psst! wanna buy a...?
The rain is back. After my morning notes (A History of Private Life, From Eden to Exile) I went out to Mom's in Deep Cove to continue with the estate accounting. I discovered that some account balances given by the North Shore Credit Union for the date of death are incorrect. We'll now have to dig into that, and get them to recalculate or explain.
Mom made us corned-beef sandwiches which we ate in the living-room, looking out across the misty water. I asked Mom whether she'd read my post of yesterday, and yes she had. She'd read the extract of paragraph 1 of Dead Until Dark.
"It was very breezy," said Mom. "Too breezy for me."
"Yes," I said, "the tone is light."
We got to talking about my recent searches for a novel to read. I told her how I'd looked at the opening pages of 4 different chick-lit novels in the Save-On book section yesterday.
"One of them was by Joanna Trollope," I said. "That one was noticeably better than the others."
"Yes," said Mom, "I think she has a bit more of a literary reputation. It's supposed to be a cut above."
"It was. The characterization was better off the bat. But the tone was still light. They're all trying to be light and humorous. Straining to be amusing, as I put it yesterday. It can be painful."
Mom has been reading a biography of Charlotte Bronte. Apparently Charlotte wrote to Robert Southey, a major writer of the day, for advice on some pages she'd written. His advice to her included words to the effect that "if you write in order to please people or to gain fame, you will surely fail." You have to write what's in your heart to write. Well, Jane Eyre's still in print.
We agreed that visiting bookstores is usually depressing.
"And yet publishers must be hoping to find the next big thing," said Mom. "They're probably sitting there thinking, bring it to me!"
I nodded. I gave up on careerism about 4 years ago. I formally gave up on doing things to promote my "career". Whatever I'd been doing to promote my career before then--and it wasn't much--hadn't worked. I don't have a career. I just have this project. Other people are bringing their cows and pigs and honey to market; I've got a 5-headed, 2,700-pound thing that even I can't identify. Wanna buy one?
Mom made us corned-beef sandwiches which we ate in the living-room, looking out across the misty water. I asked Mom whether she'd read my post of yesterday, and yes she had. She'd read the extract of paragraph 1 of Dead Until Dark.
"It was very breezy," said Mom. "Too breezy for me."
"Yes," I said, "the tone is light."
We got to talking about my recent searches for a novel to read. I told her how I'd looked at the opening pages of 4 different chick-lit novels in the Save-On book section yesterday.
"One of them was by Joanna Trollope," I said. "That one was noticeably better than the others."
"Yes," said Mom, "I think she has a bit more of a literary reputation. It's supposed to be a cut above."
"It was. The characterization was better off the bat. But the tone was still light. They're all trying to be light and humorous. Straining to be amusing, as I put it yesterday. It can be painful."
Mom has been reading a biography of Charlotte Bronte. Apparently Charlotte wrote to Robert Southey, a major writer of the day, for advice on some pages she'd written. His advice to her included words to the effect that "if you write in order to please people or to gain fame, you will surely fail." You have to write what's in your heart to write. Well, Jane Eyre's still in print.
We agreed that visiting bookstores is usually depressing.
"And yet publishers must be hoping to find the next big thing," said Mom. "They're probably sitting there thinking, bring it to me!"
I nodded. I gave up on careerism about 4 years ago. I formally gave up on doing things to promote my "career". Whatever I'd been doing to promote my career before then--and it wasn't much--hadn't worked. I don't have a career. I just have this project. Other people are bringing their cows and pigs and honey to market; I've got a 5-headed, 2,700-pound thing that even I can't identify. Wanna buy one?
posted by paulv at
4:51 PM
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