EricHoefler.com

The Public Domain

Thursday, December 11, 2008

I’ve just started reading James Boyle’s The Public Domain, thanks to recent mention on the BoingBoing blog. If Cory Doctorow is to be believed (and he is), then it’s an important book and a good read. What I’ve seen so far confirms that. I’m encouraged by Boyle’s optimism, his assertion that this issue is important for [...]

Poe and Pearl

Monday, October 22, 2007

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If you’re an Edgar Allan Poe enthusiast or a fan of Matthew Pearl (The Dante Club, The Poe Shadow), this article in The New York Observer might be of interest. Did Poe die of a tumor? Drink always sounded most plausible to me, and the rabies thing was just a cheap way to go for [...]

Making a Bad Date

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

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On the list of things you’re not supposed to talk about on a first date, religion sits at number one … and for obvious reasons. Disagreements can get nasty and irrational, and in most cases, nobody is going to say anything original anyway–much of the talk that surrounds the topic is poorly-imitated and poorly-informed [...]

Response: From Where You Dream

Thursday, January 4, 2007

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“Please get out of the habit of saying that you’ve got an idea for a short story. Art does not come from ideas. … Art comes from the place where you dream … your unconscious … the white-hot center of you.” (13) A while ago, I read Robert Olen Butler’s From Where You Dream. [...]

Fiction and Consciousness

Friday, November 17, 2006

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I’ve been reading 2012 and just came across a passage that struck me as particularly helpful in thinking about how and why fiction works. The author, Daniel Pinchbeck, is quoting F. David Peat and discussing the concept of synchronicity, that phenomenon that is usually brushed off as “just a weird coincidence.” Peat says: It [...]

A Why or Two …

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

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Maybe it’s just interesting timing, or synchronicity, or maybe it’s because we tend to see the things we’re looking for, but I’ve come across two sources in the last few days that take up the question “why learn this?” in relation to writing and literature.The first is Sheridan Blau’s The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and [...]