tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post652369278888930076..comments2024-01-24T11:41:28.022+00:00Comments on A Cuban In London: What Makes A Good Writer? By Zadie Smith (15th and Final Part)A Cuban In Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16423293358605007539noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-73923622059332706762020-07-14T10:32:57.701+01:002020-07-14T10:32:57.701+01:00My name is Mrs Aisha Usman, am a Citizen Of Singa...My name is Mrs Aisha Usman, am a Citizen Of Singapore. Have you been looking for a loan? Do you need an urgent personal loan or business loan?contact Dr. Mark Thomas FOIRM Ronnie Finance Ltd he help me with a loan of $85,000 some days ago after been scammed of $8,000 from a woman claiming to been a loan lender but i thank God today that i got my loan worth $85,000.Feel free to contact the company for a genuine financial service. Email: markthomasfinanceltd@gmail.com<br /><br />Whats-App no +919667837169<br />Dr. Mark Thomas<br /><br />LOAN APPLICATION DETAILS<br />Name:…………<br />Address…………<br />Loan Amount:……<br />Loan duration…<br />Monthly income…………<br />Nationality……<br />Country………<br />Occupation......<br />State…………<br />Zip/Code………<br />Gender…………<br />Age…………<br />Marital Status……………<br />Telephone………………<br /><br />FORM Ronnie Finance Ltd<br />Dr. Mark ThomasMr. Mark Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15193114867258359713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-52663477087728303662010-01-24T14:35:47.028+00:002010-01-24T14:35:47.028+00:00Thanks for letting me know about this series. I ve...Thanks for letting me know about this series. I very much enjoyed reading each installment and the drawings from ACIM added to the delight of Zadie's words. I also agree with Renee's comment that reading is like breathing.cynthia newberry martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04088261237123157140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-6802311846330383342009-12-29T22:33:57.653+00:002009-12-29T22:33:57.653+00:00Hi CIL, I enjoyed reading this interview
and the i...Hi CIL, I enjoyed reading this interview<br />and the ideas/thoughts Zadie's words/thoughts<br />have provoked within me. To see failure in<br />writing as a step and to simply fail better<br />the next write, for one.<br /><br />To show my deepest self when writing, I am<br />not there 100% yet. Suppress the feeling<br />something I am guilty of at times. However,<br />this must stop. I just read an essay by<br />Audre Lorde, and she states - feeling births<br />ideas - so true. And as Zadie states in this<br />interview - we learn through feeling.<br /><br />Excellent interview and thank you CubaninLondon, for posting this - KUDOS.Cynthiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10256391836026637655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-51399029183871035032009-12-22T02:29:15.569+00:002009-12-22T02:29:15.569+00:00I am sorry, I meant sensitivity.I am sorry, I meant sensitivity.Lisetghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00365755940195358505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-26082525863189452522009-12-22T02:27:33.264+00:002009-12-22T02:27:33.264+00:00Hola London.
Te dire que hace rato miraba pasar es...Hola London.<br />Te dire que hace rato miraba pasar estos post y queria leerlos pero no tenia tiempo. Ahora en los dias de vacaciones, decidi imprimirlos todos y los estoy leyendo: super buenos.<br />I still haven't finished reading them but there is something that makes me think. <br />Zadie Smith says reading is as difficult as writing and I don't know if I agree with that. Part of the absolute admiration I feel for good writers is that I can't write like that. And I can read them and feel what they say, I can be laughing, crying, amazed with them...I know when I am reading a good book and know how to appreciate it.<br />I do think you need to have a certain sensitibity for literature, but I think writing is much more difficult than this.<br />I am enjoying this greatly, so thanks to you both.Lisetghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00365755940195358505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-83256789688828064222009-12-20T22:04:32.001+00:002009-12-20T22:04:32.001+00:00I have enjoyed this series ACIL! It will continue...I have enjoyed this series ACIL! It will continue to be a resource for me. This week, this sentence stayed with me: "...in order to confront the human otherness that fiction confronts [us] with..." For me it speaks to the generosity of spirit that must be garnered in order to genuinely appreciate others; and in the process of 'losing yourself' you find yourself opening up and absorbing all of the wonderful gifts.<br /><br />I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season ACIL. I look forward to many more wonderful opportunities to share with you here in the blogosphere.<br /><br />Asante sana!Hana Njau-Okolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15978662559579409259noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-23352138126448262302009-12-18T14:13:53.607+00:002009-12-18T14:13:53.607+00:00Thanks a lot for your kind feedback.
