Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
As seems always to be the case, I am working on a new book project. Up to 40,000 words as of this morning, my new writing textbook includes four sections: explanations of marginal comments that I share on student essays, lessons that I typically offer in literature and writing classes, enumerated collections of advice from notable authors, and other quotations by such authors.
As a rushed example, please find below some writing wisdom from just the “George” section of the book:
- “Take on new influences without fear and you need not fear what is new. Change the people around you by changing the people around you.” George Clinton
- “Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.” George Eliot
- “Out of my entire annual output of songs, perhaps two, or at the most three, came as a result of inspiration. We can never rely on inspiration. When we most want it, it does not come.” George Gershwin
- “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” George Orwell
- “For a creative writer, possession of the “truth” is less important than emotional sincerity.” George Orwell
- “To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.” George Orwell
- “Good prose should be transparent, like a windowpane.” George Orwell
- “What we’re doing in writing is not all that different from what we’ve been doing all our lives, i.e., using our personalities as a way of coping with life. Writing is about charm, about finding and accessing and honing one’s particular charms.” George Saunders
- “If you haven’t read you don’t have the voice. The lack of voice eliminates experience.” George Saunders
- “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw
- “Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” George Bernard Shaw
As these are just 11 of the 559 writing quotations currently found in the book, you can imagine that this has been quite an undertaking. Now I have to decide how many “books” to divide my currently 110-page manuscript into. I have much to research yet, and thus expect that the final document will be closer to 150 pages once I have included all the citations. Which part of such a book, if any, might be helpful to you? I am also curious to know which George quotation is your favorite.
Meanwhile, we have a Pub Quiz tonight! In addition to topics raised above, expect questions on the following topics: Liches, New Zealand, thunder and lightning, ruminants, either-or choices, significant streams, the Midwest, Facebook, U.S. Senators, flags, curls, captains, big mayors, the Russians, Santa Claus, silver, sea creatures, naval ships, a bunch of dudes named George, sandwiches, stretches, roadside discoveries, mindless pop, flabbiness or disorganization, U.S. presidents, favorite films, office holders, cauldrons, astronomy, flags, football, people who died in 1977, people named Maria, a straight line to Dublin, volcanos, erasers, shared names, and Shakespeare.
This coming Thursday night at the Natsoulas Gallery will be Poetry Night! You should join us on December 15th for a special event of poetry and prose, including works read by the pre-eminent Davis poet, Sandra McPherson. Occasional Maven Naomi Williams will also be performing. Consider it a holiday present from the authors and me to you and your families.
And I expect to see you tonight. It’s mid-December! Happy holidays!
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Books and Authors. What author of The Woman Warrior said, “the writer writes for herself”?
- Film. Two of Bill Murray’s highest-grossing films were Ghostbusters in 1984 and Ghostbusters II in 1989. What film with a one-syllable title, the second highest-grossing PG-13 film of 1988, was also a Bill Murray movie about ghosts?
- Irish Culture. What is the name of the daughter of actors Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin? Dublin Baldwin, Ireland Baldwin, or Kilkenny Baldwin.