Innumerable characters with weird names, convoluted plots, a challenge to get through. I might not have gotten through it, but the prose is so amazing it kept me pushing through. It's because of that writing I'm giving it four instead of three stars. Go Pynchon!
I feel like a traitor to my fellow idealistic, young artists for liking this book, but I really like this book. I don't like Robert McKee, however. At his seminar I found him misogynistic and self important. But this book is beautiful. Essential for anyone who wants to write a screenplay. Also a must read for any aspiring directors and film geeks in general.
The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain by Alice Weaver Flaherty
If you've ever had writer's block, read this book. If you are a writer and you don't understand how other writer's can get writer's block, read this book. If you're interested in literature, writing, and your brain, read this book. Be delighted. Then talk to people about it.
In the not so far off future, global warming does all it's supposed to do. It's always monsoon season in Southern California, all our favorite animals have become extinct, and the only alcohol you can afford to comfort yourself in this dark, hostile world is sake. (Rice wine...grows in water...get it?) Ty is the main character and he narrates his present situation from the future in every other chapter. In the others is a third person narrative of the events in his past as a mentalist environmentalist. I found it didactic, frustrating, and rough around the edges. Ty is unsympathetic and surrounded by sketchy, one dimensional characters. Overall, I'd say this book is barely better written than this review and personally I didn't get anything from reading it.
Hilarious, educational, and unlike anything you've ever read before. Everything you ever wanted to know about insect sex. For example, "Dear Dr. Tatiana, I'm an European praying mantis, and I've noticed I enjoy sex more if I bite my lovers' heads off first. It's because when I decapitate them, they go into the most thrilling spasms." While you're reading this you'll never find yourself short of conversation starters and didyouknows.