Comments for My Life and Thoughts

Comment on Dante/ Author photos by Lauren Mechling

Lauren Mechling — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:52:30 +0000

Dearest Elif,

So nice to stalk you on your web site. I, too, prefer the Dante whose mouth looks like a painfully contorted coat hangar.

As to your which is the face of a true A list writer query, allow me, representative of the fiction for short people faction, to submit the following:

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/06/fug_girls_book_club_lauren_con.html?imw=Y&f=most-viewed-24h5

This paragon of A-list-ness has a piggy bank slot of a mouth that is much more like the “new and improved” reconstructed Dante. So I think that settles it. . . long-suffering is sooo 674 years ago.

sincerely,
Lauren

Comment on Take that, Caroline Kennedy! by Lúcio Jr

Lúcio Jr — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:48:12 +0000

Hello, I saw your blog on NYorker website and posted something about it on my blog, Penetralia. Beautiful photo of a russian bell. Very interesting. Nice work! Here in Brazil there´s no such a thing: brazilian scholars doesn´t like very much to go on blogging…

Bye, best wishes, Lucio.

Comment on Desk Space by Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:04:28 +0000

Hi. I just discovered your site from the New Yorker blog; I’m sure you have much better things to do than follow links, but in re: Desk Space, a while back, I asked some children’s writers to describe their workspaces — no pictures, please, you are writers — and they’re posted at http://tonyabbottbooks.com/blog/?cat=7 . Enjoy. And thanks in general for My Life and Thoughts. I’m happy to be a new reader.

Comment on Thanks a lot, Caroline Kennedy by Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:38:24 +0000

Thank you for the article on the bells and for mentioning on your website who assisted with the research. I am thinking of writing a novel that involve Russian church bells as major characters and appreciate all the information to be found in one, easly available location. Any other hints or links or suggestions or guidelines will be greatly appreciated as well!

Comment on Dante/ Author photos by james stotts

james stotts — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:29:46 +0000

sorry, can i add a few others’ thoughts? a link to my mandelstam paper:
reconfigurations.blogspot.com/2008/11/james-stotts-notes-on-osip-mandelstam.html

and a poem by paul otremba:

I don’t think they’ll find the new weaving
anywhere finer than truth.
—Osip Mandelstam

I’ve tried to sift a truth finer than salt
from my mouth. It matters: I get up

or I do not. The books can wait, leaves
burn themselves these days, and the day

begins or it does not. Now wingless,
a wasp masquerading as the sun crawls—

a harmless razor—across the backlit
curtain. No city trembles on the verge

of the sea. No stupid bird threatens
to dissolve me if I forget my species

in the official questionnaire. I could
put my ten bureaucrats to their task.

The dusting and polishing. There’s a point,
a mirror for me to enumerate my teeth.

Beyond these walls, there’s only the snowed-in
field, an egg just opened but empty.