Hi there,
Welcome to the May issue of ‘The Notebook’.
This is a list of books, movies, blog posts,
interviews, video clips and other stuff
I found interesting and feel worth sharing.
I hope you’ll like some of the stuff I am sharing.
If you have any feedback, please drop me a line…
Here it goes…
A Book Worth Sharing –
I am very curious about daily routines of authors,
filmmakers, artists, and other creative people.
While researching about it a few years ago, I came
across Mason Currey’s blog.
And then I bought the book.
This is one of my most favourite books.
A Movie Worth Sharing –
A longtime fan of Hirokazu Kore-eda,
I absolutely loved this minimalist family
drama from Japan’s most iconic filmmaker.
Glenn Kenny’s review in NYTimes says it all…
Mr. Kore-eda, whose most noteworthy family dramas
include “Still Walking” (2009) and “Like Father, Like Son”
(2014), works in a quiet cinematic register, and the
slightest error in tone could upend the whole enterprise.
Slow-paced, sad, rueful and sometimes warmly funny,
“After the Storm” is one of his sturdiest, and most
sensitive, constructions.
An Idea Worth Sharing –
Here Haruki Murakami talks about the key component
of a good novel – “Magic”.
But the “Magic” can’t work if the garage is empty!
” We are─or at least I am─equipped with this expansive
mental chest of drawers. Each drawer is packed with
memories, or information. There are big drawers
and small ones.
A few have secret compartments, where information
can be hidden. When I am writing, I can open
them, extract the material I need and add it to my story.
Their numbers are countless, but when I am focused
on my writing I know without thinking exactly which drawer
holds what and can immediately put my hands on what
I am looking for.
Memories I could never recall otherwise come naturally to me.
It’s a great feeling to enter into this elastic, unrestrained state,
as if my imagination had pulled free from my thinking mind to
function as an autonomous, independent entity.
Needless to say, for a novelist like me the information
stored in my “chest” is a rich and irreplaceable resource.
…Remember that scene in Steven Spielberg’s film E.T.
where E.T. assembles a transmitting device from
the junk he pulls out of his garage?
There’s an umbrella, a floor lamp, pots and pans,
a record player─ it’s been a long time since I saw
the movie, so I can’t recall everything, but he manages
to throw all those household items together
in such a way that the contraption works well enough
to communicate with his home planet thousands of
light years away.
I got a big kick out of that scene when I saw it in
a movie theater, but it strikes me now that putting
together a good novel is much the same thing.
The key component is not the quality of the
materials─what’s needed is magic. If that magic
is present, the most basic daily matters and
the plainest language can be turned into a device
of surprising sophistication.
First and foremost, though, is what’s packed away
in your garage.
Magic can’t work if your garage is empty.
You’ve got to stash away a lot of junk to use if and
when E.T. comes calling! “
A Quote Worth Sharing –
“When I open my laptop, I’m in the present
state of writing. All the rubbish is gone. It’s all ‘now.’
There is no past and no future.” – David Mitchell
Random Stuff –
Naval Ravikant is the CEO and Founder of AngelList
and my favourite thinker, philosopher.
And finally, here is a place where you’ll find all about
Naval Ravikant.
All the interviews, podcasts and videos in a single place.
Thanks to Noah Madden.
Bookmark this page and visit it time to time.
Here, few of his gems…
“Sophisticated foods are bittersweet (wine, beer
coffee, chocolate). Addictive relationships
are cooperative and competitive.
Work becomes flow at the limits of ability.
The flavor of life is on the edge.”
“Technology is not only the thing that moves the
human race forward, but it’s the only thing
that ever has. Without technology, we’re
just monkeys playing in the dirt.”
“The fundamental delusion — there is something
out there that will make me happy and
fulfilled forever.”
“Even today, what to study and how to study it are
more important than where to study it and for
how long. The best teachers are on the Internet.
The best books are on the Internet.
The best peers are on the Internet.
The tools for learning are abundant.
It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”
“All the benefits in life come from compound interest — money,
relationships, habits — anything of importance.”
Thanks for reading.
Krishnendu
krishnendu sarkar 