Dirty Gerty's Hurdy Gurdy

GERTYHURDYGURDY

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Only the poem knows what's true

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Truman (Capote), I've HAD my share of apples!

So, reader(s)?,

It's almost 5:30 pm, and I need to jot some things here. Indeed, it's one thing, really. I've been reading Volume One of The Paris Review Interviews. And, I've adored the enlightenment, and the wit, of Dorothy Parker, Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemmingway, etc., One thing that particularly piqued... intrigued is a better word... me, is something Truman Capote said. About how we approach our work emotionally.

Just imagine, and I'm paraphrasing his idea, here, you've eaten an abundance of apples. Have only, in fact, eaten apples for an entire week. By the end of the week, you've gotten sick, more than likely, or at least have had your share of, said apples. You know them. And, of course, the taste of the apple is there.

If you apply this to the emotional capacities of art, I think it's an ingenious concept. Only because, before you write, you need to get all your emotions out. You need to, kind of, have a grasp of technicality, of function and form, and have the emotional taste in your gut. But it cannot be immediate and overwhelming. Rather, it must be detached. You can still feel it, but it doesn't overwhelm to the point that you're so much in laughter or tears you cannot progress.

People speak so much of artistic inspiration. How there must be something emotional and cathartic as pertains to art. And art is very much a re-birthing process, so you can be considered the Phoenix and exorcising Priestess all in one. In my experience, as an artist, you must be more like the fire that re-births the Firebird, as opposed to the Phoenix itself, and you must think less of catharsis and more of re-creation, and you MUST, MUST have some sort of detachment; otherwise your work will be half-there and goo goo and glop. Dorothy (Parker) said something wonderful in her interview, how Flaubert would despair for a day trying to find the right word. And, I do believe, this is how important it should be. Inspiration isn't just an emotion, I mean, it's a conflagration of persistence, insistence, and truth. It's not so much that you have to have an idea and apply it to your work; just speak with conviction, and don't take yourself too seriously. Simply, it's a game of balance, a game that requires scope, intuition, and, above all, exposition.

I'm still trying to figure what bend I want these blogs to take. If they should all be about things like this or if this would bore people endlessly! I only ask you, reader(s)?, to be patient, with me. There's a voice to be had in the "BLOG'SPHERE," I just haven't quite found mine yet, or at least, not a consistent theme. It seems to be, what ever intrigues me on that day, I will write about. But, I best be off to indulge in J. Cain's interview; Double Indemnity was a lovely film. And, I'd love to see Mildred Pierce. Perhaps tomorrow I'll speak to the importance of the written word, or any word, for that matter.

Now, I must bid adieu!

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