Writing advice from Florence King (Southern, lesbian, conservative humorist)

[ceebeegee]

8. DO NOT review any book about Ayn Rand. Even if you rave it, her gremlins will find something to go bananas about and write you a letter: 'Dear Social Metaphysician! Examine your anti-Objectivist premises and you will see that your epistemology stinks!!!'

I loved this author in high school and college. She wrote a bunch of great books, including Southern Ladies and Gentlemen, Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady and my favorite, When Sisterhood Was in Flower. The latter has a section where the protagonist is writing porn novels and hates it, and develops a writerly tic as a reaction to her situation--maniacally elegant grammar, such as:

On whom did you go down?
His cock is not so large as Bob's.
I have fewer rubbers than I thought.
If this be the clap, I'll kill you.

Comments

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

Florence King used to write a regular column for National Review, called "The Misanthrope's Corner." Amazing writing. I was very sad to see her leave NR. She's got a relatively new book out, Stet, Damn It!, which I believe contains a bunch of her NR columns. Must check out that book!

I haven't forgotten about getting you a copy of Fountainhead. I just need to know in advance the next time you'll be in town. Presumably Heidi's party on Sunday?

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Sounds good.

I'd heard that King wrote for the Review which strikes me as odd, since she wrote quite graphically about her lesbian experiences. OTOH, she is to the right of Attila the Hun.

If you ever read Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady there's an hilarious section about how as a ninth-grader she wants to emulate the characters in Fountainhead. "In the name of individualism, I quit Le Cercle Francais. I longed to quit organizations right and left, but the French club was the only one I'd ever joined. I gave some thought to ending all my friendships, but having only two, it hardly seemed worthwhile."

[foulpost.livejournal.com]

I should read some of her stuff. Sounds very mind stretching. Luckily, as a History Major, I already know what episotomology is.