Tag Archives: literature

A prize-worthy force – Extract from How to Read

By TF | Published: May 7, 2010
It appears to me quite tenable that the function of literature as a generated prize-worthy force is precisely that it does incite humanity to continue living; that it eases the mind of strain, and feeds it, I mean definitely as nutrition of impulse. This idea may worry lovers of order. Just as good literature does often [...]
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The short story paradox

By TF | Published: March 4, 2010
Writing and publishing short stories is a part of the writer’s apprenticeship – but publishers don’t believe short stories sell. This is a problem. If publishers say short story collections don’t sell, I would argue it’s not, for the most part, conspiratorial. They’re talking about sales figures, and you can bet if they did sell, short [...]
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The law of mankind – Extract from Les Miserables

By TF | Published: June 27, 2009
He was never quick to condemn and he always took into account the surrounding circumstances. He would say, “Let’s see how this sin came to pass.” Being, as he laughingly described himself, an ex-sinner, he had nothing of the purest about him and boldly professed, without the mad frowning of the ferociously virtuous, a doctrine that [...]
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The face of death

By TF | Published: June 9, 2009
A young Persian gardener said to his Prince: “Save me! I met death this morning. He made a threatening face at me. Tonight, I would like, by some miracle, to be in Ispahan.” The bountiful Prince lends him his horses. That afternoon, the Prince encounters Death, and asks: “Why did you make a threatening face at our gardener [...]
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