Gillian Polack's Blog, page 182
May 28, 2012
Time and space in all kinds of writing: a rant
My beef-of-the-second is writers who feel they have conquered time. Writers who take a bit of this and a bit of that are capable of annoying me, for some of them completely fail to understand why there's no underlying unity to the this and the that they have welded together in their work. They can't see a difference between nineteenth century England and twenty-first century America, or between Mainz in the eleventh century and in the sixteenth. A lot of history of Jews is written with this approach. Jews are universal, after all*, and so are not culturally confined by time and space in the normal way.
My favourite history books (focussing on any subject) have an acute awareness of the long patterns of time and the short patterns and how geography and status and gender help configure time in a culture and how different people experience all this as themselves, not as projections of theory. My favourite recent book on this is by Elisheva Carlebach (Palaces of Time). It's a masterly study of the kind of things I think writers and historians need to understand.
Right now, I'm reading a study that does the opposite. It contains such good ideas, but the author doesn't have much of an insight into how the cultural contexts of the works she examines actually operate. This means that the text is muddled and the conclusions are muddied and the whole work rests on insecure foundations.
What I think I'm finally realising is that time and space in cultures operate the same way the palette does in painting. They need to be understood at a fairly deep level. They don't always need to be expressed. They help inform a writer's decisions. Quite often a work itself progresses with hardly a mention of them, but the solid understanding is working hard in the background, assisting the story or the argument.
Moving to fiction for a moment - it's not a question of whether a society has clocks or if people travel a lot. It's a question of how time is measured and how time is perceived (both - not either/or) and how space is visualised and used. There are so many different ways a society can operate and still have most of its members limited to a 30 mile radius in their lifetime, for instance. It might be the difference between a housewife in 19th century outback Australia (on a Steele Rudd type property - since these things count) and a cockney woman in 19th century London: the two woman might be born in the same year and travel the same total distance in their lives and still have hugely different spatial awareness. And their lives! So vastly, vastly different.
I suspect that one reason some books are more easily accessible to a wider range of readers is because those books have this awareness informing them. The writers either understand space and time and build their world to manifest that clearly (taking this and that, but taking this and that with scrupulous care), or they select very narrow boundaries and stick so closely to those boundaries that the palette is consistent**.
Some readers (of fiction, of general non-fiction, of academic studies) also lack that time/space cultural understanding. They couldn't care less if the palette jars sensibilities. Some of us care very deeply and things jar easily. Most readers are somewhere in between and a modicum of care and a bit of a reach to develop a palette will make most readers much happier.
And that's an end of my rant. it's a pity, because it only has two footnotes.
*So a popular assumption says, anyhow - I don't feel particularly universal.
**For some books, of course inconsistency is way important. The Adventures of Alianore Audley, for instance (which is where this rant came from - the contrast between Wainwright and the other authors I'm looking at today). It's done intentionally and for comic effect, however - the writer still has a deep understanding of the place and time. It's one of those instances where someone who knows something very well can mock it very effectively.
My favourite history books (focussing on any subject) have an acute awareness of the long patterns of time and the short patterns and how geography and status and gender help configure time in a culture and how different people experience all this as themselves, not as projections of theory. My favourite recent book on this is by Elisheva Carlebach (Palaces of Time). It's a masterly study of the kind of things I think writers and historians need to understand.
Right now, I'm reading a study that does the opposite. It contains such good ideas, but the author doesn't have much of an insight into how the cultural contexts of the works she examines actually operate. This means that the text is muddled and the conclusions are muddied and the whole work rests on insecure foundations.
What I think I'm finally realising is that time and space in cultures operate the same way the palette does in painting. They need to be understood at a fairly deep level. They don't always need to be expressed. They help inform a writer's decisions. Quite often a work itself progresses with hardly a mention of them, but the solid understanding is working hard in the background, assisting the story or the argument.
Moving to fiction for a moment - it's not a question of whether a society has clocks or if people travel a lot. It's a question of how time is measured and how time is perceived (both - not either/or) and how space is visualised and used. There are so many different ways a society can operate and still have most of its members limited to a 30 mile radius in their lifetime, for instance. It might be the difference between a housewife in 19th century outback Australia (on a Steele Rudd type property - since these things count) and a cockney woman in 19th century London: the two woman might be born in the same year and travel the same total distance in their lives and still have hugely different spatial awareness. And their lives! So vastly, vastly different.
