Emancipation

This, I believe, is a gem:

"I've lived too close to the woods, for too long, to be frightened by the hoot of an owl."

•••

Over at the Guardian website today, there's a great piece on the very fine Ian Miller - here's some Ent action to get you in the mood. 

So, if you think you're really good at getting art out to the masses, think again.

One day, all art will be as good as this - or maybe not...

I forget now why I headed over there in the first place but while I was reading that Miller piece, I spotted a link to an article on which books will never be on your shelves - and it's very helpful and nice to read thank you very much - for the following reason:

There's an excellent comment from a guy (who appears to be a judge and has the name of a judge) that goes something like this.. hang on... I will in fact, cut and paste...

"I have attempted reading four DeLillo novels ('Mao II', 'Cosmopolis', 'The Body Artist' and 'Libra', the latter being one I used to own) but with each one I barely made it to the halfway point before tossing it aside. The characters never really come to life on the page, and the writing is too pretentious by half. Like Norman Mailer, he seems more focussed on his own literary capabilities than actually crafting a decent story or anything resembling a sympathetic character. I've really tried to like him, as so many of my other favourite authors admire him, not to mention friends of mine with otherwise good taste, but even the really short novellas I can't make it through - if anything they're even worse than the longer ones. End of rant..."

Here, he is talking about Don DeLillo of whom, it's true, is a little hard to fall in love with on the first date but I love the guy. I think he's one of the best living writers of the modern age. The fact that somebody who is articulate enough to mention Mailer in his bashing of DeLillo, gives somebody like me a real kick in the pants. 

Why? Because when you're doing something creative - anything, not only writing - I think you always hope that everybody will love what you do but as we have seen recently, that's not quite true (check out this Anne Rice story) - the simple fact of the matter is, the more successful you are, the more people there will be around to hate you - or worse still, be cool enough to give you a try and then not understand you.

That indeed, sounds a hell of a lot worse to me.

In Which I Decided To Judge Things By Their Cover...

I was looking up at the sky yesterday evening and it occurred to me that everything that's ever happened on this planet has happened beneath that sky - and with the exception of a few things that have caused humans to clash with each other on a grand scale, you'll never know about any of it. The more I thought about this, the more I considered exactly how much we don't know about it. History has been, gone and remained largely uncatalogued because millions of people didn't die. That's all we've left behind? A legacy of death? I guess we could throw in sporadic moments of inspired engineering, painting and adventuring but you could more or less stuff all of that in a single large volume if you tried hard enough. That's pretty sad don't you think?

And right at that moment, I really wanted to write a spiritual book. I've read enough of them in my time to know what makes a great one. From Coelho to Castaneda to books by people that don't even have names - there's some great material out there. But there's also a lot of wisdom that slips through the cracks because it doesn't come from a 'good enough' source. Take this quote for instance, which is from Michael Connolly's detective, Harry Bosch:

"Either everybody counts or nobody counts"

Maybe I'll work on the idea. Then again, as Denis Leary pointed out: "Fuck it, it was like this when I found it."

•••

Comic book project approaching completion here... this week I've wrapped up five more interviews with some great people, including one that has come barreling straight out of my teenage days which has been pretty cool to be honest. I'm really appreciative of exactly how much time some of these guys have handed over to me but I'll save the thanks column for somewhere a little more permanent than here.

Anyway - I can see the end from here - of the written part anyway. A couple more things to wrap up and then I'll need to switch to production mode on the design front. This one is going to be very much an all hands on deck (all four of them) if we're going to get it finished in time. Funny how much I still like that 'making' part of the process - I hope it never leaves. It's like having a hand in laying the foundations of a house you're having built.

•••

A while back, Penguin released some classic books with the covers redesigned by tattoo artists and now they have done the same again with street artists. Here's a couple from the run that I thought stood head and shoulders above the others - which can all be seen here.

Maybe I'm biased, but these two are also the best written amongst the collection. I really like the cover art for What A Carve Up too, but I haven't read that - so will simply have to judge the book by its cover and say it looks great. Will add to list.

•••

Back to work... accompanied today by Mick Ronson. Good choice Sir...

Point Omega & Other Stories

Picked up a book today by a writer I should have read long ago. His name is Don DeLillo - and as happens sometimes, I found that he's been writing forever, so now I feel cheap that I didn't know this - but it happens. I assume his catalogue has just been given a re-release because there's a whole set of brand new Picador's on the shelf of the local store that certainly weren't there last week. They're damn good covers though (yeah - I judged the books by them. Wanna make something of it?). Even though they all sound like I should buy every single one them and bed down for the next month or so, I settled on a copy of Point Omega that looks like this:

It's not very long at all, but one of his other books - Underworld - is possibly one of the thickest books I've ever seen, and I've seen a few in my time. That looks like this:

Getting the picture now? They're all produced in a matt finish too which makes them even better - for design nerds like me, these have been designed by Noma Bar at the London agency Dutch Uncle. Gonna have to get the whole collection  - I can feel it in my bones.

Anyway, while I was eyeballing his collection, I found some quotes from DeLillo who apparently doesn't do interviews too often. This one made me nod wisely to myself:

"I was called a cult writer in the 70s, when that meant that very few people were reading me." 

I think that's still true now though isn't it? I really hope that being a cult writer doesn't horrifically mean that you're simply marketed as a cult writer to make sure people who like 'cult writers' will pick you up.

I like that he doesn't do interviews too much. That way, when he does speak, he says incredibly wise things like:

"I quit my job just to quit. I didn't quit my job to write fiction. I just didn't want to work anymore."

and;

"I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version."

and, from Point Omega;

“If you reveal everything, bare every feeling, ask for understanding, you lose something crucial to your sense of yourself. You need to know things that others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.”

Beautiful. So beautiful that I might have to make myself a peanut butter sandwich...