#john gardner

[dk-thrive]

“We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within… By middle life most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves.”

— John Gardner, Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society (W. W. Norton & Company; July 17, 1995) (via Wait-What? and The Marginalian)

[fitsofgloom]

Following the big '60s Monster Boom, there was a neat little literary micro-trend back in the '70s and '80s that had Famous Monsters either cast in alternative sympathetic lights or posited them as living figures setting the records straight by dictating their own autobiographies à la "Interview With The Vampire."

[ultimate-007]

John Gardner's 15-year tenure

[victusinveritas]

For the Ides of March -- one of the greatest werewolf stories ever, though hard to find. See if you can find it. Originally published in Playboy -- "Julius Caeser and the Werewolf" by John Gardner.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within… By middle life most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves.”

—John Gardner

Poetic Outlaws © :: @OutlawsPoetic

[wellconstructedsentences]

To write with taste, in the highest sense, is to write with the assumption that one out of a hundred people who read one's work may be dying, or have some loved one dying; to write so that no one commits suicide, no one despairs; to write, as Shakespeare wrote, so that people understand, sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not directly encouraged to live on.

The Art of Fiction by John Gardner

[geekysteven]

In the alternate universe where John Gardner was an otaku, he taught that all stories are based on two plots:

-An isekai arrives in town

-A magical girl transforms

[1lostsoul0fishbowl]

December, approaching the year’s darkest night, and the only way out of the dream is down and through it.

John Gardner

[mariocki]

The Stone Killer (1973)

"He's straight. He's got experience. And he's the best damn detective we've ever had."

"He's vicious. And your opinion is a minority view."

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

the central thing to understand about Grendel is the mindset of "I was born corrupted, evil and unsalvageable, made so by forces outside my control. I can try to be good but can't change the curse that flows through my blood. ...therefor, it doesn't matter TOO much if I eat this guy-"

[conscious-pisces]

“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.”

—John W. Gardner

[sanguine-prince]

thus i fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry.

— grendel by john gardner

[ultimate-007]

[illusoryfem]

The Art of Fiction, John Gardner

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The Paris Review :: @parisreview

* * * *

“I like philosophy the way some people like politics, or football games, or UFOs.”

—John Gardner

[adiosalasrosas]

"Generalmente, el escritor que se preocupa más de las palabras que de la historia (personajes, acción, escenario, ambiente) no consigue crear ese sueño vívido y continuo: se estorba demasiado a sí mismo; embriagado de poesía, no distingue el grano de la paja. Así pues, al juzgar la sensibilidad verbal del joven escritor no hay que preguntarse únicamente si la tiene o no, sino también si, quizá, le sobra. Si no la tiene, le esperan dificultades, aunque, como ya he dicho, puede llegar a triunfar igualmente, porque tiene algo más que compensa ese punto débil o porque, cuando se le señala ese punto débil, consigue ponerle remedio. Cuando la sensibilidad verbal del escritor es excesiva, el éxito de éste –si pretende escribir novelas, no poemas– dependerá (1) de que aprenda a preocuparse también de los demás elementos de la ficción y, en bien de éstos, a refrenarse un poco, como un chistoso en un funeral, o (2) de que consiga encontrar a un editor o a unos lectores que, como a él, les interese sobre todo el lenguaje depurado. Tales editores y lectores, espíritus refinados dedicados a un juego exquisito que llamamos ficción porque ampliamos el término hasta límites insospechados, aparecen de vez en cuando".

—John Gardner