Charles Krauthammer and honesty
We 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...
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Richard Farr
- May 1, 2018
Misplaced muddifiers – or, how to spell ‘hypocrite’ at the NYT
Biblical wisdom: before passing judgment on the specks in Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch’s writing, the New York Times should have...
Richard Farr
- Apr 30, 2018
Societal 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 Farr
- Mar 29, 2018
Books 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 Farr
- Mar 22, 2018
Unlike
In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scanda l (an extraordinarily ugly story for the age of Trump), I have deleted my Facebook account....
Richard Farr
- Feb 17, 2018
What 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 Farr
- Jan 29, 2018
Early 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 Farr
- Jan 24, 2018
Trumpocracy
Choice is a great burden. The call to invent one’s life, and to do it continuously, can sound unendurable. Totalitarian regimes aim to...
Richard Farr
- Jan 23, 2018
RIP Ursula Le Guin
Such 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 Farr
- Oct 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 Farr
- Oct 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 Farr
- Oct 5, 2017
Ishiguro: yes yes yes
Filled with delight that Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nobody could have deserved it more. But I suppose I’m...
Richard Farr
- Sep 8, 2017
Old words for old things
Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways resurrects not only old ways – roads, paths, routes – but the old words you need to describe them. I...
Richard Farr
- Sep 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 Farr
- Jun 23, 2017
Pushing dimensions at the NYT
Once again I find my morning coffee interrupted by the desire to rewrite some odd English in the The Gray Lady of Record (Shifting...
Richard Farr
- Jun 8, 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 Farr
- Apr 25, 2017
Keats on how to be a genius
Famously: It struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so...
Richard Farr
- Jan 12, 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 Farr
- Oct 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 Farr
- Sep 18, 2016
Edward Albee, 1928–2016
A great talent. RIP. In 1996, I had the opportunity to interview him at his home in Manhattan. Along with my introduction, this is what...
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