Monday, March 23, 2009

Remember the Grumpy Old Bookman?

Michael Allen doesn't seem to be blogging any more, and he has an inexplicable fondness for Ian Fleming. Yet his was one of my favorite literary blogs.

Its great strength was its frankness, as evidenced in this post from 2005, arguing that writing is bad for your health and general emotional well-being. Among the comments is one from me (back when I was naive and innocent and not yet a blogger) trying to cobble together a counter-argument...

I do share some of the Grumpy Old Bookman's tastes as a reader, incidentally -- Neal Stephenson for example, and Susanna Clarke. And the post I just linked to references such fine authors as Robert M. Sapolsky and Nassim Nicholas Taleb -- now there's a fellow more people should have listened to!

The question of whether writers are perforce doomed to a life of misery and woe is one to which we shall be returning...
Posted by James Warner at 3/23/2009 06:39:00 PM

5 comments:

  1. Taleb..? You respond to him? Two people gave me the book, I skimmed through and decided... not for moi. Don't know why. Nothing against the theory that unexpected, rare events have a disproportionately large role in shaping the world. I guess my theory is that sometimes they do and sometimes... they don't.
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  2. Your comment will be visible after approval - approval for what?
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  3. Taleb - If you're referring to the credit crunch, how could listening to him have helped?
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  4. See the "Quotes & Warnings the Imbeciles Chose to Ignore" page at http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/imbeciles.htm
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  5. Michael Allen is a fine man who helped me move www.notbornyesterday.org from a minor blog to a mainstream UK anti-Establishment site.

    See the latest on Gordon Brown at http://www.notbornyesterday.org/brownhealth.htm and the follow-up http://www.notbornyesterday.org/brownhealth2.htm

    To date,34,000 Google-listed sites have picked this up. As one of our main allies,you guys should be aware of the likelihood that Britain's PM is completely out of it and going blind: no wonder Obama said he found Brown 'depressing'.

    John Ward
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