Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 50

November 3, 2012

Natalie Goldberg 2

Goldberg is well read in good, traditional, non-genre fiction and poetry, possibly better read than I am. But she really does not seem to understand that much literature is not about one's own life.

Obviously, writers use what they know -- though often it is what they learned from books or other people. Shakespeare seems to have been well read, in spite of knowing little Latin and less Greek. We can trace the plots of many of his plays to stories in Italian collections, English histories or plays by other authors.

His sonnets sound personal, but we can't be sure, because we don't know enough about his life.

Milton wrote Paradise Lost to justify the ways of God to man. His sonnet "On His Blindness" is clearly personal, as is Michelangelo's poem on how much he hated painting the Sistine Ceiling:
I've grown a goitre by dwelling in this den–
As cats from stagnant streams in Lombardy,
Or in what other land they hap to be–
Which drives the belly close beneath the chin:
My beard turns up to heaven; my nape falls in,
Fixed on my spine: my breast-bone visibly
Grows like a harp: a rich embroidery
Bedews my face from brush-drops thick and thin.
My loins into my paunch like levers grind:
My buttock like a crupper bears my weight;
My feet unguided wander to and fro;
In front my skin grows loose and long; behind,
By bending it becomes more taut and strait;
Crosswise I strain me like a Syrian bow:
Whence false and quaint, I know,
Must be the fruit of squinting brain and eye;
For ill can aim the gun that bends awry.
Come then, Giovanni, try
To succour my dead pictures and my fame;
Since foul I fare and painting is my shame.
From Wikipedia. It's not comfortable to lie on your back day after day painting; and he thought of himself as a sculptor. Obviously, this is personal. It's also about pleasure in invective and pleasure in the art of writing.

I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, and my moods are very closely connected to the amount of light around me. I'm convinced that Edmund Spenser had a similar problem, given the way he uses light and darkness in his great poem The Faerie Queene. Light and dark have been used by many writers obviously. They are standard symbols out of the symbol kit. But Spenser's descriptions of both are especially numerous, specific and felt. His light gleams, glitters, shines, glows... That much is personal.

However, the poem is his attempt to write a poetic romance in the Italian manner, an allegory about Christian morality, and a celebration of Queen Elizabeth I and her England. It is not his life story.

Well, I could go on and on. But Goldberg does not seem to get how much of literature is not about oneself. It's about craft. It's about ideas. It's about telling or retelling a story that is evocative and emotionally charged, but not one's own personal tale.

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Published on November 03, 2012 07:49

Natalie Goldberg 1

It's pitch black dark outside, and I seem to be in a grim mood. I think it's the approaching end of a really dreadful election, in which we have a choice between a party of sexism, racism, homophobia and hatred of the poor -- and a party which shills for Wall Street. Evil and lesser evil. Ah well.

I plan to go to the Farmers Market as soon as it's light enough to see what is being sold. In the meantime, I think I will write about Natalie Goldberg. I have been re-reading one of her books. There is much about her I dislike. I envy her success. I think she gushes too much, and I think she is too self-involved. But she is a good memoirist; and she writes well about using writing as a form of Zen meditation. I use her when I want to read about Zen and Katagiri Roshi, the wonderful Zen teacher who lived in Minnesota for many years; and when I want to think about my relationship to writing.

It's interesting to read her ideas about writing and think, "This is utterly crazy."

Goldberg sees writing as self-expression. "We all have a dream of telling our stories -- of realizing what we think, feel and see before we die. Writing is a path to meet ourselves and become intimate." Talking about herself, she writes, "There were stories only I knew about my family, about my first kiss, last haircut, the smell of sage on a mesa and my kinship with the flat plains of Nebraska."

Yes, we all have stories like these. But why share them with the world? Find a good friend. Find a good therapist. Tell them. Or keep a journal.

I have very little interest in telling the story of my life. I live it, and that is sufficient. I'm not especially interested in meeting myself. I probably should be. I certainly respect Goldberg's dedication to Zen practice.

But I want to write about other people, people who aren't me; and I want to write about places that don't -- at present -- exist. I want to tell made-up stories, not memoirs disguised as stories.

Lots of people take Goldberg's classes and struggle to record their lives, so this is a common need. But lots of people read science fiction and fantasy, which suggests a need for made-up stories.


