If This Isn't From a Book, It Should Be
-
Showing posts tagged Fiction
-
Rant: On Fern Britton and Sci-Fi
And now for another edition of “David D— Gets Riled Up About Something Insignificant” [Does What It Says On the Box].
Below you should find a YouTube link to a recent edition of Room 101, a show where panellists attempt to banish various pet peeves to the famous torture chamber from George Orwell’s 1984: “The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.”
Now, the average episode is always bound to have a controversial choice or three. I’m usually forgiving when a guest nominates something I hold dear because the guest is usually an articulate, intelligent, and hilarious person. He is, of course, completely wrong to hate the thing I love, but at least he makes a good case amusingly said.Not so here when Fern Britton nominates Science Fiction to Room 101. Not only does Fern Britton nominate something near and dear to my heart, but she argues her nomination for the most ludicrous reasons and in the most unpleasant tone.
-
”One of the differences between being a novelist and a poet is that the novelist kind of moves into your house. I mean, it takes three days or three weeks to read a novel. I think of the novelist as a houseguest. The poet is more someone who just appears. You know, a door opens, and there’s the poet! He says something about life or death, closes the door and is gone. Who was that masked man? I like that kind of sudden appearance. Not overstaying your welcome, you might say.
Billy Collins
