Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 66

A Writer's Moment: 'Just . . . moving at different speeds'

A Writer's Moment: 'Just . . . moving at different speeds':   “Fiction is life with the dull bits left out.” – Clive James Born in Australia on this date in 1939, James was an author, critic, b...

'Just . . . moving at different speeds'

 

“Fiction is life with the dull bitsleft out.” – Clive James
Born in Australia on this date in 1939, James was an author, critic,broadcaster, poet and humorist who broke into the writing world inthe 1970s as a television critic for TheObserver magazine.  He gained a widereading audience with his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs,first published in 1980, and his acclaimed sketches of famous 20th century figures, Cultural Amnesia.
James, who died in November of 2019, also had four novels and severalbooks of poetry published, including The Book of My Enemy (2003), a volume thattakes its title from his earlier humorous poem "The Book of My Enemy HasBeen Remaindered” (a term in bookselling where books are relegated to the "last gasp" discount bin).
 [image error]Humor, James said, is an essential partof every writer’s arsenal.    “Common senseand a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds.  A sense of humor is just common sense,dancing.”

'Spread your voices on the wind'

 

“Spread your voices on the wind, follow your visions, andnever give up on the light within.” – White Buffalo Calf Woman

 

In theLand of the Lakota, the setting for many of my novels, White Buffalo Calf Womanis an integral figure in the life and lore of the people.  Portrayed as a protector and guiding spirit,she encourages all to shed darkness in andaround our lives; help one another; and be mentors to the young.   

 

From“The Lore of White Buffalo Calf Woman” for Saturday’s Poem, here is,

 

                      The Hoop of the People

“Whenone sits in the Hoop of The People,
one must be responsible because
all of Creation is related.
The hurt of one is the hurt of all.
The honor of one is the honor of all.
And whatever we do affects everything in the Universe.”

 

White Buffalo Calf Woman gazed

                             Outupon The People as she spoke.

“If you do it that way - that is,
if you truly join your heart and mind
as One - whatever you ask for,
that's the way it's going to be.”

 

Then she faded into the night sky,

And the wind whispered.

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A Writer's Moment: 'Spread your voices on the wind'

A Writer's Moment: 'Spread your voices on the wind':   “S pread your voices on the wind, follow your visions, and never give up on the light within.” – White Buffalo Calf Wom...

'It's the foundation for success'

 

“Goodwriting … is especially important in a subject such as economics. It is notenough to explain. The images that are in the mind of the writer must be madeto reappear in the mind of the reader, and it is the absence of this abilitythat causes much economic writing to be condemned, quite properly, asabstract.” – John Kenneth Galbraith

 

Galbraith, one of the greatEconomics’ minds of the 20th Century, was born in Canada in October,1908 and said that he often would hear the following lament from students in hisEconomics classes:  “Why do I have totake a writing class when I’m planning for a career in business (ormathematics, economics or computing, etc.)?”

 

His answer was simple: Good writing canbe the foundation for success in ANY career choice.  The ability to clearly express an idea, as hestates above, not only can lead to its success but the success of the personsharing that idea.

 

Galbraith also was a fan of sharing thelife stories of great leaders, regardless of their background, with writingthat “entertained” as much as it “conveyed” their stories.

 

“We have escapist fiction,” he said,“so why not escapist biography?”

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'It's the foundation for success'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the foundation for success':   “Good writing … is especially important in a subject such as economics. It is not enough to explain. The images that ar...

A Writer's Moment: 'My job, so I did it'

A Writer's Moment: 'My job, so I did it':   “I didn't mean to spend my life writing American history, which should have been taught in the schools, but I saw n...

'My job, so I did it'

 

“Ididn't mean to spend my life writing American history, which should have beentaught in the schools, but I saw no alternative but to taking it on myself. Icould think of a lot of cheerier things I'd rather be doing than analyzingGeorge Washington and Aaron Burr. But it came to pass, that was my job, so Idid it.” – Gore Vidal

 

Vidal was born at the West Point Military Academy on this date in 1925 (his father was an officer and instructor there at the time).   He said he never wanted to be awriter, but he became one of the most well-known and sometimes controversialwriters in American history.  And he tookon a larger-than-life public role as an intellectual and debater, particularlyagainst conservative writer and spokesman William F. Buckley. 

 

Called “a literary juggernaut” by TheLos Angeles Times, his novels and essays are considered "amongthe most elegant in the English language.” He wrote 28 nonfiction books, 32 novels, 8 plays, and 16 screenplays andteleplays.  Many were best sellers,especially his gripping historical novels Burr,Lincoln, 1876 and Empire.   And,he won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for the anthology UnitedStates: Essays 1952–92.  

 

 In his later years (he died in2012) he lamented what he termed the lack of good American writers.   “For every Scott Fitzgerald concerned withthe precise word and the selection of relevant incident, there are a hundredAmerican writers, many well-regarded, who appear to believe that one word isjust as good as another and that everything which occurs to them is worthputting down.”

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'Being aware of life'

 

“Wedo not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.”
― Cecil Day-Lewis

 

Day-Lewis, born in Ireland in 1904was a poet, mystery writer, and lecturer at three of the world’s leadinguniversities – Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard.   From 1966 to1972, the year of his death, hewas Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. In addition to his myriad poems, he wrote 27 novels and 3 collections ofessays as well as 5 short stories and his autobiography The Buried Day.

 

Work in writing and the arts has been carried on through his children.  His son Daniel is a multi-AcademyAward winning actor; daughter Tamasin a distinguished film producer, foodwriter and journalist; and son Sean, who died in 2022, was a noted television critic and writer.  

 

Cecil's "best advice" tohis children was: “Be aware of life.”  Danielsaid that in preparing for a acting roles, he thinks: “Life comes first. What Isee in the characters, I first try to see in life.”   

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Being aware of life'

A Writer's Moment: 'Being aware of life':   “We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.” ― Cecil Day-Lewis   Day-Lewis, bor...