Writers and Cats

T.S.Eliot clearly loved cats. He wrote an entire book of whimsical poems about them. Hemingway had cats with six claws, as if five were not enough. The list of writers who have feline connections is long and varied.
I never thought to wonder why, until the other day when something struck me. I was talking to Kitty O, who, as usual, did not deign to answer. He twitched a ear, as if to say that my voice, never mind my words, was offensive. Then he put his head back on the carpet and proceeded to snore.
I felt as if I were talking to myself.
Which is exactly how I feel when I write. I'm sitting at the computer, making up entire dialogues, setting up the scene, all by myself and to myself.
There is always the hope that the book will talk back, though it never does, of course. The fact that certain parts read wrong and need to be fixed is not 'talking,' in the same way that Kitty O occasionally meowing doesn't mean we are having a conversation.
A book, for a writer, is a monologue.
A chat with le chat is also a monologue.
Both frustrate and delight, though one never knows which way it will go.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
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Published on August 02, 2016 10:22
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message 1: by Bronwyn (new)

Bronwyn Fryer Dear Ace,
I am a 15 year old Tuxedo cat born in Boulder Creek, California. I was brought by my mother to Boston in 2004. My folks since moved to Vermont where I receive excellent food, warm sleeping quarters and even old-lady acupuncture, as is appropriate for an old-lady cat like me who is the kitty adoptee of a California hippie. Last week my parents went away for 4 days and I took over their bedroom (I have also taken to shitting on the concrete floor of their basement, which makes me feel important). I like to hide in their bedroom and wake them up at 3 am, hacking up a hairball. (I wait until the wee hours.) Lately my stepdad has been making noises about leaving me out at night so that I might be eaten by demons. I'm pretty good at night, but soon winter will come up here in Vermont and I'm getting old. I'm good at showing affection to the old man, whose chest is like warm Velcro to me. How do I make them appreciate me more?


message 2: by Barbara (new)

Barbara Dear Ace,
While writing is a lonely pursuit and your novel doesn't speak to you while you are writing it, once it is finished I imagine that it does--and will continue to--speak back to you because then it is itself, with an identity and life of its own and with characters who speak if not exactly spek "back."

Tolstoy used to say that it was increasingly difficult, as a novel he was writing at the time took shape, for him to "tell" his characters what to do and what to become as they increasingly took on a life of their own and they had more power over him at tht point than he had over them as author. I believe there is a lot to that, don't you?

One of your fans


message 3: by Ace (new)

Ace Varkey Bronwyn wrote: "Dear Ace,
I am a 15 year old Tuxedo cat born in Boulder Creek, California. I was brought by my mother to Boston in 2004. My folks since moved to Vermont where I receive excellent food, warm sleepi..."

dear tuxedo,

since brevity is the soul of wit, i shall be brief --
less is more -- show your family a wee bit of affection and the gains you will get will be far more than you imagine --
ps if they haven't thrown you out all these many years, i would rest easy, especially in the wee hours off the am! cheers -- they will be wanting your warm furs in the cold of vermont --


message 4: by Ace (new)

Ace Varkey Barbara wrote: "Dear Ace,
While writing is a lonely pursuit and your novel doesn't speak to you while you are writing it, once it is finished I imagine that it does--and will continue to--speak back to you becaus..."


ah, yes, tolstoy is correct, though strictly speaking, that happens when the book is going well -- there are far too many times when the blank screen mimics the blank feedback of a novel-in-progress -- in other words, it's exactly like a cat not paying attention! so happy to have a fan -- the life of a writer with a cat can be a lonely one....


message 5: by Barbara (new)

Barbara Dear Ace,

Better to be a lonely writer with Cat than a lonely writer without Cat....

A Fan


message 6: by Ace (new)

Ace Varkey Barbara wrote: "Dear Ace,

Better to be a lonely writer with Cat than a lonely writer without Cat....

A Fan"

c'est vrai....tu as raison!


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