Margaret Atwood is brilliant. From what I have seen, heard and read, every time she opens her mouth or sits down to write, this kind of stuff comes ouMargaret Atwood is brilliant. From what I have seen, heard and read, every time she opens her mouth or sits down to write, this kind of stuff comes out.
In this piece, she gives writing advice--with panache. By demonstrating some basic story variations, she ponders the whole idea of happy endings, not just writing them.
My favorite writer. Always perceptive, always wise, always entertaining, always making a deeper point, even when she tells a joke....more
“Why did Hemingway make the portraits so literal? Ritual humiliation?”
This is well-written, well-documented and immensely readable. Blume doesn’t shar“Why did Hemingway make the portraits so literal? Ritual humiliation?”
This is well-written, well-documented and immensely readable. Blume doesn’t share any conclusions--rather lets her quotes and references tell the tale. It’s very thorough, including an epilogue telling how things turned out for each of the real-life The Sun Also Rises characters.
And these characters were definitely all real people. They were drawn so specifically that Hemingway’s (ex-) friends and many of their contemporaries realized it immediately after the book came out. Feelings were hurt, and in some cases, lives traumatized.
What a soap opera it was in real life! Lady Duff Twysden (Lady Brett Ashley), with those mischievous eyes in the cover photo, was possibly sleeping with Harold Loeb (Cohen), Pat Guthrie (Campbell) and Hemingway (Barnes) during the same period. All this, while soon-to-be Mrs. Hemingway Pauline Pfeiffer is making friends with soon-to-be ex-wife Hadley (neither of whom were represented in the book).
And though he acknowledged no debt to these mentors, he got his spare style from Ezra Pound, the Lost Generation depth (not just the quote) from Gertrude Stein, and the introductions to the two of them from Sherwood Anderson whose book Dark Laughter he viscously mocked in his parody The Torrents of Spring. And that was all before creating his first novel out of the private lives of a group of expatriate buddies (which received crucial drastic edits from F. Scott Fitzgerald by the way, that Hemingway took credit for himself). With a friend like Hemingway, you didn’t need enemies.
This is great reading for anyone interested in Hemingway and his writing process--there are enticing details about every step, from inspirations to drafts to revisions to publication. But I come away with even less respect for the man than I had before. Supposedly he had a big boyish grin that won people over, and I wonder if some of that comes through in his prose, since we seem to be attracted to it regardless of his personal nastiness.
All this supports why I like A Moveable Feast best. It’s a story about his favorite subject, the person he was kindest to and most empathetic toward: himself....more
Finding myself between two big Dickens tomes (The Old Curiosity Shop and Bleak House), I couldn’t resist grabbing this from my library shelves. It proFinding myself between two big Dickens tomes (The Old Curiosity Shop and Bleak House), I couldn’t resist grabbing this from my library shelves. It promised to be a quick read, with small blocks of text among many black and white images. It was surprisingly revealing.
Priestly takes us from Dickens’ painful beginnings through his wild success and to his sadly premature demise. What’s fun about this biography is its subjectivity. He isn’t shy to share opinions of each of the author’s works and life decisions, but his admiration is equally apparent, and how could it be otherwise? What energy Dickens had! What drive!
Though this is far from an exhaustive biography, there was so much revealed that I didn’t realize. Of primary interest to me were Dickens’ innovations.
“Superior intellectual contemporaries might prefer, as most of them did, Thackeray’s cynical-sentimental chronicle, Vanity Fair, to Dombey and Son, but in point of fact it is Dickens and not Thackeray who is attempting an important experiment in fiction and leading the way for later novelists. And if, as we know, he found this novel harder to write, it was not really because he suffered from visitors, noise, the weather, and all the other plagues, it was not because there was any real failure of creative power and zest, it was because he was doing something new and difficult.”
The trails Dickens blazed are awesome to contemplate, and Priestly points out the inventions in each new book. We often hear that Dickens created our modern Christmas, but the narrative techniques he experimented with along with his use of symbolism, colloquial speech, and depictions of the poor were also groundbreaking and influential.
