BTT: Good Or Bad

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/good-or-bad/

Suggested by Barbara:

I’ve seen many bloggers say that what draws them to certain books or authors is good writing, and what causes them to stop reading a certain book or author is bad writing. What constitutes good writing and bad writing to you?

First of all, let me say that among books I've laid aside have also been renowned classics and award-winning contemporary novels. Sometimes I might recognize stylistic skill, but the content of the book may still not be to my liking. The opposite is also true: If I find the story or characters or facts or ideas interesting enough, I might overlook certain deficiencies in language and narrative style.

That said, I would say that good writing includes the ability to capture the reader's interest from the start and keep it up until the end. Really good writing also leaves behind a sense that I might want to read the book again some day, even though I know how it ends. Or write down quotes from it, or recommend it to others, or discuss it.

Bad writing, consequently, would be the kind that never manages to get me engaged in the story or the characters at all. Bad writing also often includes things like needless repetition, too much predictability, sidetracks that take you too far away from the main story, introduction of things that are never properly explained, or last-minute "out of the blue" solutions at the end.   

Unexpected Flashbacks

Yesterday, I had a surprise, since suddenly on my Blogger reading list, a very familiar-looking photo appeared. But I had not posted it! Not recently, anyway… However, I knew that I had posted another photo of the same building only the day before. For a second or two, I was very bewildered indeed!

Then my brain started working again. I realized what blog the picture was on: Write With Pictures. A blog to which I have given permission to use my pictures. I also realized that in my recent Picture Book post (Museum Church), I had linked back to an older post (17th century church) where this photo was included. So the whole thing was not at all as strange as it first seemed!

The Write With Pictures ‘Monday Meme’ means sharing “what memories that come to mind” when looking at the picture. Hm! Since it was my own photo, and I had revisited the place only two days ago, of course it brought back memories!

So I wrote down what went through my head. And after having done that, I decided to go back here and repeat some of it, and add a couple of more photos. And words.

♥-♥-♥

I think it was two years ago one year ago that I last went inside, one day when the door was open. Coming in from the bright light outside, it was so dark in there that I had very little idea what I was taking photos of. But I did take some flash photos. Not until I was back home, getting the photos up on the computer screen, could I see the details.

Now this reminds me of two things:

1. Some doors are not always open.
We have to find them at the right moment.

 
When I was there last, the door was closed.

  
When I took this picture, the door was open.

2. Sometimes we do not really see things clearly until in retrospect.

 
Collection of old keys inside the porch; and a box, in which visitors can leave a contribution to the maintenance of the church. I think it is probably supposed to be St Peter on the pillar. Or maybe that’s just how my mind wanders because of the keys in the background. It was to Peter that Jesus said: “on this rock I will build my church” and “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1

“The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world would not recognize him.” (John 1:9-10)

Quotation of the Week 26/2010

A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought are commonly the most valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom return.

~Francis Bacon (1561-1626)~

 

Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman

(Alluding to the book title Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce...)

In gloomy moments this week I've been feeling I've run into a major writer's block. Checking myself, though, I realize that two or three days without blogposting probably cannot be counted as a more than a very tiny block. Not really worthy of the dramatic complaint I had in mind!

However I do feel a bit like that snow(wo)man. (Surely it's a woman, don't you agree?) Been holding up for a while, but a bit tired now, and feeling as colourless as the surrounding winter world... (Now I'm exaggerating again. When I go out, I usually wear a cheerfully red coat!)

I was playing around a bit with this photo the other day, just to experiment how much (or how little) fun you can have with an all white photo. Not a whole lot. When I had done what I could, I still felt it at least needed a frame, and I couldn't find any of those in the editing software. And of course couldn't think of anything to write either (since I was suffering from writer's block, remember?).

Then I found this Online Image Editor which offers frames (among other things). So I tried that out, and voilà! I had a framed picture. But I still couldn't think of a title.

Today when looking at the picture again, the distorted title of James Joyce's semi-autobiography came to mind. I have to confess I don't remember anything about that book except the title. I have it in my bookcase, but it's been over 30 years since I read it. Well, that in turn does make me feel old...

