Soul Mate
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| Image from goodreads.com |
I found a New York Times suggested summer reading list online and took it with me to the public library. Since it was now spring it seemed reasonable that I might find some of the titles. I found a few to take home but can recall only Night at the Fiestas by Kirstin Valdez Quade. When I finished reading her book of short stories I was so awestruck that I couldn't see any point in my writing anything ever again. It was clear beyond words that Kristin was where she deserved to be and it was time for me to find something else to do. I wasn't unsettled or depressed by this even though it was unexpected. It was similar to the night I played on a medium-height, all-white high school basketball team against an inner-city school with kids who started for UCLA the following year. We lost to Manual Arts 93 to 45 but discovering I didn't have a future in basketball wasn't all that devastating. There are so few things that you ever come to know for certain that when they do show up it's easy to welcome them.
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| Kirstin Valdez Quade Image from wikipedia |
People I meet with whom I become friends will at some later point gently let me know that I make an appalling first impression. That night at Vroman's was definitely among my top five. The days that followed were full of cringing and wincing as I tortured myself repeatedly with a mental replaying of the incident. It was then I began to understand why her writing resonated so strongly with me. Often her characters encounter situations where they are caught off-stride and unable to be their natural selves. It's usually something they're unfamiliar with and they struggle with what to say and how to act. Her characters' thoughts and emotions mirror mine when I meet people who are zealots (usually regarding religion, diet, recycling or politics) and are adamant that I need to believe what they believe. Then there's the very few times I've been around somebody who has more money than God. As a youth I was made to understand that one is honest and polite and that it's a crime for anyone to have more money than they need. As a result, it is not possible for me to be both honest and polite when I'm with certain people. When I am and I open my mouth, just as the characters in her book, I can make awkward and sarcastic comments that I end up regretting for years.
Obviously there was something quite different that caused my breakdown on that Monday night at Vroman's. I was simply star-struck. When I am confronted with someone who is either too beautiful, too smart or too cool, I can also become totally incapacitated.
With my writing days behind me I began looking for other ways to spend my time and tried binge-watching the latest season of House of Cards. There I saw a scene where President Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey) asks an author to write a book about Underwood's early days. The author tags along with the President and first Lady and at one point finds himself entertaining Underwood's mother-in-law Elizabeth Hale (played by Ellen Burstyn). She is born and bred Texas royalty and is literally on her death bed. The author asks her what she likes to read and she says, "I don't think there's been anything worth reading since John Cheever passed away." To which the author responds, "I think you're probably right about that."
I was intrigued by this since although I've heard the name before it certainly was never required reading in any school I attended. She's on her death bed and he's the one writer she mentions. Whoever wrote the script for the series must have had a reason for putting those words in her mouth. My first thought was that Cheever must have also been a Texan, but I decided to make a trip to the library to find out.
I found a book with 50 of John Cheever's short stories and a brief bio on the inside back cover. My Texan theory was dismissed as soon as I read he was a life-long northeasterner. Perhaps it was made part of the dialogue in the script because the writer felt it was long overdue that some respect be paid to this man. I took the book home and gained a lot of respect for John Cheever. His short stories are mostly about regular folks living in New York after WWII and through the 1950s. Cheever's writing style reminded me of Steinbeck at first but it's infused with a New York urgency that wrenches you along to things you never saw coming. Why in God's name was I fed Updike, Roth and DeLillo in school when I could have had Cheever? He's as enjoyable as anyone I've ever read. Except Kirstin.
Reading Cheever got me to thinking in a different way about writing. After Kirstin and Cheever it was all too obvious that I had no clue as to what I was doing. Perhaps I could try to learn a little something about how one should go about it. When I returned the Cheever book I saw a flyer at the library announcing a writing seminar scheduled for the coming Saturday and signed up for it along with 125 other people.
Saturday arrived and as I watched people filing into the auditorium I began to sense that this was not going to turn out well. I hadn't been to anything like this before but was expecting that the session would deal with writing as a craft. It was soon apparent everyone else had hopes they would be given a secret formula for getting their book or screen play picked up by a publisher or a studio. The latter was in fact the focus of the lecture given by Lisa Cron, a writing "instructor" at UCLA and a story "consultant." I will admit that she was a good public speaker. She was well prepared, entertaining and thoroughly convinced she knew what she was talking about.
Lisa's critical message for every one was that a story's main character must have a misconception which through some event(s) is revealed to the character and they rise up out of the darkness and come into the light. A story may be a brilliant piece of literature but it will not win people over if it's missing any part of this prescription. She then said that the reverse was also true, a terribly written book that follows her advice can have great success. She offered up Fifty Shades of Gray as an example saying, "It's terrible writing but it sold over 100 million copies because it's hard to put down." I politely kept silent but couldn't help thinking, "That's like saying the Nazis had terrific looking uniforms; or, you have to admire the persistence of drug addicts."
Lisa then stated that this same approach was the optimal structure for learning. The realization and overcoming of the misconception by the main character had the greatest impact on readers and viewers enabling them to gain valuable insights. I disagreed with her. In my opinion the stories with the greatest impact for me are those where you keep waiting for the main character to finally pull their head out of their ass, but they don't. Instead of the happy ending you were convinced was just around the bend, everything goes all to shit. Doesn't Lisa know that if Travis doesn't shoot Old Yeller at the end, the story hasn't got any legs?
