28 Paul Di Filippo Quotes for You to Enjoy

Paul Di Filippo

American Writer

Born: Oct 29, 1954

Fiction Humanity Science Think Writing You

Related authors: Dale Carnegie Denis Waitley Dr. Seuss H. L. Mencken Napoleon Hill Ray Bradbury W. E. B. Du Bois William Arthur Ward

The three touchstones that woke Buddha up - sickness, old age, and death - are a pretty good place to start when crafting a tragic tale. And if we need to get more specific: heartbreak, destruction, miscomprehension, natural disasters, betrayal, and the waste of human potential. Paul Di Filippo

Death Good Age Natural Destruction Old Sickness Three Old Age Natural Disasters Good Place Pretty Pretty Good Betrayal More Potential Buddha Tale Disasters Woke Tragic Up Heartbreak Get Crafting Human Place Waste Specific Start Need

Certainly the highest posthumous praise that can be conferred upon any writer is the assertion that his or her writing permanently altered the literary landscape for the better, opening new textual doors and engaging new readers. That the author's oeuvre was essential and irreplaceable and transformative. Paul Di Filippo

Writing Better Doors Writer Highest New Opening Altered Readers Permanently Praise His Textual Author Conferred Any Essential Irreplaceable Literary Transformative Landscape Engaging Certainly Assertion Her

Thomas Pynchon surely inaugurated or crystallized a new genre in 1963 when he published 'V.' The seriocomic mystery or thriller with one foot set in the present and one in various historical eras received its postmodern baptism from Pynchon. Paul Di Filippo

Thomas Postmodern Thriller Various Mystery Foot He New Genre Surely Eras Historical Baptism Inaugurated Published Present Received Set

You could engineer a human to survive the greenhouse effect because you think that's what's going to happen, and then all of a sudden the glaciers are creeping down on you. Paul Di Filippo

You Engineer Down Think Could Glaciers Because Effect Survive Greenhouse Going Human Happen To Survive Then Sudden Creeping

Writers begin changing the instant they append 'The End' to a novel. Readers begin changing the moment they encounter that same phrase. And even the novels themselves, through the strange transmutations of time and shifting tastes and mores, exhibit changes as we look backward upon them, acquiring retroactive meanings and tonalities. Paul Di Filippo

Time Strange Shifting Changes Changing Backward Phrase Through Writers Instant Look Readers Exhibit Encounter End Begin Same Tastes Them Acquiring Themselves Meanings Moment Even Novel Novels

The lives of most authors - even, or perhaps especially, the great ones - are necessarily a catalogue of tedious inwardness and cloistered composition. Globe-trotting Hemingways and brawling Christopher Marlowes are the exception, not the rule. Paul Di Filippo

Great Christopher Rule Composition Great Ones Exception Catalogue Perhaps Most Authors Even Lives Necessarily Tedious

The sentient beast has long been a staple of fantasy fiction and its antecedents in myth and folktale. Paul Di Filippo

Long Beast Myth Been Fiction Fantasy Sentient Staple

It's certainly a cliche to remark that a nonfiction book 'reads just like a novel,' but in the case of Jonathan Eig's 'The Birth of the Pill,' I have no other recourse, since his narrative is full of larger-than-life characters sharply limned and embarked on fascinating doings, their story told in sprightly visual fashion. Paul Di Filippo

Fashion Book Other Birth Embarked Characters Visual Case Recourse Remark Jonathan Since Sharply Like Cliche Narrative Reads Nonfiction Pill His Just Story Full Certainly Fascinating Novel

Critics, at least generally, want to regard works of fiction as independent entities, whose virtues and failures must be reckoned apart from the circumstances of their creation, and even apart from the intentions of their creator. Paul Di Filippo

The constituents of tragedy may be universally acknowledged, easily invoked and deeply felt, but the elements of comedy are, I think, more widely variable from person to person. Paul Di Filippo

Comedy Think Easily Constituents Variable More Felt Tragedy Person May Acknowledged Elements Deeply Widely Universally

Consensus wisdom has it that all modern commercial fantasy novels fall into two camps: those derived from J.R.R. Tolkien and those derived from Mervyn Peake. The 'Lord of the Rings' template or the 'Gormenghast' mold. Paul Di Filippo

