John Matthew Fox is a fiction and nonfiction writer living in Los Angeles. He has a Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Southern California and an MA in Literature from New York University. Aside from schooling, he’s also been educated by the road, traveling through more than 40 countries on 6 continents […]
So as a writer, albeit a fiction writer, not a screenwriter, I’m following the writers strike very closely. In fact, very closely might be an understatement. I consume the news rapaciously. My wife says I’m addicted. But I have good reason: I live in LA and know hundreds of producers, writers, teamsters, directors, etc., in […]
What’s wrong with the Washington Post blog Short Stacks? First of all, it’s not a blog. It’s a weekly column – except it’s not even a weekly column, it’s only a weekly list of books matching a theme. If I was being nice, I would say that Short Stacks is trying to expand what a […]
Remembering the ghosts of Arthur Conan Doyle, in the Times Literary Supplement (via Light Reading) Over at LitKicks, Levi asks whether the political ideologies of Tanenhaus are expressed through the selection of books that are selected for the NYTBR. Chelsea – the literary journal published since 1958 – appears to be folding, since it says […]
The reports about his hospitalization had been drifting in for weeks, but even though it’s not a surprise, Norman Mailer’s death is still depressing. RIP: 1923 – 2007. One of his lesser known books – The Fight – nonetheless has a special place in my heart. Mailer chronicles the lead-up and fight between Muhammad Ali […]
Mark over at The Elegant Variation has a wonderfully hilarious mock summary of a conference about the books of Michel Houellenbecq. It manages to spear both literary theory (oh, the titles of the papers!) and Houellebecq’s obsession with sexuality. Funny, funny stuff.
Steve Erickson’s books are not, usually, an easy read. Or the reading itself isn’t difficult, it’s just the understanding part. He’ll employ unorthodox typography with the frequency of Mark Danielewski and use a Haruki Murakami-esque technique of channeling the narrative into the hyper-personal psychic journey of the hero. The result is always intellectually delightful to […]
So the vote for the Writers Guild of America to go on strike was 90% in favor, God bless ’em. The strike will happen on Monday – picket lines in both Los Angeles and New York. I must say that I didn’t think the executives would let it go so far – I pictured an […]
I once heard a senior editor at a publishing house say that book reviews, even in major newspapers and magazines, have a negligible impact on a book’s sales (and went on to cite figures that showed hardly a hump in sales numbers, much less a spike, in the week after the review). That’s myopic and […]
Even though I’m a couple weeks late on banned books week, I’ve been reading, apropos of nothing, a number of banned books. I just finished Nabokov’s Lolita and am reading Joyce’s Ulysses – both wonderful, wonderful books (although so far my favorite is Lolita – Nabokov is a genius). I also have a longstanding fascination […]
