Archive for October 2024
First thing we do, we kill all the reporters
by David Benjamin “Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you.” —Kash Patel, Trump campaign consultant “The worst thing we can do, the absolute worst, is to do nothing.” —Fritz Gerlich MADISON, Wis.—They came…
Read MoreCharacters and types
by David Benjamin “Characterization is only hard because sometimes I feel I get so interested in it that I want to talk too much about the characters and that slows the story down. So I say, ‘Hey, people want to find out what’s going to happen next, they don’t want to listen to you spout……
Read MoreThe art of the scavenge
by David Benjamin “Workin’ on the railroad, a dollar and a dime a day, “Give my woman the dollar, and throw the dime away … ” — Josh White MADISON, Wis.—Kids need money. I’m not sure how kids get it these days. Maybe they just ask Mom and Dad, as payment for playing Little League…
Read MorePretty little heads … and other parts
by David Benjamin “Curiosity, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul.” ―Ambrose Bierce MADISON, Wis.—There must be studies about this. Trouble is, I haven’t seen any. But there…
Read More“What’s your story?”
by David Benjamin “The novel is the highest example of subtle interrelatedness that man has discovered.” —D.H. Lawrence PARIS—One of my recurring arguments with readers—which never actually occur—is about the power of fiction to clarify the non-fictional reality in which we live and die. At almost every event where I shmooze with readers, I hear……
Read MoreThe Paris welcome
by David Benjamin “Paris is the city of joy where the naive are taken by the neck and blackened on the scaffold, and where villains hold all sway … Purse-cutters and knifemen lurk in the dark.” ―François Villon PARIS—Neither Hotlips nor I were born here, or anywhere nearby, nor do we hold the precious carte…
Read MoreThe decency chasm
by David Benjamin “Let us not assassinate this lad further. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” ―Attorney Joseph N. Welch, Army-McCarthy hearings, 9 June 1954 PARIS—Donald Trump is an indecent man. Worse than that—in the immortal formulation of Joe Welch, castigating…
Read More“Professional”
by David Benjamin “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” —Richard Bach PARIS—When I was in high school, it was my devoutest wish to call myself a writer. Lately, in book talks and public presentations, I’ve amended my title to “professional writer.” The rub is, what have I done to merit this presumption?……
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