tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post4317095031231167210..comments2024-03-18T15:17:26.003-05:00Comments on l'astronave: On NonreadingFrescahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15323129046492056942noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-11209518524745867062008-05-29T14:26:00.000-05:002008-05-29T14:26:00.000-05:00Meaning no disrespect, but they all seem like Gemi...Meaning no disrespect, but they all seem like Geminis to me: <BR/>STYLE is all.<BR/>Content is optional.<BR/>(In a bad mood? Who, me?)<BR/><BR/>You are so right. You can pin a writer's era when you read a few of their sentences, usually, except for the truly unique voices, and half the time you can't make any sense of *them* at all (James Joyce).<BR/><BR/>I know I too sound like my times, and that's OK, but I don't want to sound like a mental cyborg, at least.Frescahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15323129046492056942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-91233898319913081132008-05-28T17:26:00.000-05:002008-05-28T17:26:00.000-05:00You're right. All I have to do is pick up a New Y...You're right. All I have to do is pick up a New York Times Review of Books and every single book review sounds like the same person wrote it. Their "style" makes me grind my teeth....all of them, soooo clever and flippant and sooo IN and so chiche that I can barely understand them. The attitude seems to me to be: "Hey! Look at me, aren't I the smartest most sophisticated and gifted writer you've ever read?" What I'd like to say to them is: "Ahem, I'd like to read more about the individual/book your reviewing.....PLEASE!!!"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-15898694271851715882008-05-26T10:38:00.000-05:002008-05-26T10:38:00.000-05:00I totally agree with you Barrett when you say, "I ...I totally agree with you Barrett when you say, "I don't think there's a formula" re how much to read.<BR/><BR/>I can't agree, however, that a person's "own voice always wins out because each of us has our own "style" "--<BR/>Rather, most writers use the voice/style of the era they live in to write about that era's concerns.<BR/> <BR/>Nothing wrong with that--in fact, it's good!<BR/>It's like the currency of the realm--it works to exchange goods and ideas among the citizens.<BR/><BR/>But it's also insidious, like leafy spurge, and can takeover a writer's own voice.<BR/><BR/>In our era, I hear these themes/voices, among others:<BR/> <BR/>1. self-revelation/exploration/healing in an Oprah-ish voice <BR/><BR/>2. personally involved, concerned reflection on large issues in an Ira Glass-ish NPR (Public Radio) voice<BR/><BR/>3. an urban, chic-flip, scatty voice, sort of David Sedaris + Bridget Jones <BR/><BR/>These styles--and there are others--are fun and smart and good, at their best. <BR/>I like many of them:<BR/>Martha Beck from Oprah has truly helped and greatly amused me.<BR/>I'm reading a collection of nonficiton essays edited by Ira Glass right now that makes my eyes pop. <BR/>And I adore Helen Fieldling!<BR/><BR/>But sometimes I hear myself speaking in those voices and known they have seeded themselves-- and I try and weed them out.<BR/>That's why I'm intrigued with the idea of not listening/reading to other voices for a while.Frescahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15323129046492056942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-58138824397621235222008-05-25T12:55:00.000-05:002008-05-25T12:55:00.000-05:00Whoops! please read "writer" instead of "reader" ...Whoops! please read "writer" instead of "reader" the first sentence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-78308071655985369872008-05-25T12:41:00.000-05:002008-05-25T12:41:00.000-05:00Like Stendhal, for years I wrote like the reader I...Like Stendhal, for years I wrote like the reader I was reading: Virginia Woolf, Gide, and on and on. Not that I was as good a writer but only that I was using their wings to fly on for awhile until my own voice emerged. I read ALL THE TIME....mostly through the night. I say read and write, your own voice always wins out because each of us has our own "style" and this is something that develops whether we read a lot or not. However, much of my writing was done because I did not own a TV. This is the killer, I think, not the reading of good books while writing yourself. Perhaps each of us finds our own unique way. I don't think there's a formula. I learned everything I know about writing through reading other people's books. Maybe it was because I never went to college and didn't have the slightest idea about sentence structure or grammar. I didn't care about it, I had to write, it was/is the only way I can make something/everything real. As the English writer William Gerhardie says: "The practice as a profession, however precarious, of the art in which one finds one's deepest fulfillment is a happiness -- in so far as the denial of it would be a misery."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com