Day: January 23, 2019

About great writing

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Photo by Mike Flemming 2019 copyright

 

https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/10/26/explainer-elucidator-enchanter-great-writing/

 

Extract

Enchanters bend the beam of illumination through a singular lens that furnishes something richer and greater than the sum total of knowledge — a kaleidoscopic view of previously hidden layers of reality, or an integration of previously fragmented insights and shards of awareness. The result is nothing less than a firmer grasp of one’s place in the universe, producing in turn a transcendent enlargement of being.

The greatest enchanters are creators of distinctive aesthetics — of writing, of storytelling, of thought itself. Among them are writers like Oliver Sacks, James Gleick, Diane Ackerman, Alan Lightmanand Janna Levin, and trailblazing storytellers like Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich of Radiolab.

Complement with Oliver Sacks on the curious psychology of writingand William Zinsser on the art of science communication, then revisit this growing library of celebrated writers’ advice on the craft.

Either corrupt or starving

No deodorant
Can disguise the smell of Britain
Either corrupt or starving

Where is the Simple?
I forgot to put mine on
Men will follow me

 

They will be angry
As I am too old to breed
They don’t know  their own motives

They just want pleasure
That’s the trick of Nature,see?
She wants more children

Oh they may burn me
If only life were simpler
Fast deodorant

Why burn women now?
It must be in  most men’s genes
Burn with lust or burn with fire

See the lambs pass by
The Shepherd  does nor burn us
Crucify him, then

No Sweat

Thousands of people
Wait for a deodorant
Used by a film star

It  detaches us
From Brexit hard or total
Life is about sweat

Get the sweat controlled
And you will given grace
Ascend like Jesus

The beauty is this
Sweat is  not controllable
So the search goes on

We  can’t think about
Ethics, politics, loving
They are much too hard

Some worry , dirt, dust
They clean constantly
Another endless task

If we have no time
The government will carry on
And,see, how they do!

What writers really do when they write

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/04/what-writers-really-do-when-they-write

“We often discuss art this way: the artist had something he “wanted to express”, and then he just, you know … expressed it. We buy into some version of the intentional fallacy: the notion that art is about having a clear-cut intention and then confidently executing same.

The actual process, in my experience, is much more mysterious and more of a pain in the ass to discuss truthfully.”