And I loved the pictures: photographs of Dickens and his family and friends, landscape paintings, illustrations from his books. Some of my favorites were drawings of London scenes, and sketches of the author by different artists.
I look forward to reading a more in-depth history of Dickens’ life and work, but for now, these touches on the highlights, brought to life in pictures, were a perfect introduction to this remarkable human being....more
What a special volume. To be able to follow a current, brilliant and successful writer as he analyzes a group of classic, time-proven stories and helpWhat a special volume. To be able to follow a current, brilliant and successful writer as he analyzes a group of classic, time-proven stories and helps us see the possible decision-making process that brought them into being was nothing short of breathtaking. What a teacher George Saunders is!
There’s a reason his stories are lauded as some of the best stories written in English. He shows himself in this volume to be a scholar of the form, smart, and willing to embrace outside-the-box thinking. And he clearly loves stories--reading them, writing them, and talking about them. His enthusiasm is infectious.
What I loved most was how Saunders explains what is behind the aspects of a story that we as readers pick up on subconsciously. It’s like there’s the story, then there’s the experience of reading the story, then there’s what is impacting us while reading the story that we aren’t aware of, then there’s how the story is constructed to create those impacts.
And for that last part, how the story is constructed, he comes closer to showing what creates the magic than most other books about writing I’ve read. This is quite a gift.
Here are a few quotes to show this book really is a “Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life.”
Writing “We might imagine a story as a room-sized black box. The writer’s goal is to have the reader go into that box in one state of mind and come out in another. What happens in there has to be thrilling and non-trivial. That’s it.” “We can reduce all of writing to this: we read a line, have a reaction to it, trust (accept) that reaction, and do something in response, instantaneously, by intuition. That’s it. Over and over.”
Reading “…the part of the mind that reads a story is also the part that reads the world; it can deceive us, but it can also be trained to accuracy …” “And that’s what fiction does: it causes an incremental change in the state of a mind. That’s it. But, you know--it really does it. That change is finite but real. And that’s not nothing. It’s not everything, but it’s not nothing.”
Life "They started out as notions in the minds of another person, became words, then became notions in our minds, and now they’ll always be with us, part of our moral armament, as we approach the beautiful, difficult, precious days ahead.”
Notice how several of the quotes include “that’s it,” or some variation of the phrase. This shows how well Saunders sums up difficult concepts, but also, his humility. In the end, he credits all of what he teaches here to us readers, saying we knew it all along, he just reminded us. What a humble being, and what a pleasure to be in his company during the course of his masterful master class....more
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.”
I didn’t know what to expect from this essay going into it, and thought Orwell would be calling me “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.”
I didn’t know what to expect from this essay going into it, and thought Orwell would be calling me on my grammar. Far from it. This is really about clear, honest, thinking.
Anyone who reads or listens to the news knows how often the same phrases are used, over and over and over again until they are meaningless. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who has stopped in the middle of an article or news commentary and said to myself, “Wait, does he or she even know what that word means?”
Sure, many writers intentionally mislead us, but Orwell explains how this kind of writing can occur from laziness--letting phrases pop in our minds instead of coming up with true ones. Whether purposeful or not, this type of writing (especially the amount of it we consume on a daily basis now) can give a dangerous vagueness to our thinking.
“… the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
He offers practical suggestions though, and hope. He ends the essay with six rules, and my favorite is his first one: “Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.”
“As a matter of fact, said the Good Fairy, I do not understand two words of what you have said, and I do not know what you are talking about.”
A litera“As a matter of fact, said the Good Fairy, I do not understand two words of what you have said, and I do not know what you are talking about.”
A literature student struggling with writing a book lives with his uncle and spends a lot of time in bed. His book is partially about a writer whose characters are out to get him. Then the writer begets another writer, a better writer. There are heroes and legends and fighting and stuff. And lots of drinking. And a trial with a devil and a fairy.
On and off throughout the narrative, we are taken back to reality of life with the uncle, and I liked those parts best, not just because they were the only parts that made sense, but because I pictured the uncle as Paul’s grandad in A Hard Day’s Night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrk5k.... He was always saying to the narrator, “Tell me this, do you ever open a book at all?”
