Words have meaning. And so does the absence of words . . . the white space between words. This is especially true when the white space is created by deleting words. The 2012 Democratic National Convention convened this week under a controversy. Two words that were formerly imbedded into the party platform were struck from [...]
“Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” Isn’t that encouraging? Writing is more than sweating blood of course, but it certainly is that. I suppose you already know about the terror and strain of staring at a blank piece [...]
Artistic ugliness. Beautiful violence. This is what passed through my mind as I read Cormic McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. His brilliance as a stylist is unsurpassed as a twentieth-century American novelist. The rich beauty of his language in depicting unlovely characters who lived during unlovely times and engaged in unlovely exploits is both engrossing and gross. [...]
When I learned of Christopher Hitchens’s death on Thursday evening (December 15, 2011), I remarked to a friend: “Well, now he knows.” I did not intended my comment as triumphalism of faith over atheism—as in “he got what was coming to him” or in “he got what he deserved.” Though true Hitchens presumably (for I [...]
Ours is a euphemizing culture. Words no longer mean what they mean. Oh, to be sure, many of our euphemisms are harmless: custodian for “janitor,” correctional facility for “prison,” a little thin on top for “balding.” But some euphemisms are more troubling. For example, “torture” is now enhanced interrogation; “the war on terror” is now [...]
