tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post3947524002781542932..comments2024-03-28T19:17:01.550+13:00Comments on The Imaginary Museum: The Age of SlaughterDr Jack Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-8040720556605056452016-06-01T18:45:55.751+12:002016-06-01T18:45:55.751+12:00I use the expression "touch wood" as my ...I use the expression "touch wood" as my English grandmother told me (not the USian "knock on wood"): so I will do so and say that at my last look John Ashbery is still alive. He has to be about 89. He seemed to almost never run out of ideas. But his once friend Schuyler is good also, as was O'Hara, sadly dead so young. <br /><br />I started going grey in my late or mid 20s. Eventually, from about 1989 to 1994 or so I used to dye my hair. So some people didn't recognise me who had seen me at that time. Now I am almost completely incognito and am slowly changing into Gertrude Stein myself although I haven't thought of any new writing ideas...<br /><br />I saw Farrell on Mt Wellington today, he said: "Mr Taylor I presume....!" Numerous wise saws and modern instances were exchanged...<br />Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-74554957555712110662016-06-01T08:05:11.895+12:002016-06-01T08:05:11.895+12:00Perhaps when the grey really takes over I'll s...Perhaps when the grey really takes over I'll start to look more like Gertrude Stein ... For the moment I'm happy to settle for Ashbery.Dr Jack Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-33546982769251252272016-06-01T01:06:28.350+12:002016-06-01T01:06:28.350+12:00I liked those poems she wrote that I mentioned to ...I liked those poems she wrote that I mentioned to you. They were very different from her stories. Which is interesting. I am the only other writer who writes almost as if there were two of me, although some of my poems that seem so 'different' are older poems. I tried to write stories, but they seem even more formidable than novels, if shorter. How to write like Damien Wilkins, Marshall and many others mentioned as well as Russian, English, and other writers round the world. Alice Munro and other specialize in the short story. Some of Joyce Carol Oates's have been made into film. In the US - Peter Taylor, John Cheever, Malamud, Hemmingway himself. Carver altho I haven't read any of his stories (I will do, but I didn't think much of his poems or those of Owen Marshall). But the stories by him in The Master of Big Jingles I read, or some of them, were incredible. I also like Chekov and du Maupassant as well as Maugham. <br /><br />There, is, as you may know, also a writer called Alan Marshall in Australia. Mansfield perhaps didn't live long enough to go beyond the short story. <br /><br />Some writers never seem to run out of steam. Six books! Impressive. I saw the review in the Listener which was very positive.<br /><br />There are a lot of interesting writers in NZ now: women and men. Not like the time of Robin Hyde (who was more of a novelist, although most writers seem to 'practise' with short stories before writing novels. <br /><br />Good speech Jack, you're looking more and more like John Ashbery these days by the way...You don't look like Gertrude Stein yet though. <br /><br />Tally ho! Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.com