Writing a new type of fiction after you’ve dedicated years honing another might be the bast thing for you, although maybe not your reader
Author Archives: Jack Canfora
Come See My Reading on April 11th!
You’re invited to a special reading of a new play by Jack Canfora, A VICIOUS CIRCLE. The reading, on April 11th at 1:00 and 6:00 at Open Jar Studios, (1601 Broadway, between 48th and 49th, 11th floor, Studio 12J), is a simultaneously laugh-out-loud and soul-wrenching drama about Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and the trauma, loneliness,Continue reading “Come See My Reading on April 11th!”
A Few Pedantic Words About Crazy vs. Irrational
We have to learn that evil doesn’t equal irrational, or we’ll be miscalculating the way Putin thinks
You Can’t Go Home Again (The Packing Alone Will Stop You)
Yesterday, I stepped out the door of my childhood home for the final time. I moved there in early 1978 (I distinctly recall thinking at the time how long ago that was), and apart from a 14 month sojourn in London, stayed there through the early 1990s, apart from when I was away at college.Continue reading “You Can’t Go Home Again (The Packing Alone Will Stop You)”
Context > Text
I’ll start with a tangent (can you begin with a tangent? If you’re starting with it, by definition it’s the thing your discussing. Anyway): today in the American Northeast, January is wearing the look that earned it its street cred: impossibly depressing wet snow that can’t even reach the muddy dead grass without corroding intoContinue reading “Context > Text”
Must Great Artists Act Like Bad People? Joan Didion Had Some Thoughts
She was unquestionably a GREAT writer. So, then, what is that special quality that separates the good, even the gifted writers, from those who works will be read 50 and even 100 years from now. Didion felt quite sure – and was happy to talk openly about it – that quality is ruthlessness. She was, with admirable frankness, unambiguous about expressing this idea. She referred to writing as an “act of aggression,” and added, “there’s no getting around the fact that setting words on paper is the tactic of a secret bully, an invasion, an imposition of the writer’s sensibility on the reader’s most private space.”
A Letter For Those Who Feel Lonely At Christmas
And the bonus is, it wasn’t written by me, but by someone much better, and better still, now long since gone past the point of copyright concerns! Besides, the letter is written to someone named Kappus, which I repeatedly misread as Krappus, so that’s comic gold right there… Rome, 23 December 1903 My dear MrContinue reading “A Letter For Those Who Feel Lonely At Christmas”
Lend Me Your Ears And I’ll Sing You A Song, Or At Least Unpack a Nine Hour Documentary
I’d not planned on posting in depth about “Get Back,” but after a couple of people expressed disbelief that I hadn’t, I realized, “Hasn’t my entire life on social media been leading up to this?” Fair point. So, having had some time (not enough, I’ll be returning to and unpacking this behemoth for a whileContinue reading “Lend Me Your Ears And I’ll Sing You A Song, Or At Least Unpack a Nine Hour Documentary”
Things No One Has Ever Said To Me
“You make it look so easy.” “Could you tell us another piece of trivia?” “Eyes were bigger than your stomach, eh?” “What should I invest in?” “But you dance so beautifully!” “You have a mind like Aristotle’s, only funnier” “Please, just ONE more song!” “Your eyes…I can’t describe them precisely, but have you ever beenContinue reading “Things No One Has Ever Said To Me”
Nothing is Nice (In a Good Way)
Trigger Warning: this post has no content. Not literally, obviously. I mean, the very words “this post has no content” proves that there IS content. I mean, there’s nothing in this post in terms of, well, anything. It’s a blank canvass, minus the blankness and the canvass. This piece is pure Zen, but without theContinue reading “Nothing is Nice (In a Good Way)”