Nath Jones's Blog - Posts Tagged "epigraph"
Decisions
Art is the decision you don't want to make.
Title-wise, things have solidified for this fourth collection. Acquainted with Squalor has lingered longer than the rest, which is enough of a determinate for me.
So now it's about the epigraph. There's:
But then there's this Salinger passage:
The collection of stories isn't as angry as it was when Sarah's Facebook status seemed so perfect as a lead-in to the book. But I still love the transience of writing online, how a moment gets captured.
This whole collection--and series, really--has been intimately entwined with Facebook. I love the image Sarah creates. Still, avenging angels aren't quite what I've got as the women in this book. These characters are less convicted, less capable.
Plus, angel is so loaded.
So this thing about squalor, about stories for others, and about why I'm doing any of this in the first place--I don't know.
It becomes a matter of where to cut the Salinger quote.
is quite different from:
or just simply:
which is what I'm leaning toward.
Title-wise, things have solidified for this fourth collection. Acquainted with Squalor has lingered longer than the rest, which is enough of a determinate for me.
So now it's about the epigraph. There's:
The snowplow is an avenging angel.
Sarah Strange Harding’s Facebook Status, for a moment on 2/21/2011
But then there's this Salinger passage:
I told her that I'd never written a story for anybody, but that it seemed like exactly the right time to get down to it.
She nodded. "Make it extremely squalid and moving," she suggested. "Are you at all acquainted with squalor?"
I said not exactly but that I was getting better acquainted with it, in one form or another, all the time, and that I'd do my best to come up to her specifications.
The collection of stories isn't as angry as it was when Sarah's Facebook status seemed so perfect as a lead-in to the book. But I still love the transience of writing online, how a moment gets captured.
This whole collection--and series, really--has been intimately entwined with Facebook. I love the image Sarah creates. Still, avenging angels aren't quite what I've got as the women in this book. These characters are less convicted, less capable.
Plus, angel is so loaded.
So this thing about squalor, about stories for others, and about why I'm doing any of this in the first place--I don't know.
It becomes a matter of where to cut the Salinger quote.
"Make it extremely squalid and moving," she suggested. "Are you at all acquainted with squalor?"
is quite different from:
"Are you at all acquainted with squalor?"
I said not exactly but that I was getting better acquainted with it, in one form or another, all the time.
or just simply:
"Are you at all acquainted with squalor?"
which is what I'm leaning toward.
