texts & pretexts: The Founding Myths... :: February 1, 2005

In 1932 an obscure writer named Aldous Huxley published a brave new book titled Texts & Pretexts. Aldous had high hopes for the volume but it sank precipitately from sight. Desperate for cash he put the name up for sale on eBay. Our founder's grandmother — known for her willingness to take a flyer on penny stocks — saw some potential in it and bought rights to the title for our founder as an investment and retirement nest-egg.

Years passed...

That nest-egg proved to be a golden one, so much so that our founder now lives a lavish life upon the proceeds, surrounded by a growing stack of unread books. Nowadays t&p (to use the more familiar form) has remade itself into a thriving blog with infrequent entries and frequent delusions of grandeur. Our beat is books, or the world as seen through a West Coast book-worm's eyes. Our founder has handed the day-to-day operations over to an editorial collective, who have sworn to uphold the most rigorous of literary standards: no text will see the light of day on these pages until it has been scrubbed free of dangling participles; until every extraneous comma and semi-colon has been surgically removed. A recent directive has warned them to be on the lookout for the dreaded "predicate shift".

If you're here, you've managed to track us down at our fancy new moniker of "www.textsandpretexts.com", hosted by those text-friendly folks at textdrive.com. Welcome; make yourselves at home. All feedback graciously accepted.

The links you see at right are a select group of like-minded web-loggers and media-types: they have our blessing. Go check them out sometime and let them know we sent you. And if you're feeling flush, click on the "no war" logo just to your left to choose from a tasteful selection of designer mechandise. All proceeds go to International P.E.N.