Jonathan Freiberger

		Jonathan Freiberger grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, and graduated from Oberlin College. He worked in Hollywood for a while then, tragically, fell into finance and banking. Enough crazy stuff has happened to him since then to make a good novel, which he's working on. His story, "In the Style of Decadence," appeared in Ducts, the online webzine of the New York Writer's Workshop. "Pinsky Gets It Right" will be his first print publication.

Burying Henry Miller

I love Henry Miller. There's a video of him on YouTube painting a water color. You should watch it. To me, writing is no different than any art, the purpose of which is to express feelings. If a work of art doesn't do this, it has failed, and is, at best, not art or, at worst, bad art. When Mendelsohn first heard Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, he responded "at least it's not music." Don't be frustrated. Keep working. Remember that you are working for love, and love is enough. Maybe you're ahead of your time. Maybe someday the world will catch up with you. Maybe you should bury your work for archaeologists to find. I don't believe confusion is a feeling, neither numbness, nor indifference. If you don't think Borges' stories express feelings, read his poems. But Henry Miller is god. No one expressed feelings with as little sentiment. It's hard to create an effect of deep feeling without falling into the pit of sentimentality. Make your audience cry. If they laugh when you want them to cry, start over. If they sneer when you want them to laugh, start over. Maybe you're a clown by nature. Maybe you're a mechanic or a priest. There's no shame in being. To do is to be. Take risks. You'll fall off many a wire, but the fall will never kill you. The only thing that makes you a writer is your love of it. If there's love, the fanatical devotion necessary to achieve the effect toward which you strive is par for the course. Write to be read. But, first of all, live.