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posted by: surrogate (reply) post date: 02.22.06 (3:37 am) The first book I wrote, about 12 years ago, (well, three drafts anyway) that also sits behind me on a shelf, just to my left and above my head, called "Coffee Shopper", begins with a two page apology to the cosmos for wasting its time and energy - at least that part of it that I was part of - by insisting that what I wrote had been done tediously, longhand and in ink, because I couldn't imagine that any of the real writers of the past would have stooped to using any tool that made the swapping of words and sentences and entire chapters as easy as merely performing a few key strokes, and that certainly anything written using so base a tool as a computer or word processor could never have any lasting meaning or real relevance. It was one of those things that I knew to be false even as I wrote it, and rewrote it, and rewrote it again, but instead was a thing that I desperately WANTED to be true - and for reasons I could not explain to myself but which I felt ridiculously strongly. posted by: surrogate (reply) post date: 02.22.06 (3:40 am) see? I wouldn't have left out the word "about" had I written that last sentence longhand, because I'd have thought it through far more carefully before committing it to paper. posted by: TaBooTenente (reply) post date: 02.22.06 (4:05 am) i'm not sure what you're saying--are you saying that typing doesn't change your voice? i think you're saying that you wanted to believe in the art of longhand--or that you created the difference, or significance, by demanding that the difference exists. is that what you mean? taboo posted by: surrogate (reply) post date: 02.22.06 (4:34 am) Oh I think it may indeed change the voice... But, I've come to believe that any change it makes, can't be anything more than it speaking more clearly. I think I knew it at the time, but didn't want to believe it. After all we could, if we wanted treat the keyboard as a pen? Easy. Don't use the delete key. The computer is just a tool. To blame it for changing how we say what we say makes no more sense than blaming the marking of a pen for being easier to read than charcoal on the side of a cave. It's sort of fun to do, but it's nothing more than a plausible sounding excuse. God knows I look for as many good ones as I can find! As for the romance of writing outside longhand? There's nothing more fun outside the bedroom to me, but once again, you'll eventually have to get whatever you write in an editable form anyway, which means? I guess what I meant was that whatever it takes, the words have to get from our brains onto or into SOMETHING that makes reading what's written feasible. In the end, it's getting to that process as often and for as long as we can that creates meaningful product. After all, we can always toss that which we don't like. One of my biggest problems, and this is REALLY dumb, is that I'll fall in love with a sentence. I'll be cruising along, making headway, and then I'll either write something I think is pretty damn good, or awful... either way. I'll then spend an hour either feeling good about it or rewriting it a hundred different ways. They're opposite sides of the same coin with the same result. They stop the flow. I say, if writing longhand could get me passed that? I'd consider it a better quality version of my "voice." Alas, it doesn't. posted by: thoolou (reply) post date: 02.22.06 (4:34 am) Very nice, TaBoo. I'll keep an eye on your blog. Nice change from all the teen-angst I see here on tBlog. posted by: TaBooTenente (reply) post date: 02.22.06 (4:48 am) thanks, thoo. i looked into your blog--i'm fairly sure that we disagree on nearly every perspective, except these: paying attention is important, trying is important, trying to make ourselves express ideas more clearly. i like disagreeing, anyway. as long as we're communicating, we can hope for a little evolution. taboo posted by: TaBooTenente (reply) post date: 02.22.06 (4:54 am) surrogate: i agree: changing the method of translating ideas to written word is good--it changes everything, makes things different, makes the perspective larger and juicier. my issue is both with cut/paste and electric lights. cutting and pasting is fine for editing, but while writing you lose the line--your thought doesn't evolve forward so much as spiral inward. i think when a written work is done with cut/paste only, the reader will not understand the idea as concretely as when something is written in a linear format--at least initially. and if changing any format affects the way things are said, then there is a difference between neon and sun. if i'm writing outside, then the world is a larger, less predictable place. if my eyes are glued to the flat surface of an electric screen, my world is a artificial tunnel. it's harder to see outside my own skull. taboo posted by: surrogate (reply) post date: 02.22.06 (4:57 am) Makes sense to me. Some 'a them new laptop thingies are pretty cool. Kidding. posted by: genevievelocke (reply) post date: 02.23.06 (10:53 am) Hey :) Great post. Thanks for the comments. I go to graduate school in NYC. posted by: Fairmoon (reply) post date: 02.23.06 (11:03 am) my vioce is dfferent when i'm writing on the computer, or more importantly when my computer is attached to the internet. For some reason when i'm connected to the net i feel like my writing is going straight here, blogs are dragging my words away from me and i'm writting what my cyberbuddies will want to here, or what I want to tell them. When i disconnet, walk away and write in a journal, or take my pretty red laptop (I love here) into a room with no internet, or go to the library my voice is different I write what I want to read. I write what i want to hear and I sound different. weird i know. I don't think typing vs. pens change my tune- but the net. the net changes everything. FM posted by: TaBooTenente (reply) post date: 02.24.06 (6:01 pm) moon, i've been thinking about that idea--a little bit about who i am actually writing to on the web, but also what it means to be writing for an audience. i thought about the idea of a muse--that there is someone who inspires every word--and the idea that every author is searching for the perfect reader. but i've been thinking that you're right: writing a blog is different from other forms of public writing. it's like a public journal. if it's a journal, why show it to people? if it's for the public, why act like these are all truly personal thoughts--thoughts not "meant" for the public? a strange forum. i'm not sure what it means. taboo posted by: TaBooTenente (reply) post date: 02.24.06 (6:07 pm) g, do you like your program? i'd be curious to hear how your curriculum is helping you write, or whether it is fulfilling what the program promised to do for your writing. one elective available through my own program is the "teaching freshman writing" workshop--the teaching of basic composition to first year undergraduates. we talk a lot of theory, and organize a certain, specific balance of "discourse" with actual writing activities. are you learning? taboo posted by: PastorDave (reply) post date: 02.24.06 (7:02 pm) I do believe the computer, or more specifically sitting in front of a desktop computer, can be a hindrance to creativity. I do my best thinking as I walk. I talk with myself, argue with myself, and "inspiration" just seems to come my way. I jot it down and continue the process. Of course, after a night of sleep, sometimes I go back to find what I thought to be "inspiration" to be just a bunch of cr___. The muse usually doesn't visit at the desktop. Taboo, you always put out a good post. Thanks. posted by: Fairmoon (reply) post date: 02.25.06 (5:53 am) i don't know what it means either. It's a weird little thing these blogs, did you read deathbyglitters blog today? you should it talks about this same thing. It's weird because I do say things here that I'd never say outloud, but i do censor my writing to a point because I KNOW people are going to read it. for that matter I know WHO's going to read it and so it's not the same as when i just right for myself. hhhmmmm.... posted by: TaBooTenente (reply) post date: 02.25.06 (5:56 am) thanks, pastor--you know, it's true. the muse doesn't like to hang out by the computer. i wonder whether it has to do with the speed it takes for an idea to get from the noggin to the finger tips--or whether when we were tiny, wet little boys and girls we expressed ourselves creatively with crayons and markers--so now, when we attempt to formulate our creative ideas with a keyboard, there's an extra, non-ingrained stage between thought and word. hmm. taboo posted by: TaBooTenente (reply) post date: 02.25.06 (5:58 am) death, thanks. a bowl of shredded wheat is way too much--especially if i plan on doing several hours of writing far away from the toilet. 'nough said. taboo |
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