Comments for Fiction Daily

Comment on Moon-y by Fiction

Fiction — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:39:20 +0000

thank you seriously, I loveto read about fiction.

Comment on Heroic Women by Marion

Marion — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:53:07 +0000

Great suggestions, all … I thought of Kathy in Wuthering Heights … but in the end, let’s face it, Healthcliff was borderline abusive, and I wasn’t quite sure that kind of relationship needed encouraging.

Melanie Wilkes — yes, you’re right. She was generous and kind. Now that you mention Mrs. Wilkes, what about Belle Watling, the courtesan? Why not.

Comment on Heroic Women by Gene-o

Gene-o — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:33:55 +0000

Your other fictional equivalents:

* Kathy in “Wuthering Heights” — beautiful, fascinating, unstoppable and slightly dangerous
* Lady Glencora Palliser in Trollope’s Palliser novels — beloved, devoted, personable, regal
* Melanie Wilkes, “GWTW” — generous, sweet, wonderful and strong as steel
* Eleanor Dashwood — refined, educated, accomplished, destined to find happiness and fulfillment

Comment on Anne Frank’s protector dies by Rocky Cole

Rocky Cole — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:43:49 +0000

Marion, a very nice post and tribute to a great soul. As the commenter above notes, the fact that she saw her acts as unremarkable makes her all the more amazing. By protecting the Frank family she and her husband risked their lives too. They could have looked away, but for them that was not an option.

I admit the same feelings as you when I think of reading Anne’s diary. I suppose that means that I should make the effort to read it — there is something there to learn, though it may be uncomfortable.

Comment on Anne Frank’s protector dies by Marion

Marion — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:45:19 +0000

These giants show us the humility of genuine greatness. They offer a powerful message that largeness of spirit and personality differs from ego and self-centeredness — and the more we focus on ourselves, to make ourselves large and important, the more lessen ourselves.

That’s what so moves me about His Holiness the Dalai Lama — he considers himself “a simple Buddhist monk, nothing more.”

Comment on Anne Frank’s protector dies by Gene-o

Gene-o — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:46:11 +0000

Thank you for a fitting tribute to a great lady. The fact that she did not find her actions extraordinary makes her all the more extraordinary. Interesting how so many of our heroes — from Gandhi and Eunice Kennedy Shriver to HHtheDL and Miep Gies — are so unimpressed with their own impressive accomplishments. There’s a lesson in that for all of us.

Comment on Novel House-Work by Blythe Matkin

Blythe Matkin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:59:10 +0000

Along the same lines: the semester of law school that I made my best grades was also the semester that I was pregnant with my first child, my mom died of cancer and I was working as a teacher’s assistant for an undergrad history class.

Comment on Novel Approaches by Gene-o

Gene-o — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:51:52 +0000

Maybe you could weigh in with some words about Kerouac, who wrote without editing. Was writing “easy” for him?

Joyce Carol Oates — the great, the prolific! — would seem to find writing easy, since she does so much of it. But she has said that it is a great struggle, not only the writing but the editing.

Does it come easily to any writer? I can see it coming naturally, but easily? Interesting question.

Comment on Novel Approaches by Marion

Marion — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:39:05 +0000

I have not read “The Yearling,” but consider this recommendation highly. I wonder about those writers who create with ease: do they really exist? Or, do we all struggle to write a thing of beauty and interest? even Scott Fitzgerald rewrote everything, several times. Hemingway, too, would go through his manuscripts and remove every word or sentence he didn’t find essential.

He said he removed as much as possible, then reviewed to see if the whole remained despite the missing parts. In many cases, he said, the whole was larger and better.

Comment on Novel Approaches by Gene-o

Gene-o — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:42:41 +0000

Love the post and the “crossing the river” analogy. Another example of this is “The Yearling.” Marjorie Kinan Rawlings was not a born writer; she struggled at her craft — and produced what is, in my little opinion, a perfect novel.