writes poems and stories.
I am back in Boston, happily unpacking in my new dorm room. I got these sticky letters that go on the wall and I spelled out “slowly” and “purposeful” above my desk. Hopefully they’ll remind me that that’s how I want to write.
In other news, the new Imogen Heap album is supersplendiforous.
I wrote this bad poem back in January when my poetry professor said one of the other classes was having a big Anderson Cooper poetry debate; half the class loved him and half the class hated him. Then I wrote this unfortunate business:
We have just received confirmation
from our affiliates in Houston that
a local scientist has successfully
cloned 360 Anderson Coopers.
While he hasn’t discussed his process,
we are quite certain it can’t be legal.
I mean, this reporter would question
how they obtained a DNA sample.
This just in! The 259th Cooper
has announced the creation of
the new AC Network. All gray,
all jawline, all piercing blue
eyes that dart into the soul and
pull from it the truth with complete
journalistic integrity–and news,
all the time. Tune in at 8:00.
This reporter would question
how can request a transfer.
So a few days ago I wrote about how brilliant Dracula’s prose is and how the English language should have been killed then, to preserve it. Well…I just finished Paul Harding’s Tinkers and I have to take that back. Book is gorgeous.
Example from page 59: “Wind combed through the fir trees around the rim of the pond like a rumor, like the murmur of old men mutering about the storm behind the mountain…lightning crawled down the mountain and drank at the water, lapped the shallows with electric tongues, stunning bold-eyed frogs and small trout and silver minnows.”
The writing is strong in how it uses metaphors to encircle the moment. Harding doesn’t compare things to obscure things for the sake of doing it, for the sake of showing off. Harding compares things to similar things to build upon the story and push the reader into the next image. It reminds me of the stories at bearcreekfeed (probably my favorite online lit mag), though the subject is not dirty grander. This similarity gives me hope for the future of literature. Because while the language certainly isn’t as rich as the prose of Dracula or Maurice, the metaphor and the imagery is key, when combined with the inner workings of the characters, to the success of the work.
And I’m starting to find myself writing in this style. I’m extending my sentences with metaphors I wouldn’t have normally used. In doing this, I’m forced to consider the scene from another angle, wondering what kind of comparison I could use to give the reader an additional insight into a character’s perspective. So far, I think it’s an improvement.
The book is also stunning physically. Designer Bernard Schleifer did a tremendous job. Look:
The simplicity is stunning, a perfect compliment to the text. The book doesn’t need a flashy cover to stand out. And people who need a flashy cover to buy something really don’t deserve to read this.
In summary: BUY IT AND READ IT.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula had been on my “to-read” list for years and I finally got to it. I’m hating myself for not reading it sooner. It’s perceived as this ghastly horror story (to the point where my mother forbid me to discuss the book with her) but I was delighted to find the tone more calculating and psychological. Every page contains twists in the rich experiences of the characters.
More than that, it is a charming love story between the Harkers. To risk everlasting un-dead-ness for love? That is devotion, no matter how cliche the vampire story has become.
But what really grabbed my attention was the language. Stoker’s prose is gorgeous, each word crafted, calculated for a particular purpose. I am awestruck and slightly jealous. The writing in E.M. Forster’s Maurice was similarly beautiful.
Someone should have killed the English language in the late 19th / early 20th century.
I haven’t died. In fact, a list of what I’m doing:
1. Writing a Fleetwood Mac found poem. I have four lines. It needs to be a lot longer to work. I’m probably going to call it “Gold Dust Woman” because that’s my favorite. We’ll see.
2. Loving my new Pumas. They’re brown with orange trim and I will be wearing them a lot.
3. Hoping somebody wants “Jumping Rooftops” and working on “At the End of the Story He Gets Hit by a Bus” & “Fortune Cookies” for my Fall workshop.
4. Forgetting what else I was going to put on my list.
Goodness!
