I share things I’ve enjoyed on Sundays, and I publish an essay, story, or book review (no spoilers) on Wednesdays. Here is what I enjoyed this week.
I do not have anything of my own to lead with this week. Instead, I will post the beginning of Bright Lights, Big City in advance of Wednesday’s review:
You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might come clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder. Then again, it might not. A small voice inside you insists that this epidemic lack of clarity is a result of too much of that already.
Novel: I just finished Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger. Set in the ivy-league, charmingly verbose, the first story in the novel, Franny, is a descendent of Fitzgerald. Salinger’s eccentricities, however, cleanly separate the work from the danger of pastiche. Nothing too much happens—a girl comes to meet a boy, plus a little more—but Salinger uses the simple plot to make the story relatable and, thus, tremendously evocative: Franny is the first girl that I have ever entirely fallen in love with in fiction.
Zooey, the second part of the novel, is equally brilliant yet much more maddening. Throughout the story, Salinger continuously switches from being painfully self-indulgent to, a few paragraphs later, reaching an unsurpassable level. The heretical reader can trim the fat that Salinger left in by zipping over sections, thus narrowing Zooey into a profound philosophical tale that has a surreal visual effect. (Amazon.)
Essays: Paul Graham’s Write Like You Talk is a lucid essay on how to write well. He recommends using a spoken style, not the pedantic one people often employ when they start typing. I agree with the piece’s basic premise, but it does not fully explore the synergy between writing and speaking: writing changes how one speaks, which changes how he writes, and so forth. Still, the essay is a good reminder for those who publish often, and a great starting point for those new to the craft. (Link.)
Since we are on the subject, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language also advocates for simple expression for similar reasons. The essay is more in-depth and puts forth a litany of specific errors to avoid. It is the best writing advice one can receive. (Link.)
Video: In Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nobel Prize speech, he covers the artistic journey that led him there:
Thanks for reading! On Wednesday, I’ll publish a review of Bright Lights, Big City.
And if you think someone would like reading this—or you just want to do me a massive favor—you can share it: