Read O'Brian and Despair

As for writing a novel, I'd better put a cork on that. I finished Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander yesterday and observed I'd never write as well as he does, not even if I tried for a thousand years.

One thing about O'Brian is he's an artist, not your ordinary sort of writer. That is, he draws scenes, and the words serve as his paintbrush. As artists go, he's an impressionist. The reader must work to shake out what's going on. O'Brian won't pat your hand and say, "Now, now, we're getting up, dear old Sir, so please put your slippers on," none of that, he zips from point to point without very much in the way of transition. The reader's brain must work overtime, sometimes rereading to puzzle out what is going on in the story. One adjusts to this challenging style, because it has the advantage of compactness. O'Brian draws a scene in ten pages that would take another writer fifty, while imparting more nuance. He does not waste the reader's time and is never boring.

Of course O'Brian's a classic nerd, having devoured every single fact and legend concerning the British Navy of the 1700s-1800s, and he flaunts his knowledge until the reader is cowed into accepting the writer's indisputable authority. I don't know one sail from another, it's all Greek to me. I just marvel. I suppose that the gentleman must have spent a good chunk of his life reading naval histories and stories. I don't even like sailing, but I like Patrick O'Brian's novels about sailing. That's the mark of a great author, that he can hook landlubbers like me with his naval stories. I rank O'Brian up there with the best of the best, and I can only wonder why Gore Vidal never reviewed his books, but Vidal preferred dead authors to living competitors and probably found O'Brian reactionary, although I think O'Brian's personal views may be found in the speech of his character Stephen Maturin, who was liberal enough for me.

When I think of the times I wanted to write a historical novel, I blush in shame, because I know good and well my knowledge of times past is not one-tenth O'Brian's. My effort would turn out just like the ones of those historical novelists I read in the library and put down in contempt.

So read O'Brian and despair, ye budding writers!Post a Comment

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

Stepping Into Her Bones

I've been reading about a page a day of a self-published autobiography about a straight, white, devout Christian woman of no special renown who grew up in America. It is the bathroom read. To my surprise, I have enjoyed stepping into her bones and seeing the world through her eyes. I am beginning to feel a desire to start a novel. There is nothing stopping me. Perhaps I will create a similar character.Post a Comment

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

Characters

Writing can or could be an end unto itself, if one has what it takes to create an imaginary character. I've often been tempted, but the task is difficult, probably beyond me. It is easier to imagine a character than to translate the imaginings into the written word. Only a good sort of writer, like Tolkien, can bring characters to life in such a way that readers will be happy to spend their evenings with those characters. Other writers are good enough to bring characters to life, but one doesn't wish to spend time with their characters. Doris Lessing comes to mind here. I can't think of a single character from her books that I miss. On the other hand, I do miss some of the characters in books by Tolkien, Jane Austen, Robert Heinlein, Mary Renault, Anne Rice, and Gore Vidal.
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by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

Doris Lessing

I spent the entire day reading Doris Lessing's autobiography and came to dislike her. Maybe she would feel likewise reading me, I don't doubt.

So she was a Communist, fine. Get over it. Plenty of people were back then. It's not a big deal. All of this hand-wringing and agonizing and "how could I have thought such and such" was unappealing. Like we haven't heard about repentant Communists before. I found her too circumspect. She wants to place the spotlight upon every iota of her own being and that of others in order to indulge her guilt fantasy. I want to tell her to stop it, for your reader's sake stop it and just let things be for once, do whatever it takes to stop all of this dreadful, unending slicing and dicing of every thought and feeling, just let things be. After a couple hundred pages I felt a headache coming on and had to put the book down.

I much prefer Anne Rice's early novels about vampires. Anne Rice could be riveting back in the day, before her light faded.

I will not take Doris Lessing with me to work again, that's for sure. She can only be absorbed in small doses. Her books make passable bathroom reading material, two to five minutes at a time.
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by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

Organ Donation

I do suffer from absent-mindedness on occasion, but that is because I have always been a daydreamer even from the earliest ages. My brain just gets bored with the modest demands of the present and likes to escape on independent, unscripted vacations.

