At times, when the words wouldn’t come, he would search images
of the great authors, as if, in those dark mannerisms and confident smiles he might
find some common thread, a shared squint or folding of the hands, that, with practice,
he could master and thus join their ranks.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I would love to know who you have on your "great authors" list. Sometimes I find my writing reflects the style of whoever I happen to be reading at the moment, like I haven't yet found my own voice and am still searching for you I am.
ReplyDeleteThese particular 'great authors', were the tried and trues... Hemingway, Faulkner, Joyce, etc... Great not necessarily meaning favorite. My favs tend to to be less pensive in their photographs.
DeleteI do the same thing, from book to book, author to author, I find my 'voice' bending in that new direction... it's frustrating at times, helpful at others. Part of the long, hard road, I guess.
those author photos are probably more important than we want to think they are, at least in terms of a book's reception in the wide world ... but sometimes the most unassuming, clerkish little fellow -- kafka, for instance --- points the way to the most expansive of worlds. and yet ... i remember a picture of faulkner, most likely drunk in a ratty old coat, and i wanted to be him, because something shone/ there ...
ReplyDeleteIf booze and a ratty old coat were all it took. Sigh.
Deleteand i had read images wrongly before i saw your comment. i was not thinking of photographs at all but the image of the writers themselves, necessarily men, huh, not just because you are a man but because ... (there are complications with the role of women in almost any aspect of notable society/history, huh again.) i was thinking about the solitude of the writer and then invariably the wisdom arrived at.
ReplyDeletejack gilbert in "Alone on Christmas in Japan":
Wondering if the quiet I feel is that happiness wise people speak of, or the modulation that is the acquiescence to death beginning.
have you read gilbert? there is no one like him at all. not at all. his Collected Works is a must.
xo
erin
I haven't. But I will. Thanks.
DeleteSteven, you have a common thread all right... you have the whole ball of yarn. You are there, sitting shoulder to shoulder.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Faulkner... he would stride around Oxford, MS... all duded up... and the locals would refer to him as 'Count No-count'...
ReplyDeleteSometimes, it takes a life time for one's abilities to be recognized... or come to light...
Now, Oxford thinks he's the bee-knees...
~shoes~
I'm sure some uniting is on the cards! Nice piece Steven!
ReplyDeleteThank you dear!
DeleteOh how we try to mimic others. If just being ourselves wasn't great enough.
ReplyDelete