Greetings fr...Thanks a lot for your kind feedback.<br /><br />Greetings from London.A Cuban In Londonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16423293358605007539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-54831044324359000302009-12-18T05:13:02.797+00:002009-12-18T05:13:02.797+00:00I love Zadie Smith...read White Teeth and On Beaut...I love Zadie Smith...read White Teeth and On Beauty a few years ago..so good! I will have to check this essay out.My Favourite Thingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08155512375983192541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-53863908891274584652009-12-17T19:11:27.160+00:002009-12-17T19:11:27.160+00:00Dear Blogpal!
Just briefly stopping by with my ver...Dear Blogpal!<br />Just briefly stopping by with my very best wishes for Xmas and the New Year! Can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you & your terrific posts since my last visit - but hope to see you very soon back at my place where I’ve just posted my latest Christmas Lola Lifeline! All the best & see you again soon!<br />xxxLOL LOLA:)Lolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01968497741386697440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-59295768702241892792009-12-17T15:13:40.425+00:002009-12-17T15:13:40.425+00:00I have to have a book between my hands. I have to...I have to have a book between my hands. I have to sit all cozied up with a cup of tea and read and feel the book. It is like breathing.<br /><br />As for Native Son and Lolita. I was marked by both.<br /><br />In Lolita I still think he made the child to sexual, it was an upsetting book.<br /><br />In Native Son, it was so worlds apart that I almost felt it couldn't be true, people surely didn't treat others that way, it was an upsetting book too.<br /><br />Feliz Navidad Cuban.<br /><br />xoxoReneehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11785932958464359112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-21193537324728804402009-12-17T14:37:39.107+00:002009-12-17T14:37:39.107+00:00Fantastic series! Thanks so much for posting this;...Fantastic series! Thanks so much for posting this; I gained so much from reading Zadie smith's wisdom over the past weeks.Judy Croome | @judy_croomehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17455755011354905278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-51645347824736883922009-12-17T00:57:08.669+00:002009-12-17T00:57:08.669+00:00Oh no, the final part! I shall miss reading this s...Oh no, the final part! I shall miss reading this series on your blog. Perhaps you can keep the literary conversation going yourself? <br /><br />I am interested in Changing My Mind, but I’m hoping that Zadie Smith will explore the issue of creativity in future novels. I’d recommend On Beauty to those who have enjoyed her writing.<br /><br />It was interesting to have her end with writer-critiques since I am a writer-reviewer (I have no professional training so would not call myself a critic.) As a fellow writer, I may understand what the author is trying to do and spot common mistakes from my own experience. I’m also more empathetic and reluctant to write a bad review of a colleague, knowing the hard work that goes into all books. I get around this by only reviewing books I like. I’m a book blogger and not a critic. <br /><br />I do like that quotation from Virginia Woolf. Blogs are certainly idiosyncratic. I loved Zadie Smith’s appraisal, “Yet it is literature in its imperfect aspect that I find most beautiful and most human.” Beautifully put and a perfect place to end. <br /><br />Thank you, ACIL, The Guardian and Zadie Smith!Sarah Laurencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423008641739156182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-39367748234583235012009-12-16T22:43:14.880+00:002009-12-16T22:43:14.880+00:00Good point, Cuban, spot on, I must have missed tha...Good point, Cuban, spot on, I must have missed that before in Zadie's teaching. We read thousands of books in our lives but we end up remembering the ones that, as you said, exercise our sensibilities. I often try to recall a plot of a book that I've read sometime ago and to my utter frustration I realise I can't remember any of it, other than names of main characters. But then again there are books that I've read twenty years ago and I still remember them so well that I could tell their stories in detail here and now...<br /><br />I guess this is a simplified version of what you just said :-)Pollyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10085905065734027788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-81151685849812298182009-12-16T21:53:15.218+00:002009-12-16T21:53:15.218+00:00Many thanks for your kind words. This was my favou...Many thanks for your kind words. This was my favourite part of the last part:<br /><br />'Writers learn through feeling, too, and the novels we love exercise our sensibilities: they educate and complicate those parts of us that feel. This is what separates them from philosophical treatises or laws or newspapers.'<br /><br />In the last couple of years two books have made me felt uncomfortable to the point of questioning that discomfort quite seriously: 'Native Son' and 'Lolita'. The former froma liberal point of view. When do I stop being a reader and beging to think as a father? I won't give the plot away but as much as I understood the plight of the main character the way in which he committed he hideous deed had me questioning not only his morals (or lack of them thereof) but also mine.<br /><br />Lolita is a re-read which is meant to serve as preparation for my next book 'Reading Lolita in Tehran'. But having read 'Lolita' when I was a teenager, I had forgot about the humour. Of course a younger person wouldn't necessarily pick on Nabokov's masterful writing. It has been a pleasure to read but at all times there's a little light at the back of my head that comes on with a sign reading: 'But this guy is having sex with a minor!'