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Joel Whitney

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Joel Whitney

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Born
in The United States
November 30

Website

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Member Since
June 2016


Joel Whitney is the author of Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers (OR Books) and a cofounder of Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics, for which he is a recipient of the 2017 PEN/Nora Magid award for magazine editing. Finks has been called "riveting" (Kirkus), "ingeniously researched..." (Pankaj Mishra in The Guardian's Best of the Year Roundup), “a fascinating mix of political history [and] literary history” (New York Times), “an essential book” (Los Angeles Review of Books) and “a powerful warning” (The New Republic). His essays in Dissent and Salon were Notables in Best American Essays 2015 and 2013. Other work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic and The Paris Review. More here: joelwhitney.net. ...more

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Joel Whitney I read, I play music, I go for a walk. Repeat. And I try to figure out what the dead spot or the blind spot was in the last section I wrote that might…moreI read, I play music, I go for a walk. Repeat. And I try to figure out what the dead spot or the blind spot was in the last section I wrote that might be hindering me. I also try to make conscious what I'm afraid of saying. In the case of Finks, I didn't want to condemn any of the Cold War, mostly dead writers whose careers I was examining through the lens of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the battle against the Soviets, and the CIA. While I may have pointed to some flaws in the program, as it were, I tried as often as I could to follow john a. powell's rule. I think he wrote or said something to the effect of, "Be soft on the person and hard on the institution." The point is that sometimes your writer's block is telling you something and you have to listen for what it is. And sometimes you need a little space from something new or something too intense. Sometimes it's good to let it breathe for a day or two.(less)
Average rating: 4.05 · 175 ratings · 30 reviews · 6 distinct worksSimilar authors
Finks: How the CIA Tricked ...

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Lenapehoking

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Flights: Radicals on the Run

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Conversations, Vol. 1

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The Business Service Manage...

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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All About Books: April 2018 - What will you be reading? 27 42 Apr 29, 2018 12:00AM  
Pablo Picasso
“What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes, if he is a painter, or ears if he is a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he is a poet, or even, if he is a boxer, just his muscles? Far from it: at the same time he is also a political being, constantly aware of the heartbreaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. How could it be possible to feel no interest in other people, and with a cool indifference to detach yourself from the very life which they bring to you so abundantly? No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.”
Pablo Picasso

Julian Barnes
“I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. How could we not,except in a world of perfect parents, siblings, neighbours, companions? And then there is the question on which so much depends, of how we react to the damage: whether we admit it or repress it,and how this affects our dealings with others.Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it;some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and there are those whose main concern is to avoid further damage to themselves, at whatever cost. And those are the ones who are ruthless, and the ones to be careful of.”
Julian Barnes , The Sense of an Ending

Henry Miller
“To walk in money through the night crowd, protected by money, lulled by money, dulled by money, the crowd itself a money, the breath money, no least single object anywhere that is not money, money, money everywhere and still not enough, and then no money, or a little money or less money or more money, but money, always money, and if you have money or don't have money it is the money that counts and money makes money, but what makes money make money?”
Henry Miller

Stephen        King
“Friends don’t spy; true friendship is about privacy, too.”
Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis

Ken Follett
“A very good editor is almost a collaborator.”
Ken Follett

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