Wisdom Fall Those Rings Lord Lord Of The Rings Camps Commercial Modern Fantasy Mold Derived Tolkien Novels Consensus Two

Stephen King consummately honors several traditions with his rare paperback original, 'Joyland.' He addresses the novel of carny life and sideshows, where the midway serves as microcosm, such as in those famous books by Ray Bradbury, Charles Finney and William Lindsay Gresham. Paul Di Filippo

Life Rare King Address Books Honors Several Paperback Those William Charles He Stephen King Ray Ray Bradbury Lindsay His Traditions Microcosm Famous Where Midway Original Novel Serve

Blending consensus historical events and personages with imaginary occult forces is a strong recipe for counterfactual storytelling goodness that combines the best of two worlds: resonant history with wild-eyed fantasy. Paul Di Filippo

Best History Events Strong Goodness Recipe Resonant Worlds Blending Forces Occult Historical Storytelling Fantasy Consensus Imaginary Two

War has always been a part of science fiction. Even before the birth of SF as a standalone genre in 1926, speculative novels such as 'The Battle of Dorking' from 1871 showed how SF's trademark 'what if' scenarios could easily encompass warfare. Paul Di Filippo

Writing one's first novel, getting it sold, and shepherding it through the labyrinths of editing, production, marketing, journalism, and social media is an arduous and nerve-wracking process. Paul Di Filippo

Writing Editing Social Media First Sold Marketing Arduous Through Journalism Getting Process Social Production Novel Media

'James and the Giant Peach' magnificently starts out Dahl's career as a blithe and droll Bad Uncle corrupter and affirmer of youth. Its influence can be subsequently traced down the decades in everything from Maurice Sendak to Lemony Snicket to J. K. Rowling. Paul Di Filippo

Youth Uncle Down Starts Everything Giant Out Bad Decades Subsequently Influence James Peach Rowling Career

The science-fictional motif of lethal, infectious information - bad memes - is a fascinating one, with an extended history. One of the earliest instances is Robert W. Chambers's 'The King in Yellow' from 1895. Chambers's conceit is a malevolent play: read beyond Act II, and you go mad. Paul Di Filippo

There must be a rule of thumb in pop-culture archaeology that states that the allure of any topic is inversely related to its assigned importance in the affairs of humanity. The more trivial the subject, the dearer it is to most of its partisans and the more worthy of scholarship. The smallest things in life often mean the most to people. Paul Di Filippo

Life Humanity People Related Rule States Topic Must Worthy Archaeology More Trivial Inversely Scholarship Allure Thumb Smallest Importance Most Dearer Affairs Subject Any Often Mean Assigned Things

Just as our solar system has a certain idiosyncratic assortment of planets and moons, different from any neighboring system yet categorically equivalent, so each distinct period of human history might have special qualities and individuals, characteristics and events, yet still be essentially akin beneath the surface to all the others. Paul Di Filippo

History Events Solar Beneath Others Our Solar System Distinct Neighboring Characteristics System Individuals Categorically Period Qualities Surface Still Equivalent Any Human Essentially Just Different Might Human History Certain Planets Special Each

One posthumous measure of a person's life is how often you imagine his impossible return to deal with some event he never lived to encounter. You picture his reactions, his advice, his sage commentary and humorous asides. For instance, I think about Mark Twain's hypothetical take on current events several times a week. Paul Di Filippo

Life You Events Impossible Picture Advice Think Mark Humorous Several Some About Week Take Never Instance He Hypothetical Reactions Return Deal Sage How His Encounter Commentary Times Person Current Current Events Often Measure Twain Lived Event Imagine

It is truly bracing and instructive to contemplate the End Times - at least at safe remove, in the pages of fiction - especially as the world beyond our hearths churns and convulses unknowably, yet perhaps just short of ultimate disaster. Paul Di Filippo

World Remove Our Contemplate Disaster Perhaps Beyond Safe Least Ultimate Truly End Times Short Just Fiction Pages

Ribofunk indicates a focus on biology as the upcoming big science in the way that physics was for the last 50 or 100 years. If you look for a biological thread throughout science fiction, you can find it, but it's a very small percentage of the total. That's been changing in the last few years. Paul Di Filippo

You Science Physics Focus Big Few Biology Changing Way Find Thread Total Percentage Small Throughout Look Science Fiction Been Years Very Fiction Biological Last Last Few Years

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