podcasting – Page 2 – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: Q&A with ‘Aristotle for Novelists’ author Douglas Vigliotti

‘… being “unbelievable” is not a good thing.’

What can we learn about writing a novel from an ancient Greek philosopher who never wrote a novel himself? Plenty, if that ancient Greek philosopher is Aristotle, according to author and podcaster Douglas Vigliotti.

In his latest book, Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story, Vigliotti draws from Aristotle’s Poetics to provide a framework for storytelling in the modern age.

“For centuries, dramatic writers have relied on Aristotelian principles to write their stories for the screen and stage — the same stories you stream and watch today,” Vigliotti writes. “But for the first time ever, the timeless principles from Aristotle’s esteemed Poetics have been adapted for novelists.”

In this Q&A, Vigliotti shares what inspired him to delve into Aristotle’s writings, discusses how these principles can benefit novelists (and other writers), and talks a bit about his podcast, Books for Men.

Friday Five: St. Patrick’s Day Eve edition

Missouri S&T's first female St. Pat is geology student Katelyn Jones, shown here with S&T interim Chancellor Chris Maples and members of her Court of St. Patrick. (Photo by Sam O'Keefe/Missouri S&T) — Missouri S&T’s first female St. Pat is geology student Katelyn Jones, shown here with S&T interim Chancellor Chris Maples and members of her Court of St. Patrick. (Photo by Sam O’Keefe/Missouri S&T)

This post has absolutely nothing to do with St. Patrick’s Day. But working at Missouri S&T as I do, we are in the midst of our 110th annual celebration of St. Pat’s — and it’s the first in the history of this storied event in which a woman is portraying the venerable saint of engineers — so I feel an obligation to reference this holiday in some fashion. And if you read no further than this lead paragraph, then you should at least try your hand at our old-school snake invasion video game. You’ll thank me later for wasting your Friday. Continue reading “Friday Five: St. Patrick’s Day Eve edition”

Friday Five: clearing the cache edition

Cleaning out some starred items from the RSS reader:

Michael Stoner wonders: Who listens to podcasts, anyway? Good question. And Stoner sort of answers.
A university gets possessive. Via University Business, the Boston Globe reports on Boston University President Bob Brown’s “test-driving” of a new slogan for the campus: “Boston’s University.” It sounds like Brown has convinced Globe columnist Alex Beam, anyway. The tagline “removes two of BU’s outsized competitors — Cambridge-based Harvard and MIT — from the mix entirely. Boston College, its name notwithstanding, huddles in the shady groves of Newton. Both US News & World Report and Washington Monthly rank BU well above Northeastern University, the only other claimant for the title. So ‘Boston’s University’ it is.”
Facebook vs. MySpace (video). A nice parody of those Mac vs. PC TV ads, from CNET.
Paging Joseph Campbell: Tired of those Internet “trolls” who crash your forums with inane or inflammatory comments? You may as well despise the court jester! Via Boing Boing comes word that the troll is nothing more than the archetypical trickster of our mythology, who enter our online discussions with “the cracked, stoic smile of Robin Goodfellow, a Puck with the simple desire to disrupt peace itself.” If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended.
From the effective keywords department: ‘Distance learning’ breaks out. Bob Johnson discusses how “a relatively rare example of academic jargon moving out into common use.”