Glissando:a Melodrama By David Musgrave

The semi-formal tone of the narrator of this novel somehow subverts the proclaimed melodrama of this bizarre but witty and hugely enjoyable book. The early twentieth century voice holds the improbable events and bizarre characters we meet in its pages together. We willingly suspend our disbelief as the characters and plot devices of high melodrama are revealed: almost twins abandoned to an aloof guardian who in turn leaves them at a series of isolated farms in western NSW; a lost promissory note; a wealthy grandfather who builds house after improbable house leaving behind a journal of his adventures in architecture and exploration; blood on the boards from protracted theatre wars; a First Critic with a court of Critics-in-waiting, Apprentice Critics, Pages and a Cook buzzing around him.
Musgrave, a critic himself, intersperses the narrator's autobiography with excerpts from the grandfather's journal and, a twist on the theatrical themes in the book, a script of the First Critic's dinner conversation. The grandfather is allowed to present his architectural dreams and their realisations for himself. His grandson stands in for us seeing the physical representations of the journals and following in the steps of his grandfather's peregrinations across the country. We are also able to witness the grandfather's mental collapse from within while we see the effects on his wife through the grandson's eyes.
A brother, who after an accident becomes a musical savant, parallels the mental coning down of his grandfather into architecture, an enormous housekeeper prefigures the gargantuan critic with the comedic name Basil Pilbeam, various sycophants, lost lovers, stolen Aboriginal children, actors and plodding policemen make up an entertaining cast. The script subverts our notions of sanity and normalcy, while inviting us to see how artificial and ridiculous our own societal norms and aspirations are when seen from a distance.
I highly recommend a romp through this book. Spare a few moments afterward to reflect on the truths melodrama and indeed any good comedy expose about our own culture.

Welcome to the Bloggers' ball

Welcome to all the SheWriters dressed in their feathers and finery for the Bloggers' Ball! Hope you enjoy the little knees up on Wordmusic where I celebrate music of words, music in words and everything in between!
Back to the Bloggers Ball

Crafting the personal essay

I read Dinty W. Moore's Crafting the Personal Essay immediately after mailing my honours thesis in last year. Academic writing had wrung me out and left me unable to write anything less than formal prose. Dinty Moore soon turned me around and whet my appetite for more learning and writing. 
Crafting the Personal Essay is a very readable and motivating book on writing the personal essay. Moore covers the nuts and bolts of writing the humorous, nature, travel, lyric, spiritual and food essay, providing numerous examples and tips. This is the first time I have heard essay writing defined as chasing "mental rabbits' but that is exactly what it is: a "hunt, a chase, a ramble through thickets of thought, in pursuit of some brief glimmer of fuzzy truth". He exactly describes the essay-writing process, how to work through ideas and feelings and nail them to paper. 
There are plenty of exercises to get the writer's pen to paper and build a fund of ideas and starters. Highly recommended! 

Frost and other wonders

Our first frost for the winter this morning - the merest dusting over the valley.

""Just a minute," said a voice in the weeds.

So I stood still

in the day's exquisite early morning light..."

from Mary Oliver's wonder-full collection, Why I Wake Early

So the dogs and I stood still, let the chill settle on our noses and ears and listened to the birds sing up the day. 

Now the sky is clear and the sun mellow on my face. How I love winter in my part of the world! I suspect I would not be so enthusiastic if I lived in harsher climes. Here frost and snow are a surprise, an unexpected gift; for others they are a trial, something they barricade their houses and minds against.
A friend of mine who spent a couple of winters in Germany finished many cross stitch masterpieces despite bearing two babies in that time. Perhaps I should adopt the mental state of being snowbound, stay still at my keyboard and write a masterpiece or two...
I have a full day ahead to fill my mind with beauty and translate it into words, or better, sentences (thank you Stanley Fish for drawing to my attention that words mean nothing unless ordered into sentences and related to other words!).

More wisdom from Annie Dillard

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days."
Annie Dillard from The Writing Life

Beauty Itself

"What if the man could see Beauty Itself, pure, unalloyed, stripped of mortality and all its pollution, stains, and vanities, unchanging, divine, ... the man becoming in that communion, the friend of God, himself immortal; ... would that be a life to disregard?"
Plato


Recognising beauty brings us close to God, close to that that is untainted by decay, and gives us a taste of immortality, of what is precious and eternal, of a life worth living.
As I copied out this quote that I discovered in Annie Dillard's The Writing Life, I uncovered words that I hadn't noticed on first reading. When people (not just men!) recognise beauty they come close to God (the perfect, the eternal) too. When writers see and share something beautiful or, amazingly, write something that takes a reader's breath away with its beauty, then their lives and works are surely worth respect, honour and attention.
So read to find that beauty; pay attention to the environment;  notice and perhaps communicate that rare thing or moment of beauty; come close to the eternal.

Thoughts for writers...

Observation, conscious attention to detail and delight fuel my writing. I find I only understand what is in my life when I crystallise it in words. Paying attention is critical to my writing, thinking and to living my life well.
Mary Oliver so neatly captures the precious in the ordinary, the sacred nature of the everyday, the joy we should grasp in our short time in the world.  

"Every day

  I see or I hear

    something

      that more or less

kills me with delight,

  that leaves me

    like a needle

in the haystack of light.

   It is what I was born for -"

Mary Oliver Mindful