Rick Bowes–Da Man
This is a great essay about writing/the writer’s life. It’s sad and funny at the same time. Inasmuch as he’s saying we’ve partially become a herd of cows mooing niceties at each other, yes, that’s pretty much it. Homogenized slipstream cross genre traditional churning out stories sitting at a formica booth with weak coffee and stale toast at 2 in the morning at a Denny’s. You think you experienced something, but you’re still in a Denny’s and all that happened the night before is somebody blathered on about their career and wasn’t that story about talking dogs cute.
The point is, a writer always needs as much as possible to ignore the bullshit that surrounds writing and seek that genuine emotion, that genuine moment that isn’t a received idea or a cliche. To live in the moment and to be open to it.
February 1, 2008 at 11:48 pm
That is a great essay.
Writing at a booth at Denny’s at 2 a.m. with cheap coffee… I can’t think of anything better. Really. At least I like the idea of it.
February 2, 2008 at 12:29 am
Thanks for linking to that–it was a terrific essay. And it’s always good to hear I’m not the only one who feels cranky about many aspects of the profession. The dysfunctional part for me is that often I’m drawn to these writerly situations which I already know are going to make me cranky. Melanie, who feels much the same way, has always had the willpower to stay away.
February 2, 2008 at 7:39 am
[...] Others’ Writing Tags: clarkesworld, jeff vandermeer, personal experience, richard bowes Via Jeff VanderMeer’s blog Ecstatic Days, I just read Richard Bowes in Clarkesworld on why [...]
February 2, 2008 at 8:38 am
What you said, Steve. I feel the same way. I always feel like I need to put myself out there, and then half the time at least I get cranky, like you mention. A lot of it is exactly because of what Bowes talks about–people as writers entering into destructive or surface paradigms. Watching that, sometimes being part of that, is really depressing at times.
Andrew–I think you got my point, though, so I won’t state the obvious.
JV