Posts by David Benjamin
Why every author needs a gun catalog
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis.—Almost every male who grew up between—roughly—1960 and 1990 knows which cinema hero carried, tucked into a slim side-holster so as not to disturb the line of his suit, a Walther PPK. As I thought about James Bond’s favorite pistol, I got curious about it and opened my Standard Catalog of……
Read MoreToward a philosophy of the gun
by David Benjamin “Speaking personally, you can have my gun, but you’ll take my book when you pry my cold, dead fingers off of the binding.” —Stephen King MADISON, Wis.—My gun of choice is a .22 caliber rifle with a telescopic sight. It’s actually the only gun I’ve ever used. It belonged to…
Read MoreThe aggressive mind
There is a Jekyll & Hyde quality in the nature of a professional writer. In person, the writer seems not writerly at all. He or she can seem quiet, unassuming, even withdrawn. But to be effective, a good writer subsumes all self-doubt, conceals misgivings from the reader and writes with controlled aggression. by David……
Read More“The usual deal for hard-up rich guys”
by David Benjamin “Life is little more than a loan shark: It exacts a very high rate of interest for the few pleasures it concedes.” —Luigi Pirandello (An ill-lit table in the dark corner of a bar in Hell’s Kitchen. A man, hatless and nattily attired in a custom tailored blue suit with…
Read More“The tube is flickering now … “
by David Benjamin “When the shouting and tumult dies, the American people and president will realize that the unprecedented mudslinging against the committee by the extreme left-wing elements of press and radio was caused solely because another Fifth Amendment communist was finally dragged out of the dark recesses and exposed to public view.” —Sen.…
Read MoreSeven Mutations of Recollection
by David Benjamin “There’s a holdup in the Bronx, Brooklyn’s broken out in fights, “There’s a traffic jam in Harlem that’s backed up to Jackson Heights, “There’s a scout troop short a child, Khrushchev’s due at Idlewild! “Car 54, where are you?” MADISON, Wis.—Occasionally, to test my memory, I try singing to myself……
Read MoreThe Houthis in our midst
by David Benjamin “The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is “What does a woman want?” — Sigmund Freud, to Marie Bonaparte NAPILI POINT, Hawaii—Once, in the course of writing a novel, my…
Read MoreThe osmotic effect of Mickey Mouse and Miss September
by David Benjamin “… Our morality is based, in large part, on mystical dogma, not reason, our lives are governed by superstition and prejudice rather than knowledge. Self-sacrifice is prized above self-interest and self-esteem. Society is placed above the individual. And the goal of happiness is lost in a labyrinthine maze of emotional responses, self-doubts,…
Read MoreFat Linda throws an incomplete pass
by David Benjamin “Data technologies do not simply predict the future by guessing what an individual or group might do or want to do in the future. It is rather that those futures already exist, completely realized, and they reach backwards into the present to guide it. The possible paths for our desires to travel…
Read MoreCharacterization in shades of gray
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis.—A growing phenomenon in film and TV entertainment, especially over the last quarter-century, is the morally vacuous villain, a badass so totally devoid of redeeming qualities that he or she is not character but caricature. This trend is manifest in the proliferation of films, and an entire studio—Marvel—rooted in comic books.……
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