Tag: literature

The vernacular of fiction

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2011/08/The-Vernacular-of-Fiction.mp3[/podcast] It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this column that I write fiction in addition to non-fiction: specifically, science fiction and fantasy for both adults and young adults. Which is why Ben Zimmer’s recent article in The New York Times’s Sunday Book Review, describing the findings of lexicographers using modern computer databases …

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A quiz with only one possible answer

Q. Which former guest of honor at the World Science Fiction Convention (in 1987) went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature? A. Dorothy Lessing.

This might surprise a few people…

A quote from famed U.S. writer Tom Wolfe: “Bush is portrayed as a moron. I’ve only conversed with him a couple of times – not for very long – but I found he was more literate on literature than the editor of the New York Review of Books, Bob Silvers. I’ve talked to both of …

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Do you lie about what you read?

Apparently the Brits do: People once said ‘you are what you eat’ but it appears the phrase has been hijacked by image-conscious Brits to state ‘you are what you read.’ So suggests new research from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, which found almost half of people lie about their literary credentials. Joining in conversation …

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