Being a single guy - I'll remedy that one fine day, I keep telling myself - I find myself watching the odd cookery programme for a few tips on staying healthy and alive.
My speciality seems to be a pan of soup, with lots of veg. It makes me feel great, and I do sometimes wonder why I don't just make it all the time. I'm no Jamie Oliver when it comes to bashing things around the kitchen, nor am I a Rick Stein in search of fish around the world. Plain and simple food suits me the best, apart from a visit or two to a curry house.
Except, the one chef I really like to watch is Gary Rhodes. A contradiction, I know, as there is nothing plain about his wonderful cooking. But I do know why I like his programmes: his meticulous, in-pursuit-of-perfection style mirrors my own approach to writing. Whether I've written off the cuff or, like my latest work, planned it as far as I could without stifling things, I hum and hah over almost every single word and sentence, looking at paragraph sizes, studying the last few words of one chapter and seeing how they match the beginning of the next, and getting the absolute horrors over unrhythmic and jarring writing, often fighting with myself over the choice between exotic poetry or simple prose.
In short, I just about kill myself doing it.
And this has caused me a dilemma: should I be considering sending my unfinished work off to agents? It's a great idea and one that requires serious thought. However, the reality is that I don't know any agents who would want me to do that, and finding agents who would want me to do that is well-nigh impossible. And I could be closing doors when what I want to do is open them.
A writer: who would want to be one? Hmmm.
So, I've come to a decision. The only way I can complete this book in my present circumstance (i.e. alone) is to write it out until it's finished, or is perhaps a couple of chapters away from being finished.
Of course, this will take me a while - probably at least six months, given the planning I've done.
No idea whether I'm right, but at least it seems to fit in with the scheme of things both in the agent world, and in the publishing world.
Right. Decision made. A literary decision made!
I hope...
Gipsy Rose Warhol
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Peter Pan and Oliver Twist
Peter Pan is probably the greatest character in a work of fantasy. To me, he is rivalled only by Oliver Twist in a true literary work. I will always say that Oliver Twist is the greater, because of his reflection of actual history. To create a work that can be enjoyed and appreciated from such a horrific period in so-called 'civilised' society takes some kind of ability. Especially when you consider that the author was a child worker from such times. Dickens did not have the classical background for a writer. From humble beginnings, he managed to scale such heights.
Of course, there is King Arthur. The vagaries of the whole King Arthur Legend, much as I love it, cause me to feel that it is not a work of literary prowess - more a work of great legend. The greatest legend that has ever been, and because of that, the greatest legend that will ever be.
I can't have it that Dickens wasn't the greatest. I also can't have it that such homegrown or foreign inferior writers, whose works register barely a ripple in the consciousnesses of the reading world, shall be mentioned in the same sentence. Nor should they be presented to our children in preference. As further reading, yes. If they want to read them. As preferred reading, without choice, absolutely not.
Of course, there is King Arthur. The vagaries of the whole King Arthur Legend, much as I love it, cause me to feel that it is not a work of literary prowess - more a work of great legend. The greatest legend that has ever been, and because of that, the greatest legend that will ever be.
I can't have it that Dickens wasn't the greatest. I also can't have it that such homegrown or foreign inferior writers, whose works register barely a ripple in the consciousnesses of the reading world, shall be mentioned in the same sentence. Nor should they be presented to our children in preference. As further reading, yes. If they want to read them. As preferred reading, without choice, absolutely not.
Charles Dickens vs The World
Every now and then, a thought would enter my head: why are so many people championing the non-English writer? Just a feeling I would get when, once again, I'd come across someone's list of 'bests'. Annoying.
Today, I came across this in the online version of the Daily Express:
http://www.sundayexpress.co.uk/posts/view/40373/Why-do-schools-ignore-Charles-Dickens
(That wasn't me commenting on the piece at the end - though solvey probably won't believe me as he believes I've been sending him some rather artful stuff in his email! My protestations have fallen on deaf ears.)
