Be Readable

"The virtue of books is to be readable."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writers should write with Emerson's words in mind. If not, then they write for themselves, probably quite well, too, but their work will more likely reside in journals kept under their desks than on book shelves in stores. Some say that money is not the object, and I agree. Writing is the point, but for whom do we write? Readers. Create a universe, populate it, add a protagonist, confront him or her with an antagonist, give them opposing goals, stir the pages with conflict, and make your readers demand to read a next page. Just watch what happens. You can have everything you want. Why? Because "[t]he virtue of books is to be readable." Emerson was right.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Broyard's Either/or Writers

"Either a writer doesn't want to talk about his work, or he talks about it more than you want."
- Anatole Broyard

After completing my first novel, I placed the thick manuscript in a box under a cabinet in my dining room. I was unsure what to do with it. The book-in-a-box seemed foreign in my day job life. It was as though my heart was inside that box and, by opening the lid, someone might see me, see through me, know my passion, and then dismiss me as a dreamer or label my work a cute little hobby. Back then, I would never talk about the book.
My wife likes to host frequent dinner parties, and so it was that she began, only occasionally at first, withdrawing the box, removing the lid, and showing the contents to whomever happened to be sharing our table. The first time she did this, I became an apologist and quickly re-lid and re-hid the box. What could I say? It was a book-in-a-box. It was all about me.

I next became an example of what Anatole Broyard meant in the second part of his quotation about writers. I had to check myself whenever someone asked me about my writing. Rather than engaging in conversation, where my questions would come in a number equal to my answers, I went through a phase of nonstop talking about writing, how wonderful it was, its influence on someone living a day-job life, how light, color, conversation, emotion, eye contact, and a thousand other sensory perceptions revealed to me a richer world, and on-and-on. I could not shut up.

Finally, there came a time when Broyard's "either or" of writers no longer worked for me. It is a time of peace, and it feels like right now.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Damn Hard Writing

"Easy reading is damn hard writing." -Nathaniel Hawthorne

He says it well. However, I have never met anyone who says Hawthorne is easy reading. Rather, they complain about his dated use of the English language. His words sound in the mind like a preacher's but, from my experience raising three young adults, I know Hawthorne still manages to capture attention with his compelling stories. They laughed where Hawthorne would have them laughing, complained where he would have them complaining, and followed to where he leads their minds. He was an excellent writer.

Given today's short attention spans, television, commercials, sound bites, and the evolution or de-evolution of language, I think Hawthorne might have said it differently today. He might have said, "Easy reading gets hard with time until it becomes as damn hard as the writing."


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Ubiquitous and Invisible

"An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere."
- Gustave Flaubert

This is the third of the three quotations my son placed on stepping stones near my barbecue, and it is, by far, the most interesting to me. First, Flaubert. I took his novel, Madame Bovary, with me on vacation in Mexico. About eight years ago, I was sitting under a palapa in Puerto Vallarta, reading an unwieldy, leather-bound copy of the book, wondering about the effects of sand on archival quality paper, when I encountered Flaubert's sense of humor. The point of view character of his story was a rural man who referred to his wife's feet as "two cold stones at the end of the bed." Because I remember the metaphor and still laugh at the image, though I've read nothing else by Flaubert, I like him.

As for his quotation about an author in his book, I have mixed feelings. I of course appreciate Flaubert's truth, but what of this elevated comparison of an author to the God of the universe? I wonder at a tone of arrogance, but if a story is a universe and its author a creator, then Gustave said it well. Ubiquitous and invisible, writers write.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

One with the Earth

"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."
- Henry David Thoreau

This is a second quotation my son had engraved on a plate that he affixed to a stepping stone outside where I barbecue. Why does Thoreau's quotation bother me? Rather than stare at it, I read the words from a corner of my eye, looking more like an embarrassed dog than like a man awed by the profound. Am I convicted? Is it vanity?

My picture of Mr. Thoreau is not one of him floating out on the Pond under a warm and buzzing sky but, instead, I see him laying on the ground, doing nothing but feeling, and discovering his destiny of becoming one with the earth, of becoming something like a pumpkin left in the field one month after harvest. But then what did he do? He stood up to live, sat down to write and, in so doing, left the quotation that lives at my feet.

I have never given respect to Thoreau's Bohemian style, and I've always shied away from Thoreau to gaze at Emerson. Emerson, though, circles me back to Thoreau. What a mess--especially at this time in my life when I am forced to sit down to live.


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved

Staring out of windows

"What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out the window." -Burton Rascoe

My son had this and two other quotations engraved on brass plates. He affixed the plates on stepping-stones and gave them to me for Father's Day last year. I placed all three out where I could see them when I barbecue. What a treat Rasco's quote is to read. Every time I read it, I laugh. The words he used, though simple enough, bring to mind James Thurber's character, Walter Mitty (from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). Poor Mitty, poor Rascoe, but what about all of those wives with husbands staring out of windows?


© 2009, Steven R. Lundin, all rights reserved