The purpose of a story

“The purpose of a story is to teach and to please at once, and what it teaches is how to recognize the snares of the world."

— Umberto Eco

The haunting of the qualifier

I adore everything about this piece from Benjamin Dreyer. The topics, the brevity, the pacing, the low-key passion, and the unshakable belief that I, his reader, am a writer worth his cautions. I love the way he takes very to task, outing it as fraudulent, casting harsh light on the thin wateriness of qualification, and presenting us a moment to which any of us can aspire: an unqualified compliment.

This is crafty writing.

Well done.

Writers, be wary of Throat-Clearers and Wan Intensifiers. Very, very wary.

All books are travel books

All books are travel books, in this sense – or at least they should be; they exist to transport the reader to some place geographically or emotionally distant from their own, setting them on a journey that will expand their horizons and leave them transformed.

Catherine Marshall, Travelling by the book along Virginia’s Tinker Creek

How to Stop Time

How to stop time: kiss.
How to travel in time: read.
How to escape time: music.
How to feel time: write.
How to release time: breathe.
--Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

Reading Log: Otessa Moshfegh

"Bettering Myself" is a grand romp of a story with a narrator who is supposed to be unlikable, but one who is written so well, so fully inhabited, that I found myself cheering her on as she made a wreck of her life, one small decision at a time, as casually as toss ing an egg on the floor while getting milk from the refrigerator and then disregarding the mess as she steps over it.

As an opening to this collection, it sets the bar high.