So this was very weird, and that’s an understatement. But there was something about the all-too-familiar and appropriately mythical correspondence between a writer and their creation that made me glad to have read it. ...more
“For if there are (at a venture) seventy-six different times all ticking in the mind at once, how many different people are there not--Heaven help us-“For if there are (at a venture) seventy-six different times all ticking in the mind at once, how many different people are there not--Heaven help us--all having lodgment at one time or another in the human spirit?”
Virginia Woolf was giving the talks that led to A Room of One's Own right after this book came out. You can feel the resonance between the two projects. There’s the contrast of the sexes, the attempt at an artistic life, and there’s even a hint of Room’s admission that sometimes “Chloe liked Olivia.” And early on, Orlando has dinner with a struggling poet named Greene, who states:
“Had I a pension of three hundred pounds a year paid quarterly, I would live for Glawr (his pronunciation of La Gloire) alone.”
Orlando begins as “a nobleman afflicted with a love of literature.” He is in pursuit of something, something that slowly takes shape as you follow him and then her through history. The reader watches while Orlando, between adventures with royalty and gypsies, attempts for three hundred years to finish a poem called “The Oak Tree.”
In Orlando, Woolf’s character lives the history she tells us about in A Room of One's Own, and lives it while trying to write. The impacts of gender are ever-present as Orlando is in the position to reflect on male and female experiences. But gender is also marvelously ignored at the same time, giving us a character that is beyond the typical dichotomy.
The details about clothing were great fun, and gave Woolf a vehicle to make subtle points about power and sexuality.
“It’s a strange fact, but a true one that up to this moment she had scarcely given her sex a thought. Perhaps the Turkish trousers, which she had hitherto worn had done something to distract her thoughts …”
There is so much to love about this book, but what I loved most was that it provoked the same feeling I got from Don Quixote. I don’t know that I can describe it, but it’s playful, adventurous, meditative, and a little paradoxical. She plays with words, but mostly with character, both brilliantly, creating something sort of like humanity making fun of itself, but in the most loving way.
I realized while reading that I would love to have all of my history translated through Virginia Woolf’s mind. Here’s a long quote that hopefully shows why.
“The hardy country gentleman, who had sat down gladly to a meal of ale and beef in a room designed, perhaps by the brothers Adam, with classic dignity, now felt chilly. Rugs appeared, beards were grown and trousers fastened tight under the instep. The chill which he felt in his legs he soon transferred to his house; furniture was muffled; walls and tables were covered too. Then a change of diet became essential. The muffin was invented and the crumpet. Coffee supplanted the after-dinner port, and, as coffee led to a drawing-room in which to drink it, and a drawing room to glass cases, and glass cases to artificial flowers, and artificial flowers to mantelpieces, and mantelpieces to pianofortes, and pianofortes to drawing-room ballads, and drawing-room ballads (skipping a stage or two) to innumerable little dogs, mats, and antimacassars, the home--which had become extremely important--was completely altered.”...more
“…you believe in nothing but what consists with your own prejudices and illusions. I remember when I was like you, but I have learned better.”
Who is t“…you believe in nothing but what consists with your own prejudices and illusions. I remember when I was like you, but I have learned better.”
Who is this Sheridan Le Fanu? A trailblazer, certainly, in the development of the horror genre. Born of French descent in Dublin to a literary family, his experiences provided some excellent writing fodder: early poverty, a clergyman father, political involvement, guilt over his wife’s early death, plus his own neuroses. There’s even some obscure rumor that he literally died of fright. How intriguing is that?
This is my first time reading his work, and I found his writing exquisite. This collection is presented as a group of cases left by a Dr. Hesselius, someone with a scientific mind but open to the other-worldly. They are supposedly narratives from different patients, and Le Fanu writes each story in a remarkably unique style, something that can’t have been easy.
Green Tea introduces an unusual and truly frightening animal apparition, along with a pretty strange explanation for it. Not putting me off green tea though … yet.
The Familiar is a stalker story with another fun animal twist, but not as scary.