Circle closed. Now I'm going to publish this before that Block hits me in the head again.

BLOGGOVERSARY

THE ISLAND OF THE VOICES

BLOGGOVERSARY

One year ago today, 5 January 2009, I wrote:

.~. .~. .~.

After some trial and error, it seems I have created a blog!

In choosing the title, I had in mind the Island of the Voices in C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where Lucy enters a Magician's House to find the Magician's Book, and within that book A Spell to make hidden things visible.

She read it through to make sure of all the hard words and then said it out loud. And she knew at once that it was working because as she spoke the colours came into the capital letters at the top of the page and the pictures began appearing in the margins. It was like when you hold to the fire something written in Invisible Ink and the writing gradually shows up...

I really have no clear idea yet what hidden things I want this blog to make visible. But maybe if I start writing, I will find out...

.~. .~. .~.

I have told the story before: At first, I really only created my Blogger account to be able to comment on my friend Rose-Anne's blog, a penfriend of mine in Australia since before the days of the internet. Once I had set up the account, I thought: Well, since I'm here, why not check out how it works...?

The amazing thing, to myself, is that I'm still here, a whole year further down the road!

I don't know how many times - usually at New Year - I started a diary, and kept entering daily notes for two or three months, and then it just sort of faded out... Looking back in old pocket calendars I've kept, it's the same: It looks in almost every one of them as if my social life is concentrated to the first three months of the year, and then I do nothing until the next New Year. That, however, would be an incorrect conclusion. The notes really only tell you that the first months of the year is usually the time when I'm most keen on making notes! I suppose it has something to do with new year - new calendar - new resolutions...

What makes a difference here in the Blogworld, is the response. When you get the first proof that what you're writing is not just disappearing out into empty space, that's a real kick to keep going...!

I soon realized, though, that it probably wasn't quite enough to just keep writing and hope to be found randomly by whoever - even if that actually did happen a couple of times. But where does one start, to get in touch with other bloggers? I really had no idea!

I tried the Next blog button a few times, but that usually just took me to some blog in a foreign language or some topic I was not the least interested in. (I think some improvements have been made over the last year though, to make the use of that button less random.)

Then I found my way to Blogs of Note which was a definite improvement. When I found something there which I liked, I also went on to visit others who were in turn following that blog - and the world began to grow...!

To celebrate my bloggoversary today, I would like to give credit to four places that served as important "milestones" or "crossroads" for me on my journey through the Blogworld, putting me in touch with other fellow bloglings who in turn became inspirators, followers and friends.

Blogs of Note
Noteworthy blogs chosen by the Blogger Team.

The One Minute Writer (C. Beth)
A blog providing daily writing prompts. I have not continued to visit daily, but it is a great place to meet other people who like to write, and to find inspiration if you feel your mind going blank... If I'm not mistaken, this was where I first got in touch with some of the fellow bloglings who have been on my official Follower's list the longest and are still "around".

Views from Raven's Nest
Raven hosts the Raven's Saturday Wordzzle Challenge. This put me in touch with other creative writers who like to play around with fiction, based on a set of  "impossible" words and phrases provided weekly. It also got me entangled in an ongoing story of my own, which has since been moved from here to separate blog - Wordly Efforts. (If you go to that blog, you will find links in the sidebar there to some of the other regular participants in the Wordzzle Challenges.)

Soaring Through the World in Pictures
A shared photo blog which I came across in July when it was quite new, and joined as number 7, already aquainted with two or three of the other members. I consider myself very lucky in doing so; because 1/ it has been another great place to make friends (last time I checked, we are now 18 members and 79 followers) and 2/ it was a real boost for my interest in photography; which in turn led on to starting a photo blog of my own in September: DawnTreader's Picture Book; which in turn caught the attention of some bloggers previously unknown to me; and so the world continued to grow. (By the way - in the Picture Book, I have started 2010 off by showing twelve photos from last year that I chose for a wall calendar I ordered as Christmas gift for myself and a few friends.)

.~. .~. .~.

