Of Acorns and Mackerels
Philip Roth recently said on an NPR interview, "Write fiction and you relinquish reason. You start with an acorn and you end up with a mackerel." This seems appropriate for writing and I wonder if it also applies for the other arts. In writing I do find that the characters tend to take over the narrative and demand certain actions even if they are contrary to my original intentions. This is not the case for me in painting or other arts. Indeed some pictures change as they are worked upon, but not in the way the events and characters do. I wonder if there are some people who are dominatrices of fiction and who write exactly what they plan - no less, no more and no nonsense. Perhaps I am a wimp to let my characters push me around so, or a masochist because I enjoy them doing so.
This blog is a bit of an acorn for me in its newness and I certainly hope I will end up with something other than a mackerel, maybe a nice piranha or blue ringed octopus.
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posted by Joseph K at 1:50 PM
6 Comments:
Or blue piranha. You know piranhas. They usually get their way.
ps. a fine example of dung beetle for your avatar? do i have the right type? was thinking it was that or the death watch beetle, but it doesn't look like any type i know.
Yes, Geotrupes stercorarius although the image I wished to use (http://www.jimbos-fotoalbum.de/Macro/Kaefer/500%20Mistkaefer%203.jpg) Catharsius molossus was too large for the program.
well, it's a beauty. interesting creature too!
You can always throw the acorn into the stream. See where it will go: see it sink, or be eaten, ingested as if the word made flesh, turning into a fish or turning into belief; see it get caught up in an eddy and spin about a while in a circle, or become buried in the silt and cold to be dislodged years from now. One is no more important than the other. Is important even the proper word; no, rather: beautiful.
Neroli,
That is a beautiful (and perhaps also posionous) sentiment. Think about what the outside world would think of someone who finds the word "no" beautiful.(You are right the word no is much loivelier than yes with its serpentine sibilant). This thought is, I think, quite a Buddhist one, in itself.
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