Maud Newton
Maudnewton.com/blog is a literary blog concerned with book reviews, a touch of politics, and of course Maud Newton. I checked out the “about” link to find out more about the writer. She has a law degree, practiced for a few years and then returned to things she actually enjoys, much to the chagrin of her dotting parents. Her dry wit and humor is scattered all over her blog, making this one specifically enjoyable to read. Maud Newton’s blog has apparent critical praise from snooty tooty newspapers across the globe, and I haven’t decided if this makes her blog better or worse!
One of the reasons I was astonished by her site was the incredibly long list of links she has to other blogs, news sites, presses, and writing sites in general. What I enjoyed most was how she merged the political world with the world of fiction. The link between the two is almost inextricable after reading her blog. The idea that government and people want to control what we read seemed to be an overlaying theme, and something she was obviously concerned about, something this blogger thinks we should all be concerned about.
Maud Newton’s blog got me thinking about how we deal with literature we do not like. Depending on why we do not like it we seem to deal with it in different ways. For example some want to ban books due to vulgar language, others just write scathing reviews. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. Maud mentions a Kenyan camel book delivery system. It is a library that delivers books to parts of Kenya that do not have the resources due to political turmoil. After reading this, it seems that yes, literature and politics are blurred together forever, but maybe sometimes we try and actually use books to our advantage rather than just ban or burn them.
1 comment:
The link between politics and literature reminds me of how Iraq's library was almost nearly devastated by fires and all the politics surrounding the library and how it had been used by the regime, and how the new library administration hopes to use library now, and how the library is determined to stay open. Eskander (director of Iraq national library)’s quote is both sad and uplifting: “We both agreed that it was imperative to carry on our cultural activities and events during these difficult times.”
There's the controversy, too, surrounding Japan's textbooks not acknowledging wartime atrocities in China and Korea and the backlash in those countries, too. Writing truth as fiction or fiction as truth or withholding truth can have serious political consequences, although it seems in most cases some form of the truth wins out. (of course, then we get into the "what is the truth?" argument...groan. I'll save you from that one.)
But, more as writers, the political situation all affects us subconsciously (as does everything) and so what's happening in the world will affect our writing, directly or indirectly. There have already been articles in The New York Times about how both September 11th and the Iraq war have influenced US art in general, not just writing. And that’s just in the United States.
A best-seller right now is that memoir of a child soldier. I haven’t read it, but it seems like the aims might be openly political as well, to call attention to what is going on so readers can act appropriately – with votes, or other means. Or the writer maybe just felt like he needed to tell his story, but I’m sure there will be some political discussion as a side-effect.
- babybird
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