While driving home from work, I was fascinated by another idea for a short story in which a young man in prime physical condition, for an as yet undetermined motive, decides to end his life, which is a similar plot to so many of the horrible stories we have read about recently in the media. However, my plot twist is that the young man, unlike the serial murderers, is highly ethical and benevolent, desiring to perform the maximum amount of good for the world that he loves even by his act of suicide, so he researches the hospitals of the country, finds one with a very high demand for organ transplants, arrives at a precise time when he knows (from espionage) that many skilled surgeons will be on site, and informs the charge nurse of his plans, handing the nurse his Organ Donation papers and then quite calmly terminating his life in a safe and controlled manner that minimizes damage to organs.

Possible plot twists further down the road might be that the young man was hired by a millionaire who needed an excellent body part right away and wanted to obtain it through legal and above-board channels. The money for services rendered would go toward a life-saving operation required by the young man's partner.

Idea

One of my favorite ideas for a novel concern an invisible or otherwise inaccessible benefactor who performs good deeds for an old woman, who for a while remains unaware of the benefactor's identity, and after learning the identity, the motive remains mysterious.

All-Day Kitty Buffet

If you have cats take heed,
All day long they feed.
A never empty bowl
Soothes the kitty soul,
So if outside they do stray,
they'll come back the next day.
We got an all-day kitty buffet,
That's why they stay.

Low, Middle and High Brow

Vidal makes frequent references to the human race being divided into three classes--low, middle, and high- brow. Judging by who he sorts in the middle and high category, surely the bulk of his readers must know where he'd place them.

Oh, Vidal must have many detractors, I'm sure. I suppose my humility is such that I don't really mind being placed in one of the two inferior categories. Acceptance is more my style. I'm a bit amused, also. Because if Vidal and a thousand-odd are all that's high-brow, then in the first place I'm in the majority, and in the second place, high-brow ain't all that, by Vidal's own admission and with numerous supporting details straight from a high-brow himself.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

Even More on Gore

In Gore Vidal, I have found a wit that I could never hope to equal in a million years. He is funny, fresh, careful (when he feels he must be), and vigorous. I can only imagine that he spends enormous amounts of time concentrating his energies upon his writing. When I have done so, the end product has not been nearly as good as Gore's, I think. If I had started out in college by reading Gore instead of second-raters like Anne Rice and Ayn Rand, then I would have abandoned any pretense of becoming a writer, so far above me is Gore. The prose of Anne Rice and Ayn Rand gave me hope, along with other bad habits.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

Gore Vidal, Entertainer

I think Gore Vidal must be understood primarily as an entertainer. He seems to know what certain people, his audience, want and how to give it to them. He's a showman, a world-class gossip, and a chatty guy if there ever was one. He leaps from one subject to the next with the abandon of an acrobat, and he never seems to tire of harping on the same themes from essay to essay. He has a long list of strongly held beliefs that he wishes to emphasize again and again in an attempt to make converts to his particular view of the universe. Do I agree with all his opinions? No, I do not.

He exaggerates things in order to obtain sweeping generalizations, and for all his criticism of others for playing loose with the facts, he inevitably gets facts mistaken himself from time to time, in part because he deals with so many facts, ideas, and opinions; they are his bread and butter. His sentences are strewn with jeweled thoughts with many dimensions. That is why I love reading Gore Vidal. He provokes thought when he is introducing a new idea or article of historical evidence to the reader. Of course I delight in his gossip and his narcissism. His arrogance is most becoming. He is rather like a peacock. He wrote an essay on a peacock, Thomas Love Peacock to be precise. He is a pure delight to read on certain subjects, most of all literature, academic criticism and history.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

Gore Vidal

I'm still reading Gore Vidal. He really does seem to have mastered the essay. However, I don't find him abundant in ideas. He has about thirty ideas--more than most people I suppose. He recycles them. Some essays don't have a new idea, only new trivia or gossip concerning a celebrity.

I find I learn more with Vidal than I learned in college from my professors. I think it was a mistake, majoring in English. Vidal provides a better education than the liberal arts department did. He knows more and he is both clever and insightful and unrestrained by politics or prejudice. I can see why he interests so many people.

