Comments for That Shakespearean Rag

Comment on “I am fine with being marginal”: Poet and essayist Catherine Owen by yet another poet

yet another poet — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 20:56:52 +0000

“Further, the publishing scene is glutted by MFA products who seem to use their book publication as merely another addition to their CV, caring little whether it is sold, lacking interest in touring it, and being indifferent to much but cachet.”

I’m curious to whom she is referring here. I don’t see this at all.

Comment on “I am fine with being marginal”: Poet and essayist Catherine Owen by Patricia Webb

Patricia Webb — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 03:03:18 +0000

Amen to that.
The “scene” is flooded with writers spoon feeding us trendy, speedy, kitchen sink lines that lead nowhere. Or worse, educated writers who have craft but no substance. Hey, if you don’t care passionately, deeply about what you’re writing, then why should I? No, it’s not a poem just because you mentioned Commercial Drive, or Buddhism, or some trending cause. No, it’s not a poem if it’s backbone consists of quotes from other & better writers. No, it’s definately not a poem just because you sat in a cafe on Main & felt poetic, and decided the repetion of the word Vegan was somehow incredibly meaningul. Read poetry, study the craft, write, re-write, feel it, taste it, argue with it. Give us your best, most lucid lines, the ones you’ve tested for buoyancy, rhythm & strength, the ones that make you cry or laugh or scream. Poetry should make you feel something.

Comment on Shortcuts: a new National Post column on short fiction by saleema

saleema — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:43:54 +0000

This is a wonderful addition to the Afterword, and you’re the perfect person to write it! Really looking forward to the reviews.

Comment on Shortcuts: a new National Post column on short fiction by Alex

Alex — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 22:27:58 +0000

Congrats Steve. Sounds like it will be good.

Comment on Nicole Dixon review, holiday party guests by Alex

Alex — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 15:08:55 +0000

Yes, but, cliches only get to be cliches because they have some grounding in truth.

When you say, “the kind of lyrical historical romance that was, for some time, the default CanLit setting” the implication is that we have moved on. I’m not so sure. As anyone working in the frontlines of CanLit, seeing the mass of all that comes in for review, knows, the historical romance is still alive and well in this country. It may not be the default setting, but I’d wager it’s still the dominant mode, especially among the bigger publishing houses (the small presses tend to go their own way).

Comment on My name is Steven, and I am a copy editor by saleema

saleema — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 21:59:57 +0000

Oh god, yes. The worst feeling as a copy-editing-oriented writer is getting your MS back from a reputable publisher and seeing things that have been changed by an editor or copy editor TO BE WRONG. My indignation knows no bounds at that point.

I have a friend who got into a major squabble with the press who published her novel over ungrammatical changes they kept trying to make on jacket copy that they had asked her to write (for her own book). Ugh ugh ugh.

Comment on My name is Steven, and I am a copy editor by Nigel Beale

Nigel Beale — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 17:02:18 +0000

Yeats couldn’t spell.

Comment on My name is Steven, and I am a copy editor by ZW

ZW — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 14:33:42 +0000

I don’t think computers have anything to do with making mistakes, but I think digitized text has a lot to do with preserving mistakes. It’s just too damn easy to go from ms. to finished book now. Steps that were once de rigueur get skipped. Like copy editing. And proof reading. The two are often conflated and they shouldn’t be. Every book should go through a copy edit, followed by a proof read. But the evidence suggests neither happens at most presses these days.

Comment on My name is Steven, and I am a copy editor by Alex

Alex — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:18:52 +0000

As always, I blame the Internet and computers.

I’ve yet to see any reporting on this, but for some reason my brain (and I think from the evidence this happens to a lot of people) just freezes or goes to sleep when keyboarding (commenting on a blog or writing emails). Especially when it comes to homophones. I’m always subsituting a wrong word that sounds the same when I’m writing something online. I’m talking howler mistakes that I’d never make if I was writing something out longhand (like reigns and reins). And then of course those are the mistakes that tools like spellcheck won’t catch because you’ve spelled the word correctly, it’s just that it’s the wrong word.

The missing apostrophe in public however has been with us for a while. I think that’s just laziness and most people making those signs don’t care anyway (the point of the sign is just to convey information quickly, and it does that job with or without correct use of an apostrophe).

Comment on My name is Steven, and I am a copy editor by Brian Palmu

Brian Palmu — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 05:39:00 +0000

I here you!