Icarus flying home # 16

Writing and writing and writing...

Part One of The Bogeyman is written - phew, well almost, 37,000 words with notes to be tidied and revised but the chapters seem to hang together and that is the main thing for now. Next section should be easier (he says in hope) and shorter too, so I will begin that tomorrow. And during the writing I managed to meet my old buddy Icarus and engaged him in a dialogue with Telemachus, which is interesting and one of these days I will make a link between the boy who was given wings and this other boy who was given a boat because it got me thinking about W.H. Auden again, just riffing really:

                                                             ...the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on...

Well who could have imagined that the two boys could cross paths, like I said, just riffing but isn't that how it takes off. But I will leave this post with some words from Wallace Stevens, who I have been reading just for fun

The house was quiet and the world was calm
The reader became the book; and summer night

Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm…

Icarus flying home # 15

Twang

I have been doing a bit of banjo playing and a wee bit of guitar too, tonight and it is great to unwind. Now I have set myself a task because I taught myself a song - well, actually, I fiddled around with a tune and thought, ooh I know what that is and so I worked it out and if I had a mind to I could record it and post it but I don't know all the words just yet. Here's a Willie's version - probably not the one everyone knows but I like the rough edge that is missing from Elvis' and besides Willie is country and I have a soft spot for that stuff but I have a mind to record a version of my own one of these days.

Icarus flying home # 14

Here come the bogeyman...

I think this is going to be the cover of the book I am writing right now - if it ever gets finished. I have never had so many crisis (is that the plural) as I am having now but I think it's because I think everything I read on the subject just makes me angry or sad, sometimes pleased but rarely do I go, wow, that really is something. Maybe I am wrong though and I will get panned by those same critics - yikes. Maybe I should look for a decent song to blog, just for the hell of it. Hmmm, Lennie usually gets things right, let's try him. I know where I was when I first heard this, and who I was with. Me and my sister Irene, in the living room in my parent's house, I was about 16 which would make her about 6 and she said, 'do you like this song?' and I said, 'aye, do you?' and she replied, 'I do if you do...' when I get to this age I am going to wear a hat.

Icarus flying home # 13

That's it for the day, have written myself into a bucket and now the words are just a blur. Not even sure The Bogeyman is making sense anymore but at 35,000 words its at half way and the hard bit is done - for now. I read a quotation today and I am still trying to figure out what I make of it. It is from S. Y. Agnon's novel, A Guest for the Night:

I do not remember whether we talked, or whether we walked in silence. Perhaps we were silent, perhaps we talked. when the heart is full the mouth speaks, but when the soul is full a man's eyes look with affectionate sadness, and his mouth is silent.

Words to make us think, but I have thunk all I can today and I am all thought out so I will drink a glass of champagne for my boy's birthday. Sweet sixteen from a sentimental auld fool - here's tae us!

Icarus flying home # 12 in silence

I can see up your nostrich

Today, well tomorrow if you are reading today early because I am writing this last thing at night, my son Dan is sixteen - sigh and he is such a beautiful boy and such a joy. Yesterday he was talking to me about Of Mice and Men and how the most important part of the novel that everyone misses is the issue of loneliness, which Steinbeck does so well. And I know he is right, the solitariness of Steinbeck's work followed me through my own teenage years; how astute of him to be so critically attuned. But most of all he loves a good laugh - hallelujah to that! Here is the most Holy Order of Silent Monks saying just that:

Icarus Finding Foucault... and Peanuts

 

I was sent this clip (above) and the Foucault connection cannot be denied - love it to bits, for I just had to do some Foucault today too, when I was talking about 'normativity' and stuff. Sometimes I think we just invent this academic language to keep ourselves looking as though we actually know what we are talking about - which writing often reveals we don't. I have been writing The Bogeyman for weeks and I am not sure I know what any of it means. Like Levi-Strauss too, I forget what I have written very quickly. Hmmm, that could be ageing brain cells. Today I wrote:

It is impossible, I suspect, to propose a non-exclusionist normative definition of textual engagement in writing for children, but surely a normative structure that clarifies the intrinsic distinctiveness of child-centred storytelling can be proposed?

What on earth is that about? Damned if I know and damned if I don't - sigh! Its a bit like posting one of your favourite songs and remembering that the lyrics are not very cheerful - even if the song is a bit of a romp. E.C. made this a hit, but this boy deserves to sing it for himself, cos he wrote it - what's so funny about peace, love and understanding: