i just read yesterday
possibly the nicest thing
that anybody ever said about our music
mr verdelay on hotel womb
wrote something like
i love this album
and i want to find more ways of talking about it…
and in those most simple words
especially as we all know verdelay can turn on a burst …
but this simple emotion so frankly and guilelessly put
hit my heart harder
than all that brilliant wordy stuff
honourable mention to altres
whose enthusiastic gush also made my day
and
there is a lesson to be learnt in this
i remember my brother russell showing me something
something he’d written
a script or a treatment or something
now i had previously felt that russells stuff was never quite as
“special” as mine
but today
his writing was so clean
so minimal
suggesting so much in such few words
bereft of even one unnecessary adjective
the whole piece was like an aerodynamic glide
no friction no pull
it was a joy to read
it suddenly made most of my stuff seem
so overwrought
(witness bits of earthed where the fucking adjectives pile up
like verbal corpses)
and i really learned something that day
something that had never ever occurred to me
sometimes simplest is best
you see
a writer has a lot of choices
and an english writer has a lot more choices
than writers in some languages (swedish for example)
because english has a lotta words baby
yes and even wise guys like me dont know the half of em
so think about it
when you wanna chuck an archaic latinate word in there ….
is it really the best thing?
i think practice makes perfect too
and you gotta write n write n write
it took me a while to find my feet on here
and it’ll take you a while to find your own feet out there
dont give up cos youre writing what you think is rubbish
nobody really knows about their own stuff
and great writers go off the rails
and idiots can come good
and after all
you got all the same words as philip k dick or j d salinger
so whats stopping ya?
i dont think theres a short cut
even if you are a genius
you have to stumble round in the wilderness for a while
then…
then…
then one day
a phrase slips out
and you
you marvel
did i write that?
that poignant and effortless phrase…?
and you begin to see a light
and you suddenly say
hang on
thats it!
and maybe for a brief moment
you can see
your “in”
your own way in to the mystery of writing
so many different types of writing
travel writing for example
you dont want baudelaire writing a travel piece
youd never wanna go there wherever he wrote about
you dont want enid blyton writing about carnivale in rio
you dont want henry miller reporting on the funeral of a princess
you dont want james joyce writing the car reviews
you dont want steve frickin’ kilbey writing the footy guide
you dont want edward lear doing the restaurant reviews
am i making myself clear here…?
horses for courses
you may be a surrealistic whirlwind
but you cant describe a bowl of fruit
you may have a delightful naive sensibility
but your attempts at beat poetry are the pitts
i dont know
be what you could all my friends say
be what you could
a simple twist
take everything ordinary
twist it ever so slightly
change one tiny piece of a pattern
re-present concepts in a new light
yes i read ryans travel writing in some mags
and guess what
i ceased to think about his writing
and i just thought about the place where he was
his sore feet
the camels
the horrible food
and his writing became transparent
and revealed through his eyes
the places he was travelling through
this is exactly how it should be
a travel magazine shouldnt dazzle ya with fancy language
its all about the travel
and much writing is like that
you must be able to subsume yourself
like a record producer
some writers stamp themselves all over it
while others allow things to be but with their subtle guidance
oh there are some beautiful parts in the bible too
pages n pages of rolling words sublime and fragrant
and this is part of the “good” books appeal
it has such an iconic beginning
in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth
it brooks no disagreement
its succinct and all inclusive
it leaves no loop holes
a masterful beginning to a book
one can learn a lot from the bible…
unfortunately reality is not one of them…
any way
ive blthered on n on
not mentioned philip pullman (marvellous!)
proust (marvellous!)
and loadsa others
not covered the half of it
but ok
thatll do for now i guess
now go on
write a masterpiece
i dare ya!