Commentary

Not the Marriage Plot: On Men Reading Novels in the 21st Century

Marriages or running from them are both creative acts.
~ davidbiddle ~ 5 Comments

I originally posted a version of this in 2013. Seems useful still, now, these days of lost men and boys (not all of us, but maybe too many). Apologies for length. What’s a novelist to do?

Here’s what I think about at some point of every day:

What is going on in this world that would lead so many men far, far away from reading modern literary novels?

I’ve written here at this blog and in other places around the Internet about my overall concern for literary fiction. A helluva lot of intelligent people want nothing to do with it anymore. Before the Internet took hold (about 30 years ago), I thought that somehow it was just my little world here in Philadelphia. Over the past three decades or so, however, it’s become quite obvious as I travel around the Internet (and parts of the country where they play minor league baseball) that most people in America at least don’t give a shit about serious fiction.

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Is the Book World Done with Science Fiction?

~ davidbiddle ~ Leave a comment

A version of this essay was posted last year, but is certainly worth posting again in modified form given, finally, the publication of Sound Effect Infinity by Flat Branch Press.

I’d guess most hardcore readers of what used to be called “science fiction” know that the book industry has decided to wrap fantasy and science fiction into a single package they’re calling “speculative fiction.” However, the music world is also attempting to lump smooth jazz and R&B into “neo soul,” so…

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The Effect of Amplified Sound

~ David Biddle ~ Leave a comment

Crazy new sounds and melodies consistently showed up on the radio for those of us growing up in the 1950s and 1960s (and on into the early 1970s). Every week or so brought astoundingly unique, creative, highly developed songwriting, production, and performance that constantly knocked our socks off…again, and again, and again. The record companies back then understood they could only partially make the call about what would work and what wouldn’t. Artists ruled. So did their listeners.

I still remember hearing “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” in the first few days of 1964 right after it came out. I remember as well Elton John’s “Rocket Man” in April 1972, and “Sweet Caroline,” by Neil Diamond in May of 1969, both within the first day or two of release. And so many more. We were all sitting-duck virgins over and over again, sometimes on a daily basis, waiting for the latest by the performers we loved (and didn’t know we would come to love). DJs could be so artful with our pristine ears: “Here’s a new one from a guy we’ve never heard of named Don McLean. The song is called ‘American Pie.’ Weird name, but I think you’ll like it.”

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What About Emotion in Fiction?

~ David Biddle ~ Leave a comment

I recently received an email telling me that someone “liked” a comment/post I made to a Substack last June. One wonderful thing about writing when you’re in your last quarter is that you often forget about some of the stuff you wrote–both on the fly and even stories and passages in novels you’ve been working (for far too long). The forgetting allows at times happy surprise and even pride.

Indeed, I’m quite happy, surprised, and even cant’ help feeling a little pride in what I wrote below. If you go back in my website here, you’ll find numerous references to this issue over the past decade and a half.

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How We Tell the Story Together

Notes on the Story of the Golden Country
~ David Biddle ~ Leave a comment

Rebecca Solnit writes comfortably in multiple veins as geographer, historian, environmentalist, memoirist, feminist, humanist, journalist, activist, even novelist. It’s pretty clear to me that she is one of our finest writers. In particular, her consistent artistic and poetic approach to essays and long-form narrarative is always surprisingly insightful and enlightening. And the way she writes, melding deeply personal perspective with a constant drive to pull back the curtain on the special ironies and contortions of American life, is the rarist form of reporting and commentary I know of – especially here in the 21st century (which, may I remind you, is now 25% in the can and still foaming).

Lately, Solnit’s been up on the battlements pushing hard to turn the tide in this current attempted

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Who’s In Charge Here, Soldier?

~ David Biddle ~ 1 Comment

One of my favorite scenes in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 movie, Apocalypse Now, is when Martin Sheen’s character, Captain Willard, has landed on a river bank in the dead of night during a major fire fight between US troops and their hidden North Vietnamese opponents. With young Lance (who is tripping on acid) in tow, he is trying to locate a commanding officer in the midst of all the chaos and violence and fear. Willard asks two guys hunkered down in a trench who their commanding officer is. One turns and says, “Ain’t you?”

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Wielding Hope and Dreams

~ David Biddle ~ Leave a comment

Back in March, TW Magazine published commentary by me called “Which Way We Going Now?” What I wondered in that piece was how artists of all types were going to respond to changes forced on us by this new administration. 

The last time we had to deal with those same folks, the only significant artistic attempts to consistently address problems they were creating for the country seemed to come from comedians (and cable news talking heads having fun with various eye-rolling group exercise sessions). Now, however, we are living with a 2nd Term version of what some call the most incompetent, venal, and hostile administration in history. I promise not to go into detail about their shenanigans. Anything I attempt to describe explicitly from yesterday will be overshadowed by new bizarre travesties tomorrow. 

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Loving Day at 58 (Kinda…)

Rescinding dates for miscegenation laws in America
~ David Biddle ~ Leave a comment

June 12 is a special day. I’d guess most of my Facebook Friends are aware of Loving Day. Doesn’t take much to understand why. J.D. Vance might understand better than many of you. Same with Clarence Thomas. Also Barack Obama and yours truly (along with my enormous extended family). Actually, the list is virtually endless the world over even though most people don’t realize it.

But, a question: Have you found information on what this date is about in your local paper or any of your regular news sources? And how much detail did you get?

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Which Way We Going Now?

~ David Biddle ~ Leave a comment

On being an artist in this strange new world

I’ve been wondering about two things ever since the spring of 2016 when Donald Trump began winning primaries and getting all sorts of weird media attention. First off, were the Republican Party and its voters really willing to accept responsibility for the direction that guy wanted to push them? And, secondly, how much would the art world step up as a reaction to what Trump and his ilk seemed to want to do to our country? 

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