Then a moral tale, Mr. Justice Harbottle. The narrative style in this one includes an abundance of archaic terms, and I had fun discovering their meanings. Here’s just a few: roquelaure= heavy cloak jollifications = lively celebration gibbet = a gallows brutum fulmen = empty threat (literally stupid lightning)
The Room in the Dragon Volant is a departure from the ghostly, and essentially a straight-forward mystery story--two marks against it for me. Still, the writing was stellar, including the description of a masquerade party with such vivid details that the scene practically comes to life on the page.
The capstone to this collection is the last story, Carmilla. Le Fanu is responsible for launching the vampire story with this one, 25 years before Bram Stoker wrote Dracula. Dracula is good and all, but I liked this SO much better--it’s more eerie and emotive.
“In the rapture of my enormous humiliation, I live in your warm life, and you shall die--die, sweetly die--into mine.”
I will miss my time looking through Le Fanu’s dark glass. I come away completely impressed, and determined to read more of his writing. ...more
Taking place ten years after Little Men, Jo’s Boys shows us the Plumfield clan—led by our aging friends from the original story--growing up. Alcott maTaking place ten years after Little Men, Jo’s Boys shows us the Plumfield clan—led by our aging friends from the original story--growing up. Alcott makes you care deeply about her boys and her girls, giving each dramas of their own. Dan becomes a rough and rugged anti-hero, Nat a tempted world-travelling musician, Nan a single-minded doctor. Josie and Ted are much like their namesakes Jo and Laurie: impulsive and fun and always in need of some moral lesson or other.
It’s a book of racial and class privilege, but for what it is, it is well done. There are some references to woman’s suffrage, and some pretty good answers to the young girls’ questions. “Grandpa, must women always obey men and say they are the wisest, just because they are the strongest?”
Alcott has her alter-ego become a famous author of children's books, and gives us a chapter about the downside of literary fame, including being hounded with fan mail requests. “Emerson and Whittier put these things in the wastepaper basket; and though only a literary nursery maid who provides moral pap for the young, I will follow their illustrious example …”
Their little world felt like a utopia to me when I was a young reader, and it was a joy to revisit it. (My copy has the lovely pictures on this cover.) It has been almost half a century, yet there were passages I remembered so well. These little scenes stayed in my mind for all this time!
Demi, on his entrance into book publishing: “I am ready to do anything about books, if it’s only to dust them.” That longing popped in my head often when looking for jobs over the years.
Josie, in an effort to help her brother come up with a creative marriage proposal: “I read in one of Miss Edgeworth’s stories about a man who offers three roses to his lady—a bud, a half-blown, and a full-blown rose.” How often I thought of that when I was picking roses, long after I remembered where the reference was from.
So this book is a part of me, and I was relieved to still enjoy it after so many years. I may have traded the youthful romantic longings that made it my favorite back then, for an appreciation of what it is to watch young people grow into adults, but it still had the power to touch me.
I believe Louisa knew a thing or two about life, and how to shape it into a story that can last a lifetime. It has for me....more
Adrienne Rich was a fierce poet, but also an academic, and this is an academic collection. It includes lectures to students, speeches to administratorAdrienne Rich was a fierce poet, but also an academic, and this is an academic collection. It includes lectures to students, speeches to administrators, presentations to commissions, articles, essays, reviews and columns. At times it was a bit too academic for a general reader like me, but what brilliance.
She spoke from experience, of patriarchy and feminism, motherhood and teaching. But the parts I enjoyed most were when she applied her knowledge and experience to literary analysis.
On Wuthering Heights: “The bond between Catherine and Heathcliff is the archetypal bond between the split fragments of the psyche, the masculine and feminine elements ripped apart and longing for reunion.”
On Jane Eyre: “Coming to her husband in economic independence and by her free-choice, Jane can become a wife without sacrificing a grain of her Jane Eyre-ity.”
On Poetry: “But poems are like dreams: in them you put what you don’t know you know.”
My favorite was her essay “Vesuvius at Home: The Power of Emily Dickinson,” from a 1975 Brandeis University lecture. Understanding Dickinson from Rich’s intellectual-feminist-poet point of view is a treat no Dickinson fan should miss. A revelation.
