it's feeling to the common man that literature may once again be teetering on dangerous.

I know! Also, mad and bad! Vive Lord Byron.

Duck and cover, friends and relations!

Now that was a great collection of short stories!

And on the third hand, there's the story about the Janet Frame story, mentioned by Fergus Barrowman in the comments here

I was rather bemused at another comment suggesting that All Visitors Ashore was some kind of "revenge" on Frame. Not so sure about that – "Celia Skyways" is no?

Forget the 80s, I'm getting nostalgic for Jolisa's bookie thread.

I'm not claiming the second sight or anything, but it is nice to have you back. You're sure getting us reading, but. I'm about a third of the way through. So I'll?

Two rival women writers, say, and a bereaved husband ripe for the wooing — a gender flip

That sounds awfully... feminist. (And we all know how Stead feels about feminists, because they're in nearly every one of his books, peskily demanding things at universities. No, I don't find his obvious?

"The reason I set this story in Croatia, rather than in New Zealand, was because everybody would have tried to work out who the characters were, and I didn't want that."

He was determined to also win the prize for disingenous comment of the decade then? That seems greedy.

He was determined to also win the prize for disingenous comment of the decade then?

Then again, Anthony Powell was rather benused by various people who ran around claiming they were the real life models of his "chateau-bottled shit" Kenneth Widmerpool in A Dance to The Music of Time --?

I was rather bemused at another comment suggesting that All Visitors Ashore was some kind of "revenge" on Frame. Not so sure about that – "Celia Skyways" is no more ridiculous than anyone else in that tragi-comic farce.

I saw that too. But if you look at the comment, you?

Now that was a great collection of short stories!

I think of them as "hums", but yes. (Unless you're talking about Elizabeth Bowen, or possibly the Hawkwind albums?)

Craig:

I've got half a dozen unpublishable novels gathering dust, that suggest to me that it's too damn hard work for?

Then again, Anthony Powell was rather bemused by various people who ran around claiming they were the real life models of his "chateau-bottled shit" Kenneth Widmerpool

Quite. We all want a piece of the action, even if it's nasty action. Which reminds me of the observation made by?

I don't think there's much point in imagining ways in which Stead's revenge fantasy could have been divorced from the events that so obviously inspired it.

Except, perhaps, as a creative writing exercise. And one that reveals some of the holes in the original scenario (see above, re Manic?

No, no, and no again. You are not the only one. I wonder if J K Rowling would allow it be be printed in?

I was tossing up whether to blog about this but in the end decided not to (i.e. got distracted by cats). But "brouhaha" was exactly the word I was going to use. Possibly it would also have been less of a brouhaha if it hadn't involved Stead??

"Am I the only one who wanted to print this out, roll it up, and deliver it to our own Minister of Social Development and Employment?"

What's stopping you? :)

you do have the second sight. There I sat last night, putting in all the links, thinking "must post before Russell fires me."

Unlike Stead, I suspect Russell won't declare your views are no longer relevant because you've been too busy to blog for a while. He seems a patient?

Here, take my advice, I'm not using it...

Yoink

What's stopping you? :)

Ten thousand miles, or so. I'd need a ruthless and dedicated accomplice...

when it comes to writing, it's quality, not quantity (or frequency), that fosters immortality.

Which is why I reckon that Keri H is entitled to sit on her laurels, like Harper Lee. The book?

And I'm reliably informed that there's a piece on the Stead story in next week's Listener.

That would be the issue dated May 1-7. Cover quote:

War of the words. CK Stead's latest literary spat

Because authors don't just conjure characters out of thin air, do they? Or order them from catalogues of clichés?

well now, there's a gap in the market...
perhaps my oft touted Idea Orphanage
could solve this problem, or a dedicated
bespokesperson people4parts service ...

Strangers in a Drain
"Le's swap?

What does it mean when it gets wider? Wider public interest, or a few tragics compulsively checking back?

It can mean that more people are involved in the conversation. If 30 of them are checking whenever a new comments is posted, you can get to that ratio without a very?

the best defense is to preemptively grant your based-on-life character an enormous willy, on the grounds that they'll be too flattered to sue. Hard to think what the feminine equivalent would be; I don't think we're that flatterable.

Loved by all?

ratio of responses to views is usually about 1:30

Corresponds roughly with expected proportions of lurkers to talkers in any online community, though I recall Giovanni reckons it's less here if page reloads are accounted for.

"I don't believe it was a hoax. I base it on the fact that it appeared in a Harvard Law School text 70 years after the fact,"

that's got to be the most credulous line i've read since the "hope and change" millennialist religious movement of 2008.

nice work Matt?

According to a spokesman from Birkbeck College neither Figes nor his employer had anything further to say. "He's on sick leave and we're offering our support," he said.

Oh dear.

Loved by all?

Curse you! Er, I mean, no, you'd never get away with that. Not a weak spot at all. No sir.

I don't think we're that flatterable.

Curse you! Er, I mean, no, you'd never get away with that. Not a weak spot at all. No sir.

Is this the right time to mention BoobQuake?

No, probably not. Carry on.

I only wish I'd had enough notice to pin down a sponsorship deal with Bravissimo.

*Also, every day is Scientific Method day, what with a?

...mmm, good.

GASP! Poison Pen Reviews Were Mine, confesses historian Orlando Figes

So nice of him to implicate the wife first... bless. And they say gallantry is dead.

Meanwhile, over in the embarrassingly entertaining Daily Mail, Rachel Polonsky gives a blow-by-blow account of figuring out what Orlando Figes was up to: How I Rumbled Lying Professor. Undone by a wish-list; there's something sadly poetic about that.