visual language

Artists choose to communicate in a visual language, possibly because they find it hard to order their own thoughts via the written or spoken word.
(Anon.)


--What's your take on that quote?


Gutless Anonymous, that's what I say. Unless that person is also an artist, I think they're terribly presumptuous. When I communicate in visual language, it's because I've chosen to use the vocabulary of color and line and form.

In defense of Anonymous, when I enter into the visual/manual arts, I may be thinking different thoughts than when I'm tapping away merrily on my computer. But, is it because I find it hard to order 'em, or because the visual is best?

Right now, I'm thinking of a crimson arc on a bone white background, arising from just inside the lower left corner and thinning as it makes its way up to the right. It finds its own height and starts to descend--do I keep it on the canvas and have a completed act/thought/deed? Or, do I fly off the right side, who knows where, leaving a hint of where I've headed but begging the viewer to involve themselves in the not-yet-completeness?

See, Mr./Ms. Anonymous, I just painted with words. Duh. Can you see the image? I sure can...but is that at all unique or do most of you see what I just painted?

And when I'm writing, prose or poetry, how much do I leave to the reader to interpolate or extrapolate? Do I tie everything up with a pretty little ribbon and present the done deed, or do I leave strands here and there that are frankly unfinished...little dangling loose ends that, hmmm, are just like reality?

Summer Reading

Whenever summer rolls around I begin to realize that I'm a complete and utter book snob. In relation to reading, I have absolutely no guilty pleasure at all. No graphic novels. No murder mysteries. My summer read is really no different from my winter read. I know many bookshops and magazines would have me believe that our summer forays are different, but literature is literature, and unfortunately snobbery is snobbery.
     --Colum McCann, author.

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There are good books, even great books, that you read happily but with a faint feeling of duty. Then there are the books, often less pedigreed, that you read in a haze of compulsion, as if their pages emitted a drug. Summer is the season for the latter.
     --Ben Dolnick, author.


Where do you fit? Snob? Rut? Compulsion?

Me? Not a snob, nope--I'll read anything and everything.

Fluffy mystery? Sure.

History of mankind? Right-o.

Biography of a WWII prisoner of war? Bring it.

The Hobbit (for the 10th time!) YEAH!

As an author, I think I learn more about writing from the mediocre than from the excellent--the truly excellent doesn't make you think about the mechanics of writing, because it transports you!

Beam me up Scotty--I've read everything there is to read on this planet! Where to next?

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What is the best book you've read this summer?

Idealist? Pessimist? Realist?

An idealist believes the short run doesn't really matter.

A cynic believes that the long run doesn't count.

A realist knows that what's done or left undone in the short run determines the outcome in the long run!

--journalist Sydney Harris.

The true realist has to look at the above quote with a grain of salt. I think Mr. journalist was going for a sound bite.

The short run doesn't matter to an idealist? Tell it to Beethoven: "Buh-buh-buh-bumm."

The long run? Howzabout Churchill's famed speech: "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense." [While modern mythology has Sir Winnie uttering this as the full text, it was actually on the 2nd page of a 2-page speech.]

What I'm doing today is what any writer does--grabs self by the scruff of the neck, sits down, and writes. And, doesn't give up. Short run, long run, intermediate...just keep plugging. Keep a long enough perspective so that the number of tiny steps along the way doesn't overwhelm. Keep a short enough perspective that the long haul doesn't daunt. How do you walk all the way across the USA? One step atta time, sure...but one needs a vision of the rolling waves on that distant short to make every step feel worth the effort.

Don't feel like it? Tough.

Love it? Great, but don't expect to coast on good feelings alone.

Feedback, positive or negative? Gotta decide if that matters a little, a lot, or NOT.

Goal.
Plan.
Action.
Persistence.

Writing makes an exact man exact in thought and speech.

Writing makes an exact man exact in thought and speech.

--Francis Bacon--

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Sir Franny is correct, or...is he. Whatta you think?...Right, think about it,

 

 

before

 

you

 

scroll

 

down

 

here

because my opinion matters more than yours only in the fact that, at this moment, it is my hand on the controls, not yours!

I think Sir Franny is correct on one level: in order to write well enough to satisfy an exacting task-master, the work must be more than just orthographically and grammatically correct. Good writing should also have a smoothness of flow that takes into account not only logic but ear.

That is, my above paragraph is grammatical and logical, but it sure doesn't flow--oops, it just got better--I broke one long sentence into two! There, the deed testifies to Bacon's words.

So, I agree: exact writing demands exact vocab, linear flow of thoughts, and adherence to the rules of the language. That's all correct, as far as it goes. But I think one also needs to pay attention to more than rules, but to the art of writing. Namely, is there a word that the author understands and that fills the bill perfectly, but that word is sufficiently out of the ordinary that the average reader will be given pause? Are the sentences all the same length? If they're all short, it'll feel choppy. All long? There's risk for frustrating the reader--the task of the writer is to distill, to clarify, to bring the reader along, not to impress you with euphonious exhalations of polysyllabic pomposity, or to mightily divert you with my amusing twists of thought that ultimately serve to obfuscate.

So, I also disagree with Bacon: there's much more to good writing than mere exactitude. A little sloppiness in the first draft, in particular--great idea. Keeps me moving fast and not worrying so much about perfection that I over-criticize myself and choke off the flow of ideas.

And, the exact writer may be driven to perfectionistic paralysis--will it ever be just right? Will every reader follow my every word and my every thought?

Pish. Chuck Swindoll said something about going over every line, word by word, to ensure that everything said precisely what he intended. But, NO paralysis for him--Wikipedia's Swindoll entry lists 57 books under the heading, "selected publications," suggesting that there are more out there. Oh, and 12 ECPA Christian Book awards.

Okay, he's one of my heroes. So, after inspiring myself, if no one else...off I got to write.

Your comments welcomed below.

Reading, etymology, and Latin. (Latin? Gotta be kidding!)

I love to read. Whether for entertainment or for learning, it's a good thing. Generally, that is.

I just laid aside a book about etymology. I plowed thru 60 pages or so, but with no real narrative line...I'll be honest, I've had more fun reading the dictionary or the encyclopedia. (Oops, those are fun...bad comparison.) I've had more fun weeding the yard.

This despite the fact that the author was very careful to clarify that entomology was for bugs that bug people, not about words that bug people!) Still, I COULD put the book down. In fact, it joins the roughly one or two books per year that I can put down...and never pick back up again!

I'd rather learn Latin than listen to someone babble on about a word's roots, "The word 'gnaw' is one of many that begin with 'gn-' and may be linked by..."

When I hear, "...it may be", the educator in me immediately responds, "Thus, it also may NOT be." Phooey.

Actually, I have subscribed to the email "Latin Word of the Day," and am enjoying broadening my vocab/etymology...here's the page where one could subscribe. Subscription is, BTW, an overt confession of abject geekhood.
http://www.transparent.com/word-of-the-day/today/latin.html#.UfRjBD3n9PA

Also, English word of the day: http://wordsmith.org/words/today.html

Okay, that was a lengthy digression. Basically, I enjoy non-fiction, but it needs to be written with a better narrative line than my high-school history textbook (spontaneous yawn at the memory!) The autobiography that I just read, Louis Zamperini's DEVIL AT MY HEELS, flowed like a well-written novel, with suspense, theme, rise and fall of tension within each chapter....yeah! I think non-fiction has come a long way since I was in high school. Whatta you think? Any fav non-fiction works you'd like to share with the legions reading this? Comment below or back on FB, pls.