dagblog - Comments for "What Women Think About Writing "

There is plenty of evidence

Tom Wright — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:49:02 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

There is plenty of evidence that music induces physical states, (and in the players themselves, variably). We can easily imagine rhythms doing so, and strong harmony does, too. Leaping melodies do feel dramatic, while narrow noodling ones feel cautious, and so on. Some physical analogues might be birds twittering (e.g. flutes at play) which implies peace, no intruders sneaking through the woods. Rumbling drums may invoke waterfalls or arriving caribou, both exciting, and important food issues.

It is possible to "explain" music, but this is ridiculous and cumbersome for doing it. I simply try to find the feeling I intend, and hold it while testing ideas, if writing. If playing, I do trust my body to help focus the delivery, but one is cautious in letting ordinary things like tension cause unintended effects, like thin tone. Safer to, once again, find the feeling the music is speaking, and let that mediate the playing. I just act as my own audience, with reservations for control.

Harder to explain novels. Unlike poetry there is less overt rhythm, but one writer said (wish I could remember) that novels were a way to say with words what one couldn't say with words. It is partly the the arrival of an emotional conclusion that affects me, but the words matter, too. I like Twain saying that the effect of the right word is both electric and prompt, an effect produced by his explanation itself (self-referential fireworks).

And also, Tom: reader

wwstaebler — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:28:48 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

And also, Tom: reader response. The dance between the author's thoughts/feelings while writing and the reader's thoughts/feelings while reading. Is it so, in music? Is the musician's pleasure in doing what comes naturally, as well as through disciplined practice, augmented and magnified by an appreciative audience response, even if it may respond to different moments in the expression?
(Asking earnestly, as I know little about music, in the sense of composing or playing it, but respect it, as something well beyond any ability I have.)

Love Barbara Kingsolver as

wwstaebler — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:23:36 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

Love Barbara Kingsolver as you do, Tom, and wonder why I did not think to add her to the list. Her Poisonwood book was astonishing -- not only as a novel but as an exemplar of writing technique.
And then there is David Foster Wallace. The singular male writer who made me question my decision to foreswear yet another entry into the male author canon. (If you are female, and you have gone through school reading twenty men to every woman, you may develop this prejudice, too.)
Thank you for your contributions.
This thread is going to die within minutes, but I would be interested to know why your picks resonate with you. Is it the voice cadence as tied to music? Or something else?

The above-mentioned Ms.

Tom Wright — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:01:54 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

The above-mentioned Ms. Lamott, but Ursulla LeGuin was formative, and later on I discovered Barbara Kingsolver. All write in the way that David Foster Wallace hoped to, about what it is to be human, without too much distracting flashy writerly technique.

Wallace once said that reading a good novel made him feel less alone. I think all successful art moves us in such a deep way, not only writing from the body, but talking to the reader's body (music does this only) so that deep emotions are induced. I feel exactly what Wallace said, less alone, and like "Hey, that writer feels just like me!" It's my description of the "universality" that I was taught about in school.

I was absolutely floored by Wallace "Infinite Jest"), BTW, and am equally saddened by his death.

thanks for this post. You've

tpmgary — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:06:49 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

thanks for this post. You've diversified my hour.

Desidero: What a gift you

wwstaebler — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:49:28 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

Desidero:
What a gift you have given me in thelink to letters from Anne Sexton. I am on page nineteen.... Thank you so much. :D (seems appropriate)

Thank you for bringing

wwstaebler — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:15:27 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

Thank you for bringing Gwendolyn Brooks into the discussion, Justice -- a real oversight on my part. As was not including writing quotes from Ntozke Shange (Cypress, Sassafras & Indigo), and Toni Morrison. And, of course, Maya Angelou, although I am personally more mezmerized by her voice, saying or reading anything, than I am by her actual writing, with the exception of "Phenomenal Woman" and "I Rise."

Who are the other women

wwstaebler — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:54:08 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

Who are the other women writers you admire, Tom? And why? (That was the original category; however, if you prefer to cite a man, that's ok, too.)

E: thank you for your

wwstaebler — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:50:36 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

E: thank you for your references, some of which I knew (Irigaray and Barthes) and others I did not (mcGann and Winterson). You've given me a start on a new reading list. BTW, do you have a Kristeva quote to throw in? My FF books were lost (in tediously aforementioned hurricane) and I can't find what I want on line, other than this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXLUsoEDYPw

PS -- Do you teach? And if so, what?

I've been a fan of hers since

Justice Putnam — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:48:32 +0000

In reply to What Women Think About Writing

I've been a fan of hers since before a big reading in Los Angeles back in the early 80's; she and a half dozen others were part of and I read also.

Met Wanda Coleman there as well...

In That Other Fantasy Where We Live Forever

we were never caught

we partied the southwest, smoked it from L.A. to El Dorado
worked odd jobs between delusions of escape
drunk on the admonitions of parents, parsons & professors
driving faster than the road or law allowed.
our high-pitched laughter was young, heartless & disrespected
authority. we could be heard for miles in the night

the Grand Canyon of a new manhood.
womanhood discovered
like the first sighting of Mount Wilson

we rebelled against the southwestern wind

we got so naturally ripped, we sprouted wings,
crashed parties on the moon, and howled at the earth

we lived off love. It was all we had to eat

when you split you took all the wisdom
and left me the worry

-- Wanda Coleman