Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Stand in Maui at Twilight

My family has been gone all week and I've had the place to myself. When I tell anyone that everyone is in Maui, they think that I must be completely bummed out not to be there with them. But the other mothers understand that this is almost better.

I have had one hell of a week, what with the extra melanoma diagnosis, that I didn't even write about, I don't think, and finding the rat in my kitchen in the middle of the night, didn't write about that, either, did I? But  with a combination of empty days to fill as I please and working long-ass shifts, I've filled in the cracks with things that only I could love without a care for what anyone else needs.

I have stayed up pretty late all week, too. A couple of nights I watched movies, but mostly it was reading. Last night I stayed up until 3:00 am reading that book. That book that everyone has read but me that they've turned into a series of movies. I indulged myself with Twilight. It's been interesting. Interesting because while not what you think of as good writing - it's very simplistic - it's masterful at pulling you in and flying you through the story. How does she do that? It's not just me, either. Everyone that I know that has read it says that you just get pulled in, and you do.

As a writer or artist or creator of any kind, which would you rather be - if you couldn't be both - critically acclaimed or popular?

I know that we would all say both, so I've removed that option. I used to want my work to be studied in school as being so good that they teach it. But this was the fantasy of a kid studying other writers in class and aspiring to be great. Critically acclaimed.

Somewhere in my life I read the book The Stand by Stephen King. No one took him seriously as a Serious Writer and in any literary discussion, his name would be thrown out as too prolific to be any good. But The Stand stuck with me. It's still one of my favorites and while it has odd parts to it, it's a classic theme of good versus evil and it is not possible to get a super runny nose without this book coming to mind. How can people think that it's not great to be able to entertain the many when the many are so stinking varied? Popular.

In any case, the idea came up that if you only had five years to live, would you live them differently than you are now? And while my answer, for the most part, is that my life is going the way I want it to and the way that I like it, my writing has been neglected as a hobby or an afterthought.

Well, screw those two choices and if I only had five more years left to live, I'd want my writing to be published.

4 comments:

i love lamp said...

That's so funny, I found a BEATEN UP paperback copy of Carrie at the farmer's market yesterday. This led to a long conversation about King and The Stand, which Tim's read and I've yet to. He loves it too. My favorite has got to be On Writing (then seeing how many of his own rules he breaks). Anyway, loving Carrie, talk about getting sucked in...

Have you thought about self publishing?

Anonymous said...

I liked King's novel "It" - like the "Stand" it was a good story, with a one-syllable title, that you never wanted to end. And considering it was over 1000 pages it almost didn't. "It" came out in 1986 - a good year for King ("It" was the best-selling book of the year) and the World Champion NY Metropolitans!

I actually thought I saw a real vampire the other day but he wasn't all dreamy and sparkly so I must have been mistaken.... Twilight?!?..you're better than that! Just spare us what camp you fall into - Camp Edward or Jacob.

ckh said...

Twilight took me by surprise. I love a book that I just get sucked into and forget about the world. I'm not sure if I'll read any more. Though, if Bella gets turned into a vampire, I think I'd like to read that one.

Seeing a real vampire! Wow was probably interesting! With so much folklore on them, it's easy to believe there could be something to it. Almost all cultures have a myth about the Ark, too. And Santa Clause. How does everyone get on the same page?

The jury is out on self publishing. There are a lot of pros and cons.

i love lamp said...

It's summer! Bring on the camp!

Knipschildt it's not, but we know how to enjoy a hershy kiss...