Existential Ennui

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Existential Ennui

Tag Archives: Writers

The Arts of Writing and Motorcycle Maintenance

01 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Sherry in writers, writing

≈ 13 Comments

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Writers, writing

download (1)The written word has, for as long as I can remember, enthralled me and held me captive. Much as Justice Black said that he could not exactly define pornography, but he would know it when he saw it, I cannot exactly define good writing, but I surely know when I am in the presence of it.

But this is not about writing, for as I just admitted, I can no more set out the requirements of good writing than I can turn a cartwheel these days, but I do know something about writers. Being one, I can relate.

But what a ragged bunch we are. Actually writers make me laugh sometimes. After all, to declare one to be something which is not measured by a weekly salary or a list of duties associated with one’s daily grind, makes it hard indeed to stand with head held high. Starving artist comes to mind. Are you indeed an artist if nobody buys your work?

Well, so say some.

Dorothy Parker famously queried whether one can be a writer and have no book? In her time, there was no such thing as “self-publishing”. So she opined that unless one had taken to the lonely task of writing a book (fictional presumably), one was not fairly a writer. Those who wrote short pieces for magazines did not qualify.

There are other similar questions by some, mostly I’d suggest, from people with an axe to grind.

I mean self-publishing is now easy and fairly cheap. Anyone can publish their writing and disseminate it in book form. One can, as some do, buy up large quantities of one’s own work and count it as “copies sold” to impress others.

But for some (usually those who have been published), the appellation writer only applies to one who has been properly published by an established publishing company. But there are publishers and then there are publishers. These types however don’t tend to worry overmuch about that. Any publisher will do, but published one must be.

Others might draw the line at “been paid for”. If Boy’s Life paid you $25 for your little ditty about handkerchief folding, well baby, you been published and paid! Welcome to the ranks of Faulkner and Balzac.

Once upon a time, I was a lawyer. I’ve also been a student, and even a waitress for a couple of months (oh I was awful at that I gotta say!). When I started blogging a number of years ago, well, I eventually got the idea that I too was a writer, and I began to learn of the various definitions of what constitutes a person whose “job” it is to writ large.

Of course such writing doesn’t differentiate between fictional and other forms of writing. Technical writers are writers too even if their offerings are much less glamorous than the work of a Mitchener or Cervantes. But if publication is the standard, then all writers who get published by a publishing company can claim the banner.

I don’t know if any of this is unusual in other professions. I mean most of them require the same basic standardized list of accomplishments in order to matriculate through its school and to the degree. But heck, who knows, among physicists, there may be many factors that separate the fish from the chum.

I find it all amusing.

I really do.

For I define writer in a rather different way.

Perhaps it is all self-serving since I admit willingly that I’ve not been paid for writing, other than as a lawyer and no one can separate the brief writing from the argument. I’ve been published in school newspapers and here certainly. A few entries in the Courts of Appeal with excerpted arguments.  I have no other bona fides to claim than that.

Yet, still, I am a writer.

Because writing isn’t about any of the stuff others claim for it.

It is singular and something that only the person can claim for themselves or not.

It is not about publishing or being paid.

Writing is a form of communication, so first and foremost is one person placing into written form thoughts that they wish to convey to some “other”. And most important, do they care about how that thought is conveyed?

What I suggest is that writers love words, and love them to death, agonizing over the placement, the right word, the perfect modifier. Writing is not casual, but sweat and yes even tears on occasion.

However one engages in the craft, it becomes the thing itself, not the means to some other end. When it stands or falls on its own as readable, nay enjoyable, success has been achieved. We struggle with each word, each paragraph, and the order of the thing so that it “flows” and brings smiles of recognition and delight.

It is poetry but not. It is some in-between thing. Not an instruction manual and not Shakespeare, but something of its own. As you read, you marvel. What a wonderful turn of a phrase, how beautifully captured, how eloquent.

Each page is turned with fresh anticipation. One fingers the remaining pages with a certain despair and melancholy. Too soon it will be over.

Such writers, whether their offerings are fiction or not, cause people to search out everything they have ever written. We are insatiable in our desire to read more of this wonderful stuff.

