Poetic License

Notes for a Blog Entry

Michele’s reaction to Career Opportunities — zoo employees’ wages = inappropriate response

“judge your friends by your poems, not your poems by your friends” (Kim Stafford)

Aristotle: fiction vs. history; what could have happened vs. what did happen

Brian’s girlfriend’s daughter’s girlfriend’s reaction to Hurt Locker — lacking in verisimilitude — but it wasn’t a documentary after all

the brouhaha over the memoir that was really more of a novel — people want to be tricked; they don’t want to have to work at suspending disbelief (whereas I can suspend disbelief at the drop of a hat)

Liar’s Club

“creative nonfiction”

little white lies

Last Gentlemen — premise

Kierkegaard’s pseudonyms

pseudonyms generally

identity

Lickona’s Alphonse — should he have used a pseudonym? (his Catholicism too much a known quantity? and then overexplaining it)

retelling tales

fish stories

aiming to entertain

Dylan: “I think of myself as a song and dance man”

The Man in the Sycamore Tree — “an entertainment” (Merton bio)

popular vs. scholarly

Comments

  1. Matthew Lickona says

    The decision to put my name on it was calculated – hoping that the Catholic fanbase – such as it is – would provide an initial groundswell, and that I could ride that into enough success to produce the whole series, at which point I could take it out into the mainstream. Didn't happen, of course.

    And yes, I overexplained it – but only after it refused to budge on its own.

    But waitaminute – Brian has a girlfriend?

  2. Rufus McCain says

    I think you should disavow it. Issue a press release saying you have nothing to do with this dreadful thing and that it's a case of reverse plagiarism cum identity theft. Then concoct the persona of a mysterious homeless teenage girl who is the actual author/illustrator.

  3. Matthew Lickona says

    It's too late – Google Cache has seen to it that the Internet trail will always lead straight back to me.

    But I like where your head's at.

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