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Published on November 03, 2012 05:54

November 2, 2012

An Unpleasant Topic

The Republican statements on rape remind us that rape is a political topic and a political action. It was used in the civil war in Yugoslavia, and it has been used in civil wars in Africa, among many other places. It demonstrates that women are powerless and, if the woman belongs to another ethnic group, it demonstrates that the ethnic group is powerless. It is the next-to-ultimate weapon in any conflict, the ultimate being murder. However, because rape can result in pregnancy, it has an added result, which may make it even more powerful than murder. Women can be forced to bear the children of the enemy.

Rape is an attack on women, families and the generations that follow. When it is used in war, the idea is to destroy communities. When it is used within a community, it may seem less devastating, but it still threatens individuals and families and the community.

This is what the Republican candidates are talking about. This is not about the sanctity of life, it is about war. By harping on rape and insisting that women pregnant as a result of rape remain pregnant, the Republicans are threatening violence of the most extreme kind -- against women, first of all, but also against their families and communities.

The important thing here, I think, is to demonstrate that women are powerless, their families are powerless and entire communities are powerless. The rich will always get abortions. It is the poor who have to bear children they do not want or risk dangerous, illegal abortions. The message is, "We want you to live without self-determination and in fear. We want to be able to destroy your lives." [image error]
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Published on November 02, 2012 09:11

November 1, 2012

Music

I just heard the William Tell Overture on Minnesota Public Radio. Hi-yo, Silver, away![image error]
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Published on November 01, 2012 07:47

Plans

I mentioned that I have a couple of contracts. One is for the sequel to Ring of Swords. I have been stalling on the final revision for years now. However, I have made a commitment to my writing group -- the Wyrdsmiths -- that I will bring in 30 pages of the revision to every meeting till the novel is finished. That means it will be done and mostly out of my life by the next Wiscon.

I also have a contract for a novelette to be included in a theme anthology. I have something like 3,750 words written, a rough plot and a lot of world building done. My plan is to make it a National Novel Writing Month project, and finish it in November, while continuing to put the novel through my workshop.

This means I need to write something like 2,100 words a week starting today. This should not be difficult. It will give my life structure. I find life without a job kind of fuzzy.

In addition, I have a backlog of short stories and novelettes, six to be precise, that I need to finish and get out. But I am going to focus on the work under contract.

I do get things done, but slowly. [image error]
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Published on November 01, 2012 07:36

Voting

63% of the electorate voted in 2008.

(Other interesting information I have just found: 68% of the African American electorate voted in 2008; and the average for off-year elections -- congressional elections -- is 48% of all Americans eligible to vote. I know Americans don't believe in their government, but this is shameful.)

The turnout is likely to be about the same this year as in 2008. Maybe lower, because a lot of people have lost faith in Obama.

Right now, per Nate Silver at the New York Times, polls show that President Obama will get 50.5% of the vote and Mitt Romney will get 48.6%.

So this means about 30.6% of the American electorate plan to vote for Romney, while 31.8% are planning to vote for the president. 27% will not vote.

I don't like Obama. His administration has continued the Bush wars and expanded war into at least three new countries: Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan. The Administration has continued Bush's attacks on civil liberties; and Obama bailed out Wall Street at huge expense, when the banks should have be nationalized and the bankers tried for breaking all kinds of laws. This was done in Iceland.

I could go on about the failings of the current Administration: their failure to adequately protect national resources, such as the Gulf of Mexico -- BP got off easy, and it shouldn't have -- and their failure to deal with global warming, a clear threat for all of humanity.

However Mitt Romney is just as bad and worse. Current Republicans are pretty clearly racist, openly homophobic, and opposed to health care for women. They can't stop talking about rape and the need to force women to bear fetuses produced by rape. Romney and Ryan have no policies except cutting taxes for the rich and benefits (such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) for the rest of America, while making life hell for women, homosexuals and nonwhite Americans.

What kind of fool would vote for Romney and Ryan? Is a third of America crazy? [image error]
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Published on November 01, 2012 07:20

October 31, 2012

Foxessa

I tried posting a comment on your blog, but I can't get past your captcha. It has given me at least half a dozen words, and I haven't been able to read and reproduce any.