I hate his surrealist novels. I like his historical novels the best. I think he quit writing historical novels because he felt like they did not pay enough, and he found essay-writing easier and more lucrative. Also, through essays he can get on his soapbox and voice his opinion directly rather than through the medium of characters.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

Gore Vidal

The more I read Gore Vidal, the more I'm convinced he'd hate me*.

Well, maybe hate is too strong a word. He'd disapprove.

He disapproves of so many who are smarter, wiser and more industrious than me, that I can't imagine any circumstance in which he'd accept me or anyone else not at his exalted I.Q. level which I'm sure he feels is predestined at birth.

So, my admiration for Gore Vidal is tempered by Dr. Reality.

He's very much the elitist who wants everyone in their place, that is, below himself.

I continue reading his essays in order to learn about people, places, and ideas. But I have a cold feeling toward Gore Vidal. I can readily understand Hillary Clinton's ambivalence towards him. He's a bit of a lizard, really, licking his lips thinking about the next fly. A writer I really like and would have wished to meet is Mary Renault, because her prose seems magical and also reveals a thumping good human heart, something I'd like to see in the hyper-analytical spellchecker and proofreader, Gore Vidal, who delights in pointing out the petty errors of others, though he has bestsellers to his overexposed name.

I am almost half through his collected essays, 1952-1992, a thousand-plus page book which I dearly love, although I know the love ain't reciprocal. It's the collected thoughts of an unattainable beauty who was too good-looking for all the boys and just couldn't be touched by anyone.

I pity his unauthorized biographer who received the cane for his labors! He should have known better than to offer obeisance to an ungrateful god. Yet I have done similar things in the past. Unrequited love is a mental disease and it is contagious through songs, stories and movies.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

Some Writers

Some writers seem to fit me like hand and glove.

I can't resist Mary Renault and Gore Vidal.

Two other writers I like include Tolkien and Patrick O'Brian.

With the collected works of these four writers, I could endure the centuries, locked away in Vampire Castle. Of course, it would be nice to have a phone conference with the sole survivor, Vidal, while he lives, and if he felt the desire to interview a vampire (with apologies to Anne Rice).

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

I Like Gore Vidal

I like Gore Vidal's fiction and nonfiction very much, but my admiration for his abilities is tempered by the realization that he'd not approve of much about me. Gore's witty and warm, but kind of cranky, or at least that's the impression I have gotten from reading about a hundred pages of his reviews of novels, essays and authors. He disapproves of academia, taking particular exception to the social sciences and English. Maybe he has a point, indeed, but I'm the product of academia, had a great time in academia, and feel like an academic. For all the faults Vidal gleefully points out, I like academia and it likes me, because I seldom made less than an "A" and liked all my professors except the incompetent few. And few really are incompetent. Vidal is wrong there. Just because he's so clever, he belittles the efforts of others, as though they are nothing, when they are not, they are helpful in many ways that Vidal neglects to consider. A professor is not necessary for a self-driven reader such as Vidal, no, he is an exception. But most students are not Vidals. They are not anywhere close to being a Vidal. A professor is very useful to those students, and they would not, perhaps, otherwise learn. It is better for all to learn, than some, and more so in a democracy.

This is just one example of the many areas I part company with my hero. So I like Vidal, but take him with a grain of salt. I like salt.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

Charity's Heart Contracted

Here's a line from the novel Summer by Edith Wharton: "Charity's heart contracted." The first thought that came to my mind was, I certainly hope so, because otherwise, she'd soon be dead.

One can count on Tolkien not to drop a howler like that in his prose. Did any of my English professors teach Tolkien? No. Tolkien is belittled in academia because he is popular and for no other reason than that.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

New York Times Needs a Proofreader

I was surprised today to see a goof in The New York Times:

In analyzing these polls in the United States, I see clearly that voters feel ever more estranged from government — and that they associate Democrats with government. If Democrats are going to be encumbered by that link, they need to change voters’ feelings about government.

The writer meant to write "unencumbered," although that's not the best word to use. There's no need for a hyphen, either. Also, feelings in a group or an individual can be influenced, but cannot be changed by an outside entity. The entire paragraph is flawed.

