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Scottish author Jim Murdoch discusses writing, his own and other authors, and muses at length about his fascination with the perversity of language. Veering from the nostalgic to the acerbic his blog will amuse anyone with a love of language.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'beckett'
Beckett the tinkerer (part one)
We're not entirely restrictive. We're not . . . conservers of museum pieces. Not at all. — Edward Beckett There is a school of thought (passionately held by many) that holds that it is tantamount to sacrilege to tamper with ...
The next John Cleese
I have never written anything biographical apart from an autobiography at the age of about fourteen which, although I've hung onto the thing for some thirty-five years, I've found myself unable to read past the first page. The spelling alone...
Beckett's voice
Like George Orwell before him, Samuel Beckett had a strong aversion to being filmed or even having his voice recorded. Although he was nothing less than magnanimous in his own cantankerous way with his first biographer, Deirdre Bair, he did draw the ...
Aggie and Shuggie 4
Maggie: Ma! C'mere, Ma.Aggie: Whit is it? Ah'm tryin t fix yer faither's tea.Maggie: Huv ye seen these new reviews af Unca Jim's book?Aggie: Does yer da know yer usin his comptuta?Maggie: Ah wis daen skulwork.Aggie...
You probably think this blog is about you (part four)
Part OnePart TwoPart ThreeWho in their right mind sits down to write a novel? I certainly never did. Not the first one in any case. I read blogs all the time of young people struggling with that first book, determined that they're going to drag that ...
You probably think this blog is about you (part three)
Part OnePart TwoBeckett’s posthumously published first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, is a blatantly autobiographical work set in Dublin, Ireland. The story of Beckett’s first antihero, Belacqua Shuah, whom the publisher (Calder Books) c...
You probably think this blog is about you (part two)
Part OneWriting is a very personal thing. I write to work things out. I write a sentence, maybe a paragraph, and I look at it and say to myself: "Does that make any sense? Am I saying what I mean here?" I've just done that here. I know each and every...
Just the facts, ma'am
Just the facts, ma'am. – Sgt Joe Friday, DragnetIf there was a single thing that persuaded me to buy this book it was the quote by Andrei Codrescu that appears on the front cover: "Petrovich is Beckett's organ." It's a wonderful quote, trying to b...
The need to be vague
If there is one thing that language is good at, it’s being vague. People try and say what they mean but it’s never that easy. The real question is: How important is it? It depends what you’re writing. If it’s a technical manual then precision...
The quest for the perfect sentence
I read an interesting article a while back by Wendy Keller called The desire not to write, a part of which goes:The reason writers don't write is because we simply know that language cannot begin to convey accurately the words in our hearts, minds an...