The final straw for me came when Lisa presented a film she felt exemplified her point - Die Hard with Bruce Willis. Lisa said, "If you were asked what was this movie was about, you might say it had to do with good guys and bad guys fighting it out in a building that gets blown apart. Well you'd be wrong. What Die Hard was really about was a New York Cop named John McClane with a misconception. McClane had always believed that a married couple has to live where the husband works. He remains in New York which brings about their separation when his wife's career takes her off to Southern California. It isn't until the husband comes out west to visit and the fireworks start that he realizes how much he loves his wife and how there can be nothing more important than their being together. While hanging off the side of a forty story building, McClane speaks on the phone with an L.A. cop, asking him to convey this to his wife if he doesn't make it out alive."
Two things disappointed me about Lisa's recap of Die Hard. First, it slowly dawned on me that instead of what I at first took to be a satirical rant aimed at a bad movie, Lisa was dead serious. Second, I would not be able to share this with anyone because no one would believe me. Despite all this her take on Die Hard helped me see the light. I had finally come around and now understood that she'd been right all along. Thanks to Lisa I realized I had registered for the seminar while unaware of my very own misconception. I had walked in thinking that surely someone would know a thing or two about writing and had instead discovered this notion couldn't possibly have been further from the truth. Having been transformed, I carefully squeezed by those seated in my row until I reached the aisle and quietly walked back out to my car.
Obviously there was something quite different that caused my breakdown on that Monday night at Vroman's. I was simply star-struck. When I am confronted with someone who is either too beautiful, too smart or too cool, I can also become totally incapacitated.
 |
| Ellen Burstyn as Elizabeth Hale Image from newyorktimes.com |
With my writing days behind me I began looking for other ways to spend my time and tried binge-watching the latest season of House of Cards. There I saw a scene where President Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey) asks an author to write a book about Underwood's early days. The author tags along with the President and first Lady and at one point finds himself entertaining Underwood's mother-in-law Elizabeth Hale (played by Ellen Burstyn). She is born and bred Texas royalty and is literally on her death bed. The author asks her what she likes to read and she says, "I don't think there's been anything worth reading since John Cheever passed away." To which the author responds, "I think you're probably right about that."
 |
| John Cheever Image from thenewyorker.com |
I found a book with 50 of John Cheever's short stories and a brief bio on the inside back cover. My Texan theory was dismissed as soon as I read he was a life-long northeasterner. Perhaps it was made part of the dialogue in the script because the writer felt it was long overdue that some respect be paid to this man. I took the book home and gained a lot of respect for John Cheever. His short stories are mostly about regular folks living in New York after WWII and through the 1950s. Cheever's writing style reminded me of Steinbeck at first but it's infused with a New York urgency that wrenches you along to things you never saw coming. Why in God's name was I fed Updike, Roth and DeLillo in school when I could have had Cheever? He's as enjoyable as anyone I've ever read. Except Kirstin.
Reading Cheever got me to thinking in a different way about writing. After Kirstin and Cheever it was all too obvious that I had no clue as to what I was doing. Perhaps I could try to learn a little something about how one should go about it. When I returned the Cheever book I saw a flyer at the library announcing a writing seminar scheduled for the coming Saturday and signed up for it along with 125 other people.
 |
| Image from amazon.com |
Lisa's critical message for every one was that a story's main character must have a misconception which through some event(s) is revealed to the character and they rise up out of the darkness and come into the light. A story may be a brilliant piece of literature but it will not win people over if it's missing any part of this prescription. She then said that the reverse was also true, a terribly written book that follows her advice can have great success. She offered up Fifty Shades of Gray as an example saying, "It's terrible writing but it sold over 100 million copies because it's hard to put down." I politely kept silent but couldn't help thinking, "That's like saying the Nazis had terrific looking uniforms; or, you have to admire the persistence of drug addicts."
Lisa then stated that this same approach was the optimal structure for learning. The realization and overcoming of the misconception by the main character had the greatest impact on readers and viewers enabling them to gain valuable insights. I disagreed with her. In my opinion the stories with the greatest impact for me are those where you keep waiting for the main character to finally pull their head out of their ass, but they don't. Instead of the happy ending you were convinced was just around the bend, everything goes all to shit. Doesn't Lisa know that if Travis doesn't shoot Old Yeller at the end, the story hasn't got any legs?
 |
| Image from giantbomb.com |
Two things disappointed me about Lisa's recap of Die Hard. First, it slowly dawned on me that instead of what I at first took to be a satirical rant aimed at a bad movie, Lisa was dead serious. Second, I would not be able to share this with anyone because no one would believe me. Despite all this her take on Die Hard helped me see the light. I had finally come around and now understood that she'd been right all along. Thanks to Lisa I realized I had registered for the seminar while unaware of my very own misconception. I had walked in thinking that surely someone would know a thing or two about writing and had instead discovered this notion couldn't possibly have been further from the truth. Having been transformed, I carefully squeezed by those seated in my row until I reached the aisle and quietly walked back out to my car.