ENDS AND MEANS (AGAIN)

the old end justifies the means argument rests on the assumption that neither one is fictional.  in reality the means are everpresent and ruefully if not brutally real while the ends never arrive, but are always just one more action away, retreating apace as the troops advance, like the mirage they are.   

SEEMS SIMPLE

I've been watching a number of miniseries lately, as I have written one based on a novel of mine, THE UNSAID, and I am discovering a fairly simple principle that seems to have escaped much of history (and entertainment): you can't make a good world by doing bad things.

READING THE PLAGUE

am re-reading Camus' The Plague after many years absence. I see once again what I learned a long time ago when I first read it: for a serious writer there are two jobs; one is to tell the truth, the other is to know what the truth is.