Rod Serling talks to college students about the craft of writing

boing
1

Originally published at: Rod Serling talks to college students about the craft of writing | Boing Boing

…

5 Likes
2

@garethb2 When I was a young teen, dreaming of becoming a writer, Serling was like a rock star to me, even a punk rock star, long before there was such a thing.

Same. The man was an absolute genius. Twilight Zone and the Playhouse 90 stuff was so tightly written–not a wasted line, nothing out of place. Every word was exactly placed. He made it look so easy. He also had the benefit of having some great actresses and actors to deliver his material. Those Twilight Zone episodes are a virtual “who’s who” of 1950s-1970s acting greats.

Silencing the woman with a little “hush” was pretty uncool, though.

7 Likes
3

“Being a writer is easy, you just thread a piece of paper into your typewriter and you bleed”
RS

Sonoma State circa 1976: Kurt Vonnegut talk/lecture, he proclaimed something similar regarding writing, “it’s not for the risk averse crowd”. Ho Hum…

3 Likes
4

I grew up watching (and loving) various iterations of the show, so it’s hard to listen to Serling’s unique voice and not imagine that each paragraph is going to end “…in a place we call…The Twilight Zone.”

2 Likes
5

I missed the hush. Ew. But my fiance and I winced through the whole thing, with he, man, Mankind, man, man, man. At least some things have changed. A bit.

3 Likes
6

Thank you very much for this

2 Likes
7

I wonder what became of those students? Did any of them go on to have an illustrious writing career?

1 Like
8

I gave up re-reading Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions for the same repeated assertions of “the man/men who do X.” As if the only person to win a Nobel prize in two different fields wasn’t a woman and he didn’t know that.

1 Like
9

Any idea of a date for this? I didn’t see any on the 'Toob page.

1 Like
10

I was wondering the same. He speaks of Twilight Zone episodes in the past tense, which helps narrow it.

Oh, cool . . . here’s a note by someone who was there. 1962:

1 Like
11

I remembered that he died young (from here 50 is young, you whippersnappers) and wonder what else he might have done, even as a voiceover artist or narrator.

This isn’t the first BB post this week on the early days of TV, when it was emerging as an art form and an ad delivery vehicle.

1 Like
12

It sucks that he died at 50. He smoked four packs a day. His wife passed in January 2020. The world could have benefitted from observations he might have made in the latter 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond. Having said that, he did seize the day.

1 Like
13

I thought the quote about sitting at a typewriter and bleeding belong to sportswriter “Red” Smith but it’s more complex than that, as I found in this interesting article about it.

1 Like
14

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.