Many elections that Republicans win are the result of a weak candidate or a candidate that was so far to the right, he might as well have been a Republican. I don't think the Democrats need to change anything except, in some cases, their delivery and salesmanship. The practice in which candidates are selected based upon their connections must be ended. Democratic candidates should be more combative and angry, in tune with the zeitgeist. Democrats need to move further to the left and own it. The people don't care which label is used. They will listen to any catchy tune.

End the overseas interventions, end the drug war, end foreign aid, cut out welfare for the rich, cut back outdated farm and factory subsidies, invest in America's working class, invest in American manufacturing, build new power plants, build mass transit in all American cities, slap tariffs on goods from slave nations, put America back to work, offer inexpensive health care and college education, and invest in scientific research.

This is all obvious. It isn't rocket science. The problem with some our leaders (not all) is that they have never created or fixed anything. They're not engineers. They don't understand how things work or how to make them work. And the only thing the Republicans care about is scoring political points. As far as the G.O.P. is concerned, America could burn, and that's fine as long as the G.O.P. gets to bite the ankle of Obama.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

Proofreading Obsolete?

Corporations today seem to assume that editors and proofreaders are obsolete. After all, Microsoft Word has built-in spell checking, as do many other apps. Who needs an employee with writing ability?

I found this whopper on ABC News without even trying. It confused me at first until I realized that the journalist goofed.

In the picture caption, it is claimed, "The longer the ring finger compared to the index finger, the longer the penis, Korean researchers say."

The first line of the article reads, "The longer a man's index finger when compared with his ring finger, the longer the length of his penis, according to Korean researchers."

Either the Korean researchers need to make up their minds, or ABC News needs to hire a proofreader.

I'm sure the glaring mistake will be corrected by somebody at ABC News, but not before thousands of people have already read it.

Downsize at your peril, corporate America. Not every job can be farmed overseas or replaced by technology.

There is an urgency to being the first on top of a story. I know all too well that is not possible to achieve perfection in a short amount of time on a consistent basis. Only with reflection, which requires time, is it possible to detect and correct mistakes and oversights, and even then there is always something that seems amiss. Humans are by nature pragmatic and imperfect creatures who create things that work, but are not necessarily elegant or without flaws in their first version. That is why new versions must be generated all the time.

I am sure the journalist in question would have preferred a seven-day grace period in which he could examine his articles prior to their publication. But is it possible in a high-turnover, high-pressure media company? If the answer is no, then such a company had better hire a team of proofreaders and editors for the sake of quality control.

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

Pronouns

In college, I learned about the brouhaha over the use of the word "man" and the pronoun "he" when referring to a generality, such as "Man does not live by meat and drink alone." Some consider this usage to be sexist, excluding women. They would have us write, "Man or woman does not live by meat and drink alone. He or she requires spiritual sustenance as well to satisfy his or her needs." Awkward.

I always use "he" rather than the "he or she." Likewise I prefer to write "man," rather than "man or woman." To me, it is clear that "he" can be used in the sense of a human being of either gender. That's what I was taught in school, and there are writers who still agree with me.

Some writers in the mainstream media avoid the dilemma altogether by avoiding generalities or avoiding the use of a pronoun at all costs. There are other creative solutions I've seen, such as using "a person" in place of "man or woman." The trouble with using "human" is that it has a science fiction flavor, implying an alien making an observation on our species.

I once corresponded with a woman who used a pronoun such as "ke," to indicate a person of either or neither gender. I think that's a good idea, if it ever were to catch on. I don't wish to slight either gender. I just want efficient use of language.

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

Walk in Silk Slippers

Some bloggers churn out pages of verbiage per day. I've done so. If a more sedate pace as followed, then blogging offers an opportunity to review and refine one's writing and thinking. Reviewing a thought or idea several days after its creation offers entirely new perspectives. Sometimes, what seemed logical instead seems exaggerated for dramatic effect. Such ideas must be rejected as being not quite the thing, imprecise. Precision is important. Casting too wide a net is a common mistake.

