When I went into hospital for surgery for my cancer, I took Rebecca Solnit's book in with me. I thought if ever there was a time I'd like to 'get lost' it's now. I found it totally absorbing and the perfect antidote to hospital routine. I could read bits of it without feeling I had to turn the page. I could re-read passages without frustration. And the words were, and still are, breathtakingly simple and beautiful. I recommend it too. (BTW Surgery was successful :-)
Hi Yasmin, I'm so glad to hear your surgery was successful, and also that you had a good book-friend to accompany you to hospital. Solnit's books have been great friends to me too. 'Hope in the Dark' and 'A Paradise Built at the Gates of Hell' have really pulled me out of a hole when I've needed it. 'Orwell's Roses' too. Let's give thanks for our wise book-friends, always there for us!
Absolutely. I wonder how much research has been done on ‘reading as a means of improving mental health’. Thanks for your suggestions in this post - I’m looking forward to developing a new list of reading material for 2024.
Aha! A book recommendation from you that I already have! Interestingly, I chose it when I was in the thick of my research for a very large visual art piece, that ended up being titled "Chaos, Flow, Meanders".
Oh thats great - yes, it's about writing narrative, but there's so much in it that's relevant to visual art too, so for this artist/writer it really hit home. It's also making me think about how the creative thought process emerges in the studio, how we loop back on things, come at ideas from lots of different angles, find certain motifs coming back again and again...
Thanks for this. Many of my better post ideas seem to come from a connection between two different threads, ideas, or conversations. The story in my head is often convoluted and loops back on itself. I always want to iron it flat to get all the wrinkles out; arrange the pieces along time's arrow, as if the later must be a consequence of the earlier. That comes from years of writing up scientific experiments and even from writing computer code.
This looks fascinating John, thanks for the link. It makes me think about swarming and shoaling behaviour, how a flock of starlings knows when to turn without anyone giving orders, and pattern as an emergent property throughout nature, including in our own minds.
Sam, I absolutely resonate with your thoughts on narrative, and have thoroughly enjoyed this expansion on the thoughts that were floating around on this topic a couple of weeks back.
My memoir opens at the mouth of the River Irvine in Ayrshire and ends (without quite the resolution the narrative-arc-bound reader might be seeking) thirty-odd years later at the mouth of that same river, where it gives way to the Firth of Clyde. When it became clear to me that we were travelling together from shallow to deep water and from a gentle, narrow stream to the often-treacherous stretch of water at the river's end, it felt that the story had asserted its shape.
Oh perfect - finding that river form flowing through your story rather than an arc that completes- and of course the river doesn't end there either, but rather flows on, joining ocean gyres and currents. And thank you for ordering The Clearing - I hope you enjoy reading it!
When I went into hospital for surgery for my cancer, I took Rebecca Solnit's book in with me. I thought if ever there was a time I'd like to 'get lost' it's now. I found it totally absorbing and the perfect antidote to hospital routine. I could read bits of it without feeling I had to turn the page. I could re-read passages without frustration. And the words were, and still are, breathtakingly simple and beautiful. I recommend it too. (BTW Surgery was successful :-)
Hi Yasmin, I'm so glad to hear your surgery was successful, and also that you had a good book-friend to accompany you to hospital. Solnit's books have been great friends to me too. 'Hope in the Dark' and 'A Paradise Built at the Gates of Hell' have really pulled me out of a hole when I've needed it. 'Orwell's Roses' too. Let's give thanks for our wise book-friends, always there for us!
Absolutely. I wonder how much research has been done on ‘reading as a means of improving mental health’. Thanks for your suggestions in this post - I’m looking forward to developing a new list of reading material for 2024.
Aha! A book recommendation from you that I already have! Interestingly, I chose it when I was in the thick of my research for a very large visual art piece, that ended up being titled "Chaos, Flow, Meanders".
Oh thats great - yes, it's about writing narrative, but there's so much in it that's relevant to visual art too, so for this artist/writer it really hit home. It's also making me think about how the creative thought process emerges in the studio, how we loop back on things, come at ideas from lots of different angles, find certain motifs coming back again and again...
Thanks for this. Many of my better post ideas seem to come from a connection between two different threads, ideas, or conversations. The story in my head is often convoluted and loops back on itself. I always want to iron it flat to get all the wrinkles out; arrange the pieces along time's arrow, as if the later must be a consequence of the earlier. That comes from years of writing up scientific experiments and even from writing computer code.
Have you read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language? It provides a framework for talking about patterns. It should work for narrative patterns too. I'll dip back into it.
I need to work on writing closer to my thought patterns. I'll let you how how it goes!
This looks fascinating John, thanks for the link. It makes me think about swarming and shoaling behaviour, how a flock of starlings knows when to turn without anyone giving orders, and pattern as an emergent property throughout nature, including in our own minds.
Absolutely! I'm seeing patterns too in history and in land usage, issues I'm exploring in a post or maybe post series I'm working on.
Sounds really interesting - I look forward to reading it, John. Greetings from my island to yours!
It involves my scottish crofting ancestors.
Patterns sound interesting, John. I'll have a look too.
Sam, I absolutely resonate with your thoughts on narrative, and have thoroughly enjoyed this expansion on the thoughts that were floating around on this topic a couple of weeks back.
My memoir opens at the mouth of the River Irvine in Ayrshire and ends (without quite the resolution the narrative-arc-bound reader might be seeking) thirty-odd years later at the mouth of that same river, where it gives way to the Firth of Clyde. When it became clear to me that we were travelling together from shallow to deep water and from a gentle, narrow stream to the often-treacherous stretch of water at the river's end, it felt that the story had asserted its shape.
I've just ordered The Clearing, you should know!
Oh perfect - finding that river form flowing through your story rather than an arc that completes- and of course the river doesn't end there either, but rather flows on, joining ocean gyres and currents. And thank you for ordering The Clearing - I hope you enjoy reading it!