For those who think this collection may be dated, I offer this: “One of the most powerful social and political catalysts of the past decade has been the speaking of women with other women, the telling of our secrets, the comparing of wounds and the sharing of words. This hearing and saying of women has been able to break many a silence and taboo; literally to transform forever the way we see.”
The “past decade” referenced was 50 years ago, but it sounds remarkably like a certain movement going on right now. As we know, silences continue, and there are many more secrets we must go on sharing in order to move the transformation forward. We still have much to learn from Adrienne Rich....more
I have not read the silly novels she critiques, but still, I get her point.
“Her eyes and her wit are both dazzling; her nose and her morals are alike I have not read the silly novels she critiques, but still, I get her point.
“Her eyes and her wit are both dazzling; her nose and her morals are alike free from any tendency to irregularity; she has a superb contralto and a superb intellect; she is perfectly well-dressed and perfectly religious; she dances like a sylph, and reads the Bible in the original tongues.”
Eliot was angry that depictions of women (and men, for that matter) by these silly lady novelists were not real, that novelists need to take the time to really look at people, all people, people doing real things, before providing us a picture of them.
Then she went and did just that.
“A really cultured woman, like a really cultured man … does not give you information, which is the raw material of culture,--she gives you sympathy, which is its subtlest essence.”...more
“When we get to the end of human beings we have to delude ourselves into a belief in God, like a gourmet who demands more complex sauces with his food“When we get to the end of human beings we have to delude ourselves into a belief in God, like a gourmet who demands more complex sauces with his food.”
I have to hand it to Graham Greene. His style is not what I typically enjoy, but he won me over with the precision of his prose, the way he crafts it to steer the reader to unusual discoveries, and his use of strangely illuminating comparisons like the quote above.
Here he explores love and belief, examining them in an unusual, sometimes frustrating way. It’s a short novel, with characters I didn’t particularly like, but Sarah and Bendrix and Henry--they were so distinct, so real, I won’t be forgetting them anytime soon....more
Read in conjunction with Aristotle On the Art of Fiction. translated by L. J. Potts. This provided excellent and expansive commentary, but for the actRead in conjunction with Aristotle On the Art of Fiction. translated by L. J. Potts. This provided excellent and expansive commentary, but for the actual translation, I preferred the Potts.
My review of Poetics generally is under that Potts translation, here. ...more
I missed out on classics classes in college, and it’s probably too late now to make up for lost time, but I was fortunate to take part in a buddy readI missed out on classics classes in college, and it’s probably too late now to make up for lost time, but I was fortunate to take part in a buddy read of Poetics with others who brought their knowledge in this area. They enhanced my experience considerably, and I’m very grateful.
Ancient Greece, philosophy, and classical literature are interesting to me, but I chose to read this for a different reason. Poetics is considered the most illuminating text there is about writing. I wanted to know why. I wanted to be illuminated.
Writing fiction is hard, and I’ve read a number of books on the writing craft, but this may be the first I’ve read by a scientist. Aristotle studies the writing of poetry/tragedy/fiction scientifically, with definitions, observation, and intricate theories, giving it what for me was the required seriousness.
A writer wishing to get something out of this work needs to study it, contemplate the theories, consider them in relation to specific writing projects. None of that belongs in a review, but I will share a few gems:
“The radical idea is embodying another nature, identifying oneself with it, and acting as it would act.”
“To happen after something is by no means the same as to happen because of it.”
“You have to make the point clear without stating it.”
That last one is a stinker—a truly difficult task, but therein lies the art. Thankfully, Aristotle gave me some concrete suggestions for how that alchemy is achieved....more
“Our job is to pare away the extraneous while accenting the essential without letting it seem that what we’re presenting is anything other than the ev“Our job is to pare away the extraneous while accenting the essential without letting it seem that what we’re presenting is anything other than the everyday, the pedestrian experience of life that leads now and then to the unexpected and extraordinary, the satanic and divine.”
