Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Backtracking

I started writing something for this blog this morning, relating my feelings and apprehensions about a future event that involves several other people. And I stopped, unsure of how to make it right.

Ms. Didion said "Writers are always selling somebody out." The quote is overused, of course; it is often misunderstood. It is sometimes assumed to mean that writers are always on the lookout for a story, the story, a subversive way to undercut your subject matter.

What she meant, however, is that no matter how close you are to the subject, no matter how elegant or respectful your intentions, your perspective on a series of events, or another person's experience is still your intractable perspective. You are always viewing the material from the outside; you are viewing it as just that: material.

I am better suited to writing fiction, where I can wrap the real events in layers of structure and character, mix plot with pacing to remove all traces of the veracity of the situation. I am not good at "reporting."
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2 comments:

Lee Houck said...

I am not one of those people who believe that writers must experience everything that we write about. But in a strange way, I think we write about what has happened to us anyway.

I try to write about things that scare me, to write about them in order to figure out just exactly what I think about them. And someone, I forget who, said that "That which we are most afraid of has already happened to us."

And I find that no matter what I write, I am essentially writing about the same ideas.

So perhaps, we're all just standing in the crossroads. Forever.

11:28 PM
Lee Houck said...

You're absolutely right, the act of writing is in itself taking a stand. In fact, one of the reasons I'm drawn to fiction is the ability to make truth out of incongruous events, to create histories that manifest into new ideas, and to create that surprise in the reader that is sometimes (though not always) missing from journalism.

But the forces are still at work here: juggling your work with your relationships with your partner and family and friends, New York economic immobility, your own artistic doubts, not to mention (and I don't think this is a leap here) family history of depression, alcoholism and potential bipolar disorder.

These aren't crutches; that isn't what I'm trying to say. You just sit down at your computer a little bit every evening and try to get out of your own way.

Thanks for the encouragement.

9:48 AM

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