I suspect that one reason some books are more easily accessible to a wider range of readers is because those books have this awareness informing them. The writers either understand space and time and build their world to manifest that clearly (taking this and that, but taking this and that with scrupulous care), or they select very narrow boundaries and stick so closely to those boundaries that the palette is consistent**.
Some readers (of fiction, of general non-fiction, of academic studies) also lack that time/space cultural understanding. They couldn't care less if the palette jars sensibilities. Some of us care very deeply and things jar easily. Most readers are somewhere in between and a modicum of care and a bit of a reach to develop a palette will make most readers much happier.
And that's an end of my rant. it's a pity, because it only has two footnotes.
*So a popular assumption says, anyhow - I don't feel particularly universal.
**For some books, of course inconsistency is way important. The Adventures of Alianore Audley, for instance (which is where this rant came from - the contrast between Wainwright and the other authors I'm looking at today). It's done intentionally and for comic effect, however - the writer still has a deep understanding of the place and time. It's one of those instances where someone who knows something very well can mock it very effectively.
gillpolack @ 2012-05-29T11:27:00
I'm making sense of things today. Finishing some stuff, sorting some stuff, and, of course, teaching Latin. I've realised I can't do all my messages this week and do all the work I must do and get to all the medical/dental appointments. I will do the one non-postponable message tomorrow and as many as I can on Friday after the dentist and the rest can wait. I want the insurance stuff finished, but there is a limit to the number of hours in a day.
In better news, I finally have my own copy of Brian Wainwright's The Adentures of Alianore Audley and of the last two books of Felicity Pulman's Janna series. Flick sent me hers, for which I'm very grateful. Her next book's about Norfolk island, and I'm kinda hoping it's a bit like Ghost Boy. Brian's next book will be another straight historical, but it's a way off yet. (I don't know why I didn't own my own copy of Alianore - these things are a mystery). I also found a copy of Jennifer Fallon's new book in Target when I was doing some insurance shopping and somehow it snuck into my shopping basket.
I've also received a bunch of review books this week. The sword and sorcery one appeals particularly, but one that calls itself "Tribal Science" is going to be interesting reading.
I won't get to these new books until after Continuum, I suspect, but I have a good chance of finishing all the older ones before then. And of finishing my various deadlines. This latter is because I have someone to drop dire hints - it makes a *big* difference to my willingness to work when things get tough, having someone who also has deadlines and who is willing to work alongside.
One day, maybe, I'll be through this curious stage of my life and my blog will be all kinds of interesting again.
I don't get lunch until I finish filling the holes in the review essay. I'm afraid I left gaps for examples when I was too pressed for time. When they're filled in I can do a final revision and lo, one deadline will be done.
In better news, I finally have my own copy of Brian Wainwright's The Adentures of Alianore Audley and of the last two books of Felicity Pulman's Janna series. Flick sent me hers, for which I'm very grateful. Her next book's about Norfolk island, and I'm kinda hoping it's a bit like Ghost Boy. Brian's next book will be another straight historical, but it's a way off yet. (I don't know why I didn't own my own copy of Alianore - these things are a mystery). I also found a copy of Jennifer Fallon's new book in Target when I was doing some insurance shopping and somehow it snuck into my shopping basket.
I've also received a bunch of review books this week. The sword and sorcery one appeals particularly, but one that calls itself "Tribal Science" is going to be interesting reading.
I won't get to these new books until after Continuum, I suspect, but I have a good chance of finishing all the older ones before then. And of finishing my various deadlines. This latter is because I have someone to drop dire hints - it makes a *big* difference to my willingness to work when things get tough, having someone who also has deadlines and who is willing to work alongside.
One day, maybe, I'll be through this curious stage of my life and my blog will be all kinds of interesting again.
