Snippets

'Story' versus 'literature'

Philip Pullman argues that 'literature' is what a film director must leave out when translating a 'story' into a movie. The plot and the events are the story part and can be made into a play or a film. What is left behind is 'literature'.

Pullman was talking about the movie version of his book(s). Have you ever looked at it that way? How about the total distortions, like in The English Patient, for example. How do you classify that? When nothing remains of the book except the title?

The Guardian

007 will be reborn in 2008

2008 will the year of the first 007 book by Sebastian Faulks. James Bond will be reborn. To celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth, Sebastian Faulks has been commissioned to write up more tales of the suave secret agent. Devil May Care, the first in the reincarnated series (one thinks it will be a series of books, not just one) will be published by Penguin in May. Who will he be pit against, now that the cold war enemies are no more? In the absence of the boy wizard will he be the new ... whatever?

The Guardian

Sukarno's books

The Jakarta Post says that Sukarno's private collection of thousands of books now belongs to Johan Budi Sava, the owner of the Toga Mas bookstore on Jl. Dieng in Malang. Thousands of old books are now on the second floor of the bookstore, and one day will serve as a small museum for anyone to use for their research. But many are old and fragile, like the 1825 map of Yogyakarta in the collection, and cannot be handled.

A year ago, when he was in Bogor to look for a place for a new bookstore, Johan Budi Sava was introduced to a businessman said to be Sukarno's friend, who said he had been asked to take care of the book collection. As he could not do it any more, he asked Johan to take care of them. And Johan jumped at it.

Wahhh!!!

The Jakarta Post

How not to write a novel

In a story How to write a novel, Tim Dowling talks about the pitfalls. He says: 'Writing a novel must be one of the easiest things to avoid doing in the world -- chances are no one has asked you to do it, and no one will care if you don't. As soon as you start, almost every other activity in the world seems preferable. Distractions come in every shape ...'

For him, some of the biggest distractions are:

Food: He suggests an arrangement where '... there are several flights of stairs between you and anything remotely worth eating.'

The Internet: '... the biggest distraction faced by the modern novelist.'

And the Terrifying Enormity Of What You Are Trying To Do: 'Writing a novel is ... a bit like swimming across a huge, dark lake. Starting off is easy and finishing is both a relief ... but there's a long stretch in the middle where you can't see either shore and you're not even sure you're heading the right way.'

Tim Dowling writes for The Guardian. His first novel, The Giles Wareing Haters' Club (Picador) is out now.

The Media Circus