Here's another thing that we should all read: Courtney Love does the Math. As she admits, her math is not that great, but it's better than the music industry's math. And her math at least has heart.
10:05:06 AM
Musing on the Art of Writing Well - how does one learn the difficult art of writing? There are, of course, "techniques" and "grammar rules" so forth. One should never take their writing for granted, even though it is hard to criticize one's own method. Lately, I fear I've fallen into some bad habits, such as using parentheticals too much. I decided the other day to try to write for a week without using a parenthetical at all. It won't be easy. Ah, there are so many things to learn.
When I was young, like about seven, my uncle George gave me possibly the greatest writing tip I ever received. "Read the Bible," he said. I thought that was a strange endorsement, coming from a man who was at once a gifted writer and an avowed atheist. But, he believed that the Bible was perhaps the greatest piece of writing ever recorded. The simplicity with which it conveys even the most complex concepts is indeed a thing of wonderment. Of all the books that have ever been written, the Bible has --according to some study that Uncle George cites-- the highest ratio of one-syllable words.
Another writer that George touted was Rabindranth Tagore, a Noble Prize laureate who wrote the following bit of wisdom:
The world is filled with workers and worthies: those who come easily first, and those who come decently after.
But I know it is the height of wisdom to be drunken and foolish, and go to the dogs.