Looking back now at my first blogpost here at The Island of the Voices one year ago, I feel almost like reading prophecy or blessing come true. Blogging has brought "colour" into my life, during a year which I fear might otherwise have shown mostly blank pages when I tried to look back.

 ♥ THANK YOU ♥

to all who have kept encouraging me

Monica, a.k.a. DawnTreader

Book Review: Slow Man

Slow Man is a novel from 2005 by J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.

For the first twelve chapters, it appears to be a pretty straightforward story. The main character, Paul Reyment, a man ”on the threshold of comfortable old age” as the text on the back cover says, is the victim of a traffic accident, which results in the amputation of one of his legs. Besides the common problems of old age, he now also has to deal with becoming an invalid, dependent on other people for help with the most trivial things. He has to hire a nurse to take care of him, and he goes through a few before he finds one with whom he feels comfortable. When he does find her, he soon finds himself developing feelings for her that go beyond the patient-nurse relationship. He lets daydreams run away with him; extending his affection to her children, but ignoring (among other things) the fact that there is also a husband in the background whom he has never met.

The story so far is interesting in itself, and well-written enough to keep the reader's interest up.

Then one day Paul ”takes the plunge”, bringing his feelings for Marijana out into the open... And from that point on, we are no longer in a straightforward story at all; because suddenly, on Paul's doorstep, out of nowhere, Elizabeth Costello arrives, and starts to interfere.

Slow Man is the first book I ever read by Coetzee. I was not aware, when entering chapter 13, that Elizabeth Costello is also the title of a separate novel preceding this one, from 2003. I found that out later, when reading up on the author a bit. I'm not sure it matters much, however, because it is pretty obvious from the context of Slow Man alone, that Elizabeth Costello (in this book) appears as the ”alter ego” of the Author.

This is how she presents herself:

'I was going to say I was from the State Library,' she says. 'I was going to introduce myself as one of the Library's volonteers, come to assess the scale of your donation, the physical scale I mean, the dimensions, so that we can plan ahead. Later it would have come out who I actually am.'
'You are not from the library?'
'No. That would have been a fib.'

(Paul has a collection of old photographs which he has decided to bequeath to the State Library after his death.)

It is made clear that Elizabeth Costello is the Elizabeth Costello, renowned writer; and she goes on to quote the initial paragraph from the first chapter of the book we are in...

The continued dialogue between Paul and Elizabeth does not only bring to the surface all the moral and practical problems that Paul has been suppressing or ignoring in his daydreams; it also brings to the surface the Author's struggle with the independence of her own creation. The interaction between them is far from simple. For example, Paul, who at first just ”occurred to” Elizabeth - ”a man with a bad leg and an unsuitable passion”, turns out to have a past, which she knows nothing about – it is he who has to tell her about it, not the other way round.

Enough revealed. This is a book which manages to do at least three things simultaneously: Tell a good story. Raise questions about some serious moral issues. Analyse the relationship between the writer (any writer) and his/her work of fiction. All done with an admirable mix of humour and compassion!

An Award And What To Do

My Australian penpal since 20 years, Rose-Anne, presented me with this Award. With compliments on my talent for writing... Thank you! I especially appreciate the effort to personalize the reasons for each of the recipients.

However. I'm a curious person, and I couldn't read the text on the picture because it was so small, and it could not be enlarged. This sent me out on a Google-search, because I don't really like to pass something on that I cannot read myself, however pretty the picture...

I found it to be a minature version of the banner of a blog - Idyllhours. The text reads: "Idyll: a mood of peace and contentment, a lighthearted carefree episode, a romantic interlude, pleasing or picturesque in natural simplicity. These are the things I hope to bring to you on my blog. Welcome!"

I can only hope that the use of it as an award originates from the Idyllhours blogger personally. Whether it does or not, I decided to pass on passing this one on. Not because of copyright doubts but because I can't even come up with a list of "5 things I love to do". Crazy as it may sound, I tried last night, but found myself getting totally stuck on the "to do" part. I have too many to-do-lists right now, and only love things that let me just be without to-do...

