{"id":5643,"date":"2010-10-01T13:57:23","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T17:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=5643"},"modified":"2010-10-27T14:14:01","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T18:14:01","slug":"mind-nudging-too-much-revision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/01\/mind-nudging-too-much-revision\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind Nudging; Too Much Revision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2-211x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2978\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2-211x300.jpg 211w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2.jpg 271w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><em>I liked your response on what to give the person who has read everything. But what about the person who, well, fancies herself an \u201cintellectual\u201d (she goes to book parties at least) but doesn&#8217;t read a damn thing! What will perk someone\u2019s brain, give them a mind nudge?<\/em> \u2014R. <\/p>\n<p>It sounds as if you can give her pretty much anything at all! Why don\u2019t you start with your favorite novel? Or maybe that&#8217;s too ambitious. Your favorite short story. Your favorite poem? See how she does. You don\u2019t want to blow her circuits. Or\u2014if she\u2019s a chatterbox\u2014why don&#8217;t you give her Alain Robbe-Grillet&#8217;s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Two-Novels-Jealousy-Labyrinth-Robbe-Grillet\/dp\/080215106X\/\">Jealousy<\/a><\/em>. That&#8217;s a book you don&#8217;t hear enough about at book parties, in my opinion. Let\u2019s put her talents to use!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><em>How much revision is too much revision? When does a piece get ruined by being rewritten over and over and over? <\/em> \u2014Worried Reviser <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s sacrilege, I know, but\u2014since you ask\u2014I think revising is overrated. In the days when everyone had to retype every draft from scratch, naturally, students had to be told not to settle for the fruits of inspiration. But now, thanks to Word, we are all revising all the time. Some of that is necessary. Some of that is stalling. Some of that (in my experience, a lot of that) is dangerous to the work. I would say, if it starts to feel good\u2014if revising is what you rush home to do at the end of the day\u2014you may want to think about moving on. <\/p>\n<p><em>Have a question for <\/em>The Paris Review? <em><a href=\"mailto:advice@theparisreview.org\">E-mail<\/a> us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I liked your response on what to give the person who has read everything. But what about the person who, well, fancies herself an \u201cintellectual\u201d (she goes to book parties at least) but doesn&#8217;t read a damn thing! What will perk someone\u2019s brain, give them a mind nudge? \u2014R. It sounds as if you can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-the-paris-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mind Nudging; Too Much Revision by Lorin Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 1, 2010 \u2013 I liked your response on what to give the person who has read everything. 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