Posts by David Benjamin
Welcome to the Middle Ages
by David Benjamin “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” ―Grover Norquist It all started when the earth-moving equipment arrived and commenced ripping up the pavement…
Read MoreThe author as expert
One of the ego boosts that an author enjoys is being deemed an “expert” on topics included in his or her stories. With most writers, who are by nature promiscuous of ideas, expertise is an illusion. (The image is my Paris-based novel, Skulduggery in the Latin Quarter. The art is by my wife, Junko Yoshida.)……
Read MoreKarma? Schadenfreude? Quel dommage?
by David Benjamin “Rodgers’ career probably is over. Few athletes come back stronger than ever from an Achilles’ rupture and, given Rodgers’ flirtations with retirement this past offseason, it’s hard to imagine him putting in 11 months of rigorous rehab just to play one more season.” ―Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel MADISON, Wis.—For the last few…
Read MoreBarefoot in the past
by David Benjamin “You can burn my house, steal my car/ Drink my liquor from an old fruit-jar/ Do anything that you want to do/ But uh-uh baby, lay off of my shoes/ Don’t you step on my blue suede shoes.” ―Carl Perkins MADISON, Wis.— One of my guilty pleasures is Emile Ardolino’s sneaky-smart…
Read MoreThe author as entertainer
There is a line where writing somehow crosses over and becomes “art.” No writer in the world knows where that line is, and no sane writer makes it his or her mission in life to get there and cross over. Better to just do one’s very best to entertain the reader. by David Benjamin……
Read MoreParents: Got a life?
by David Benjamin “Schoolboys are a merciless race, individually they are angels, but together, especially in schools, they are often merciless.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov MADISON, Wis.— Let’s try to overlook the screaming irony of the Republican Party fighting for “parents rights” after winning a fifty-year crusade against women’s rights to control…
Read MoreIt’s the Vatican’s jalopy. Ship it back.
by David Benjamin “Catholic teaching was that no homicide was involved if abortion took place before the foetus was infused with a soul, known as ‘ensoulment’. This was believed to occur at ‘quickening’, when the mother detected the child move for the first time in her womb. It indicated a separate consciousness. “In 1591, Pope…
Read MoreThe author as educator
Some misguided souls refuse to read fiction, explaining—when I ask—that they want to learn stuff, as though there is nothing to learn in Aeschylus, Shakespeare and James A. Michener. The truth is that every storyteller begins with a ton of homework, lest his or her readers refuse to suspend disbelief. by David Benjamin Even the……
Read MoreWelles’ Law and the Ogden Nash Dilemma
by David Benjamin “What finally saved the movies was the introduction of narrative.” — Arthur Knight, The Liveliest Art MADISON, Wis.— Most contemporary writers crib from the movies. I do so voluminously and shamelessly. I grew up watching movies. I was the first kid in my grade to shlep downtown and go to the…
Read MoreAn open letter to my high-school best friend
by David Benjamin Dear Dick: At long last, I’m writing to apologize for mooching my way, uninvited and unwashed, into your life and the bosom of your family. If you recall, it all started one summer day in 1964, when I mounted my bicycle and pedaled the three miles from a cramped, cluttered and…
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