refusal to take part, it’s just waiting there for you to come along and pick it up. Someone else will take care of the dish and the spoon.

By: Alexander Barnett

Alexander Barnett — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 01:44:48 +0000

Creating The Eyes of Van Gogh

As the director and author of this new independent film, I welcome your thoughts and questions about the process and am always interested in further exploration of van Gogh and Gauguin. Please visit my website, http://www.theeyesofvangogh.com or my blog, http://theeyesofvangogh.blogspot.com/ or reply to this post.

Alexander Barnett

jb says: Hi Alexander. Good to see you here. Will we get a chance to see the movie over here in Europe?