My short story “The Mouse Catcher” is in the current issue of the online literary magazine Up The Staircase Quarterly. Have a read.
Pedantics
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About Pedantics
I'm Dave.I write stories.
I like music, technology, literature, philosophy, politics and coffee, amongst other things.
I like getting things right, but that doesn't happen nearly as often as I'd like it to.
Credits
Pedantics is using the Illusion theme by Hello New York.
http://www.upthestaircase.org/
Three rosettas (sort of).
Experimenting.
Wave heart.
![theatlantic:
The Return of the Novella, the Original #Longread
Publishers like short stories, and they love novels. But when a writer submits a mid-length work that falls somewhere between two genres, booksellers balk and editors narrow their eyes. This is the domain of the novella, an unfairly neglected literary art form that’s been practiced for centuries by celebrated writers—from Charles Dickens to Jane Smiley to Alain Mabanckou—yet faces an ongoing struggle for commercial viability. “For me, the word denotes a lesser genre,” literary agent Karolina Sutton told The Guardian in 2011. “If you pitch a book to a bookseller as a novel, you’re likely to get more orders than if you call it a novella.”
Mid-length works suffer from a koan-like criticism: They’re too short and they’re also too long. Novellas hog too much space to appear in magazines and literary journals, but they’re usually too slight to release as books. If a reader’s going to spend 16 bucks, the notion goes, he wants to take home a Franzen-size tome—not a slim volume he can slip in a jacket pocket. […]
Now the beleaguered genre, at long last, has found a worthy and consistent champion: Melville House Publishing, whose “Art of the Novella” series is an ongoing celebration of the form. The Brooklyn-based press offers 47—and counting—novellas from writers like Cervantes, Jane Austen, Anton Chekhov, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, and Virginia Woolf. Specifically drawing attention to the novella’s brevity, diversity, and lineage of distinguished practitioners, the series is the first of its kind.
Each sleek, modernist edition comes suited in a monochrome cover with French flaps. There are no blurb quotes, no graphics or illustrations. Just the author’s name, the title, and on the back, a pull quote. At nine dollars each, they’re a steal.
Read more. [Image: Melville House]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2zrm8v3ub1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
The Return of the Novella, the Original #Longread
Publishers like short stories, and they love novels. But when a writer submits a mid-length work that falls somewhere between two genres, booksellers balk and editors narrow their eyes. This is the domain of the novella, an unfairly neglected literary art form that’s been practiced for centuries by celebrated writers—from Charles Dickens to Jane Smiley to Alain Mabanckou—yet faces an ongoing struggle for commercial viability. “For me, the word denotes a lesser genre,” literary agent Karolina Sutton told The Guardian in 2011. “If you pitch a book to a bookseller as a novel, you’re likely to get more orders than if you call it a novella.”
Mid-length works suffer from a koan-like criticism: They’re too short and they’re also too long. Novellas hog too much space to appear in magazines and literary journals, but they’re usually too slight to release as books. If a reader’s going to spend 16 bucks, the notion goes, he wants to take home a Franzen-size tome—not a slim volume he can slip in a jacket pocket. […]
Now the beleaguered genre, at long last, has found a worthy and consistent champion: Melville House Publishing, whose “Art of the Novella” series is an ongoing celebration of the form. The Brooklyn-based press offers 47—and counting—novellas from writers like Cervantes, Jane Austen, Anton Chekhov, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, and Virginia Woolf. Specifically drawing attention to the novella’s brevity, diversity, and lineage of distinguished practitioners, the series is the first of its kind.
Each sleek, modernist edition comes suited in a monochrome cover with French flaps. There are no blurb quotes, no graphics or illustrations. Just the author’s name, the title, and on the back, a pull quote. At nine dollars each, they’re a steal.
Read more. [Image: Melville House]
(via dubliner)
The Inverted Bike Shop
Hanging heart
This video has gone viral in the last 24 hours. I posted it both here and on Facebook. It’s a wonderful message, and an admirable goal, but as with all things of importance, the situation is not as black and white as it appears at first glance.
There are problems with Invisible Children, the information they have provided in this video, and the objective they are attempting to achieve. In short, the army they propose we support, train and weaponise are little better than the LRA themselves. You can read about it here.
In short, the film above is a very well made piece. It tugs at the heartstrings in just the right way. It uses a number of mechanisms to get the viewer invested in the narrative. It asks very little of you, and promises that you can be part of something that makes the world a better place. And in the end, isn’t that what we all want?
But I feel manipulated. I was taken in by the emotional narrative of the video, and I didn’t ask any questions. I had no information outside of what was presented in the video. I have no idea of the political climate of Uganda, or Africa in general. I have no information about the Ugandan Army, or the government to which it is answerable. There is no substitute for critical thinking, especially in matters such as these.
Joseph Kony is a vile human being. But arming a group that have committed atrocities comparable to his in order to catch him is unacceptable.
(Source: kimpoyfeliciano, via dunnefrankowski)
When I open my coffee shop, I’m going to live there. I’ll wake up and serve coffee in my pajamas. I want customers to feel like they’re having an early morning breakfast at a close friends house after a fucked up night out.
Carpets, couches and croissants. Flat whites and blankets. Iced water and newspapers.