. Then the other part of my brain responds: 'Yes, but this is fiction, it's a made-up tale, don't you understand?'<br /><br />Such is a reader's dilemma. However, the lesson I take with me is that both these books have exercised my sensibilities and for that I am grateful.<br /><br />Many thanks for your feedback.<br /><br />Greetings from London.A Cuban In Londonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16423293358605007539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-40846712975324587952009-12-16T18:42:08.612+00:002009-12-16T18:42:08.612+00:00Well, I thought I had posted a comment but it seem...Well, I thought I had posted a comment but it seems to have disappeared into the cyber cemetery. I hope that's not a reflection of its worth. In any case, I was talking about how delving into the deepest self is indeed the greatest challenge both for the writer and the reader. It is the difference between a distinctive and a derivative work. I have enjoyed the Smith series. It has been both illuminative and maddening, but in the end it was also thought-provoking, which I always consider to be a good thing.Judith Mercadohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13739476600999112092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-19590269594212797102009-12-16T16:45:34.730+00:002009-12-16T16:45:34.730+00:00I can't believe it's already the end of th...I can't believe it's already the end of the series...<br /><br />I very much agree with Fram on the point of critics, it's all subjective. And I'm not so sure about "deepest self" in criticism: I look for informed opinion, based on some research that I simply couldn't do myself. When it comes to critic's personal opinion, I either take it or not, but it's the "academy" that I want.<br /><br />I will miss this series. I'm off to order Zadie's new book...Pollyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10085905065734027788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-3560651361579744222009-12-16T13:19:21.327+00:002009-12-16T13:19:21.327+00:00Expansion of the heart? Oh yes please!
xExpansion of the heart? Oh yes please!<br />xRachel Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11803852725693518924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-90952466368713026502009-12-16T06:39:43.604+00:002009-12-16T06:39:43.604+00:00In one of my periodic plunges into the world away ...In one of my periodic plunges into the world away from journalism, I became sort of adept at computer programming. In that role, I was assigned a particular project. After a few weeks, I announced that it was impossible to achieve the stated goal. <br /><br />Another fellow then took on the project. After a few weeks, he proclaimed the task completed and his work to be a success. <br /><br />Strangely (or not), his pronounced success ended at precisely the same point as had mine. What I saw as failure, he saw as success. <br /><br />In reality, his attempt was a failure, too, although he did not realize it even after the powers that ruled had seen demonstrations and declared the project to be impractical.<br /><br />I think the world revolves around an old cliché: One man's fantasy is another man's reality or, as said another way, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Apply the same concept to works of fiction or to authors or to critics or to readers.<br /><br />Critics? Bah, humbug. The series was great. I enjoyed it immensely. Thank you, CiL.Fram Actualhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01540773153894050197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-22415373357432846772009-12-16T02:15:12.572+00:002009-12-16T02:15:12.572+00:00Mi herma se que estas aquí y que estas metiendo pe...Mi herma se que estas aquí y que estas metiendo pescao con coquito y mortadella, pero a veces no tengo tiempo ni pa' rascarme el kukuruku.<br />Gracias por colgar tantas cosas interesantes y buenas.<br />Un abrazon, tony.GeNeRaCiOn AsErEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17068497397137264695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1165773290907101242.post-35045182327408070632009-12-16T02:07:25.732+00:002009-12-16T02:07:25.732+00:00This sentence sat with me after I had finished rea...This sentence sat with me after I had finished reading: "Maybe we have to get out of the academy and away from the newspapers and back into our reading chairs to regain access to this feeling." That is, the feeling of our "deepest self". I think we do ourselves a grave injustice as readers when we do not engage this deepest self while we read. It is only by activating this part of ourselves that we can truly feel what we read. But then, our "deepest self" is not usually a part of us that we actively engage; it is the most true part of us that engages itself involuntarily. It seems that we are at an impasse. But we can come out of it if we can just relax with a book rather than stiffen and assume the attitude we used to assume when we were in high school or college and faced with having to read various tomes we had no interest in. We are, now, readers by choice (one would hope), and we can just hold our book with the ecstasy that comes with knowing we have made this choice. Now, we can enjoy...<br /><br />Cuban, I believe it was through one of Zadie Smith's installments that I first made my way to your site. I'm sorry to see these go, but then, you remain. And there is no lack of entertainment coming from you... EVER! :-)<br /><br />NevineNevine Sultanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08794887684860140819noreply@blogger.com