Dickens' writing is some of the most powerful and human ever written. His depiction of the lives of his fellow countrymen is so perceptive and graphic that the reader is transported into the past with barely an effort beyond the simple reading of his words. He is, without doubt, the greatest writer ever of the written word as presented in the form of a novel, either short or full length.
I don't get it, myself, why there is this almost-shunning of his work. Why?
I've had a think. I can come up with two reasons: one, it isn't perceived as cool to place him above foreign writers, who don't even come close; and two, Dickens is an eloquent reminder of how this country - in the form of government at the very least - has mistreated its overwhelmingly working class population since the year dot. The Government still allows its people to be mistreated - the paltry wages people are paid in almost all areas of any working environment is one tiny example. Dickens saw this. He and his family had, of course, been a victim of this mistreatment.
Shakespeare spoke of mighty rulers and mighty falls, tragedies, noble enactments. All great writing and I love it, too. I am not surprised how he is regarded as the greatest - unchallenged, as he is so much more acceptable to the powers-that-be than a writer who told it how it really was.
There isn't a single character in the history of literature in the whole of the entire world who can better Oliver Twist. Even though he was in a work of fiction, Oliver Twist was a reflection of reality. And he was lucky, would you believe! You only have to read about chimney sweeps and the use of what became known as Climbing Boys, starting as young as six, who became alcoholics and died of cancer by the time they were the age of about twelve - ideal for their employers, as they would have then been too big to climb up the chimneys! You may wish to quote me David Copperfield and Ebeneezer Scrooge. I hope you do! They are from the same author, in case you don't actually know this. And if you don't, then I hope you go off immediately to find about them. You will be rewarded. Your soul will soak it all in like no writer you have ever read, or will ever read. Of course, you will be faced with a work of great length - although A Christmas Carol is not too long a piece if you need a good starting point.
Now then, you might quote me Peter Pan. Hmmm.
Today, I came across this in the online version of the Daily Express:
http://www.sundayexpress.co.uk/posts/view/40373/Why-do-schools-ignore-Charles-Dickens
(That wasn't me commenting on the piece at the end - though solvey probably won't believe me as he believes I've been sending him some rather artful stuff in his email! My protestations have fallen on deaf ears.)
Dickens' writing is some of the most powerful and human ever written. His depiction of the lives of his fellow countrymen is so perceptive and graphic that the reader is transported into the past with barely an effort beyond the simple reading of his words. He is, without doubt, the greatest writer ever of the written word as presented in the form of a novel, either short or full length.
I don't get it, myself, why there is this almost-shunning of his work. Why?
I've had a think. I can come up with two reasons: one, it isn't perceived as cool to place him above foreign writers, who don't even come close; and two, Dickens is an eloquent reminder of how this country - in the form of government at the very least - has mistreated its overwhelmingly working class population since the year dot. The Government still allows its people to be mistreated - the paltry wages people are paid in almost all areas of any working environment is one tiny example. Dickens saw this. He and his family had, of course, been a victim of this mistreatment.
Shakespeare spoke of mighty rulers and mighty falls, tragedies, noble enactments. All great writing and I love it, too. I am not surprised how he is regarded as the greatest - unchallenged, as he is so much more acceptable to the powers-that-be than a writer who told it how it really was.
There isn't a single character in the history of literature in the whole of the entire world who can better Oliver Twist. Even though he was in a work of fiction, Oliver Twist was a reflection of reality. And he was lucky, would you believe! You only have to read about chimney sweeps and the use of what became known as Climbing Boys, starting as young as six, who became alcoholics and died of cancer by the time they were the age of about twelve - ideal for their employers, as they would have then been too big to climb up the chimneys! You may wish to quote me David Copperfield and Ebeneezer Scrooge. I hope you do! They are from the same author, in case you don't actually know this. And if you don't, then I hope you go off immediately to find about them. You will be rewarded. Your soul will soak it all in like no writer you have ever read, or will ever read. Of course, you will be faced with a work of great length - although A Christmas Carol is not too long a piece if you need a good starting point.
Now then, you might quote me Peter Pan. Hmmm.
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