I don't get lunch until I finish filling the holes in the review essay. I'm afraid I left gaps for examples when I was too pressed for time. When they're filled in I can do a final revision and lo, one deadline will be done.
gillpolack @ 2012-05-28T20:18:00
My Reconciliation Week reading starts on Thursday, which is when I can get to the library. I can't get to the functions I'd like, because of the health stuff, so I'm making up for it by re-reading or reading books that will celebrate. For the Mabo decision I'm reading Samantha Faulkner's Life b'long Ali Drummond (the re-read - I really should own my own copy of that book!). To understand the issues more, I'm going to read Larissa Behrendt's Indigenous Australia for Dummies. Over the weekend I'll rewatch One Night the Moon, which makes me cry but which has Paul Kelly.
It's not much, but it's all I can fit into an impossible fortnight. Each year I think "If I do a little to understand, that will help." This is my little for this year. I wish I could do more. I really wish I could get to that function and demonstrate my support - but I can't be in two places at once.
It's not much, but it's all I can fit into an impossible fortnight. Each year I think "If I do a little to understand, that will help." This is my little for this year. I wish I could do more. I really wish I could get to that function and demonstrate my support - but I can't be in two places at once.
May 27, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-05-28T16:41:00
I wasn't turned radioactive after all, only fluorescent. And the news is a bit ambivalent. Not bad, but not dreamland perfect. I have to return to the hospital on Wednesday to be seen by the retina expert with the possibility of laser. Not much. There is a very small region in the right eye that seems to be sporting new blood vessels and they need to be checked. It might all end up with me being put on watch, just in case or they may deal with it that same day.
It's not actually a bad result. Small possible damage is way better (in my book) than vast definite damage. My eye has come out of this very lightly.
Right now, though, my main beef is time. I don't have much. It gets eaten by turning yellow and meeting lasers. In other words, the more science fictional my life is, the less time I have to actually write the science fiction.
When my eyes are back to normal later tonight (I look like someone from an opium den at this moment, and pages are blindingly white) I shall get some more work done. I can't do it on Wednesday, after all, since the morning is teaching and the afternoon is hospital.
On Wednesday evening I get a rare treat and am off to Geosciences Australia. Do not get between me and my treat! (that last was to my eyes and to my health in general)
Step by step I progress through this maze. It does have an exit point and that exit point is getting closer. The closer it gets, though, the more juggling I have to do. I have to get to Mawson post office, for instance, to collect the last insurance thingie this week (for they won't hold it for me beyond that) and I have to subsequently get to JB hifi and sort out camera cover and memory and stuff. It all has to be done sequentially, too - I can't reverse the order, for the insurance doesn't work that way. I wonder if I can do the camera case and etc alongside sorting my heater issues, on Friday, after the dentist? Hmm.
I'll manage it. And then I shall heave a sigh of relief when it's all managed. Until then, I rather suspect I shall whinge.
It's not actually a bad result. Small possible damage is way better (in my book) than vast definite damage. My eye has come out of this very lightly.
Right now, though, my main beef is time. I don't have much. It gets eaten by turning yellow and meeting lasers. In other words, the more science fictional my life is, the less time I have to actually write the science fiction.
When my eyes are back to normal later tonight (I look like someone from an opium den at this moment, and pages are blindingly white) I shall get some more work done. I can't do it on Wednesday, after all, since the morning is teaching and the afternoon is hospital.
On Wednesday evening I get a rare treat and am off to Geosciences Australia. Do not get between me and my treat! (that last was to my eyes and to my health in general)
Step by step I progress through this maze. It does have an exit point and that exit point is getting closer. The closer it gets, though, the more juggling I have to do. I have to get to Mawson post office, for instance, to collect the last insurance thingie this week (for they won't hold it for me beyond that) and I have to subsequently get to JB hifi and sort out camera cover and memory and stuff. It all has to be done sequentially, too - I can't reverse the order, for the insurance doesn't work that way. I wonder if I can do the camera case and etc alongside sorting my heater issues, on Friday, after the dentist? Hmm.
I'll manage it. And then I shall heave a sigh of relief when it's all managed. Until then, I rather suspect I shall whinge.
gillpolack @ 2012-05-28T11:21:00
My eyes are being pesky today and I'm not even at the hospital yet! Also, my fingers won't type what I've told them to.
Despite this, I only have 160 words (plus much revision) on one of the three logjam pieces. If I can send it tomorrow, that will be one burden I do not carry. I'll have run out of excuses not to do the other two logjammed bits of prose, mind you...
