Self-pity” Is Just Sadness, I Think, In

Writing About Writing Is A Bit Like Talking About A Conversation You Are Having; It Tends To Obscure Desperation About Where The Next Word Is Coming From.

Nice Criticism Is Good When It Tells You Something. A Lot Of Negative "criticism" Isn't Criticism At All: It's Just Nasty, "writerly" Cliché And Invective.

Though Films Become More Daring Sexually, They Are Probably Less Sexy Than They Ever Were. There Haven't Been Any Convincing Love Scenes Or Romances In The Movies In A While. (nobody Even Seems To Neck In Theaters Any More.) ... When The Mechanics And Sadism Quotients Go Up, The Movie Love Interest Goes Dead, And The Film Just Lies There, Giving A Certain Amount Of Offense.

My Grandmother Refused To Concede That Any Member Of The Family Died Of Natural Causes. An Uncle's Cancer In Middle Age Occurred Because All The Suitcases Fell Off The Luggage Rack Onto Him When He Was In His Teens, And So Forth. Death Was An Acquired Characteristic.

The Writer Has A Grudge Against Society, Which He Documents With Accounts Of Unsatisfying Sex, Unrealized Ambition, Unmitigated Loneliness, And A Sense Of Local And Global Distress. The Square, Overpopulation, The Bourgeois, The Bomb And The Cocktail Party Are Variously Identified As Sources Of The Grudge. There Follows A Little Obscenity Here, A Dash Of Philosophy There, Considerable Whining Overall, And A Modern Satirical Novel Is Born.