Robert C. Day's Blog, page 16
February 19, 2017
Showing and Telling
The opening of Beloved by Toni Morrison, with passages of ‘showing’ in italics and ‘telling’ in bold:
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“124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims. The grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old—as soon as merely looking in a mirror shattered it...
February 18, 2017
Tell Me How It IS
When you present to me your great novel, don’t write your opinion of things – tell me what really happened.
As a reader of novels I’m not really interested in what you thought, knew, understood, realised, believed, wanted, remembered, imagined or desired. I want to know what actually happened without it being filtered through your mind.
As I paraphrase these words of Chuck Palahniuk – author of the novels Fight Club, Survivor, Invisible Monsters etc. I’m reminded of something I read not long...
February 17, 2017
Pale Orb
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Pale Orb
Moon – you are too faint and far away to warm mine blood
Dull drear thy plumage, lifeless those eyes, cold that heart
Your bland arch of ascent and descent inspires never now
Much time has passed since I last looked fair on your face
Dreams of a lifetime falling around me as I ponder grace
Get gone pale orb that I may behold my only love – Sun.
Robert C Day (inspired by Vinayak – Zero Creativity Learnings at https://zerocreativity0.wordpress.com/2016/06/23/requesting-photo-poetry-on...
February 16, 2017
blech!
February 15, 2017
Words
A trap is for fish: when you’ve got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you’ve got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you’ve got the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.
Zhūangzi (c. 369 BC – c. 286 BC)
Raquel Welch
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I wriggle my way out. I want to be free. From the mind of Raquel Welch to the Collective Consciousness to the mind of Robert C Day.
How can I know this age and these people? I was an actress and I chose to pass from the female body. It’s not unusual to die. Most people do it. The ones that don’t just haven’t reached there yet. But they will. Most of them. In the far future, there will be no death. But you don’t want to know about those things, do you? You want to know about my tits.
I had a...
February 14, 2017
Invisible Girl
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She was invisible to all but me. I knew her, you see. I could tell you all about her if I wanted to, but I’m only going to tell you about this one day. The day the police got her and dragged her off to jail.
It was sunny in Leicester Square. There was the usual smog sitting on the river, but in the square, a breeze had sprung up and it had swept aside the smog like a curtain. A perfect day for a performance.
She approached from the north-east corner. Slowly stalking the muse. Hair like corn...
February 13, 2017
Boundaries Build Muscle
David … ah, his name eludes me. You know – fellow who penned number9dream and a book on Clouds. Well, he says one’s prose should be founded on real life. People like a genuine basis for novels. Like, for example, a real boy in an imaginary world.
Harder and worse – he declares one needs a boundary on words and phrases – a plan for curbing one’s mind as a means of progress. Such policies make a whole paragraph a bloody miracle. And as for sense? Pah – so arduous.
Imagine a world, no, imagine a...
February 12, 2017
A Steelworker
You could always tell it was summer in the steelworks because you only had to press the button once on the hand-dryer. I sometimes used to wonder if the one in the men’s loos was the same. I dunno. Never went in there on account of it being snided with blokes.
Oh, I’m sure they wouldn’t have minded. I was really fit back then. I was called ‘the one with the big boobs.’ Never to my face. I saw it on a forum a long time after. It was like seeing graffiti about me in the toilets – kinda weird, b...
The Rest of Your LIFE
What do you want to do for the rest of your life?
Whatever it is – kudos to you for showing up for it. Well done for playing your part. If you are lit up by genius and pass on something beautiful to the world – all well and good. If not, then credit to you for being ready to serve.
