Richard FarrJun 22, 2018Charles Krauthammer and honestyWe are not supposed to speak ill of the dead – apparently, indeed, we are supposed to go on and on about how marvelous the dead were. And...
Richard FarrMay 1, 2018Misplaced muddifiers – or, how to spell ‘hypocrite’ at the NYTBiblical wisdom: before passing judgment on the specks in Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch’s writing, the New York Times should have...
Richard FarrApr 30, 2018Societal utilization of too many syllables?The letters page of this morning’s New York Times has several writers using the word “societal.” Or should I say “utilizing”? I’m not...
Richard FarrMar 29, 2018Books for Writers: “How Fiction Works”I’m re-reading the critic James Wood’s excellent, readable little book of this title. Every writer should have a copy. There’s a superb...
Richard FarrMar 22, 2018UnlikeIn the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scanda l (an extraordinarily ugly story for the age of Trump), I have deleted my Facebook account....
Richard FarrFeb 17, 2018What are Britain anyway?After Lizzy Yarnold’s gold medal in skeleton, The Grauniad claims it is the “first time Britain have won three medals in same day.” In my...
Richard FarrJan 29, 2018Early Homo sapiens – we were wrong, again!In the timeline at the end of Infinity’s Illusion, which isn’t even officially published until next week, I apologize slightly for...
Richard FarrJan 24, 2018TrumpocracyChoice is a great burden. The call to invent one’s life, and to do it continuously, can sound unendurable. Totalitarian regimes aim to...
Richard FarrJan 24, 2018RIP Ursula Le GuinSuch brilliant titles! How can you not want to read a book called The Lathe of Heaven, or The Left Hand of Darkness? The stylistic and...
Richard FarrOct 30, 2017“Do you have a favorite writer (for children)?”Not just one – but I’m happy to put in a plug for David Almond. Read beautiful Skellig. (Amazing, how he does so much with so little!)...
Richard FarrOct 20, 2017“Do you have a favorite writer?”I’ve read pretty much every word George Orwell ever put in print, much of it over and over, and there is no writer I would rather have...
Richard FarrOct 6, 2017Ishiguro: yes yes yesFilled with delight that Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nobody could have deserved it more. But I suppose I’m...
Richard FarrSep 8, 2017Old words for old thingsRobert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways resurrects not only old ways – roads, paths, routes – but the old words you need to describe them. I...
Richard FarrSep 5, 2017“Why not just write an outline?”In the course of explaining why Angels in America is seven hours long, Tony Kushner offers a good insight into the myth of the nice...
Richard FarrJun 23, 2017Pushing dimensions at the NYTOnce again I find my morning coffee interrupted by the desire to rewrite some odd English in the The Gray Lady of Record (Shifting...
Richard FarrJun 9, 2017‘Lies’?One of today’s New York Times headlines raises an interesting point for the word nerds among us. Comey …. accuses the White House of...
Richard FarrApr 25, 2017Keats on how to be a geniusFamously: It struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so...
Richard FarrJan 13, 2017“What does the Babel Trilogy have to do with the ‘Hard Problem’?”Quite a bit of The Babel Trilogy is about consciousness: what is it, and where does it come from, and how is it possible—that’s what...
Richard FarrOct 13, 2016“Are you a quick reader?”On the contrary – when I was 17, I discovered the philosopher Wittgenstein … He tends to say things like “In propositions thoughts can be...
Richard FarrSep 18, 2016Edward Albee, 1928–2016A great talent. RIP. In 1996, I had the opportunity to interview him at his home in Manhattan. Along with my introduction, this is what...