words fly
The Decline of the Newspaper Industry
Joseph Pulitzer invented the idea of the journalism school before 1900. These institutions spread over time but didn’t really take hold until the 1960s. By 1970, newspapers had begun to decline. Coincidence?
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Frank McCourt on Writer’s Block
Steve Martin said that writer’s block is just an excuse people use to go out and get drunk.
I don’t believe in writer’s block either. You never hear about it on the other side of the Atlantic [i.e., back in Europe]. You never hear about English or French writers talk about writer’s block. That’s here. [...]
I have elevated scribbling to an art. Young people are always asking me, ‘how do you write, how do you go about it?’. I say, ‘well, scribble! Sit down and scribble! Put down whatever comes to your head’. I have lists of neighbors back in Limerick, and in New York, lists of students I’ve had in New York City high schools, schools I’ve been in, meals that I’ve had (that was a very short list in Ireland: tea and bread!).
One of the big words going around nowadays is ‘resonate’. I could put down the name of a street in Limerick, or I put down the name of a street in Grenchwich Village, and there’s a story attached to it, something happened there, so that there’s no reason or writer’s block; you can recall the past or characters, you can keep working all the time, you don’t have to go off and get drunk.