Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
-
@ Apfel
[Read the article: Dear Sir, I write today to say that I cannot write]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You make some good points--for example, being able to write is nothing to do with being able to express your feelings--but some of what you write is nonsense.
I know I'm a writer because I've mastered my own language, because I have institutional support, and because I can make others listen to me by virtue of those first two things. I can write, speak, and think in my own language, better than anyone else I know..
The proof of the pudding is in the eating and when you have written something that other people want to read, then you can call yourself a writer.
It's taken nearly a decade of ceaseless study, but I'm finally at the point where I don't have to prove myself as a writer - now, I've got to prove myself as a thinker. The latter develops out of the former.
What crap! It is exactly the other way around. Do you really think best selling authors who are also terrific writers, like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, learned to write first and then decided to think up some ideas.
I don't want to burst anyone's bubble here.
Sure about that?
In order to be a writer I'd say you'd need three things. You'd have to be independently wealthy (a room of your own and money, that is) - either you've got to tap into that trust fund, or you've got to find external support.
Baloney. All you need is another job and a family life that gives you enough time to write. I could easily spend 8 hours a day writing three days a week and I am none of the above. But don't want to be a writer.
You could actually be living on disability pension in a group home. The obvious choice of work is journalism where you get a chance to practice writing, get paid for it, and get out and about meeting people a great deal.
JK Rowling (author of Harry Potter books) worked as a secretary and then as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language in Portugal. At the time of writing her first book she was a single mother living on unemployment benefits. She wrote much of it in cafes, because taking her child out for a walk was a good way to get the child to fall asleep. Once the child was asleep, she would go to the nearest cafe and write. (At least that was her story.) The MS of the first Harry Potter book was completed in 1995 on a manual typewriter.
After her first book was accepted for publication her publisher advised her to get a day job as she was never likely to make any money out of writing children's books. Only at this point did she get a grant of $16,000 from the Scottish Arts Council to enable her to continue writing.
The world is not here to pat you on the fucking back.
I can go along with that.
-
LW reminds me...
[Read the article: There's a cougher in the office and it's driving me mad!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... of my father. During the last years of my grandmother's life, she had a chronic coughing bronchitis (although she had never been a smoker) and would have irritating and noisy coughing spells.
My father reacted rather like the LW, suspecting that she did it deliberately so as to annoy him. Fortunately she eventually died, as old people tend to do, which put him out of his misery, but everyone else missed having her around.
Now, 25 years later, every one would have forgotten about her coughing, except that they still remember HIS behavior.
-
Pit Bull vs Yorkshire Terrier
[Read the article: Pit bulls are innocent]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A lot of Yorkshire Terriers are bad-tempered vicious little animals, but they tend to kill and maim less than pit-bulls, because they are not as big and strong. Sure many pit-bulls are lovable and friendly. I used to own one myself. but they are big strong dogs with powerful jaws--that is the problem. So when they bite you, you stay bitten.
Of course there are other factors. Female dogs, unlike their human counterparts, are generally less aggressive than the males, especially the unneutered males.
And then powerful, strong dogs that can bite tend to appeal to owners who have weak egos and like to make themselves feel more potent by owning a vicious dog.
Maybe all dog owners should have to carry insurance, with lower premiums for statistically more docile breeds. Certainly as things stand now, homeowner's insurance is more expensive for people who own dogs. Silly me once thought that any risk from the dog would be offset by the reduced chance of burglars, but apparently not so. So presumably ownership of a pit bull will inflate your premiums quite a bit, if they really are as great a risk as some people think.
All these kinds of issues tend to stem from politicians, local or national, looking for issues that they think voters are concerned about. In England ill defined "pit-bulls" have been outlawed, though not, I think, Staffordshire bull terriers, which are a smaller version of the breed.