Despite this, I only have 160 words (plus much revision) on one of the three logjam pieces. If I can send it tomorrow, that will be one burden I do not carry. I'll have run out of excuses not to do the other two logjammed bits of prose, mind you...
gillpolack @ 2012-05-28T08:30:00
My BiblioBuffet column is already up: http://www.bibliobuffet.com/bookish-dreaming It's a pure nostalgia piece, about manuscripts, mostly.
gillpolack @ 2012-05-28T08:28:00
It's Monday morning and already I have a scholarly quibble to make. This means I'm off to a good start this week. It's all a matter of whether the work of Pirenne counts. The author I'm reading argues that looking at the slow and long patterns is postmodern, from the Annales School (especially Fernand Braudel). But Pirenne ought to be credited for that, surely, and, even more surely, he was writing earlier? This means that any notion of flow change or a different length dynamic or even no change at all over a certain period predates the second half of the twentieth century? What this means to me is that the author with whom I quibble is creating false "There was and then there was." History in binary - with simple choices - seldom works, but this time it woks even less seldom simply because the writer in question is basing a part of his/her case on Pirenne's ideas not being around until a half century later.
Unfortunately, this is a review volume and I need to think of a polite way of explaining that it undermines the argument when one tangles the historiography. This is what I've been putting off doing. It's not a bad book, but it really does have a couple of rather big flaws.
Unfortunately, this is a review volume and I need to think of a polite way of explaining that it undermines the argument when one tangles the historiography. This is what I've been putting off doing. It's not a bad book, but it really does have a couple of rather big flaws.
gillpolack @ 2012-05-27T20:41:00
More procrastination today. This is because I have a hefty week ahead and I need to stop being ill. Eurovision helps, I must admit. I couldn't not work (it's a personality flaw) so I used my have-to-be-quiet-or-pay-for-it time to read from my must-read-or-else pile. I'm two books down and have paid most of my bills and now I'm doing bits and pieces of things while singing along at home.
It wasn't precisely a big day's anything, but it was worthwhile. I'm shaking off the foul lurgie (without even having to say "Begone foul lurgie!") and haven't entirely lost a whole weekend.
I still feel bad about it. I was going to do a big catchup and be on top of most things by Tuesday, and life keeps interfering.
I possibly need a 'reset' button.
It wasn't precisely a big day's anything, but it was worthwhile. I'm shaking off the foul lurgie (without even having to say "Begone foul lurgie!") and haven't entirely lost a whole weekend.
I still feel bad about it. I was going to do a big catchup and be on top of most things by Tuesday, and life keeps interfering.
I possibly need a 'reset' button.
May 26, 2012
gillpolack @ 2012-05-27T14:41:00
I have finally, finally worked out why the burglar unstrung my violin bow. When I was sorting my scarves this week, I noted them all and decided which to keep. It was only today, when I took out the violin, that I realised that its protective scarf was one of the ones that had been flung around the floor ie that I had sorted it along with the others. He must've thought I was hiding money in my violin case and been frustrated.
I didn't realise how much that floating horsehair had worried me until now.
I didn't realise how much that floating horsehair had worried me until now.
gillpolack @ 2012-05-27T13:23:00
I was feeling a bit overworked and fatigued last week, as you know, for I complained about it. I was feeling more and more tired and my legs kept saying to me, "Give me some rest!" On Friday the symptoms became just a bit grander than feeling run over by a truck and now I know what' wrong. The latest virus. Which is a gastro. I'm taking travel sickness pills and sleeping a lot and doing work (like yesterday) in the interstices.
This is a seasonal thing (at least half of Canberra has some sort of virus) and I'll be through it soon.
Like yesterday and Friday, I plan to get one big block of work done and to watch Eurovision. Everything else can wait. The last two days I didn't plan to spend the day like this but today I'm heading towards recovery and things look clearer.
And now it's nap-time!
This is a seasonal thing (at least half of Canberra has some sort of virus) and I'll be through it soon.
Like yesterday and Friday, I plan to get one big block of work done and to watch Eurovision. Everything else can wait. The last two days I didn't plan to spend the day like this but today I'm heading towards recovery and things look clearer.
And now it's nap-time!