I also think it is well to walk in silk slippers like the ninja, not clunking boots. Express an idea without overstating the case. Avoid excessive explanation. Draw an outline only, allowing the intelligent reader to fill in the blanks. By engaging the reader's mind in the activity of reading, making it work harder, the writer provokes interest. Additional areas of the brain are being stimulated. A baseline of pleasure is initiated. The writer must maintain that interest by giving various rewards, such as new or interesting ideas. He must avoid punishing the reader by inserting obvious exaggerations that insult the reader's intelligence, leading him into forming an instant rebuttal. Once a reader starts arguing with a writer, the game is over. The text will be dismissed. Obvious truths must be avoided, as well, in order not to bore the reader. An outline only is necessary. More is verbosity. A reader might not take exception, but won't take interest either. Make the reader work.

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

Writing an Autobiography

I have the rough draft of an autobiography written ten years ago, but the older it gets, the less I value it. When fresh from my hand, I took measures to safeguard its data, including numerous backups on CD amid fretful worries that an I/O error might erase all my labor. I imagined it would be useful, supplying grist for a novel that might gain for me material things. Writing has always seemed a viable path for a poor person to gain wealth and influence, even though those already prestigious, like Donald Trump, have an advantage, because people will read them in the hope that some of their magic might rub off.

After some experimentation with online publishing, I downgraded my own evaluation. There are many writers that must be better, because they earn a living by writing, whereas I've never been paid for the slightest article or web page, even though I have designed an entire web site from the ground up and written many articles. Also, while I've received some encouragement via fan mail, it hasn't been often. In ratings competition with other writers, I rank in the middle. Editors of publications have rejected submissions and queries. One draws the natural conclusion from the accumulation of such experiences. I think if I had showed promise, surely somewhere along the line, a proper place for me would have been found somewhere, if only as a writer for alternative newspapers or magazines.

Now I think of the autobiography as false in many parts or misguided or a collection of events only half-perceived in their totality. There is a focus, for instance, upon individuals, eight or ten in number, that I no longer care anything for and vice versa, youthful infatuations that seem like overripe onions to me now, and no one is interested in those biased histories besides the author anyway. I read the stories and think, what foolishness, and want to bury the knowledge. All the ones I used to place above the Moon and Stars, I now see as unimportant particles of dust. They are better forgotten, and I am only too glad they are strangers to me now. There's no possibility for good as far as I can see.

To dream about the past is an odd and solitary occupation, because most think about the present and the future, always looking to acquire more possessions in the belief they 'win' if they have more stuff in the end. Where is the accountant, and who pays his salary, and why should he concern himself with the trifles of the deceased?

I like writing on a blog as I do now, without any expectations, as a message in a bottle to an alien visitor from another planet. Sometimes, I find posts that I dislike, especially if they expressed anger, and these I delete. My regrets all had their origin in anger. Anger is a relic of our animal origins that I think cannot have much currency in the future. It is a throwback. It had a purpose, even an advantage back in the days of tooth and claw, but not within the context of modern society, I think. Often, anger seems misplaced in retrospect, overwrought, or the result of disordered thoughts.

It is commonplace to see anger expressed in the media. I remember reading the Reader's Digest in the 1970's and 1980's. The Reader's Digest was like Fox News today. Just about every article was calculated to enrage an ordinary person and persuade them that liberals caused every problem under the Sun. I was at one time an avid reader of the Reader's Digest. All my relatives subscribed to it and their opinions were formed by it. And all of it was nothing but lies, a steady stream of half-truths, exaggerations and distortions calculated to turn working people into voters for Ronald Reagan and, later, the Bushes. And it worked. Humans are quite easy to deceive and mislead and can be operated like puppets. This is well-known. No one is immune, no matter how smart. I have crafted my predictions of the future with this in mind.

On the other hand, every once in a while, I read an earlier post and think to myself, "that is not half-bad," and it gives me satisfaction as a kind of validation. If I like my stuff, then that matters more to me than if others do. However, my evaluations change. I sometimes look back on a story that I used to like and find that time and distance have changed my perception. I'm sure other writers must feel the same way. For instance, even the great Mary Renault's early romance novels left a lot to be desired. I couldn't finish any but The Charioteer. The others just seemed boring.

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments