Photo by kushwahaSome of Mamet's popular works include Glengarry Glen Ross and Wag the Dog.
A couple of eye-grabbing excerpts from the article:
From the writer of the piece, Alex Pappademas:
"[In] a glib, bloggy age where the romantic ideal of the Writer has been replaced by images of the sad-sack content providers, hunched over their iBooks at the corner coffeehouse, dreaming of health insurance, Mamet's still out there doing manly things (jujitsu! The man is 60!) in order to write about them..."
From Mamet himself, quoted in the article:
"Y'know, I grew up in a different generation. I grew up after World War II, and boys did different things in those days. You went camping. You went hunting. You boxed. And the image of a writer, to someone starting off in those days, was not some schmuck who went to graduate school. It was Jack London, Nelson Algren, Ernest Hemingway. Especially coming from Chicago--a writer was a knock-around guy. Someone who got a job as a reporter or drove a cab. I think the reason there are a lot of novels about How Mean My Mother Was To Me...is because the writers may have learned something called 'technique,' but they've neglected to have a life. What...are they gonna write about?"
Great insight.
There are so many people writing about so many things today, but how many of us have actually lived a life full of experiences that give real credence to our writing?
It's one thing to research something and then write about it; it's another to have actually experienced it and then write about it from the heart.
Read the entire profile in this month's issue of GQ magazine.
**Note: as mentioned above, Mamet is sometimes fairly vulgar, so the article contains some salty language. It's not terrible, but it's enough to warrant mention.**
Updates
I posted earlier this week that I'm getting rid of Entrecard and that I'm giving away my built-up credits, which are now over 200. By the end of the week, when I finally remove the widget (after all of the currently scheduled ads have finished running), I will have over 200 Entrecard credits. If you want them, get five people to sign up for my feed and email me the names and blogs of the five people you referred--I'll transfer my 200 credits to your Entrecard account. First come, first served.
Last week, I ran a post on author George Beahm's new sales and marketing blog, noting that he was off to a fast start, posting 15 times in three days. Well...he's already killed it, with plans to renew it soon as a blog about the "business of writing, editing, publishing, marketing, selling, and promoting books," he says, which has been his profession for the past 30 years.
I've Moved--Please Read
My new blog is Robust Writing, at robustwriting.com/blogSign up for the new feed at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/RobustWriting
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