Some would say “who cares” when confronted with a title like the above but how often do you hear someone say something which stops you in your tracks? Makes you think. Not very often. So pause and try to digest these tasty snippets.
# When Neil Young was working on a new song lyric he would supposedly take up to a day to get one line right. Leonard Cohen could often agonise over a single word for hours. Bob Dylan would work endlessly over a single syllable. Writing a song is serious stuff for these masters. Yet when Bob Dylan finally gave his address to the Nobel Awards committee last month, he used a quote from Homer: “Through me tell the story.” What did he mean? What story did he mean? Was he being the enigmatic poet for a reason? Was he being deliberately evasive, and if so, why? Did he mean we should all tell our own story? Why would Bob be so cryptic when he is the king of lyricism. Surely he was referring to our own lives and how we live them. But Bob, why leave us in doubt?
When Kahlil Gibran wrote his famous book “The Prophet” in 1920, he could never had imagined that after it sold a few hundred copies in its first year it would go on
increasing sales every year for almost one hundred years. And in all that time has anyone written more beautifully about children than this: “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself…you may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.” And consider his words on love: “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don’t, they never were.”
Sam Shepherd died a few months ago. He was best known for his acting but he had a far greater talent as a play-writer. Few people are so gifted and so deep. I love the following excerpt when he was talking about his writing. “I hate endings. Just detest them. Beginnings are definitely the most exciting, middles are perplexing and endings are a disaster……the temptation towards resolution, towards wrapping up the package, seems to me to be a terrible trap. Why not be more honest with the moment .The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning. That’s
genius.”
In the charming city of Zagreb (Croatia) there is an intriguing tourist attraction which sounds odd but interesting. It is called “The Museum of Broken Relationships”. What kind of specimens are on display I cannot imagine but there must be truckloads whatever they are! I have three or four which I may donate. It is certainly food for thought.
Dymocks bookshops are still in business and going strongly but the titles of best sellers aren’t the same as thirty years ago. In the Mind,Body,Soul department the top selling book was Mark Manson’s “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck”. In sixth place was G J Bishops
self–help book “Unfuck Yourself”. Number seven was Sarah Knight’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck”. We’re not sure how Dale Carnegie would respond to any of this but his eighty year old Best Seller “How to win Friends and Influence People” is currently listed in number two place. Is it possible for that to be explained?
Quite apart from all those classic book titles the recent movie “Hampstead” has loads of classic phrases. “Do you drink too much all the time?” he asks Emily. “No”, she replies, “only when I drink”. Later on he says “I wasn’t raised to be a complete half-wit” and her response “Is there such a thing as a complete half-wit?” And later: “I hope I’m not disturbing you”. “Too late for that,” he replies.
The U.K. author Andrew O’Hagen was contracted this year to write the biography of Julian Assange. He spent days and weeks in the Ecuador Embassy only to withdraw from the agreement due to the evasive and unco-operative nature of Assange. O’Hagen’s final
comment was “The extent of Julian’s lying convinced me he is probably a little mad, sad and bad.” Unfortunately, I feel Mr O’Hagen is probably correct. They say (of course I’m never sure who these mysterious “they” are but they are out there) there are
only three rules for writing a book. Only no-one can remember what they are!
I say, there are only three rules for writing a short story. Here they are: you have to find an opening, then somehow create a middle and hardest of all, find an end. Well, you’ll be pleased to know that this is the end of “Food for Thought”.
Gold Coast, October 2017
Comments