tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post8063075118005420250..comments2023-10-03T11:41:21.191+01:00Comments on The Truth About Lies: To thine own self be trueJim Murdochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-33390105293289039792010-05-07T06:49:26.192+01:002010-05-07T06:49:26.192+01:00You're right, Ken, and I have written two or t...You're right, <b>Ken</b>, and I have written two or three blogs which started out as comments I've made which were just too good to waste as it where. Part of the introduction to my new poetry collection started life as a comment I made to someone.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-38831080097968279932010-05-06T19:47:22.805+01:002010-05-06T19:47:22.805+01:00Just thinking... what an interesting blog your col...Just thinking... what an interesting blog your collected responses to your readers' comments and your comments on blogs (mine included) would make.<br /><br />Honestly. :)Ken Armstronghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07775956557261111127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-14840298817196444762010-05-03T14:32:55.561+01:002010-05-03T14:32:55.561+01:00What we have to remember, Ken, is that we are all ...What we have to remember, <b>Ken</b>, is that we are all unique. We <i>have</i> to have a unique voice in there. Think about bats. I was watching some nature programme a week ago and there was this cave full of bats, thousands of bats, baby bats, and their mothers would fly into a cave full of screeching, fluttering creatures and locate its offspring by its call. The problem is over familiarity. I have been listening to me talk (out loud and on the page) for half a century and nothing I say startles me very often and I am genuinely puzzled when people go on about how I say things. How else would I say them? We need not to worry about such things, not at our age anyway. Our voices have broken, literally and metaphorically.<br /><br />Reading and watching stuff is all fine and good but we’re echo chambers and our responses to what we see and read are going to be uniquely, and subtly, different to everyone around us. I’ve never met anyone with your particular take on life. I’ve met a lot of witty and insightful people, but your peculiar mix of wit and insight is what attracts and helps you hang onto readers.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-37817958467754006632010-05-03T13:57:56.485+01:002010-05-03T13:57:56.485+01:00I was walking along the other day and thinking, &#...I was walking along the other day and thinking, 'what makes me any different from the hundreds of thousands of other writers out there trying to catch a break?'<br /><br />The conclusion I came to was that I have been doing it so long and so consistently that I have at least found my own voice in my writing. You have to keep writing and reading and watching to eke that out of yourself.<br /><br />So, I concluded, at least that is something.<br /><br />How does this relate to the post. Not sure. It's what I thought after reading it. Maybe that's something too.Ken Armstronghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07775956557261111127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-67012504437443027862010-05-02T13:20:09.212+01:002010-05-02T13:20:09.212+01:00I’ll bump that up the to-do list then, Art.
And, ...I’ll bump that up the to-do list then, <b>Art</b>.<br /><br />And, <b>Dave</b>, your example of the chameleon is an excellent one. My parents only ever saw me as their son. That was who I had always been. When I became other things like a husband, a father or a writer it was as if I’d taken one step further into the shadows and away from them. I feel exactly the same about my daughter, as if I’m losing her one day at a time, but that's life.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-63997706430201611712010-05-02T10:38:56.520+01:002010-05-02T10:38:56.520+01:00Interesting post, Jim, a subject that has always e...Interesting post, Jim, a subject that has always exercised me. <br />There's this question of how many mes and which one I should be ture to, for example. The me they see at the rugby club is not the one they see in church. I remember Sangster (I think it was) asking "Why did you stop being you when you went into the forces?"<br />And then your story of the optometrist and the novelist reminded me of an occasion when I was studying for my diploma. We were shown a film of a chameleon on the prowl and asked to study it carefully. Well, what do you watch? You watch how it changes colour. Afterwards we were asked to describe the way it moved. Then we were shown the same film again - and saw an entirely different film.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-48269681186210755482010-05-02T00:28:53.931+01:002010-05-02T00:28:53.931+01:00I was like you, waiting in eager anticipation for ...I was like you, waiting in eager anticipation for each new issue of Swamp Thing.<br /><br />Ditto when Hellblazer first started up; I think I have the first 100 issues or so. At some point I couldn't buy every month, as I was moving or otherwise in turbulence, but I do have several of the book collections thereafter.<br /><br />I have to say, I'd like to see you write about comics as serious literature. I imagine we agree on that point, and I think you'd do a good job writing on it. Consider that a request. :)Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-56785314297564697552010-05-01T18:14:22.140+01:002010-05-01T18:14:22.140+01:00I keep meaning to do a post or two about comics, A...I keep meaning to do a post or two about comics, <b>Art</b>, but there’s only so much time. <i>Swamp Thing</i> would be way up there. I think <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i> and <i>Watchmen</i> are pretty well known but I was buying <i>Swamp Thing</i> month by month at the time and I couldn’t wait till the next month I’ll tell you. The one stand out issue for me was the vampire story (with a group of vampires living under water) although the werewolf tale (that links lycanthropy to the menstrual cycle) was memorable too. I did know that Constantine was modelled after Sting by the way. At least Keanu Reeves didn’t try and fake the accent in the film; he does not do a good English accent.<br /><br />I have <i>Mathis der Mahler</i> but I don’t know it well. You won’t catch me singing it in the shower put it that way. I will give it a listen to to see if I can pick up on the theme you’re on about. I have Hindemith’s best known pieces but he’s not a favourite.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-81627226213091222332010-05-01T05:29:58.716+01:002010-05-01T05:29:58.716+01:00I still own those Moore Swamp THing issues. That&#...I still own those Moore <i>Swamp THing</i> issues. That's when John Constantine was invented, by Moore and Bissette, who remains one of my favorite characters of all time. (The look of John was originally modeled Sting, BTW.) Now Constantine is as great a character as ever was, and is constantly quoted himself.