"On Writing" Thoughts as I go (2)

"Your job isn't to find these ideas but recognize them when they show up"

This is a exert from Stephen Kings "On Writing" when speaking of the first original idea he had for a story. This really stuck out to me in particular, enough so that I read it a few times just to feel that sensation again.

It started me thinking of my own increasingly large list of ideas that could somehow unbeknown to me be turned into interesting prose or stories. For me, the problem has rarely even been ideas, but the implementation of them. I realized, sometimes that doing the easy thing "The simple story" Things you might feel are beneath you might just be better then staring down an amazing idea for all eternity.

Granted, it has become exponentially evident that the more I learn, the more I realize how little I really know about anything.

Matthew Out -

"On Writing" Thoughts as I go.

"On Writing" Is, from my current understanding a book about the evolution and creation of a writer, and writers craft itself. I can tell you truthfully that I was skeptical, even as I bought it, perhaps especially then, that I had used a ten of my precious remaining dollars to buy something not immediately on the need list.

While I'm not far in, I am enjoying it in an entirely different way then I have other books. It is, as much as I've encountered much like sitting down with someone and having a conversation. It feels intimate, as he speaks about sections of his life, his inspirations and hardships. In one smaller passage he talks about copying the words out of a comic, and using his own descriptions in some places to form his first story.

While one of the stories before had left my jaw slackened, this did for a far different reason - he was, for all intensive purposes tracing. Something that, really fits in my mind as a sometimes needed step for many young and budding artists.

The book really sets at ease a lot of my internal issues or questions about the makeup of actual authors, and while I may not be interested in his horror novels, or thrillers, I find myself still interested, very much willing to listen to the creation and thoughts of this person.

Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it.

Done

Well! And hello, everyone (??). Here we are. The time is almost ripe for picking out a new book, as I've finished Revolutionary Road. There was a bout of reading yesterday, and I trotted through the last hundred pages or so, very much riveted. Let's do a full (ish) review, shall we?

The first thing I have to say, is that I can't believe this book isn't recognized as more of a classic, that Richard Yates isn't required reading in school, and that this novel flies so much under the radar. It is absolutely superb. Prose-wise, it is one of the best novels I've ever read. Written in 1961 about the claustrophobic emptiness of suburban life in the early '50s, Revolutionary Road still manages to have a modern presence and urgency in it, more than fourty years after it's publication. If I had read it without knowing when it was written, and was pushed to guess, I'd say sometime in the mid-2000's.

It has remarkable subtlety, and precision in all it's narrative. Very vivid, very imaginable, and recollects reality in an almost painfully relatable way. I love this quote from the back flap, from The Boston Globe, commenting on Richard Yates: "Soft-spoken in his prose and terrifyingly accurate in his dialogue, Yates renders his characters with such authenticity that you hardly realize what he's done."

And more than that, in my opinion, he renders an entire world so recognizable as one we know, one we're equally as able as the characters to become entangled in, that 'terrifying', 'troubling', and 'masterpiece' are as close to the perfect description of Revolutionary Road as I can get.

-

Next on the list may be something in the lighter-hearted genre, or, alternately, something a bit more action-packed. Possibly The Taking by Dean Koontz. We shall see, I'll let you know when I decide:D

-s5g


P.S. If so inclined, I urge you to read some of the review for RR on Amazon (they do it much better justice than my quick little worship-fest). But beware of spoilers.

Reading - and beguilement

I estimate there are many ways of reading or digesting a book.

It is a difficult road for me to get into the devouring of literature - of which I hope to some day be able to do. Currently, it is a rare occurrence that I am able to read more then a single chapter in a sitting before I feel it is time to take a break. While, during those uncommon moments I have found myself able to run through several in a row and still have desire to continue - but for the nagging feeling that it might be wasteful.

I suppose I am the voice of the other side of the spectrum, which is probably what makes for a good informative blog or reading experience as a whole. I don't believe I in anyway see more from a specific book then anyone else, though, right now it is just something of which I have to deal with, until it either refines into a purer form, or goes away completely.

I find I have the desire to finish the books I have, and yet, at the same time I don't want to see them end. It is as if I've never read a book before in my life, which is hardly the case, but I suppose like most things, this bicycle, though still going forward, is a wobbly unwieldy beast that can hardly keep a straight line.