If you don’t aim for this as a writer, I don’t think much of your efforts. If you are not continually searching for your own style, your own “voice,” your own distinct way of delivering your message, you are not a writer. You are at best nothing but a competent communicator. No artistry can be found.

Only the writer can honestly assess these things and declare themselves as wanting or as having passed the test. Of course this is entirely self-serving by definition. I control who  am.  But truly to be dishonest with oneself on this issue is to serve no purpose. One can claim the title but if one cannot produce the magic, well, everybody KNOWS you are only a sham.

Lover of words, extraordinary words, ordinary words catapulted to new realms of usefulness. Cantilevered into phrases, exploding into instantaneous meaning by new association, this is writing. This is art. This is sublime.

This is what I strive for. This is what I attain in singular moments of wordy ecstasy. And then it falls apart and I am left with the refuse of words not used, old favorites, and ones I fully wish to use but struggle with finding a context when they will sing their crystal clear illustration of some obscure thought.

Writers of my ilk love some words to death, hate others, are frightened of the implications of others, and judiciously dole out a few that are so powerful they risk being old hat if used often. Dusted off and polished, old thines and betwixts, hasts and methinks yearn for inclusion in a modern world. Find us a place, tuck us into that sentence, there, with an exclamation point!

Such makes us giddy with excitement. Palpable, throbbing, sexual energy.

I say too much?

I am ready, ready, ready, ready, to write.

Are you ready?

Participating from time to time and loosely with SoCS.

thncen8z70

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Did You Know That. . . .?

12 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by Sherry in Archaeology, Astronomy, Crap I Learned, Essays, Evolution, Human Biology, Psychology, science, Syria

≈ 3 Comments

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cosmology, evolution, foreign affairs, genius, Good stuff to know, mind, pseudo-scientists, science, Syria, Writers

Thinker_thumbA lot of disparate thoughts travel through this brain case I can safely inform you. You know me well enough to recognize the dangers of entering into my sandbox of synaptic pleasures. I’m either hopelessly unfocused or a cobbled together unrecognized genius. Some days it’s more one, other days, well.

I’ve come to see it as a blessing of sorts. At least I try to see it that way. I should have been a college professor, but of course that but begs the question–on what subject?

Any the hoo, I have a lot of thoughts about Syria but not a lot of coalesced conclusions, so I’ll beg off at the moment. Is it too trite and cowardly to just say, I’m conflicted?

I had a bizarre discussion with fellow high-school mates about the issue of spanking as discipline which proved to me once again how easy it is to stay with ideas that are both comfortable and supported by simplistic memes that denote little if any critical thinking. More and more I conclude that indeed advances in the human condition are the result of a very few minds indeed, and put into place by mostly brain-dead human hordes who are spoon fed some “reason” for implementing them.

If all that sounds rather cloudy and vague, well, it’s a cloudy and vague day here in Las Cruces. It’s been raining off and on for several days, which is highly unusual, at least for us recent arrivals–we saw so little rain last year that it made one appreciate water as a life-giving commodity surely. This year, we were told, as of Monday at least we had not yet received four inches of the wet stuff, and we might get at least that during this week. Since the desert is nothing but sand covering a rock hard-pan, the danger in these parts is floods in low-lying areas. Water races to its lowest place and rushes along, making gullies and rivulets through the desert. These become ditches or arroyos as we call them here, and eventually the Grand Canyon if you can stick around that long.

So anyway, here are some things I’ve read this week that you might find interesting.

horse_1456083iVlad, who appears to be in the driver’s seat at the moment internationally that is, has some things to say and said them in the NYTimes.

It’s an interesting “open letter to the American people“. Part propaganda, part history lesson, part chutzpah, it is worth a couple of minutes to read.

Having a power mad ex-president of the Communist party and ex-KGB officer, Putin deigns to give America a lesson in democracy. One can but admire the rich irony of that alone!

What he has to say about the subject of exceptionalism is worth reading. There is truth in those words.

As I said, my thoughts on the subject of Syria are unclear. That Putin wants to be a “player” is clear. What it will cost is not so clear.

