tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post2932669167056732287..comments2024-03-25T13:40:30.747-04:00Comments on Faith and Theology: Walter Benjamin: 13 theses on writingBen Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03800127501735910966noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-8528220529266617032010-09-20T23:35:33.697-04:002010-09-20T23:35:33.697-04:00Some real gems in here - thanks for sharing them.
...Some real gems in here - thanks for sharing them.<br /><br />Another book that I have found extraordinarily helpful is Stephen King's <i>On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft</i>.<br /><br />Outstanding sections on editing, the discipline of writing and grammatical considerations. Although King focuses on fiction, most of the insights are universally applicable to any writing.<br /><br /><i>"When you write, you're telling a story.<br />When you edit, you're taking out everything that isn't the story."</i>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-21358542132635106902010-09-12T00:40:33.955-04:002010-09-12T00:40:33.955-04:00Ben, I very much enjoyed your talk of the paper yo...Ben, I very much enjoyed your talk of the paper you gave on scholarship as discipleship. I was wondering how to access a hard copy of it? Ta, Jamie.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00429818214224376369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-84609512699915680552010-09-10T06:27:21.752-04:002010-09-10T06:27:21.752-04:00Many thanks, Jake, for these beautiful passages fr...Many thanks, Jake, for these beautiful passages from Hemingway. That last line about "the epic" is priceless. <br /><br />It reminds me of something I once heard from a chap who edits a poetry journal (and so has to read a lot of bad submissions): "All bad poetry has one thing in common: it's always <i>sincere</i>."Ben Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03800127501735910966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-13765919816786415562010-09-10T06:20:32.654-04:002010-09-10T06:20:32.654-04:00Ben,
I stumbled upon these comments on writing in...Ben,<br /><br />I stumbled upon these comments on writing in Hemingway's <i>Death in the Afternoon</i>, and thought you might appreciate them. Obviously, they are about fiction writing, but I think they probably have something to say to the theologian as well.<br /><br />'I was trying to write then and I found the greatest difficulty, aside from knowing truly what you really felt, rather than what you were supposed to feel, and had been taught to feel, was to put down what really happened in action; what the actual things were which produced the emotion you experienced. [...] but the real thing, the sequence of motion and fact which made the emotion and which would be as valid in a year or in ten years or, with luck and if you stated it purely enough, always, was beyond me and I was working very hard to try to get it.' (p. 2)<br /><br />'This too to remember. If a man writes clearly enough any one can see if he fakes. If he mystifies to avoid a straight statement, [...] the writer takes a longer time to be known as a fake and other writers who are afflicted by the same necessity will praise him in their own defense. True mysticism should not be confused with incompetence in writing which seeks to mystify where there is no mystery but is really only the necessity to fake to cover lack of knowledge or the inability to state clearly. [...] Remember this too: all bad writers are in love with the epic.' (p. 47)Jakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17670291318958316934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-53052785323903165002010-09-10T05:58:55.007-04:002010-09-10T05:58:55.007-04:00I love this. I have to read more of him.
I tend ...I love this. I have to read more of him.<br /><br />I tend to work outside most of the time, and at different locations. I suppose taking Bejamin's XI advice in my context would mean finally going into my study to write my conclusions.joel masonhttp://www.herbofgrace.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-43430634602246459992010-09-09T14:57:50.649-04:002010-09-09T14:57:50.649-04:00I appreciate you Ben :)
Even if your book is the ...I appreciate you Ben :)<br /><br />Even if your book is the most codswallop piece of garbage, fit for milquetoast milksops, I will purchase it and read it through and through and bless you.Emerson Fasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03992716224700137463noreply@blogger.com