J'Accuse Jane Austen mais J'Adore Tallinn
In my last post I mentioned a new e-zine edited by Benjamin Judge, called We Hate Words. Each week there's a J'Accuse style piece on a well-known writer or book that someone dislikes, a piece on a hated word, and a Stupid Sentence Of The Week.
This week's issue features my article on why I hate Jane Austen. I'm already contemplating submitting another piece, this time on Nabokov, who I firmly believe to be the most overrated writer of the 20th century.
On a more positive note, I've just returned from Tallinn, Estonia. Having known almost nothing about the place before I went there, I fell in love with it the moment I set foot within the walls of its beautiful mediaeval old city centre. The cobbled streets of the old town are completely pedestrianised, so all you hear as you walk around round the bustling town square and the old city walls is the hubbub of conversation instead of the roar of traffic. There was much about Tallinn that I found inspiring - glad I took my writer's notebook.
This week's issue features my article on why I hate Jane Austen. I'm already contemplating submitting another piece, this time on Nabokov, who I firmly believe to be the most overrated writer of the 20th century.
On a more positive note, I've just returned from Tallinn, Estonia. Having known almost nothing about the place before I went there, I fell in love with it the moment I set foot within the walls of its beautiful mediaeval old city centre. The cobbled streets of the old town are completely pedestrianised, so all you hear as you walk around round the bustling town square and the old city walls is the hubbub of conversation instead of the roar of traffic. There was much about Tallinn that I found inspiring - glad I took my writer's notebook.
I love Nabokov (especially Pnin which has possibly my single favourite scene in all literature in it.) but would be very happy to receive an article giving him a pasting.
ReplyDeleteYour Austen piece was superb.
Great article, I hear you!
ReplyDeleteBut hey: SL, TLYT, AUM, COMC... Oh! FTPMA, ahem... The concept still works. Just sayin´ ;)
Asuqi: I actually didn't like most of those, and the bits I did enjoy I enjoyed *despite* the concept, not because of it.
ReplyDeleteBen: Thanks! It's actually specifically Lolita I loathe, so the piece would probably be based on that rather than Nabokov overall, I think. I'll have a stab at it and see what I can come up with.