So I am making a weird try to reach you via my blog. Though I don't imagine you will be checking here for a while.

I gather you are in New Orleans, which sounds better than lower Manhattan. Though being in New Orleans while a hurricane hits New York is also kind of strange.

Anyway, hope to hear from you when you have time. I will try to post on your blog again.

P. S. I tried again and think I got through this time. But I will leave this note up. [image error]
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Published on October 31, 2012 20:13

Work

Kris Rusch wrote a three part series on her blog on why writers disappear. All at once, you notice that someone whose work you liked is no longer publishing.

The reasons are the usual: writing pays too little money, and you need to get a day job; you need health insurance; personal crises drain your financial and emotional resources; publishers are no longer interested in your work.

Rusch points out that many writers change their names to get away from bad sales records, or move into a new genre.

Or people simply lose interest in writing. They proved their point and said what they had to say. More painful, the creative springs can run dry, who knows why.

I think I (sort of) fit into the category of writers who became less visible, maybe even invisible. Back 15 or more years ago, I looked at the neat little report that the Social Security Administration sends on expected Social Security income; and I realized I had spent too many years working low paying jobs and part time. I did this in the theory that it would leave more time and energy for writing; and it more or less worked out.

But now I needed to build up my Social Security; and I needed to save some money. So I began to work longer hours, at somewhat better pay. I found these new jobs both interesting and draining, and I wrote less than before.

When I got laid off in 2009 and wasn't able to find a new job and formally retired, I finally had time to write. I've had to relearn writing. At first it was really difficult. I no longer enjoyed working on stories. Slowly -- very slowly -- I have gotten my creativity back. Maybe not all of it, but enough to produce new stories that I like and want to place.

And I've noticed that working on a writing career takes time and energy -- networking, corresponding with editors, reading contracts, proofreading stories before they are finally published. I realized years ago that freelance writers have two jobs: getting contracts and then writing the novel or whatever it is; and the marketing is as hard as the writing. I'm relearning that now.

Look over this post and notice how often I have written "job" and "work." Writing is a job. It is work. [image error]
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Published on October 31, 2012 08:09

October 30, 2012

Weather

Lovely clear morning outside. The almost full moon has finally set.

I have been focused on Hurricane Sandy, in part because I have friends and family in the East, also because it seems like the wave of the future. As far as I know, all the weather models predict more severe weather as a result of global warming.

The size of the storm is amazing. MPR news said this morning that beach front areas of Wisconsin are being evacuated, due to storm surges on Lake Michigan. Waves up 33 feet high have been predicted. Lake Superior, the most western of the Great Lakes, may have waves as high as 20 feet. So a storm hitting the coast of New Jersey is reaching almost all the way to Minnesota. We are not usually effected by hurricanes.

I need to correct the above. If there are 20 foot waves on Superior, the storm has reached Minnesota, though it isn't likely to cause damage.

I just checked the Duluth Shipping News website to see there are any photos of waves crashing against the lighthouse at the Duluth shipping canal. None posted yet. Maybe later, or maybe Superior will remain calm.


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Published on October 30, 2012 06:22

On Being an Unemployed Writer

One of my colleagues on the Wyrdsmiths blog referred to herself as an unemployed writer, because she doesn't have a contract at the moment.

This got my goat, and I wrote the following:
I don't think a free lance writer can be unemployed, if he or she is writing. I checked an online dictionary. Meaning # 1 is "to hire." Meaning # 2 is "to keep busy." Meaning # 3 is "to use." Meaning # 4 is "to occupy or devote."

If you don't have a contract, you are unemployed in meaning # 1, but not in meanings # 2, #3 and #4.

I have almost never written under contract, because I don't like the pressure. Instead, I write the story I want to write and then try to sell it. In most cases, I do manage to sell it, though I have never made the kind of money that other Wyrdsmiths have and do.

I told one of my editors years ago that my income from writing paid for conventions and Laura Ashley skirts. I no longer buy Laura Ashley clothing. So maybe now -- in a good year -- my income from writing pays for conventions and J. Jill clothing.

Because I don't like pressure, I write slowly. I think a bit of pressure might help me write more quickly and more, which is one reason I have two contracts right now.

In any case, I don't think of myself as unemployed, but rather as self-employed.
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Published on October 30, 2012 06:10

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