A man so determined to show off his “masculinity” bespeaks something surely. What that is, I am not at all sure of.

 

¤

geniusI did mention the possibility that I am a hidden genius didn’t I?

That is almost surely a good reason for concluding that I am not.

Like “hero” we bandy about the word genius rather loosely these days.

If you would like to read an interesting take on what genius is and is not, then read I Dream of Genius over at Commentary. I found it a good read.

At least you can see if those you think of as geniuses are what the author does.

¤

If you would like to look at the mind in a different way, a more evolutionary way perhaps then you might want to pick up a new book out there by E. O Wilson, emeritus professor of biology at Harvard.

If you are unsure of whether you want to invest in The Social Conquest of Earth, then you can read through a review of the book from The Spectator.

HINT: once more we are compared to insects. All it all, it looks worthy of some good reading and some very good thinking ahead if you opt in. The review is not favorable on Wilson’s book. See if you agree. In either case, it seems a worthwhile read.

¤

Cosmic archaeology, need I say more?

Some say that aliens have looked and found us. But there is a thriving scientific community that spends its time looking for them. This is way more than looking for Goldilocks planets my friends, much more.

This is the type of scientific speculation that leads young boys and girls to dream of going into space, and leads them to enrolling in our best science and technology universities.

Come and dream for a few minutes. What can it hurt?

Go and read Distant Ruins.

¤

What happens when we both hear and see something? Do these two senses work together to enhance our fact gathering?

Is there a hierarchy of the senses? Do some matter more? Does one?

Oh I’m sure in the late recesses of a bleak and cold winter’s night, you too have asked this question.

So go and get the answer: Who did you hear, Me, or your lying eyes?

HINT: You might just have been McGurked!

¤

Another thing I imagine you’ve given a lot of thought to is why we are so fascinated by the lives of the writers we read and admire. I mean how much has been written about the life of Hemingway for instance? Are we not enthralled with the secret world of Proust, or Dickinson? How about Emerson or Fitzgerald? Balzac? Oh come now, you know you are curious.

A biography writer, shares some thoughts on what we can and cannot learn about those whose words cause us to depart this reality and enter another, one that sometimes we would rather inhabit.

Good reading here.

¤

Finally, if you have ever had the occasion to be “linked” to a “scientist” or other “expert” on something like global warming or evolution, or biblical literalness, American exceptionalism, the Judeo-Christian roots of American government, or similar things, you know what you are up against.

If you had the resources and or time to do the research,  you would almost surely find that most of these experts are anything but. Some our out-and-out failures who can be bought for a price, others are traveling into areas for which they have no formal expertise at all, and others are simply grifters, ready always to make a buck upholding any cockamamie “theory” that comes down the pike.

There is a great little site called Encyclopedia of American Loons. You can look up the biography of a startlingly large group of imposters and get the real low down on what they know and don’t know. An invaluable site. Since they seem to be novice bloggers I asked to them add the widget for a search engine and they have. Now you can enter a name and find out if they have bio’ed him or her. Or if you just want some fun reading, just go read a few.

So, now that I have solved all your reading needs for the weekend, I’ll leave you to it, with promises of more to come.

Related articles
  • Sen. Menendez reacts to Putin’s op-ed: I wanted to vomit (thelead.blogs.cnn.com)
  • Vladimir Putin Lectures the US on Morality in the New York Times, Greenwald Co-Signs (littlegreenfootballs.com)
  • The Social Conquest of Earth – Edward O. Wilson (konradebooks.com)

 

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Of Ink and Quills and Parchment

09 Thursday Sep 2010

Posted by Sherry in 2nd Amendment, Essays, fiction, Individual Rights, Interfaith, Jewish, Literature, Muslim, religion, teabaggers, What's Up?

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

2nd Amendment, Jack Kerouac, Muslims, Qur'an, right wing bigotry, Rosh Hashanah, Sharron Angle, Soame Jenyns, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Writers, writing, Yom Kippur

One of the joys of living, it seems to me, is the ever-present ability to re-invent oneself. So, a few months ago, I declared, amid no fanfare whatsoever, that I deemed myself a writer.

