You ever get that feeling in the bottom of your spine? That’s called your "writing". It’s large. Rounded. Shaped like a human skull. Itchy. Maybe you’re wondering where your leftovers are? In your fat ass. The thing about writing is that it’s something one can always do. Any time you want. It’s ‘allowed’ so to. It’s also very difficult to make a living doing it because really to be a writer is to be gay, poor, Jewish then confused and smart as all hell struggling in good lighting with interesting friends and people to watch over you. Eventually you will make it and you will be redeemed by everyone who snubbed you. In actuality you need to do some apologizing. I’m doing it right now.
Writing to me is an escape from loneliness. There’s no other way to be truly sexed than someone knowing what it is you mean.
Death is everyone’s big problem. Really.
An important thing to keep in mind is that we all write within a genre. It’s important to find what genre you are! There shouldn’t be any thing called a genre. Fiction I like comes out like poetry. That’s what I like. Is it windy out there? Check and see if my writing’s OK. It’s fine? Oh good. Click. Well.
Imagine all of this is in Chinese. I learned the other day about early English. Old English. So old it would give you a tummy ache. So back then it came out like German and everyone was walking around talking German. Then some French bros came in and flipped the script right? So talking talking talking; try listening for the German next time a friend is speaking to you in English.
I miss my mother. That’s another good reason to write is missing your mother. She’s not dead or anything drastic but maybe I’ll send her a poem every now and again. One time I even named one after her but in the poem she smoked. And her skin rolled up like chicken skin.
9 comments:
This piece is written in an interesting form. I like the choppiness because in a way it mirrors your idea that "fiction I like comes out like poetry." But I'm confused when you introduce some of the big concepts like "Death is everyone's big problem" and "there's no other way to be truly sexed than someone knowing what it is you mean" and "It is important to keep in mind that we are all writing within a genre". All of these things need more explanation than what they have. And I want to hear it because I want to know more!
All I can say to prose poetry is 'correct,' and I hope you take that for exactly what it means.
I'm really sorry to be this voice, but if we're talking about the same guy, Romeo drank poison and there was no blood. Reconsider the early phrase.
This is funny, the logic is easy to follow considering your choice of style, and the line of real writers as "confused and smart as all hell struggling in good lighting…" was very funny.
I honestly cannot decide if I agree with Remi. Existential fear is a weird thing to prod for a couple of lines, but your style is deliberate so we'll all afford you being cryptic and artsy-fartsy. Because it's cool and I know that I like it.
For clear reasons this style is risky, and I think in order to succeed you have to have a solid grasp on your grammar, which includes the moments you ignore grammatical conventions. Otherwise, which happened to me reading this, I'm not sure at which points you mean to break grammar and which points are actual errors. As an example, when you have fragments, especially in a list, "shaped like a human heart" ..."shaped like a human skull," I get that and it works. But when you say "That's another reason to write is missing your mother," I cannot tell if the narrator is aware that there are two verbs in the sentence.
If you know any German, I think it would be a fun addition to put some in there. Basic words especially (house, cat, mother, father, think, cold, warm) could be good illustrations of this.
Your writing has this raw, jumpy style which keeps a consistent flow, even though that flow is, as remi mentioned, choppy and staggered. Some sentences are self contained essays with fractional thoughts and unofficial footnotes sewn onto the original body of thought, which creates a mangled, yet introspective piece similar to doctor Frankenstein's monster. You begin with a series of scattered, fragmented thougthat fly over, around and right through me--but that's my problem just as much as it is yours. Your focus shifts/takes hold when you mention the difficulty of writing in 'good lighting' with people monitoring each pen stroke or keyboard click. An entire piece could be based on this notion.
I really like the fluidity and stream of consciousness writing you display. It has an almost poetic prose feel but at the same time is tinged with bits of humor. At times, though, this style can become a little confusing, but overall, I think it gives a fresh appeal and witty description as to the reasons why you write.
This has a stream-of-consciousness feel, and some of the attendant issues of grammar and sense. Go ahead and make leaps, dare your reader to follow, but even then, especially then, be precise with your language. Be in control of the language. There's a lot to work with here: sex, death, Shakespeare, literary criticism and the history of the English language. Follow the intensity and see where it leads you. My sense is that it's in the last paragraph.
Style mimicked thought. I thought more about how you write more than why you write. Many points were like st-udders or jumps in thought. Synthesize or omit some of these thoughts.
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