Johnathan Franzen’s ten rules for novelists

John Matthew Fox, of Bookfox, critically runs through Johnathan Franzen’s 10 rules for novelists, which have apparently infuriated many writers, even some of the best-known. I agree mostly with him. He dismisses 6 of the 10. The only comment I wish to make is on the claim that ‘Substituting then is the lazy or tone-deaf writer’s non-solution to the problem of too many ands on the page.’ Even worse is using ‘and then’. I say rubbish, bunkum and piffle to that. Listen to the way English-speaking people speak.

Novels written for stupid people – which particular group of stupid people?

Alina, who has two degrees in literature that she doesn’t know what to do with, opens this video with the question: “Does anyone else feel like contemporary novels are written like we’re stupid?” She then proceeds to favour us with her views in a world-weary way that characterises her videos. It’s an interesting discussion – you hope it would be with two degrees – but a little too long and too focused on her demographic – twenty-something girls.

I don’t have much to say about her views because I don’t read contemporary novels. That’s mainly due to my being sick to death of the woke assumptions that are either in the foreground or the background. Now, Alina slings off at a right-winger like me (actually, I’m a Burkean conservative, but I rather doubt Alina knows what that is) who complains about the left-wing bias in contemporary novels.

She says political ideas are an essential part of literature. Well, they are, but that’s not the point. The issue is how political ideas are handled in woke novels and how they characterise their political opposition.

In the first place, they are assumed, which is intellectual surrender or, worse, the woke writer does not possess the ability to justify his ideas philosophically. In the second place, woke writers have no idea of the philosophical underpinnings of a competent, serious conservative writer. Such a philosophical defence is not imaginable.

Welcome to Country is an insult

Excellent video. It makes all the right points about Welcome to Country, land rights, invasion, and all the nonsensical claims about Australia’s history by reinvented White-Aboriginals. What do people expect when a person states, as an introduction to Anzac Day, that most of the people listening are not legitimate on the land they’re standing on?

The feminist mob attack again

I wasn’t a great fan of Craig McLachlan, the show-business personality. I knew him mostly for his television ‘look-at-me’ appearances and his part in that disgusting musical, ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ – that corrupt bit of musical slime, aimed at corrupting the youth.

That was until I saw McLachlan in ‘The Doctor Blake Mysteries’. His performance – getting into the character of Doctor Blake – made him for me unrecognisable as Craig McLachlan. Is this really Craig McLachlan? I asked myself. It ranks among the best acting performances I have seen on Australian television.

So, it was tremendously disappointing when the series was forced to shut down due to yet another disputed accusation against a man for sexual misconduct. The background to the shutdown, and the reason one of the best acting performances ended, is explained by Bettina Arndt in the article below.

*****

Craig McLachlan under siege

– Not guilty but still under attack by the feminist mob.

Bettina Arndt, Apr 09, 2026

Over this month the Melbourne Comedy Festival will feature three women performing sketches celebrating “small moments in life that make us laugh.” These supposedly funny skits include a send up of a 2020 court case where one of Australia’s best-known entertainers, Craig McLachlan, was found not guilty of 13 charges of indecent assault and assault.

It’s hardly comedy gold. Particularly when one of the “funny” women was the star accuser — whose claims were shredded in court.

You would have thought this woman would be hanging her head in shame. But no. She’s out there claiming the court got it wrong.

That’s despite the fact that the magistrate awarded costs against the police. With the exception of cases which are withdrawn, costs are very rarely awarded against the police in criminal prosecutions. For a court to do so, it must have considered that it was an unmeritorious prosecution; in other words, charges should never have been laid in the first place. Victorian police ultimately paid out half a million dollars which is the highest payout ever against the police in Victoria!

This is confirmation that the allegations made by this witness and her fellow complainants didn’t stand up. All 13 charges were dismissed, and the police were forced to write Craig a fat $500,000 apology cheque.

Read the rest HERE . . .