I’m not sure there is some formal standard that one must meet in order to claim this appellation. If there is, I may not meet it. But then I don’t care. It is my claim, and anyone is free to disagree.

Note that I call myself a writer, not a Writer. I reserve the capital W for those who can REALLY write. I scribble, with an occasional dash of brilliance that streaks across the sky and too soon snuffs out much as your average meteorite. A big ado about little–this is me.

I have concluded that being a self-proclaimed writer gives me a certain ability to be witty and slashingly evil. All in the name of sharp-edgy rhetoric, the turn of a phrase that causes a gasp from you my reader. You do gasp on occasion don’t you? Please say you do.

It’s why I adore people like Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman, and goodness knows one of my favorites Truman Capote. And Tennessee Williams! Rapier wit, icy, droll, slicing, eviscerations. I just love them all.

I read this piece today courtesy of 3quarksdaily and frankly the article on a very old book on the study of evil is worth reading, but I include it for its gorgeous quotes. One is by Capote, who in reviewing Jack Kerouac‘s On the Road, quipped:

That was not writing, that was typing.

There is another by the reviewer of Soame Jenyns book, A Free Inquiry in the Nature and Origin of Evil. But follow the link for that. As I said, a discussion of the author’s theory of evil is worth the read in and of itself. Evil here is cast in the greater sense of natural as well as man-made, and Jenyn’s concludes that evil is required to keep balance in a well run universe. I would of course not agree, but that’s a whole other blog post.

Oh just want to throw in my two cents at the GOP attempt to “speak against the nut case pastor in Florida.” Both Sarah and John B. have weighed in and both, as I have heard are tying the impropriety of the Qur’an burning to the impropriety of Park51. Like there is anything remotely similar in the two. Just exactly what is to be expected from moral defectives. Shame on ya both.

Helen weighs in on the book burning over at Margaret and Helen. Never miss these lovely slices of humor and straight talk. Ever. I mean it.

I got to thinking. (You have been warned.) We were watching The Colony last night. It is a reality show where about ten people are thrown into an area somewhere along the Louisiana coastline, as “refugees” of a viral global epidemic. Nine-tenths of the human race is dead. They are left to their own devices. It’s fairly interesting as they scavenge material and food, trying to build a viable community.

They are not doing well with food, and they are starting to show the effects. I suddenly giggled at the possible headline:

 Reality show participants forget that it’s just pretend, and by lots kill a member for food. Body found partly dismembered. One survivor was heard to  say, why “he tasted just like pork, better than the cockroaches we were eating for sure.”  All have been hospitalized and are under observation. Psychiatrists condemn show producers for not making the make-believe aspect more clear. Meanwhile, the partially eaten body of James Kelly was turned over to the family for burial. A closed casket is expected. Authorities are investigating for possible criminal charges. The leader of the survival group, when advised that it was all just make-believe, expressed his sympathy, and emphatically said, that no such killing would have occurred had they not been so hungry, or had they known that a Burger King was right down the street, behind the fence.

Well, so sue me. I have a morbid mind at times.

On a completely different note:

I ran into this at Tikkun Daily Blog: Non-Jews would benefit from observing Rosh Hashanah thru Yom Kippur (Sept 9-Sept 19). I think Rabbi Lerner is right. Repentance and atonement are things we all need, both individually and communally. We are so quick to blame others for the chaotic world we live in. We don’t condone nor commit the hate that swirls around us, but we are complicit when we sit in silence bemoaning the state of things. When we don’t speak out, and let it be known that we disagree with the war mongers and hate mongers who continually tear down bridges and erect walls of division. This is a good read.

Heather at Crooks and Liars has an important question, or at least reiterates one: when has someone crossed a line? When is the GOP rhetoric just too much. When is it dangerous? When it is traitorous? When do we pull back in disgust and turn our backs on such people as simply unacceptable in a democratic state? Rachel Maddow asks this of Sharron Angle and her continuing threat that people may have to resort to their second amendment rights to get what they want. Is this the real face of the GOP? Are they the party of dictatorship?

What’s on the stove: pork chops and parslied potatoes and green beans.

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