Liked this joke from Vinod Mehta's diary. Enjoy:
The great American playwright Arthur Miller, who passed away last week, used to regale his friends with a story about the time he was courting Marilyn Monroe in the early ’50s. He took Marilyn to his mother’s New York apartment for dinner. The walls were thin and Monroe was obsessed by the fear that people would hear her peeing, so when she went to the bathroom she turned on all the taps to disguise the sound.
A day or so later Miller’s mother wrote to say that she thought his new girlfriend was very beautiful and very nice, "but Arthur, she pisses like a horse".
"The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." ― V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
11 comments:
Hi Zafar,
Always felt that when Arthur Miller died, he took away another slice of Norman Rockwell's America and then the world became a darker place. He was given a big heartwarming goodbye by the literary media here in England.
Hi again Zafar,
Just to let you know that tomorrow (1st thing) I'll be posting you the following literary goodies:
Sorry I meant to do it earlier but was actually ill for awhile and then busy:
a) a 2 full-length page article I saved esp, for you last Sunday from The Observer Review. Interviews and full studio photographs of six authors who are to have their novels published for the 1st time this March. Their ages range from mid 20's to 70s. All were picked up from a literary agent's slush pile. Different agents for different authors of course, and rewarded with big advances along the way.
b) Latest issue of The Bookseller magazine that gives all the latest updates on published books all over the UK/US and lots of publisher insider news - The World of Books so, to speak as it stands in London today, hot off the oven and which will later affect world trends. (It is my portable university).
c) The Liberal which is a fabulous literary magazine on poetry, culture & politics. Has non-fiction book reviews. Welcomes submissions.
d) Wrtiers' Forum which is a terrific magazine for writers in Britain. Loads of self-help articles on the different genres. Also advertises several writing courses etc. One wonderful thing about advertisements in Britain's mags, is that except for a few far-reaching ones, most ads are professional and legitimate. This is a far cry from the US writing magazines where you have to be really careful especially with the smaller boxed ads.
e) I also thought it would be fun to send you a bundle of 12 book plates to personalise your favourites. Each reveals a b/w sketch of a singular European explorer ship on high seas (17th century??) and am also sending you a bunch of colourful plastic arrowed-multi-reference bookmarks which you may find helpful when writing your book or doing research. Oh, just for some fun.
In a few days I'll send you more.
I've got the latest literary magazines of Rialto and The North that welcomes various poetry/essay/fiction submissions etc but I just to get some poetry off first and I'll post them to you at the end of this week. And I'll also save the newspapers' literary review supplements for you as well.
For literary agents of course, you can just go to the links I showed you.
Enjoy the inspiration.
susan
Hi Susan,
Thanks for your post on literary goodies. Sounds so appetizing! I especially enjoyed reading your comments on each item. Cheers!
Hi Zafar,
I'm completely out of breath. Rushed schedule today. Going to friends with lunch at Leicester Square followed by the theatre of a good film from the very many being screened presently.
I've mixed things up a little but am very happy to announce that the magazines are already on their way to you by air mail. You should get them within a week.
Sent you instead:
a) The Rialto - welcomes poetry submissions - friendly magazine (highly literary)
b) The North - welcomes poetry and other submissions (literary magazine). They are currently the latest issues on sale.
c) The Liberal - latest issue.
d) The Bookseller - latest issue
e) Writers' Forum - latest issue
f) I've slotted the bookplates & bookmarkers into a long white envelope in between the magazines.
g) I've also slipped in 10 1st class British stamps into the same envelope.
Zahar, you just need to stick one stamp on your sae. When you tell the editor or agent respectively to inform you either of an acceptance/rejection, one stamp (68p) covers air mail cost using a 1-one page or a 2-page letter (no matter how heavy the letter paper) from England to Singapore. So you can send 10 SAE's out.
On the other hand if you want work (manuscripts/articles) posted from London, just send me your work on email attachment and I'll print them out and post them from over here in London.
h) I've misplaced through carelessness/absent-mindedness, the 2 full-length pages of those 6 author interviews but I'll find them tomorrow and sent them off to you. INSTEAD...
I retrieved a Feb 19 issue of Guardian's review supplement which features Arthur Miller in a big way and its main profile story with photographs is Kazuo Ishiguro who is all the rage in Britain at the moment with terrific reviews - he is very popular with the press and also he's got a new book out, 'Never Let Me Go' with a mango-coloured cover of a woman in surreal swiinging motion. He's got a quarter of a showcase devoted just to this book at Borders in Oxford Street. I've bought his book and am about to read it, now that I've finished Tash Aw's.
Zahar, glad to be of help as a fellow writer with lots to share.
And you will go far with your writing talent.
cheers, susan
Oh my God, Zafar,
I've done it again...
Correction:
I mean,
'going with friends to lunch at Leicester Square...'
I'm wearing a dunce cap.
cheers!
Hi Susan,
Excellent. Tell me how can I thank you?
I am really looking foward to read all that you are sending me. And post my stuff to the UK guys.
Meanhwile, let me know how was your party and your movie outing.
I guess I saw the Ishiguro piece on Guardian Books online.
Cheers!
Hi Zafar,
You don't have to thank me in any way. Glad to be of help.
Please don't send out the SAE's yet, though. I forgot to post you some air mail stickers (Royal Mail) that comes from England. I realise that the editor with a stamped envelope already at his/her disposal is unlikely to go to the post office. So I'll send on those email stickers today or tomorrow. Also, the stories that come out online are normally limited and many times, shortened.
You'll see the real thing now. Kazuo who's married to an Englishwoman and has a daughter, still looks schoolboyish and for me, I admit, a cutie-pie...
Zafar, (said with a very red-face..)
I mean airmail stickers and not email stickers.
Now I remember the teachers used to tell my mum when I was in school(your daughter is a very careless girl, Mrs. Abraham...very careless...' And now you also know, what my report card said!
Miss Abraham, don't get paranoid about the typos. I know you right fast. And all writers need copyeditors, don't they? Please stop fretting about mistakes.
You see! I also made a typo. Right instead of write!
You did it deliberately Zafar.
Anyway, I'm posting the airmail stickers today
(I betul, betul malu which means, "I'm genuinely shame-faced.")
I can straightaway picture about 5 teachers (all 5, frustrated spinsters, of course) who would have gladly given me a knock on my head.
sob! sob!
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