The writing process
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On scientific training, warmth, and pornography in writing, or: why I failed to fit Bonita Avenue.
I’d really thought that I would be the target audience for Bonita Avenue. But I was wrong. Seems like there were a handful of reasons why I wasn’t a good fit for it. Math: there’s a lot of space devoted to mathematics in the book, but in my reading the math seemed not to matter.…
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On translation.
My turn in our local library’s queue to read Peter Buwalda’s “Bonita Avenue” has just arrived, which means that now feels like as good a time as any to jot down a couple thoughts on translation. After all, I wouldn’t get to read this novel if not for the hard work that Jonathan Reeder did…
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On how there isn’t enough lyrical writing about insurance … and taxation in The Pale King.
There’s a little bit about insurance in my novel. Not much. Just enough to get people excited. But there used to be more. Honestly, I think it’s a shame there’s so little lyrical writing about insurance out there in popular literature. Insurance is fascinating. A good insurance product is a beautiful thing. Which, right. Let…
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On irrational numbers.
It was Pi Day over the weekend. March fourteenth. Which is something a lot of scientifically- and mathematically-inclined people already celebrate. A friend of mine who’s currently a professor of economics stumbled across a sidewalk where local children had used chalk to write out many decimal points, then filmed himself walking along, recording his footsteps…
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On videogames and moral complicity.
Given that there are critical theory courses discussing Super Mario Brothers, I assume there’s no need to get into the whole “Can videogames be great art?” argument. Presumably almost everyone agrees that the medium can be used to make art. Honestly, I fall into the camp that believes that almost any medium could be used…
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Excerpts from some other book: Volume 3.
Dr. Shaun MacGregor, adjunct professor of experimental archaeology, knows that he is going to die. And he has accepted the fact. Really. He is old, he is sick, but he knows full well that he has lived a good life, that he has experienced his fair share of the ride. And so his encroaching death,…
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On perspective, and whether you, Dear Reader, are a chameleon.
One major difficulty for me, in writing my book, was trying to inhabit perspectives that, due to an unfortunate spate of research reading, I don’t really sympathize with. But I had to learn to do it — and do it with the understanding that almost everyone, within the context of their view of the world, is trying to…
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On poetry.
We recently had the good fortune of being invited to Ross Gay‘s book release for his new volume of poetry. So we bundled N into her spacesuit, braved the cold, and went — thank you, Ross, for a wonderful evening! His new poem “To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian” is spectacular, so kind and…
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On memory (part 1).
Memory plays an important role in my book. Because, yeah, it’s fascinating, but also, you guessed it, because it’s important in the Ramayana. One way to tell the story of the Ramayana would be to say that it’s about the gods’ effort to stop Ravana: dude practiced mighty austerities and so the gods were forced…
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On Kerry Howley’s excellent “Thrown” and author as jerk.
Kerry Howley’s “Thrown” is the most fun I’ve had reading in a while. And so, right, I’m writing a little essay. But I’ve gotta warn you in advance: the essay is going to be bad. I’m sloppily dashing it together – the whole reason for this essay to exist is so that I’d have an…
Frank Brown Cloud 