Archive for April, 2006

In Case You Were Wondering If Life Is Fair . . .

Saturday, April 29th, 2006

Or anything remotely close to it?

Unless you’re having oxygen pumped into your time capsule, you’ve probably heard all you can stand about Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard University sophomore who attracted a whole lot of attention to herself and her chick-lit novel, How Opal Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, when she admitted to copying parts of the book from two other young adult novels by Megan McCafferty. You’ve probably also heard that while Ms. Viswanathan has admitted to the plagiarism, she insists it was an “unintentional and unconscious” mistake and may have been the result of her “photographic memory.”

Unintentional and unconscious? Photographic memory? This story could be mined for snazzy one-liners until Christmas if it wasn’t so morally depressing. And it gets worse, or better, depending on which side of profit margin you’re on.

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Under Construction

Thursday, April 27th, 2006

Just a quick note to state the obvious: this blog is still under construction.

If your interested, there’s a parent site, also under construction. Not much there right now, but I’m working on it.

If you spot a problem or want to make a suggestion, you can drop a line to The Fisherman at webmaster@thereluctantfisherman.com. If you want to pay me a compliment, be sure to send me an e-mail, ‘cause it gets lonely out here in cyberspace.

Posted in Site News | No Comments »

Apoplectic?

Wednesday, April 26th, 2006

Erica Jong, author of the 1973 bestseller Fear of Flying (and a host of other books), has written a new book, Seducing the Demon.

What I remember about Fear of Flying, what really sticks in my mind, is a passing comment made in an undergraduate literature class by a professor who was trying to save the world and all its animals (not so worried about the humans, though) by wearing long baggy dresses and not bathing regularly. Her success, as you might imagine, was a bit handicapped by her hygiene choices. Anyway, it wasn’t really a comment. It was more of a word.

And the word was lusty.

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The Reluctant What?

Tuesday, April 25th, 2006

I know what you’re thinking. “The Reluctant Fisherman? You should call this The Reluctant Writer!”

Well, I’ve been busy lately. Okay, that’s not exactly true. I say this because an honest answer would be a bit difficult to explain. But, to quote Bogart, “I’ll try once and we’ll leave it at that.”
You see, in the beginning there are words and they sound so much better in your head than they appear on paper. In your head, they’re like characters from a Gershwin musical, they’ve got rhythm, they’ve got style. They clean up the dance floor with their coolness.

But try to put them on paper and suddenly they’re as nervous as a group of teenagers at their first prom.

It’s the difference between vision and execution.

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Posted in Musings and Other Nonsense | No Comments »