I Imagine, therefore, something is!

PHANTASY

"Remarkably, in the ancient traditions, the imagination or "phantasy" was considered a sense. In that psychology, in the detailed summary of Robert Burton's 1620 Anatomy of Melancholy, in addition to the outward senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch,
we have three inward senses: the Common Sense, Memory, and Phantasy. Burton stated:

Phantasy, or imagination...is an inward sense which doth more fully examine the species perceived by common sense, of things present or absent, and keeps them longer, recalling them to mind again, or making new of his own.

This old idea of imagination as a sense that produces "monstrous and prodigious things by recombining and re-forming the more orderly perceptions of memory and the other senses. As in dreams, the ingredients are familiar but the new reality is not."

--from: Robert Pinsky's SINGING SCHOOL: Learning to Write (and Read) Poetry by Studying with the Masters. 2013. pg 148.

. . . . . . .

I like "monstruous and prodigious things" --guess that's why I write fiction and poetry and am a Stephen King fan...and a Dean Koontz fan...and CSLewis and Tolkien and Asimov and...you get the drift.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I traveled far and wide today

   I did not take a cab

I took neither bus nor car

   nor trip on substance from a lab.

I rode in comfort, but not by train,

   nor boat nor aeroplane.

Departure...arrival--by seconds parted:

   Yes, I got there, as soon as I started.

No luggage, no seatbelt,

   and no need for "security,"

I arrived by conveyance

   of eld, not futurity.

Yes, book in my lap

   and others beside

I tip my cap

   to my magical ride.

--DLS 11/9/13



It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

What did you see today?

I saw people paying rapt attention in church.

I saw people leave a wonderful concert at intermission--and not return.

I saw the sun reach its arms up over the mountainous horizon, steady itself, then throw itself into the morning sky, showering the land with pure, malleable gold!

Old H. D. Thoreau's quote makes me think of Simon and Garf..."people hearing w/o listening...writing songs that voices never share..."

I saw a friend, grinning at me like one or both of us was a pure nut-case...likely true--both!

----

Now for a serious thought--we often look and do not see,

but we still have hope that those who have honed the sharp edges of their eye/mind/heart/soul

will look and hear and see and listen,

and then convert that into....

 

poetry

prose

sculpture

visual imagery

etc.

 

 

World Series, World of Ideas.

From Cabot Wealth Advisory (free, here. I like the price and the info!)
     --------- ---------- --------- --------- ---------- --------- --------- ---------- ---------
Winning in Baseball … and the Markets I don’t know if the rest of the country is as interested in the World Series as the citizens of Red Sox Nation are, but with the Series on, I had an idea about how to explain growth investing.

Hall of Fame baseball manager Earl Weaver of the Baltimore Orioles used to say, “You win games with good pitching and three-run home runs.” And I think that’s a pretty good analogy for the way you win at growth stock investing, too.

In growth stock investing, good pitching means keeping the other side from scoring runs, which is another way of saying that you keep losses small.

     --------- ---------- --------- --------- ---------- --------- --------- ---------- ---------

(and, David adds: likewise, in the world of ideas...I think you have lots of 'em and kill off the losers sooner and keep plugging with the winners. Ya never know which little one may make it, Ortiz-like, outa tha pahk! )

(Hit any outa the park lately? I'd love to hear about it...comment below or leave me a message on FB.)


 

The Story Behind the Story: part 4--the PROCESS.

CONVERSATIONS INSIDE A WRITER'S HEAD

...or...

    okay, you guessed it, the voices are at it again.

=-=-=-=-=

"Think, dream, wonder, ask..."
             Oops, stop right now and put fingers to the keyboard.

"But, I'm having some great ideas!"
             No idea is great unless it's given form and boundary.

"Some ideas are without boundaries."
             Great. Write 'em down anyhow. Anyway...but not any-when!

"But, that interferes with my creative process."
             Can't call it creative if it don't create nothin'!

"But--"
            Bum-glue. Stick yer bum in the chair, yer fingers to the keyboard, and go!

"But, I need to consult my muses for inspiration."
            We are your muse, and your muse is telling you to consult your fingers--they're 
            the only way us muses gain a voice. Right?

"Well, when you put it that way..."
            'That way,' nothing. The only way to be fair to your muses is to get us out
            where others can listen and see and wonder and judge for themselves.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Hmmph. So, when do I get to listen to my muses?

Every day. Read, walk, drive, meditate, listen to music, ponder great (or not-so-great) art and literature; watch people and birds and animals and trees and plants. Reading good poetry widens my thinking and my appreciation for many of the little daily goodnesses all around us. The "creative process" captures all those thoughts and observations and endeavors to give them focus or meaning or balance or story.

Or poem.

Or song.

Or...

Hmmph. Okay...go away. I'm writing. And leave the door closed behind you, thnx.

The Story Behind the Story, part 3: FROM IDEA TO STORY.

Idea--duly noted and written down.

Nudge--rib cage elbowed yet again, urging the body into action.

And the idea became flesh and dwelt among us...

How do I take an idea, a fleeting phantasm, and dress it in skin and sinew, bones and brains, and give it vibrancy and voice?

Some authors use outlines for the plot:
"Here's the conflict...now, how to heighten it? How to intensify it into a crisis? What does the crisis need in order to resolve it? How will the characters act and interact?"

...and, they create many-page biographies for their main characters:
"Now, this is where this character was born, what parents were like? Personal likes and dislikes? How do they dress, what do they eat, where work, how play and with whom? Relationships? Tastes in food, drink, entertainment, autos? Townie or city or rural?"

Other authors, whose approach to writing resonates with me, suggest, "Take a strong character. Throw them into a situation. Let's see how they cope and what they do to get out of it." As Stephen King says, "I'm the first reader of my stories. I have no idea of what's coming next, and I can hardly wait to see how it'll work out!" [A decent paraphrase, not quite verbatim, from ON WRITING: FOR LOVE OF THE CRAFT.]

So, I took the idea of dogs attending the Nativity. Now, what would make dogs more interesting than they already are? Howzabout these dogs having a perfect understanding of human language? And the ability to talk to other beasts? Sure, talking animals, not the first time that's been done? But, it's still fun, huh? Narnia and Middle Earth don't have a monopoly on the notion--altho I don't expect to see it done better than Lewis and Tolkien!

What do dogs do? Eat, play, interact with humans...duh. Just because they can understand human speech, they're still dogs and they gotta act like dogs or else they have no integrity, they become something less believable if they don't chase their tails, right? What dog travels from point A to point B directly? Of course not, they travel thru X, M, T, and U whilst sniffing, wagging, and panting, and then pause only to go racing in yet another direction. Just because my dogs add on dialog such as, "Hey, lookit over here! C'mon...this smells great!" doesn't take away from their intrinsic dogginess...in fact, come to think of it, I hope it actually adds to their native canine cool!

That's a little peek under the creative hood of story writing and how it works for me. Woof!