and so, goodnight. we go over the top tomorrow.

[fictional]

I've lots of things to post about - drinking absinthe, bombs, food porn, etc. etc., but this is not that post.

I've just discovered that Lucy Maud Montgomery killed herself in 1942. Anne & Emily, Valancy & Pat and Jane - they were some of the dearest friends of my childhood. And this year, I've been reading L.M. Montgomery's journals for my dissertation - and reading someone's diary is such an intimate feeling, even after they've been published, even after they're dead.

I remember discovering the short stories - ghosts, and divorces and illegitimate children and alcholics and depressions, always depression - and I was so fascinated.

This, though. This makes me feel... I don't know what.

Comments

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of Tolkien who talking about escapist literature said there were two ways of thinking of escape - as frivolity (escape from reality) and as necessity (escape, as if from a prison.)

Does "reality" need to be a prison in order to create this kind of thing? All mad people aren't geniuses; but all geniuses are mad.

[sanginmychains.livejournal.com]

If your reality is a prison, then suddenly finding ways to escape seems like a more viable use of your time than, say, doing your dishes, working on your golf swing, working things out with your abusive parents...

Lots of people could be good writers. I think it's mostly damaged people who are motivated to work at it.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

No, I agree.

One of my favorite quotes about writers and cushioning re-entry -- incidentally, straight from Cardiff *grin* is:

The life of a writer is absolute hell compared to that of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him. If he is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not. Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer absolutely drained. For those two hours he has been miles away, he has been somewhere else, in a different place with totally different people and the effort of swimming back into normal surroundings is very great, It is almost a shock. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fact that nearly every writer of fiction drinks more whisky than is good for him. He does it to give himself faith, hope and courage. The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that I am sure is why he does it - Roald Dahl

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

If Homer had not been blind, he would have been out doing Homeric things.
The difference between writers and other people is that writers stay at their desks and write, while other people go and do other things.
Writers write because they must. Which is also why readers read.