Church Painter “Why should one always make people happy? It might be a good idea to scare them once in a while.”
Jons “Then they’ll close their eyes and refuse to look.”
Church Painter “They’ll look. A skull is more interesting than a naked woman.”
Jons “If you do scare them–”
Church Painter “Then they think.”
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A few months back, fellow un-mute.com writer Jason Reynolds, shared with me a Wall Street Journal article about a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor by the name of Randy Pausch. In the article, it explained that Carnegie Mellon University was putting on a lecture series called the “last lecture”. The premise behind it and the instructions to speakers were “what would you say if indeed this was your last lecture you had to give”?
However, one professor in the series was indeed giving his last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. That professor, Randy Pausch, 46, had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and only had a few months to live.
But his lecture (viewable on the Carnegie Melon website and google) was not filled with melancholy, but a spirit of triumph, a testament that dreams can be accomplished, and an illustration that resilience of the spirit is one of the most blessed gifts.
Since then, the lecture has been viewed over 6 million times and Pausch has been seen on such national television programs as Oprah. According to ABC News, Professor Pausch has just signed a 6.7 million dollar deal to turn his lecture into a book. BookCatcher.com sites that the book will be called The Last Lecture and will be written with Wall Street Journal’s Jeff Zaslow and published by Hyperion with a release date of spring 2008. Now his story of inspiration will be available in print for the world to read.
This should be an inspiration to us that whatever our story is, we should tell it. Who knows the impact it may have on people’s lives and the reward we may receive from sharing it with the world.
Here is the lecture in its entirety. Enjoy and be inspired!
The National Book Foundation recognizes young writers each year who they believe whose work shows promise and excellence with their 5 under 35 List. And since we respect any organization who are making attempts to honor young and diverse writers we had to mention the honorees before 2008 rolled in. The awards ceremony was in November. Yes, I know we are late. But hey, at least we made it by Dec. 31.
Kirstin Allio
Garner
(Coffee House Press, 2005)
Selected by Dana Spiotta, 2006 NBA Fiction Finalist for Eat the DocumentDinaw Mengestu
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears
(Riverhead Books, 2007)
Selected by Jess Walter, 2006 NBA Fiction Finalist for The ZeroAsali Solomon
Get Down: Stories
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)
Selected by Jennifer Egan, 2001 NBA Fiction Finalist for Look at MeAnya Ulinich
Petropolis (Viking Press, 2007)
Selected by Ken Kalfus, 2006 NBA Fiction Finalist for A Disorder Peculiar to the CountryCharles Yu
Third Class Superhero (Harcourt, 2006)
Selected by Richard Powers, 2006 NBA Fiction Winner for The Echo Maker
Images and List provided by the National Book Foundation Website.
Get more information on the authors and the books HERE
We’ve been reading books via hardcover and paperback for generations. And while the e-book concept has been around for a few years, Amazon has created a device that may just change the way we read books forever.
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Musicians are constantly battling each other out for the number one spot each week, yet the industry still seems to be struggling. However, its the kids that keeping the book industry alive.
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I’ve chosen to embed the following videos from the controversial black “Read-A-Book” campaign (courtesy of Black Entertainment Television), to ask a simple question: how far should we go to get our community to read?
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On July 31st, rapper and actor Common released Finding Forever, the follow up to his 2005 album Be. And while his video “The People” is getting airplay on the internet and Viacom TV stations, I can not let another day go by without giving the people one of Common’s best kept secrets some airplay of its own.
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I long to meet the person who says to me, “There’s nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day, than a scolding bucket of salt water!” I know what your thinking. I’m crazy. They’re crazy. And maybe you’re right. But you must agree that there is something interesting, almost magnetic, about irony.
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