I'm almost afraid to finish Anne of Green Gables, because I like this story about the little girl, and I know that she is not a little girl forever - nor do I have much real desire to read others interpretations of Anne - much like I'd not desire to read Sherlock Holmes written by anyone but the original creator - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

So, single digestible chapters are gobbled up, one after the next, and rather, mournfully at times. It'll be nice to move onto the next book, and fall in love again with some other text. Until then, it is the baby steps that will hopefully lead me to an eventual end - which is more the path toward some new Amazing super literate quest.

Spring Distractions

So! Well, this has taken absolutely ages to post, and watch, it's going to have barely any content. I'm afraid, and this is not a reflection on my current book, that I have not been reading lately as much as I would like to be. And without good reason! I've been pleasantly idling my time away, and the sun is coming out and the weather is getting warmer, and I've been doing things online and and... poor Revolutionary Road, sitting there half-read.

Page Count: 146 of approx. 355

Things I'm Enjoying: The writing style is SUPERB. I mean, really, Mr. Yates evokes a clear, but subtle, emotional transition through out his chapters that carries the story gently, stunningly, along. Every instance is precise and sharp, and trudges up such life-like aesthetics, that it is almost painful when you can see how all these character's good intentions are going to go horribly wrong. It's fantastic, but painful, which leads me to....

Why's It Taking So Long?: Because it is a beautiful, but worrying book. It's hard to throw yourself into a world which you want so badly to work out, but one which, I don't really think, will.

Would You Recommend it to Others?: I almost typed 'otters' there. Whoops!;P Well, yes, I WOULD recommend it to all literate otters out there reading this (and I know we have quite a few fans!). And YES, thus far, I would absolutely recommend it to others. It is superb.

I will get further along in it soon, and post more opinions and such. I'd love to see something from someone else up here, too! We must keep this darling blog alive.

-s5g

Stealing Time Seven Pages In

A bit more on Revolutionary Road, and a bit bigger of a font, you'll be happy to realize.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

My Anticipation Level Is: Extremely high. I wanted with a desperate yearning to see this movie, but managed to see Slumdog Millionaire instead, and obliviously sidestep any other attempts at seeing it, with such sincere delicacy I look back and think 'Oh! That's a shame, but I must have had a good reason for it!'. Anyway, yes, very very high anticipation level. Also, the reviews on it's cover are mesmerizingly positive.

Expected Time to Read: A bit longer than Green Gables because it is a wordier (in a lovely way) novel with smaller print. But, if I read at regular periods, not too terrible long.

Things I Like So Far: I'm only on page seven, but I like immediately how it draws you in with a sort of brittle sense of life, as though the very real humanity in the air were perched tentatively with the expectation of cracking. Also, it takes place in Connecticut. Also, I managed to buy the last copy without a movie-image cover. Huzzah!

Possible Fears: That my expectations are too high. But I really, really doubt it. "Beautifully crafted.... A remarkable and deeply troubling book." offers up Michiko Kakutani, of The New York Times. This sounds like a read I will like. Look how 'Possible Fears' turned into 'Such High Hopes!'.

Page Count: 7 of just around 340.

-s5g

Beginning the Revolution

"Everybody, take a white flag just in case this doesn't pan out,"

Well! And this morning I finished the last 15 pages of Anne of Green Gables. Very lovely, I rather liked it as it went on, and encourage those of us still in its pleasantly violet depths to hold out, for Anne's speeches get shorter and it does move along more swiftly.

Finishing Up a Novel:

My Overall Impression: It was delightful! I will steer quite clear of spoilers, but will say that I can't decide which half of the book I liked better. The first is a bit more wild, and full of that childhood happiness which, by contrast, makes anything above age 12 seem subdued and lackluster. However, there's something pleasurable in the speedy delight with which the latter half of the story presents itself.

My Favorite Part: The descriptions of everything so pleasantly in bloom, and the perfectly pitched essence of childhood, diluted down into print but beautifully expanding in the true memories of the reader. I was very reminded of my own adventures.

Not Quite So Favorite Part: A bit slow paced at the beginning, but, you know, it's all for set ups sake, and done so well I honestly can't complain.

Following Anne, because I never do seem to read two books in the same series back-to-back (excuses Harry Potter which, if you have two or more unread, need to be devoured at once), I am moving on to the next book:

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

The recent movie of the same title, for which Kate Winslet won a Golden Globe and Leonardo DiCaprio was unceremoniously snubbed at most awards this season, centers on the hardships of married life in 1960s America, where expectations of normality and what people should and ought to be doing ware painfully on our central characters.

It's supposed to be superb "The Great Gatsby of my time", via Kurt Vonnegut, reknowned very much so.

I'll write more about my expectations for this novel later, as someone is yelling blasphemies at the dog just now.;)