<br /><br />The music for the original Star Trek series, by Alexander Courage, contains a couple of almost direct quotes from Paul Hindemith's <i>Mathis der Mahler.</i> (In the scene with the green-skinned Orion dancing girls, it's right there.) Hindemith actually influenced or was quoted by a lot of TV and film music composers in the mid- and late-1960s. "Steal from the best," is what my own composition professor, William Bolcom, used to say in class. <br /><br />I think of the period of imitation in writing poetry as part of the necessary apprenticeship. You read so thoroughly in a favorite great poet that you cannot help but take on their voice, albeit temporarily. I had a Rilke period, among others; most of those poems haven't survived. But it's a necessary apprenticeship served on way to finding your own voice. I don't have a problem with it; as long as a learning poet doesn't stay stuck there.Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-40214886917750155782010-04-30T16:35:10.281+01:002010-04-30T16:35:10.281+01:00It’s an interesting expression, Kass, ‘going to be...It’s an interesting expression, <b>Kass</b>, ‘going to be me’, as if who we are is something ahead of us, in the future, that we have to work towards. It’s all metaphorical of course. If we talked about ‘setting free the real me’ we encounter the same problem, that ‘me’ is something apart from the rest of us. And I think that’s true. There is no ‘real me’ but there are aspects of me that I can choose to construct that me. The thing is not to be embarrassed that I didn’t choose to emphasise other facets to my personality. The ‘real me’ is a thing we decide up. I suppose some lucky buggers discover it quite by chance but that’s not been my experience.<br /><br />I own a lot of Pärt’s music. One of my favourite albums contains only three works played twice: <i>Spiegel im Spiegel</i> for violin and piano followed by <i>Für Alina</i> for solo piano; then we have <i>Spiegel im Spiegel</i> for cello and piano and the album concludes with <i>Für Alina</i> for solo piano again. It is an inspired bit of programming. You can read about it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alina-Arvo-P%C3%A4rt-Vladimir-Spivakov/dp/B000024HL1/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1272640728&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">here</a>.<br /><br />I think most people do go that way, <b>Sorlil</b>, but I was never so besotted by any writer nor did I associate with other writers and so, although I was lonely, I think this helped me develop my style. It also means that stylistically I work with a limited palette but I’ve learned to live with that. <br /><br />And, <b>Elisabeth</b>, you know what, when it boils down to it I have to own up to not being a particularly confident person. I’m intelligent and so I can fake confidence but the evidence speaks for itself. I have been content to potter away on my own for most of my life not so much for fear of rejection of my writing – I know I can write – but out of embarrassment, out of an awkwardness, a not knowing the rules, the protocol, the etiquette, whatever.<br /><br />Most of my writing has been done with only a sketchy knowledge of what was acceptable. What I’ve learned about writing has been by osmosis and by doing it. I’m actually glad that I never went to any writing classes. I suspect that I would have wasted several years writing something I thought might get me published rather than writing what came into my head.<br /><br />I’m glad you find the little autobiographical snippets of interest. I wouldn’t feel comfortable devoting a whole post to them but where I think something that’s happened to me is relevant to the general theme of the blog I’m happy to oblige.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-67474196477011517302010-04-30T12:10:01.252+01:002010-04-30T12:10:01.252+01:00Ditto ditto ditto, Jim, to the two commenters abov...Ditto ditto ditto, Jim, to the two commenters above, Kass and Sorlil, I couldn't agree more. <br /><br />We, only three of your female admirers - I suspect there are many more - are grateful. We bask in the sunshine of your encouragement. <br /><br />But as you say : 'Being true to oneself requires a certain level of confidence.'<br /><br />It takes time and experience to get past all the hype of how we should be and how much we should follow rules. <br /><br />I like to know the rules before I dare to break them. I like to have a firm grasp on what's acceptable or not before I'll slip over the edge into lawlessness, but lawlessness must have meaning for me.<br /><br />I agree with you Jim, you have a distinctive voice and I imagine it's one that's taken you some time to develop. <br /><br />You are fortunate to have such a supporter in your wife, Carrie. I love the way she describes your poetry. She should know, she's read it all, I imagine, and no wonder you blush. High praise indeed. <br /><br />I enjoy your reviews Jim, but I especially enjoy the bits of autobiography you occasionally offer. <br /><br />It's such a treat to read about your vagaries, your thoughts on life and reading and poetry and the meaning of it all. It's wonderful to get a deeper sense of where you're coming from.<br /><br />A terrific post here. Thanks.Elisabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04015624747225433940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-63087914735849186492010-04-29T21:44:23.680+01:002010-04-29T21:44:23.680+01:00Great post. I agree, imitation is a great way mayb...Great post. I agree, imitation is a great way maybe even an essential part of the process of learning to write. But there comes a point where you have to break free and trust your own voice regarless what everyone else is doing.Marion McCreadyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04657757253873577465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-5276704316477022712010-04-29T19:23:01.355+01:002010-04-29T19:23:01.355+01:00Jim -Sod the consequences - you just convinced me....Jim -Sod the consequences - you just convinced me. I'm going to be me and quit making apologies. My daughter keeps saying, "Own it!" She's right. If how I feel or write or perform doesn't fit into Kuhn's or anybody's paradigm, so be it.<br /><br />Interesting that you mention Pärt, he's one of my favorites. So sparse, yet emotional.<br /><br />I love these 3 poems, even if you were trying on different styles. Sometimes imitation is good - a point of departure is necessary.<br /><br />Recently, when I listen to my own voice, it sounds like Ginsberg. I just want to howl and swear.<br /><br />I really enjoyed this post. You inspired me.Kasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05233330248952156754noreply@blogger.com