This month I’m posting excerpts from earlier drafts of Jellyfish Have Eyes that feature the relationships between Ricardo Stzein and other key characters in the novel. Ricardo’s troubles began when he was browsing through a book he purchased on vision in invertebrates. He had studied the eyes of chicken and mice for twenty years, but [...]
Being a slow reader, I’ve dreamed for years how helpful it would be if I could download the contents of a book into my brain – wirelessly, of course. Imagine the time saved! I could get through War and Peace in less than an hour. “But it would take the enjoyment out of reading,” my [...]
At first these essays comprised various topics of interest to me – for example, the nature of collecting and the power of “cracks” of time. Science has morphed into history for me after some fifty years of research. I have closed my laboratory at NIH and stepped aside to become what is, kindly, [...]
Oops, sorry. My grocery cart – the push-along container for food that old guys use as a walker – was blocking the way. They should have traffic rules and lanes in here! Can’t you move? says the white-haired lady, sixtyish, rushing. She gives me the evil eye. I smile. Sure, sorry. Wham, I hit a [...]
Editor’s Note: We've all read stories that keep us enthralled the whole way through. For me, "Empty Pages" is one of them. Since readers interpret stories in their own ways, I asked Joram: What inspired this story of crime and love, and what message do you hope to relay with your fictional works? I had [...]
The gift of art, like that of silence, has the capacity to touch hidden yearnings for love and beauty and sadness and adventure, as well as the suppressed torments of anger and rage, bringing humanity in all its complexity to the surface.