There are endless books about writing, and I usually like them all because even one little hint, one specific tip or trick is worth reading a whole book to find. But this slim volume was surprisingly big on revelations.
I particularly appreciated Walter Mosley’s insights into the relationship between the writer and the story. He has a fantastic chapter called “The Novel is Bigger than your Head,” about how what you are writing starts as one thing but may very well become something else you never imagined, as the story drives who the characters become and what happens to them.
I found this a brilliant and memorable insight: “The novel is like Dorian Gray’s portrait. It starts out beautiful, innocent, and hopeful. But as time passes, and we commit the sins of fiction, the portrait devolves under the decay and putrefaction associated with the hard labor of the writer rewriting the tale and discovering the reality that lies beneath. Absorbing our sins and failures, it loses perfection and instead is imbued with the rot and the stink of truth.”
What I found so unique and wonderful about this book is Mosley talks about the magic of creating a novel, the alchemy involved, but with very approachable ideas. It’s such a difficult thing to put into words, and I admire him for figuring out how to get it across and make it accessible.
Now I’m even more excited to read his fiction.
“The beauty of life is in its flaws and how you deal with them. The beauty of writing is how you deal with those flaws in character and plot, story and Voice, a novel that in the end understands and accepts unavoidable failure.”...more
“The fact of a man being a poisoner is nothing against his prose.”
A light but fascinating biographical essay about Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, an ar“The fact of a man being a poisoner is nothing against his prose.”
A light but fascinating biographical essay about Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, an artist and author convicted in 1837 of being a serial killer. Wilde muses on his life, and on the intersection of art and morality.
Fans of The Picture of Dorian Gray—check this out: I found a special bonus at the end. Wilde is talking about how Wainewright’s crimes had an effect on his art. Note that this essay was published in 1885, five years before that novel:
He writes of Wainewright, “… it is said that ‘he contrived to put the expression of his own wickedness into the portrait of a nice, kind-hearted girl.’” Then he adds, “M. Zola, in one of his novels, tells us of a young man who, having committed a murder, takes to art, and paints greenish impressionist portraits of perfectly respectable people, all of which bear a curious resemblance to his victim. The development of Mr. Wainewright’s style seems to me far more subtle and suggestive. One can fancy an intense personality being created out of sin.”...more
This has to be one of the most inspiring books I have ever read.
“I claimed the right and the range of authorship. To interrupt journalistic history wThis has to be one of the most inspiring books I have ever read.
“I claimed the right and the range of authorship. To interrupt journalistic history with a metaphorical one; to impose on a rhetorical history an imaginistic one; to read the world, misread it; write and unwrite it. To enact silence and free speech. In short to do what all writers aspire to do. I wanted my work to be the work of disabling the art versus politics argument; to perform the union of aesthetics and ethics.”
Just look at what Toni Morrison is doing with the above paragraph. She is claiming. She is interrupting. She is imposing. She is enacting. And check out the result: a fusion of art and morality.
If you’ve enjoyed Morrison’s novels, you know that she isn’t blowing smoke here. This is exactly what she does with her fiction. And the astonishing thing to me is that in this collection of her non-fiction, she tells us how she does it, and why.
These essays, spanning from 1976 to 2013, come in a range of formats, from academic lectures to writer’s conference keynote speeches; from commencement addresses to eulogies. She discusses racism, individual artists, the writing process and her own novels. Some common threads I noticed throughout this variety of approaches were
our political/social reality-- “In 1995 racism may wear a new dress, buy a new pair of boots, but neither it nor its succubus twin fascism is new or can make anything new. It can only reproduce the environment that supports its own health: fear, denial, and an atmosphere in which its victims have lost the will to fight.”
how art fits into that political/social reality-- “I do not want to go into my old age without Social Security, but I can; I do not want to go into my old age without Medicare, but I can, I’ll face it; I do not like the notion of not having a grand army to defend me, but I can face that. What I cannot face is living without my art.”
and how she addresses that reality in her writing-- “…the crucial distinction for me is not the difference between fact and fiction, but the distinction between fact and truth. Because facts can exist without human intelligence, but truth cannot.”