If I ever get round to designing my own awards, I think I'll make them to-do-free.

to-do n. ado; fuss; commotion:

What a ~! What a lot of excitement and talk!

(Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, 1974)

In The Margin

Couldn't find any writing inspiration today, so I just ended up fiddling about with the margin layout. Decided to only list books I've actually commented on or at least quoted from in the blog.

Writing this down, it strikes me that just fiddling about in the margin is kind of typical of my whole life right now. I get stuck on details instead of getting round to dealing with more important stuff. It's probably part of the grieving process; and also, I think, rather typical behaviour when you feel generally exhausted or just don't know how to deal with something: Grab hold of something smaller and more manageble instead, to get back some kind of feeling of control...!

Life Is Fragile

One moment there, the next moment gone...???

Tuesday morning I went for an early walk taking sunny flowery pictures (see previous post). In the evening, I got a phone call that my mum was being brought into hospital. A couple of hours later, she was dead! No time to say good-bye... I'm still finding it hard to take in.

My brother drove 300 kms in the middle of the night to our dad (who is not at all well either). None of us got more than perhaps 1 h sleep that night. Yesterday was a "chaotic blur" of phone calls and waiting for people to call back. My own blood pressure through the roof. Last night I slept, though; and woke up feeling a bit better. Today I've met with my dad and my brother; and several more phonecalls, including preliminary contact with the undertaker, whom I'll be meeting on Monday.

If I don't get round to much posting (or visiting other blogs) in the next few days or weeks, you know why. On the other hand, I might still find it a relief to write occasionally, if I feel physically up to it. Remains to be seen which phases I'll be going through, and in which order...

One Minute Winner

The One-Minute Writer blog by C. Beth encourages setting aside one minute a day for writing, and provides daily writing prompts. You can either link to a post at your own blog or just write a comment.

The other day I found that a comment I wrote on May 17 about the Internet had awarded me the button below. The writing prompt was: "Reflect on how the Internet has changed relationships, and whether the net effect is positive or negative."

Click on the button to read my entry as well as all the others!

And in case the button goes on strike some day, or whatever, here is a copy of my "winning" entry:

Nine years ago, an accident turned my life upside down. Not only did I have to stop working, I also had to make a lot of changes in my private social life. Since I can no longer "keep the same pace" or do the same things as many of my old friends, I have lost contact with a lot of them. But through the internet, I have found new friends, new interests, and new and different ways to keep up my some of my old interests, too. One good thing about the internet is that one does not necessarily need to be online at the same time to be able to have a meaningful discussion. In forums and blogs, you can "take your time" and still feel you are communicating with other people.

Picture from unknown source, found by Google picture search.

One-Minute-Writer: Sitcom

.
Today's Writing Prompt: Sitcom
"A sitcom is being made, based on your life--well, the funny parts, anyway. What is the basic concept, and what is the title?"

Today's writing prompt from The One-Minute Writer is a good one; but a hard one, since the show about Nothing has already been made (show within show – Seinfeld, season 4)…

How about The Island of the Voices? It is about this woman – let's call her Dawn Treader – who moves to an Island floating around in the vast sea of Cyberspace. She has a magic library, full of forgotten or half-read classics, which are prompting her to be picked up and read. In that way, they are made visible. So in every episode, she picks up a new book, and finds herself drawn into a new adventure. Sort of like in the TV mini-series Lost in Austen, which I enjoyed watching recently... In my sitcom, there could be episode titles like: Lost on the Moors (Wuthering Heights), Lost in the Labyrinth of Perplexities (The Mysteries of Udolpho), Lost among the Elves (The Silmarillion)… (See my Blog Archive for March and April 2009!) ;-)

Rereading Wuthering Heights

Portrait of Emily Brontë
by her brother Branwell Brontë

Twenty years or more have probably passed since I first read Wuthering Heights. When I reread it now I had this question in my mind throughout the book: Why do people consider this a romantic love story? There is passion, certainly, but love...? Most of the passion comes out as possessive obsession and downright cruelty.

