That's what today's post will be, because I have several things floating arround in my cranial stew and I have neither the time nor the inclination to sort them all out.
Read on at your own risk. You have been warned.
Topic 1 - Writers On Writing
In a 1984 interview with The Paris Review, the American writer James Baldwin (1924-1987) made several remarkable statements about writing:
- I find writing gets harder as time goes on. I’m speaking of the working process, which demands a certain amount of energy and courage (though I dislike using the word), and a certain amount of recklessness.
- You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.
- Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.
- I don’t try to be prophetic, as I don’t sit down to write literature. It is simply this: a writer has to take all the risks of putting down what he sees. No one can tell him about that. No one can control that reality. It reminds me of something Pablo Picasso was supposed to have said to Gertrude Stein while he was painting her portrait. Gertrude said, “I don’t look like that.” And Picasso replied, “You will.” And he was right.
- Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. There is nothing else to say. If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you’re not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.
- [My first drafts] are overwritten. Most of the rewrite, then, is cleaning. Don’t describe it, show it. That’s what I try to teach all young writers—take it out! Don’t describe a purple sunset, make me see that it is purple.
For more on writing from a successful writer, I recommend you read the book Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott.
Topic 2 - Recent questions on Jeopardy! that no one knew but me
I'll give you the answer first, putting it, as always, in the form of a question. Pertinent information from the clue will follow in parentheses:
- Who is Sequoyah? (inventor of the Cherokee syllabary around 1820)
- Who is Josephine? (wife of Emperor Napoleon)
- Who are Lerner and Loewe? (writers of My Fair Lady)
- What is a unicorn? (mythical horned beast, along with behemoth, mentioned nine times in the King James Version of the Bible)
- What is void? (in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, Earth is described as being without form and this. The category was Empty Words.)
That last one astounded me more than usual that no one could come up with the answer.
Topic 3 - Midwinter Holidays
Hanukkah begins tonight at sunset and ends eight days from now on December 18th. Between then and Christmas, do not wish your Jewish friends a "Happy Hanukkah" or they will know you are not paying attention.
I hope this post was hodgepodgy enough for you. I may elaborate on some of these topics at a later date.
Don't hold your breath.
"Don't describe it, show it." My hodgepodge of a brain will try to wrap itself around that idea. "The earth was without form and void"....when I was a kid I thought it meant the earth was without form and without void. I didn't ask many questions back then. Eventually someone explained it.
ReplyDeleteJeannelle of Iowa, not to be confused with Eleanor of Aquitaine, I was reading some old posts from 2008 earlier today and you were commenting on my blog even then. Your brain will never be a hodgepodge as long as you find someone who can explain things to you.
DeleteThis is a great hodgepodge. The word void is so full to me. I suppose it sounds odd but a void is full of possibilities.
ReplyDeleteEmma Springfield, also from Iowa, what a coincidence! (see my reply to Jeannelle above), I never thought that a hodgepodge could be great before. You have opened up new possibilities in my mind, which I trust is not void.
DeleteHappy Hanukkah!
ReplyDeleteYOu confused me for a bit with the admonition to not wish Jewish friends Happy Hannukah, until I realised that 18-25 December is the "danger zone"
Hodge podge pffft. all active brains are a soup of ideas
kylie, the liturgical side of me (and I do have one) wants to say calmly “and also to you” but the wildly outgoing side of me (I have that too) wants to spin dreidels and eat latkes and dance the hora and give out Hanukkah gelt. Not simultaneously, of course. That would be silly.
ReplyDeleteThe danger zone is actually 19-25.
"and also to you" is very Anglican and have nothing against the Anglicans (or episcopalians) but I'd rather eat latkes!
Deleteand of course it is!
Not only was this blogpost a hodgepodge, it was also a hotchpotch - not to be confused with hopscotch. Interesting remarks by James Baldwin on the process of writing as he saw it. Inspiration will only get you a little way down the road. To reach your destination you need endurance. I think most writers would agree with that.
ReplyDeleteNeil, I think hodge is American and hotchpotch is British. Hopscotch is for girls where I come from. And since the nearer your destination the more you’re slip-sliding away, endurance is a must, yes.
ReplyDelete"The earth was without form and void". All that misunderstanding could have been avoided by a comma. Not, I hasten to add, an Oxford Comma because there is no list of three or more items.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that in the US you spell hotchpotch hodgepodge.
I would have answered the question on Sequoyah (the worlds largest tree) only to discover that that one is spelt Sequoia.
I would have answered void (n) as nothingness. I'd have preferred being asked void (adj).
As my writing all through my career has been for a professional purpose requiring very different skills and mindsets to writing novels, essays and poetry.
Graham, Q. If one loses consciousness while attending a famous university in England, might one be said to be in an Oxford coma? A. Yes, unless one is in Cambridge!
ReplyDeleteAt least you weren’t asked void (verb).
Third time lucky.
ReplyDeleteUnicorns. Scotland's national animal. There's a Jeopardy question.
Alphie
Alphie, I didn’t know that!
Delete