John Baker's Blog » eco

Presque vu LVI

john baker — Sun, 11 May 2008 07:01:34 +0000

This from PEN World Voices: Rushdie, Eco, and Vargas Llosa by Dorothy W. at Metaxu Cafe:

Then Lopate asked a couple questions solicited on index cards from the audience; the first question, asking the writers to describe their writing methods, got only boos from the audience because of its banality, and I was delighted to see Richard Ford yell out “Next question!” Before they moved on, though, Eco, looking inordinately pleased with himself, explained his writing method — he starts on the left side of the page and works his way over to the right. This got a laugh.

Alexis Rowell writes about Sustainable Consumption and Production in Europe:
Food is something that affects us all. We all have to eat. But very few people know the extent to which oil underpins our food system, how much carbon is used in the production of food, how much water is used, and the impact the food system therefore has on climate change.
The current all-time highs in oil prices – $117 a barrel in April 2008 – is sending convulsive shudders down the food chain . . .

The Right Brain vs. Left Brain Test.
Do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? I’ll tell you what I see . . . later . . .

Public Lives/Private Lives

john baker — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:18:35 +0000

The fourth annual PEN World Voices: The New York Festival of International Literature will take place 29th April to 4th May 2008. This year’s theme of Public Lives/Private Lives could hardly be more timely. How do we draw a line between our private and public selves? When must we tell private stories for the public good? How, as readers, writers, and citizens, do we confront threats to our privacy? What is still considered private in the Internet age? Do we need to redefine the meaning of public and private in the 21st century? The writers in this year’s Festival will mine this rich theme in a variety of literary conversations, panels, readings, and performances.

The complete list of participants, includes Peter Carey, Umberto Eco, Ian McEwan, Jo Nesbø, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Ondaatje, Annie Proulx, Bernhard Schlink, Mario Vargas Llosa and Salman Rushdie.

Presque vu XXXV

john baker — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:02:08 +0000

Are publishers actually interested in selling books? is the title of an anonymous but well-written article over at Bookarazzi. To most authors it looks as if the publishing process comes to a dead stop at midnight on the day of publication.

The Ethics of Book Reviewing at the Book Critics Circle:

And 60.5 percent think it’s okay for a newspaper book section or magazine to ignore self-published books submitted by authors.

Jan Dalley lunches Umberto Eco in The Financial Times:

“You know, I have written 40 books, but I am famous in Italy for a few sentences in one essay I wrote in 1961, on the quiz programme Buongiorno, where I demonstrate that in every civilisation people have wanted to worship superior beings – the Greek gods, the knights of the round table, superheroes. But television has realised that while the idol was once Greta Garbo, no one could be like Greta Garbo, now the model is the nice girl who looks like everyone else – no one has to feel inferior to her. And television also gives us the fall guy, over whom everybody can exercise his own sense of superiority. In this sense television has brought a radical change.”

Where am I?

john baker — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 16:16:52 +0000

Good question. I’m in the beautiful city of Oslo in Norway for a short stay. For the past few weeks we’ve been nestled in a wooden cabin on the lip of a tiny fjord, for the most part in brilliant sunshine. Friends have come and gone in a continuous succession. But now we’re on the road again. Tomorrow we head over to Sweden and a few days in Stockholm. After that to Helsinki in Finland.

I managed to read a few things, including Colm Toibin’s The Heather Blazing, and Umberto Eco’s On Literature. Both of these are worth a visit if you’re looking for something special.

It’s good that most people are appreciating the Five Questions series, as, apart from sporadic posts like this one, that’s all I have to offer at the moment. I’m collecting a few thoughts and ideas for later, though, when the road is finally behind me and I can become a more regular and personal writer and blogger again.