What a gift this collection is—an opportunity to sit at the feet of this wise woman and soak up as much as you can. I can’t recommend it highly enough for everyone, but if you are or aspire to be a fiction writer, and particularly if you have admired Morrison’s style, then you need to read this. The generosity and clarity with which she shares her insights … well it’s just astounding....more
"These streets are a poem waiting to be hatched—suddenly it’s Easter; eggs everywhere.”
Follow Patti Smith to the café, to Paris, on the train, into he"These streets are a poem waiting to be hatched—suddenly it’s Easter; eggs everywhere.”
Follow Patti Smith to the café, to Paris, on the train, into her dreams. You’ll emerge a different person: an artist, aware of detail, discriminating of style.
Since this is part of the “Why I Write Series,” I assumed she would tell us about why she writes. But, duh. No. She shows us. She takes us on a journey during which she conceives of a story, she gives us the story, and then reflects on the question. Thus her answer unfolds, and comes to life before our eyes.
I’ve long admired her persona, but this is my first experience of her prose. It is as unique as I expected....more
Dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp is a fascinating person, and she provides a treasure trove of inspiration in this volume. With a no-nonsense writDancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp is a fascinating person, and she provides a treasure trove of inspiration in this volume. With a no-nonsense writing style, she shares genuinely useful tips and tricks for anyone trying to fuel their creative life. Included are little stories about her own routine (taking a cab to the gym first thing every morning to work out), examples of how she solved creative problems (a surprising story about creating the dance Push Comes to Shove to showcase Mikhail Baryshnikov) and exercises she uses herself to jump-start inspiration.
Here’s just a sample of the many words of wisdom I found helpful:
“You need a tangible idea to get you going. The idea, however minuscule, is what turns the verb into a noun--paint into a painting, sculpt into sculpture, write into writing, dance into a dance.”
“By making the start of the sequence automatic, they replace doubt and fear with comfort and routine.”
“No matter how limited your resources, they’re enough to get you started.”
And this one, which may be my favorite: “You do not know what is and is not possible and therefore everything is possible.”...more
I’m a big fan of Eudora Welty. I don’t always love her books, but I always love her voice. And in this collection, she uses that voice to share in-depI’m a big fan of Eudora Welty. I don’t always love her books, but I always love her voice. And in this collection, she uses that voice to share in-depth knowledge about writers and writing. It’s broken down into four sections: writers, writing, book reviews and a selection of miscellaneous essays.
In the Writers section she digs deep to unearth little gems about significant authors. For example, on Chekhov, I love this: “It was his plainest intention that we never should hear him telling us what we should think or feel or believe. He is not trying to teach us, through his characters; he only asks us to understand them.”
The Writing section, “On Writing,” is something I’ve read before, but feel I could read it forever and never grasp it all. If you give it some concentration, you come away with quite an education. Here’s an idea worth spending some time on: “Making reality real is art’s responsibility. It is a practical assignment, then, a self-assignment: to achieve, by a cultivated sensitivity for observing life, a capacity for receiving its impressions, a lonely, unremitting, unaided, unaidable vision, and transferring this vision without distortion to it onto the pages of a novel, where, if the reader is so persuaded, it will turn into the reader’s illusion.”
Most of her reviews were about authors I don’t yet know. She did, however, convince me to re-read Charlotte’s Web, and had—not surprisingly--some brilliant insight into Faulkner. I found his quotes she shared about why he wrote such long sentences fascinating. Basically, he believed the past wasn’t past, but existed within each person, and the long sentence was an attempt to get their past and future into the present moment. How cool is that?
The essays at the end were some that don’t necessarily have broad appeal--an address to the Mississippi Historical Society, for example. But what came through in all of them was her sense of place—that aspect of her fiction that so many of us love.
“All the years we lived in that house where we children were born, the same people lived in the other houses on our street too. People changed through the arithmetic of birth, marriage and death, but not by going away. So families just accrued stories, which through the fullness of time, in those times, their own lives made. And I grew up in those.”
Those stories that Eudora Welty grew up in made her the unique writer she was. I learned so much from her, and thoroughly enjoyed spending time in this collection....more
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