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The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
A gifted student who publicly confronted Iran’s Supreme Leader has reportedly gone missing and an internet campaign has been launched to publicise his disappearance.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition has launched a campaign to oppose a government amendment legally preventing political discussion about the legalization of drugs.
An undercover investigation of a Vermont slaughterhouse has revealed disgusting abuses of animals.
Just about a month remains before December’s culminating UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen (COP15) – the last five days of pre-COP15 talks are taking place this week in Barcelona. The […]
In 2005, The New York Times revealed that under a presidential order signed in 2002, the National Security Agency (NSA) had been monitoring the phone calls, e-mails, and internet traffic […]
Wrestling with any decisions today? Wondering whether to move to Minnesota or dump that guy or change your Facebook profile picture? Maybe you've also wondered what's going on when you […]
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Between America’s bullying sense of patriotism and its increasingly divided populace, it’s difficult for a writer to call the land home. Yet, insists John Irving, if he’s going to "pick […]
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With its complete disregard for screenwriters and endless, seemingly luck-based, collaborative process, it’s a wonder anybody with literary sympathies can stomach cinema culture. Despite all this, John Irving wonders if […]
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After the publication of the "World According to Garp" and numerous other bestsellers, John Irving does not really have to worry about his career. But, for those looking to break […]
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The tension between John Irving, John Updike and Tom Wolfe was overplayed and misguided, says the novelist. The real sparks would fly, he says, if he ran into a few […]
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With their richly textured characters, intensely visible milieux and wondrous storylines, no novels, says John Irving, have surpassed the splendor and sense of eminence of the nineteenth century novelists.
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While John Irving may have never won a major championship as a wrestler, his experience in the sport has equipped him with the stamina and discipline necessary to struggle through […]
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For John Irving, whose sprawling novels can take years to complete, one of the most significant challenges of writing is creating the sense that the words on the page are […]
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The famed novelist explains why even considering the act strikes many with a sense of anxiety and impending doom.
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For John Irving, the need for a daily ration of solitude was his strongest "pre-writing" moment as a child.
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For the novelist, obsessions, by definition, control you. Thus, try as he may to control the plot of his stories, a variety of recurring fixations inevitably work themselves in.
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When not interrupted by family and travel, the writer begins his work early, keeps at it for hours at a time, and does it every day.
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For even our best writers, penning that final sentence can be a difficult and tortuous affair. For John Irving, who never begins a novel without knowing its concluding words, this […]
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Big Think sits down with the author of twelve novels, including "Last Night in Twisted River."
John Irving’s novels have earned him a National Book Award, sold tens of millions of copies and have been translated into over thirty languages. Yet, far from affording him a […]