creativity

No More

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I finished a new book last summer and, in an inexplicable fit of delusion, I decided to try to have it published traditionally and submitted it to several independent publishers.

Yeah, guess how that’s gone so far…

Anyway, in the interim since finishing that presently wayward and unwelcomed novel, I have been unable to home in on a new story to which I would be willing to commit a year or so of intellectual effort/struggle.

I don’t know how it goes for you, but for yours truly, writing does not come easy and it is one long angst-ridden struggle. Hence my saying, which occasionally serves here as a tag line but at present is on the bench:

Writing is sorrow; having had written is sublime.

Lately, to nourish the parched creative side of my brain, I have taken to music – no, I still cannot play any instrument beyond my ability to torture three unfortunate chords or so on an acoustic guitar.

By music, I mean the garageband app on my iPad.

I decided to would try to reimagine my novels, their themes, or perhaps even scenes within them, as songs. The first novel I choose to contemplate rhythmically was Rainy Season.

Love hurts, as they* say, and Rainy Season makes every effort to live up to the truth of this wellworn saying.

So I wrote a sad, desperate song to express how the sad, desperate novel strikes me.

To help further express this sad, depressing Expressionistic Rainy Season vision of mine, I decided to include a visual element to it.

So I turned to French director Jean Epstein’s haunting 1928 silent film “La chute de la maison Usher,” which itself is a filmic expression of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic masterpiece “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and which, conveniently for me, recently entered the public domain – the film, I mean, because surely all of Poe’s work has been in the public domain for many, many o’ moons.

For you nerds who like to know, to edit and adapt the film to the song, I used DaVinci Resolve, also for the iPad (the free version of course).

So, are there more music/videos to come?

Maybe, at least until I come up with an idea for a new novel (redundancy intended).

Apologies in advance…

*non-gender specific

There’s so much to gripe about I can’t decide which gripe to blog about so instead I’ll just share this…

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According to this article, which is a derivative of this article, which leans heavily on this study, creative people literally see the world differently than us lesser than creative types, as is illustrated by the following video…


 
Some of you may remember this similar titillating* exercise in awareness I shared in days past.

#prayforopenness
#andpuertorico

*The word “titillating” was added for clickbait purposes only; although, some may in fact be titillated by brain teasers. Who knows…

 

While Hacking at a Log

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I wonder…

What is more important to most readers of literature…

Just the words as they are written?

Or the why the words were written – the author’s motivation?

Or the how the words were written – the author’s background?

When reading a thesis that may influence one’s medical or legal decisions, knowing that the author has the requisite knowledge and training to write with such influencing authority – the why and how of the words – probably should be important.

However, when it comes to literature – does it really matter what schools the author attended, or how well-read an author is?

Or would most readers regard a work of literature by a less-than educated or less-than well-read author similar to someone hacking in mad rage at a log with an ax and when she comes to her senses she discovers that she had, in her blind passion, formed a beautiful wooden sculpture*?

Would she have created art?

Should she then be considered an artist?

I wonder…

 

*This is far from an original thought of mine but unfortunately I cannot find the original quote to give proper credit. If you know, please comment.