nothing in the rulebook
A collective of creatives bound by a single motto: There's nothing in the rulebook that says a giraffe can't play football!
Category: Professor Wu’s Rulebook
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The question of what motivates great writers to write has been discussed by writers and critics for decades. Italo Calvino said that he wrote “to give vent to my feelings and because I like it”, and that “one writes most of all in order to take part in a collective enterprise.” Meanwhile, George Orwell suggested…
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In the days where it seems you get your own memoir for being even slightly famous, or if you have ever been raised on the planet earth, actor Neil Patrick Harris has attempted to subvert the memoir model with his own memoir – written in the form of a ‘Choose your own adventure’ book. That’s…
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Malkovich? Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich! Malkovich. No, this isn’t that scene from Being John Malkovich; but it’s still pretty good. You see, Audible has released a John Malkovich-narrated audio book of the Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions. It seems this was a project Malkovich was pretty keen to work on. The acclaimed actor said: “Breakfast of…
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War? Check. Peace? Check. What more could you ask of any adaptation of Tolstoy’s seminal, 1200-odd page novel, War and Peace? Well, on these counts the BBC’s recent television miniseries has hit the mark, helped in part by the use of flashing sabres, corsets, Paul Dano, heaving bosoms, Paul Dano, men in uniform, Paul Dano,…
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English spelling is undeniably chaotic. There’s an exception to almost every rule, 26 letters have to do the job of around 44 phonemes, and ‘English’ is less its own language than a strange combination and mixtures of myriad other languages both ancient and modern. The linguistic fingerprints of thousands of people can be found everywhere…
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From the earliest scholastic archives of writing at Ugarit of Ancient Egypt, libraries have been models for the world and models of the world; they’ve offered stimulation and contemplation, opportunities for togetherness as well as a kind of civic solitude. They’ve acted as gathering points for lively minds and as sites of seclusion and…
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Ever bluffed about reading a literary classic? Ever fibbed your way through a conversation about Dickens or Austen or Dostoyevsky? If yes, don’t worry. It turns out most of us have – and that there are some books, which – time and again – we say we know inside out, when in fact we couldn’t…
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We know that sleep plays a crucial role in sharpening our memories and that a misaligned sleep pattern can prove mentally crippling. Writers and creatives are often advised to take a pencil and notepad with them to bed, not only because this can help us to fall asleep when our minds are whirring; but also…
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At a time when the world seems at times to be descending into chaos, and with writers, artists and activists imprisoned, and persecuted, a story about a poet whose written words change the world and fight injustice is exactly what the doctor ordered. It was a real treat, therefore, to review River of Ink, the…
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With author’s incomes at their lowest levels in years, and fewer full-time professional authors than ever before, amid increasingly draconian publishing contracts and the pitfalls of self-publishing, is it true that the professional author is on the cusp of becoming an endangered species? And, if so, can anything be done to save this important breed…
nothing in the rulebook 