Catherine does have deep feelings for Heathcliff, but not the romance-leading-to-marriage kind. It is the wild streak in herself that makes her understand the kind of person he is:

My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath - a source of little visisble delight, but necessary, Nelly, I am Heathcliff - he's always, always in my mind - not as pleasure, any more than I am always pleasure to myself - but as my own being –
(Catherine to Nelly, Ch. 8)

However, she is never deceived as to his character:

It is deplorable ignorance of his charachter, child, and nothing else, which makes that dream enter your head. Pray, don't imagine that he conceals depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern exterior! He's not a rough diamond - a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic; he's a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man.
(Catherine to Isabella, Ch. 10)


What intrigued me more than the main characters this time, was the narrative structure.

At the beginning, at Wutherings Heights, there is the Earnshaw family, with brother and sister, Hindley and Catherine. Into the family comes Heathcliff, an outsider who remains an outsider, even though a bond develops between him and Catherine.

At Thrushcross Grange, in the same generation, we have the Linton family, with brother and sister, Edgar and Isabella.

I won't go into all the details here; but a tangled web of marriages between the two families follows, enhanced by the tradition of naming children after close relatives, and sometimes interchanging first and last names; so that the same names recur in the next generation, but in different combinations.

An indication is given in the 3rd chapter of the book, where the narrator Lockwood stays over night at WH on his second visit there, and sleeps in a "haunted" room, where there is a ledge "covered with writing scratched on the paint. This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small – Catherine Earnshaw; here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton."

A closing of a circle seems to be indicated at the end of the book; which usually also suggests some kind of moral – but I'm not so sure there really is one, in this story... (?)

There is also a rather complicated narrative perspective. The first narrator is Lockwood, who stumbles into Wuthering Heights at the beginning of the book, as a complete stranger - an outsider – and starts to unravel the mysteries of the past. But his own observations are few, and limited to a few occasions in the very last year of the story. Moreover, a shadow of doubt about Lockwood's judgement is thrown in by the real narrator (the author) in the very first chapter. Lockwood reflects, after his first visit to WH: "He /Heathcliff/ evidently wished no repetition of my intrusion. I shall go, notwithstanding. It is astonishing how sociable I feel myself compared to him." This indicates that Lockwood is first and foremost interested in his own entertainment.

Lockwood's main source for the background story, or the second narrator, is the servant Ellen "Nelly" Dean. She may seem to be an outsider, too, in a way, because she is "just" a servant (and Lockwood sees her as such). But Nelly cannot really be considered an objective storyteller, since she often takes an active part in the events herself.

Quite often, there is even a third filter introduced between the events and the reader, because Nelly in turn recounts what others have said, or written in letters. And the things that Nelly (perhaps?) leaves out or distorts, the reader will never know…

It struck me when I thought about this, that Lockwood could be said to represent "the reader", while Nelly represents "the author". The final interpretation of the story (any story) is, and has to be, a dialogue between author and reader - and I suspect Emily Brontë was well aware of that. (It is Lockwood – "the reader" - who gets the last word, by the way.)

Libraries and secret passages

Borrowing another writing prompt from the One-Minute-Writer:

Write about a childhood memory related to reading.
I used to borrow lots of books from the library. Enid Blyton was among my favourites (for a period). I still love libraries, and almost any story that has a secret passage in it... (the Blyton kids always seemed to find one of those).

Magic Mirror

Today's writing prompt from The One-Minute Writer:

"Imagine you have a magic mirror.
What does it reveal about anyone who looks in it?"

My suggestion:

Magic mirror shows
not your faults and failures but
possibilities.

(Remember it next time you look in the bathroom mirror!)

Take a Minute (or maybe five)

Blogsurfing the other day through the Archives of Blogs of Note, I found my way to The One-Minute Writer, where daily writing promts are served. Playing by the rules (one minute), I only got half way through one sentence, though. Conclusion: I highly suspect some of the contributors must be cheating, or else they are incredibly fast thinkers and writers, or I am incredibly slow...! Still, a very good place to find a writing prompt when you find your own mind blank. I think I prefer setting my timer on at least 5 minutes, though...