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Michael Merschel: Michael Merschel is The Dallas Morning News books editor. September 2009
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A salute to William Safire, wordsmith "Oxford American's" Southern Lit poll: Yep, it's full of Faulkner Let us now praise punctuation. Punctuation? Punctuation! "Best American" poet Michael Grabell on journalism and poetry Books on book clubs -- is your favorite listed? Sachse-Wylie Author Festival starts Saturday Review of and excerpt from Oprah pick "Say You're One of Them" Recent Comments
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Dallas Morning News staff writers Stella Chávez and Dianne Solís took in appearances this weekend in Denton from Guillermo Arriaga, one of Mexico's gifted story-tellers and a lover of books. Here's their report: But it's books, rather than films, that really move Arriaga's heart. And he's written a few: A Sweet Scent of Death, The Night Buffalo and a collection of short stories titled Retorno 201. Books, he says, are the most perfect object because of their portability and ability to transport the imagination and shape thinking, he told those gathered at his lectures at the University of North Texas. When we lose the capability of reading, we lose our inner life, our ability to take it slower and ponder the meaning of a good story, says the Mexico City native. The long-time college professor warned writers not to try to be deep or to make moral judgments but to just tell a story. "If you want to be deep on purpose, you become pretentious," he said. If you are a deep person, it will show in the story-telling, he said. And he added that he hates propaganda. Like many Mexican book lovers, Arriaga is a big fan of William Faulkner, an author first and an occasional screenwriter who knew well the contradictions of the South. Perhaps Arriaga's ardor for Faulkner's prose is because the South is so like Mexico with its own clashing contradictions. (DMN file photo.) E-mail entry: |
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